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Report on Lord Dalhousie's History on Slavery and Race

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Report on Lord Dalhousie's History on Slavery and Race Report on Lord Dalhousie’s History on Slavery and Race AUGUST, 2019 Scholarly panel Dr. Afua Cooper: Chair Professor Françoise Baylis Dean Camille Cameron Mr. Ainsley Francis Dr. Paul Lovejoy Mr. David States Dr. Shirley Tillotson Dr. H.A. Whitfield Ms. Norma Williams Research Support Ms. Jalana Lewis, Lead Researcher Ms. Kylie Peacock Mr. Wade Pfaff With contributions from Dr. Karly Kehoe and Dr. Isaac Saney 3 REPORT ON LORD DALHOUSIE’S HISTORY ON SLAVERY AND RACE COVER: MEMORIAL OF GABRIEL HALL OF PRESTON, A BLACK REFUGEE WHO EMIGRATED TO THE COLONY OF NOVA SCOTIA DURING THE WAR OF 1812 PHOTOGRAPHER GEORGE H. CRAIG, MARCH 1892 COURTESY: NOVA SCOTIA ARCHIVES Table of Contents Note from Dr. Teri Balser, Interim President and Vice-Chancellor.....................................................................................6 Note from Dr. Afua Cooper, Chair of the Panel and Lead Author of the Report ...............................................................7 Foreward to the Lord Dalhousie Report by Dr. Kevin Hewitt, Chair of the Senate ...........................................................9 Executive Summary for the Lord Dalhousie Report .........................................................................................................11 1.0 Dalhousie University’s Historic Links to Slavery and its Impact on the Black Community: Rationale for the Report ............................................................................................................................................17 1.1 Dalhousie College: A legacy of slavery and racism .........................................................................................18 1.2 The mandate of the scholarly panel on Lord Dalhousie’s history on slavery and race ................................19 1.3 Racism in Halifax, Nova Scotia ........................................................................................................................19 1.4 The birth of the “Universities Studying Slavery” initiative .............................................................................19 1.5 The United Nations Human Rights Council report on Black Canada ...........................................................20 1.6 Dalhousie University’s 200th anniversary and reflections on its founding ...................................................22 1.7 How we went about our work ..........................................................................................................................22 1.8 Why are the Black Refugees of the War of 1812 important to this report? ..................................................22 2.0 The 9th Earl of Dalhousie: The Man from Midlothian .............................................................................................24 2.1 George Ramsay’s early years ............................................................................................................................25 2.2 Scotland, socio-economic change, and the slave-based economy of the eighteenth century ...................25 2.3 Scottish networks within Britain’s slave-based plantation colonies .............................................................26 2.4 The slow rise of the anti-slavery lobby in Scotland .........................................................................................26 2.5 Turning back the tide of abolition ....................................................................................................................27 2.6 Lord Dalhousie’s relationship to race and slavery ..........................................................................................28 3.0 The Nova Scotia to Which Lord Dalhousie Came ....................................................................................................29 3.1 Nova Scotia’s economy in the World of the Atlantic Slave Trade ..................................................................30 3.2 Early slavery in Nova Scotia .............................................................................................................................32 3.3 Black Loyalists: Free and slave .........................................................................................................................34 3.4 Conflicting legal regimes around slavery ........................................................................................................35 4.0 Lord Dalhousie: Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia, 1816 to 1820 ......................................................................38 4.1 Nova Scotia under Sir John Sherbrooke..........................................................................................................39 4.1.2 The arrival of the Black Refugees of the War of 1812 ....................................................................................40 4.2 Lord Dalhousie and the Black Refugees ..........................................................................................................42 5.0 Lord Dalhousie’s Correspondence with Lord Bathurst: Seven Letters ...................................................................45 5.1 Ending at the beginning ...................................................................................................................................55 6.0 The Founding of Dalhousie College and University .................................................................................................58 6.1 The Castine Fund ..............................................................................................................................................59 6.2 Planning Dalhousie College .............................................................................................................................60 6.3 Laying the cornerstone .....................................................................................................................................62 6.4 Slow to progress and over budget ...................................................................................................................64 7.0 A Legacy of Mistrust ..................................................................................................................................................66 8.0 The Legacies of Slavery: A Justice System Case Study ...........................................................................................71 8.1 Conclusion .........................................................................................................................................................79 AUGUST, 2019 1 9.0 Lord Dalhousie Panel and the International Decade for People of African Descent: Recognition, Reconciliation, and Recompense: Brief Reflections .........................................................................81 10.0 Moving Forward: Reparatory Justice ........................................................................................................................86 10.1 Historical findings .............................................................................................................................................87 10.2 Lessons to draw from the historical findings ..................................................................................................87 10.3 Recommendations ............................................................................................................................................89 Appendices ..........................................................................................................................................................................93 Endnotes ..........................................................................................................................................................................106 Bibliography ......................................................................................................................................................................121 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Black Refugees landing in Halifax, 1814 .............................................................................................................................5 Lord Dalhousie ....................................................................................................................................................................18 Alexander Cochrane’s Proclamation of 1814 ....................................................................................................................23 Dalhousie Castle, Bonnyrigg, Midlothian, Scotland .........................................................................................................25 Joshua Mauger, Halifax Merchant .....................................................................................................................................33 Joshua Mauger: Advertisement for the sale of ‘several Negro slaves’ ...........................................................................34 Petition from Nova Scotian slave owners for the protection of rights to slave property, .............................................35 Advertisement for runaway slave “James” .......................................................................................................................36 Advertisement for a twenty-dollar reward for a runaway slave .......................................................................................36 Report of lands cleared by the people of colour in the settlement of Preston ..............................................................42
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