Black Men and Women Engage Slavery in Upper Canada, 1793-1803 Afua Cooper

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Ontario History

Acts of Resistance Black Men and Women Engage Slavery in Upper Canada, 1793-1803 Afua Cooper

Forging Freedom: In Honour of the Bicentenary of the British Résumé de l'article Abolition of the Atlantic Slave Trade Dans cet article nous étudiions les différentes formes de protestation et de Volume 99, numéro 1, spring 2007 résistance des esclaves africains contre leur condition dans le Haut-Canada au tournant du 19e siècle; et les conséquences de ces actions sur le plan législatif. URI : https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/1065793ar Dans cette lutte pour faire adopter des lois améliorant la condition des esclaves DOI : https://doi.org/10.7202/1065793ar dans la province, et finalement abolissant l’esclavage, le courage de Chloë Cooley résistant aux intentions de la vendre à un propriétaire new-yorkais, joua notamment le rôle de catalyseur. Son cas poussa en effet le gouvernement Aller au sommaire du numéro du Haut-Canada à faire adopter la loi sur l’émancipation progressive des esclaves; et cela quelque quarante ans avant que des lois similaires soient adoptées dans le reste de l’empire britannique. Il s’agit d’un épisode important Éditeur(s) de notre histoire, et un épisode dans lequel les noirs canadiens, et particulièrement les esclaves, ont été à la fois les acteurs et les agents de leur The Ontario Historical Society propre destin. ISSN 0030-2953 (imprimé) 2371-4654 (numérique)

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Citer cet article Cooper, A. (2007). Acts of Resistance: Black Men and Women Engage Slavery in Upper Canada, 1793-1803. Ontario History, 99(1), 5–17. https://doi.org/10.7202/1065793ar

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Cet article est diffusé et préservé par Érudit. Érudit est un consortium interuniversitaire sans but lucratif composé de l’Université de Montréal, l’Université Laval et l’Université du Québec à Montréal. Il a pour mission la promotion et la valorisation de la recherche. https://www.erudit.org/fr/ cts of Resistance Black Men and Women Engage Slavery in Upper Canada, A 1793-1803 by Afua Cooper Abstract This paper examines how enslaved Africans liv- he year 2007 marks the bicente- ing in Upper Canada at the turn of the 19th century protested and resisted their enslavement nary of British abolition of the in diverse ways, and the impact of this resistant Atlantic slave trade. The study behaviour on attempts to legislate against and Ton which this paper is based is part of my ameliorate the effects of slavery in the province. ongoing research into the role Black peo- It shows that, in the case of the Chloe Cooley, her ple played in the history of early Cana- courage in the face of attempts to sell her away to a New York owner provided the catalyst that da, their slave status, issues of race and spurred the Upper Canadian government to pass gender, and, of course, the early North its gradual emancipation act, some forty years American antislavery movement. By par- before anti-slavery laws were passed elsewhere ticularlizing the issue of slavery and re- in the British Empire. This study centres Black Canadians, particularly the enslaved, as ac- sistance, this larger analysis centres Black tors and agents in the making of their own, and people, particularly the enslaved, as his- thus a signficant part of Canada’s, history. torical subjects and agents in the making Résumé: Dans cet article nous étudiions les dif- of their own, and thus a signficant part of férentes formes de protestation et de résistance des Canada’s history. I dedicate this paper to esclaves africains contre leur condition dans le e the numerous enslaved African men and Haut-Canada au tournant du 19 siècle; et les conséquences de ces actions sur le plan législatif. women in Upper Canada and British Dans cette lutte pour faire adopter des lois amé- North America who through their own liorant la condition des esclaves dans la province, actions helped to end slavery in these et finalement abolissant l’esclavage, le courage de places. Chloë Cooley résistant aux intentions de la vendre à un propriétaire new-yorkais, joua notamment le rôle de catalyseur. Son cas poussa en effet le n the past few decades, historians of gouvernement du Haut-canada à faire adopter Islavery, in exploring the lives of the en- la loi sur l’émancipation progressive des esclaves; slaved, have attempted to put them at the et cela quelque quarante ans avant que des lois centre of historical inquiry by showing similaires soient adoptées dans le reste de l’empire britannique. Il s’agit d’un épisode important de that they were not the atomized victims notre histoire, et un épisode dans lequel les noirs of slavery that previous historians have canadiens, et particulièrement les esclaves, ont été à considered them to be, but rather active la fois les acteurs et les agents de leur propre destin. agents in their own emancipation. One Ontario History / Volume XCIX, Number 1 / Spring 2007 ONTARIO HISTORY

way that the enslaved tried to rise above rebellions and revolts, and homicide. their victimization was to resist as best as However, the cataloguing of resistance they could the degradation and brutali- in such a dichotomous manner suggests zation of slavery. Historian David Barry that every-day resistance and long-term Gaspar has defined resistance within the resistance stand in contradistinction to context of New World slavery as a con- each other, and that the two poles never cept that is used to apply to slave behav- meet. Not so. Both types often shade into iour that cannot be equated with coop- each other. For example, everyday acts of eration with slavery. He also notes that resistance “added up and constituted the resistance was “an important organizing foundation upon which slaves built more principle of slave life.”1 ambitious schemes of subversion that Resistance “spans a continuum that matured into collective political resist- takes into account important qualitative ance or insurrection.”3 And if we think of differences between individual acts and resistance running as a continuum, then those that were collective or had collec- surely there were responses that occur tive potential.”2 Individual acts, often somewhere between these two extreme placed in the category of every-day resist- poles. And there were. For example, ar- ance, involve such actions such as break- son as employed by the enslaved could ing of tools, destruction of livestock and either be an individual or a collective act. other moveable property, work stoppage, Moreover, Bernard Moitt has argued for talking back to their owners, malinger- a gender-specific understanding of resisting, temporary marronnage [absent- ance, and notes that there were multiple ing oneself temporarily], and so forth. forms of enslaved women’s resistance. Though this type of resistance “incre- He notes that “gender made it possible mentally hampered” the slave system it for women to restrict fertility and con- posed no long-term danger to it. At the trol reproduction through abortions and other end of this conceptual spectrum is other techniques…” [like infanticide, and collective resistance, which is more radi- abstinence].4 Poisoning was also associ- cal in its orientation and outlook, and ated with females because of their close thus has a long-term impact on the slave links to domestic and household work. system. Examples of long-term resist- Sometimes resistance could be subtle ance are arson, permanent marronnage and fleeting, a scream, a cut eye, or the [permanent self-emancipation], armed sucking of teeth. These could often help

1 David Barry Gaspar, “From ‘The Sense of their Slavery’: Slave Women and Resistance in Antigua, 1632-1763,” in D.B. Gaspar & D.C. Hine eds. More Than Chattel, Black Women and Slavery in the Ameri- cas (Indiana University Press, 1996), 220. 2 Ibid. 3 Ibid. 4 Bernard Moitt, Women and Slavery in the French Antilles, 1635-1848 (Indiana University Press, 2001), 125. acts of resistance restore the self-esteem of the enslaved, if tary. Slave masters ensured that slavery only fleetingly. would reproduce itself by making it legal that slave children inherited their moth- Why Did Slaves Resist? ers’ status. Women in particular, given lavery was an inhuman system in how gender impacted the experience of Swhich one group of persons perma- enslavement, faced particular kinds of nently owned the life and labour of an- abuse such as sexual assaults from the other group, and had the power of life enslaver group. Even when slave masters and death over them. The raison d’etre of accepted the humanity of the slave, as in the enslaved group was to serve the enslav- the case of holding them legally responsi- ing group. Moreover, the benefits accrued ble for crimes they might have commit- from the labour of the enslaved belonged ted, enslaved people had little or no social not to them but to their enslavers. status. Orlando Patterson, sociologist of Slavery in the New World, in addi- slavery, notes that given the marginal sta- tion to being an economic and labour ar- tus of the enslaved, they experienced and rangement, was also a racialized system. endured what he terms “social death.”6 In the Americas, by 1650, Black skin was On the other hand, enslaved Afri- equated with slavery. Black skin thus be- cans never saw themselves as chattel. It came a badge of enslavement and con- was a status imposed on them by their comitantly of racial and social inferiority. owners and White society as a whole. On the other hand, Whites, whether or And it was a status they rejected. In so not they were slaveholders, promoted doing, they refused in significant ways to and benefited from an all-encompassing cooperate with slavery. Enslaved Africans system of White racial supremacy. who resisted, whether in everyday acts or African scholar Joseph Ki-Zerbo re- in more spectacular forms, were asserting marked that as a result of the slave trade their personhood and dignity. Through and slavery Africans were ousted from their actions they articulated their pro- humanity.5 These institutions plus the test at the system that degraded them. legal codes that they spawned defined and treated enslaved Africans as chattel Slave Control in Early or property that was bought, sold, and Canada traded. Moreover, slavery in the New lave resistance was only one side of the World was a permanent condition; one Smaster-slave dialectic. It is not pos- was a slave for life. Another cruel feature sible to understand the resistance of the of the slave system was that it was heredi- enslaved without paying due attention

5 J. Ki-Zerbo, “The Mental Route of the Slave: A Few Thoughts Inspired by the Present-Day Situa- tion of the Black Peoples,” in Doudou Diene, ed. From Chains to Bonds: The Slave Trade Revisted (Paris: UNESCO Publishing, 2001), 122. 6 Orlando Patterson, Slavery and Social Death: A Comparative Study (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1982). ONTARIO HISTORY

to the masters’ control of slave behaviour deprived of power. Power as defined by because, as Gaspar notes, “slave resistance Michel Foucault is diffused and unstable. and masters’ control…were important From a Foucauldian point of view, even interlocking dimensions of the overall the most downtrodden and marginalized workings of the slave system.”7 person has some modicum of power. And A variety of legal codes were used scholars of slavery have indeed shown to regulate slavery in New World slave that enslaved peoples within the Ameri- societies, including Canada. During the cas exercised different degrees of power ancient regime in early Canada, aspects of in their relations with each other and the French slave code, the Code Noir, were with slaveholding society. Yet, it would applied with respect to the enslaved and be irresponsible and perhaps even racist their owners. Further, English legal codes to say that slave people ‘were powerful’ brought by British immigrants after the and could engage in an equal fight with Conquest and the Revolutionary War masters and owners. The enslaved had strengthened existing legislation. Both some agency but they were also severely French and English laws defined slaves victimized. Slavery, as this paper will as chattel, and under the full authority show, was not a game played by equals. of their owners. Colonial laws and or- Yet ‘uncooperative’ behaviour by the dinances applied to the everyday life of enslaved revealed that slavery was not a colonists also covered the lives of the en- system of absolute power and authority slaved. Masters thus used the full arsenal on the part of the enslaver or a system of of the legal apparatus to control their total powerlessness and victimization on slaves. They had them arrested, thrown in the part of the enslaved. prison, taken before the courts, whipped, The question, “can the subaltern branded, placed in the stocks, and legally speak?” has been asked in a different murdered (for example, hanged).8 context.9 This paper looks at how Up- Slaveholders also exercised tremen- per Canadian slaves, in their condition of dous personal power in their ownership subalternity, protested and resisted their of and rule over their human property. enslavement in diverse ways. It also chal- The employment and deployment of lenges the temporary/permanent binary power was a constant in any master-slave of acts of resistance and shows that, as in relation. However, as I hope I have made the case of Upper Canadian slave Chloe clear by now, the enslaved was not totally Cooley, her sole act of courage led to a

7 Gaspar, “From ‘The Sense of their Slavery’,” 220. 8 On the legality of slavery in Canada see Maureen Elgersman, Unyielding Spirits: Black Women and Slavery in Early Canada and Jamaica (New York: Garland Publishing, 1999), 10-16. For descriptions of the master’s abuse of slaves see Robin Winks, The Blacks in Canada (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1997), 51; and Afua Cooper, The Hanging of Angélique: The Untold Story of Canadian Slavery and The Burning of Old Montréal (Toronto: HarperCollins, 2006). 98-99. 9 Gayatri Spivak, “Can the Subaltern Speak?” in C. Nelson and L. Grossberg eds. Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture (Urbana & Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1988). acts of resistance

collective and permanent protest move- he produced “to prove the truth of his al- ment called the Underground Railroad, in legation.” That witness was a White man which tens of thousands of enslaved people named William Grisley, who it seemed resisted bondage by running away from it. worked for Vrooman, and he did indeed back up Martin’s report about the vio- The Case of Chloe Cooley lent removal and sale of the slave woman, n 21 March 1793, at the Upper Ca- Chloe Cooley, by her master, William Onadian legislature, then in Niagara- Vrooman. Grisley notes: on-the-Lake, Peter Martin, a Black man, That on Wednesday evening last he was at appeared at a meeting of the Executive work at Mr. Frooman’s [Vrooman] near Council of the Upper Canadian legisla- Queens Town, who was in conversation told 10 ture. Members of the council present him he was going to sell his Negro Wench to were Lieutenant Governor John Graves some persons in the States, that in the evening Simcoe, Chief Justice William Osgoode, he saw the said Negro girl, tied with a rope, and Peter Russell. Martin had appeared that afterwards a boat was brought, and the before these men to bring them news that said Frooman with his brother and one Van he thought was vital. He told them Every, forced the said Negro girl into it…and carried the boat across the river; that the said of a violent outrage committed by one Negro girl was then taken and delivered to a [Vrooman]…residing near Queens Town… man upon the bank of the river by [Vrooman], on the person of Chloe Cooley, a Negro girl that she screamed violently and made resist- in his service, by binding her, and violently ance, but was tied in the same manner.…Wm. and forcibly transporting her across the Grisley farther says that he saw a negro at a [Niagara] River, and delivering her against distance, he believes to be tied in the same her will to persons unknown.11 manner, and has heard that many other people 12 Peter Martin had come to Government mean to do the same by their Negroes. House to relate the violent removal of This document provides illumination slave woman Chloe Cooley from Upper on slaves, their owners, gender and slav- Canada across the international bounda- ery, an example of how enslaved and free ry to the state of New York. Because Mar- Black people resisted enslavement, the tin was a Black man and a former slave, he fluidity of the frontier, and the treatment knew that the powerful white men before of enslaved people in the then frontier whom he stood could doubt the veracity Province of Upper Canada. But most of his words. Thus taking precaution he of all, it tells in startling details the fight brought with him an eyewitness, whom that Cooley put up against her enslaver

10 Information about Peter Martin’s origins and his service as a Revolutionary War soldier and his life as a free man in Upper Canada can be gleaned from Michael Power and Nancy Butler, Slavery and Free- dom in Niagara (Niagara-on-the-Lake: Niagara Historical Society, 1993) 16-17. See also “The Petition of Peter Martin,” Ontario History 26 (1930) 243. 11 William Riddell, “The Slave in Upper Canada,”Journal of Negro History 4 (1919), 377. 12 Ibid., 333-78. 10 ONTARIO HISTORY

and master William Vrooman. Perhaps, about Martin’s military credentials. because William Grisely was White, Martin, most likely knew Cooley. Vrooman confided in him and told him They could even have been related or in that he was going to sell his slave woman a love relationship. What was he doing to persons in New York. Grisely also told at the Vrooman farm at the very mo- Simcoe and the council that many of the ment Cooley was being removed from slaveholders in the region intended to her home? Did Cooley send for him? sell off their enslaved property. But perhaps the more important ques- It took a week after the forced removal tion is what did Martin hope to gain by of Cooley from Niagara-on-the-Lake to reporting the incident? The enslavement New York before Martin appeared before of Black people was perfectly legal in Up- the House. Why was this? And what did per Canada and other parts of the British he hope to accomplish? It could be that Empire. Vrooman, with the law on his the Black community, free and enslaved, side, had every legal right to do what he met and discussed the removal of Cooley, did with Chloe Cooley. then decided to inform the government What Martin and the rest of the Black about it, and chose Martin, because he population might have heard when Sim- had witnessed the offence, to report the coe arrived in the colony just a few months matter at Government House. But Mar- earlier was that he meant to abolish slav- tin was more than an eyewitness. ery there.13 If that was what Martin be- Martin had gained prestige as an lieved, then when he went to Government American Revolutionary War veteran. As a House he could have entertained the hope member of the guerilla unit Butler’s Rang- that Simcoe could somehow move against ers, he had fought in the war on the side of Vrooman, and perhaps retrieve Cooley. the British along the Canadian/American William Grisley is also important frontier in the eastern Great Lakes region. here. Clearly knowing about ‘the perform- In fact, his then master John Butler led the ance of race’ in the colony Martin brought unit. After the war, Martin and the survi- Grisley as a ‘second eye.’ It was the gen- vors of his unit, plus thousands of other eral belief at the time that Blacks and the British supporters, were evacuated to Can- enslaved were untruthful and thus their ada. Though now free, he continued work- words could not be trusted. Did the men ing for his former master Colonel John at Government House believe Martin’ be- Butler, who still owned Martin’s daughter. cause Grisley backed him up? In any event, As a war vet, Martin was deemed a natural Grisley supported Martin’s statement. leader of the Black community, and Lieu- Martin (and Grisley) must have been tenant Governor Simcoe, himself a Revolu- gratified that after hearing their story, tionary War veteran, must have also known the council took action. Simcoe direct-

13 Power and Butler, Slavery and Freedom in Niagara, 9 acts of resistance 11

ed his Attorney-General, John White, rope, Africa, and America. Soon the ru- to prosecute Vrooman, not for selling mour became rife that Simcoe was going Cooley but for disturbing the peace by “to free all the slaves.”15 his actions. However John White knew In his former life, Simcoe was a that the government had no case since Member of Parliament in Britain and was English civil law regarded slaves as mere well acquainted with the struggles in the property. Under this law the slave “was British House regarding the abolition of [also] deprived of all rights, marital, pa- the slave trade. He would also have been rental, proprietary, even the right to live.” aware of the cases of Jonathan Strong William Renwick Riddell, jurist and his- and James Somersett, two slaves who ran torian, wryly noted that “Chloe Cooley away from their masters in London, and had no rights which Vrooman was bound who were freed by the courts, and of the to respect: and it was no more a breach of support given to these two fugitive slaves peace than if he had been dealing with his by the antislavery society in London.16 heifer.”14 Attorney General White knew Moreover, Simcoe was himself a colo- that Vrooman was well within his rights nel on the British side during the Revo- and did not move to prosecute him. lutionary War, and led a very fearsome Since nothing could be done to pe- regiment called the Queen’s Rangers. He nalize Vrooman, Simcoe ordered his would have known that Lord Clinton Chief Justice, William Osgoode to draft and Sir Henry Dunsmore, in the Thir- a bill prohibiting the importation of teen Colonies, had called upon enslaved slaves into the colony. Why was Simcoe Americans to join the British standard. so concerned about the plight of en- Such calls resulted in what can seriously slaved Africans in his colony? Upon his be called the ‘first emancipation’ in the arrival in Upper Canada in 1792, Simcoe New World. At the close of the War, at was surprised to learn that so many of the least 5,000 Africans who had served the colonists owned slaves. In fact, he seemed British found freedom in various Brit- to have been under the impression that ish colonies, but mainly in Eastern Can- there was no slavery in Upper Canada. ada. Simcoe would have been aware of More surprising was his discovery that the sacrifices Blacks, both enslaved and many of the legislators in both chambers free, made for the British during the late in the House were slaveholders. Appar- war, and took offence to them being en- ently, once Simcoe got to Upper Canada slaved in his colony. Thus, if he wanted and saw the state of race relations, he to bring about the demise of slavery in made the assertion that he would make Upper Canada, and he did, the removal no distinction between the natives of Eu- of Cooley was the opportunity he was

14 Riddell, “Slave in Upper Canada,” 380. 15 Winks, Blacks in Canada, 98. 16 On the Somersett case see Adam Hochschild, Bury The Chains: Prophets and Rebels in the fight to Free an Empire’s Slaves (Boston: Houghton and Mifflin, 2005), 49-51. 12 ONTARIO HISTORY

waiting for.17 terms that they would not give up their After several amendments, on 9 July ownership in their slaves. Simcoe and his 1793, at the second sitting of Parliament, Chief Justice buckled under the pressure. the bill that Osgoode had drafted to pro- As Nancy Butler and Michael Power note: hibit the importation of slaves in Upper most of the slaveholders were of the Loy- Canada was made law. It was called “An alist establishment. Act to Prevent the Further Introduction Its members, recent immigrants to the of Slaves and to Limit the Terms of Con- province, were naturally jealous of their tract for Servitude Within this Province.” property rights as British citizens, having The preamble reads: forfeited practically everything in their defence of the crown in the late Revolutionary Whereas it is unjust that a people who enjoy War. They were in no rush to deprive them- freedom by law should encourage the intro- selves of valuable property they regarded as duction of slaves; and whereas it is highly essential to their economic viability in the expedient to abolish slavery in this province colony.19 so far as the same may gradually be done without violating private property…18 However, the Act provided for children born to slave mothers after 1793; they The new law though it aimed to limit slav- would become free on their 25th birthday. ery was very much concerned that private Their children would, in turn, earn their property (that is, the slaves) was protect- freedom at birth. However, and this is ed. This bill, which became known as Sim- important, it did not prohibit the buy- coe’s Act, was passed “with much opposi- ing and selling of slaves within the colony tion” from the slaveholding interests in or exportation across international lines. the House, who insisted that slave labour Though slavery was “unable to expand, it was necessary in an agricultural economy. continued to function openly after 1793,” What did this new legislation accomplish? what did the legislation achieve in regards First it secured the property rights of those to the emancipation of enslaved Africans? who held slaves before 9 July 1793 and First, the stated objective of the Act was to confirmed the status of those who were prohibit the importation of slaves into the already enslaved. It did not free one slave. colony as the first clause outlined. In doing The slaveholders within and outside of so it repealed the 1790 Imperial Act that Parliament clamoured for their property allowed White settlers to bring in enslaved rights and told Simcoe in no uncertain Africans to work the colony. Second, and

17 James Walker has documented the story of the Black Loyalists in his seminal work The Black Loyal- ists: The Search for a Promised Land in Nova Scotia and Sierra Leone, 1783-1870(Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1992). 18 “An Act to prevent the further introduction of Slaves, and to limit the Term of Contracts for Servitude within this Province,” 33 George IV, c.7, 9 July 1793, The Provincial Statutes of Upper-Canada, Revised, Corrected and Republished by Authority (York: R.C. Horne, 1816). 19 Michael Power and Nancy Butler, Slavery and Freedom in Niagara (Niagara Historical Society, 2000), 9. acts of resistance 13

of great importance was the fact that em- Canadians. So widespread was the flight bedded also in the first clause was the idea of Upper Canadian slaves into Michigan that any slave arriving on Upper Canadian territory that in 1807 Upper Canadian soil from another country would imme- slaveholders petitioned the government diately be free. In other words, touching of the United States to help them retrieve the soil of Upper Canada guaranteed the their former slaves from American soil. freedom of an enslaved person. And this “I regret equally with yourself the incon- was where the Act was most potent. I will veniences which his Majesty’s subjects in elaborate on this point later. Upper Canada experience from the de- The new law was a disappointment sertion of their slaves into the territory of to Simcoe. He and Osgoode wanted the United States….” reads a portion of outright abolition; instead the bill was a the letter that D.M. Erskine, the British compromise that would bring about abo- representative in the United States wrote lition…but gradually. If enslaved people to Upper Canada’s Lieutenant Governor, in Upper Canada were waiting on the Sir Francis Gore. The American govern- Act to free them, it would take fifty years ment expressed its regret but refused to before that would happen. Nonetheless, act on behalf of the slaveholders.20 Simcoe’s emancipation bill would have a Henry Lewis was one fugitive slave definite effect on the fate of Black people who came to our attention because he in the colony, on the continent, and on fled Canadian slavery and then wrote race relations in the colony. a letter to his former master. The letter The Act had two immediate and is dated 3 May 1798 and was sent from paradoxical outcomes. Perhaps, the first Schenectady, New York. and most immediate was that many Up- per Canadian slaves, realizing that the My desire to support myself as a free man and enjoy all the benefits which may result Act would not free them, took matters in from being free in a country where a Black- their own hands and escaped the colony man is defended by the laws as much as a to such places like the Old Northwest white man is induces me to make you an Territories (Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, offer of purchasing myself. I am a Black man Minnesota, and parts of Wisconsin) and and am not able to pay you all the money New York, places that had either prohib- down which you may ask for me but upon ited slavery and were passing legislation these conditions I will purchase myself. Ten to do so. So numerous were Black Upper pounds this years and every year after six- teen pounds until the whole sum is payed. Canadians in some American towns that, I should wish to pay the money to Joseph in Detroit, for example, a group of former Yates the Mare (mayor) of this sitty because Upper Canadian slaves formed a militia in he is the most proper man that I can think of 1806 for the defence of that city against at present. The reason I left your house is this

20 For information of the flight of Upper Canadian slaves into Michigan and other American territories, and the letter sent by Erskine to Gore, see William Riddell, “Additional Notes on Slavery,” Journal of Negro History 17 (1932), 368-73. 14 ONTARIO HISTORY

your women vexed me to so high a degree wants his labour to benefit himself, and that it was far beyond the power of man to so did not want to remain in the state of support it, it is true and I will say in all com- enslavement any longer. And he was do- pany that I always lived as well in your house ing the very noble thing of buying him- as I should wish. Please write to Joseph Yates what you will take in cash for me and self. However, he set the conditions of his let him be the man to whom I shall pay the sale, and Jarvis, away in Upper Canada money yearly. In a supplicant manner I beg and probably believing that he had lost all your pardon ten thousand times and beg that his investment in Lewis, must have been you would be so kind as to permit me to pur- somewhat gratified at the offer. Why did chase myself and at as low a rate as any other Lewis decide to buy himself? Perhaps he person. My mistress I also wish a long life heard that Jarvis was hunting for him. and good health and pleas tell her I beg her Maybe he feared arrest and decided to pardon then thousand times. My mistress I shall always remember on account of her put his mind at ease. Or could it be that great kindness to me. Lewis had internalized the concept of I remain your affectionate servant, the sacredness of private property? Lewis Henry Lewis.21 had well-connected friends. He knew the The man to whom Lewis writes is Mayor of Schenectady and had found a none other than William Jarvis, Secre- ready support in him. Lewis might have tary of the province, a member of the Up- been originally from New York, and may per Canadian Legislature, and of the Ex- have come from there as a slave with the ecutive Council. In other words, he was Loyalist migration to Upper Canada. one of the province’s political elite. His The reason Lewis gave for leaving wife, Hannah Jarvis, went into a tirade the Jarvis household is contradictory. He when Simcoe pushed the abolition bill said the women of the house made his through Parliament, that Simcoe “had life unbearable, yet his closing remarks freed all the Negroes,” which was not are about the great goodness and kind- true at all.22 Now five years after the bill ness of his mistress Hannah Jarvis, of was passed, one of the Jarvis’s slaves had whose pardon he begs a ten thousand fled to New York. The letter has an ironic times. Perhaps Lewis was just being poli- almost mocking tone; it is as if Lewis is tic when he wrote this about Mrs. Jarvis, laughing to himself as he writes it. (I am and could have been laughing as he wrote here, you are there, catch me if you can). the letter. For he must have known that Lewis, fully aware that while he had been Hannah Jarvis was proslavery and did in a state of bondage others had benefited not wish any Upper Canadian slave to be from the fruits of his labour, underscores free. this as a central reason for his flight—he In this letter to Jarvis, Lewis voiced

21 Letter from Henry Lewis to his former master, William Jarvis, at Niagara-on-the-Lake. Toronto Public Library, Baldwin Room. 22 Power and Butler, Slavery and Freedom, 29. acts of resistance 15 his protest against slavery. He rebelled be enslaved north of the American bor- against that condition by running away. der, soon began the trek to freedom and He too like Cooley went across the inter- a greater measure of security in Upper national boundary. But in contrast to her, Canada.”24 This was the beginning of the he “stole himself,” while she was sold away legendary Underground Railroad. The by her owner. A year after Lewis wrote the supreme irony is that Canada as a known letter, the State of New York, where he was haven for fugitive slaves on that railroad domiciled, began the process of gradual came about because of the brutalization emancipation. Ensconced in New York, and selling of a Black Upper Canadian and away from the authority of his mas- slave woman to an American slaveholder. ter, Lewis realized that he was holding the It must also be noted that the same year metaphorical handle, and Jarvis the blade. the Upper Canadian Legislature passed And so he used the power he had to nego- its abolition Act, the United States Con- tiate the terms of his freedom. gress passed its first Fugitive Slave Law. Lewis and the enslaved Africans of Undoubtedly, this was a coincidence but the Western District of Upper Canada the passing of both pieces of legislation who gave grief to their owners were not naturally made Upper Canada more at- the only ones who resisted bondage by tractive to fugitive American slaves. taking flight. There are numerous examples of Upper Canadian slaves and other istory has dealt kindly with John enslaved persons in other parts of British HGraves Simcoe. White, powerful, North American fleeing across the bor- and male, we know his role in the drama der to places in the Old Northwest and of the early antislavery movement in early such states as New York and Vermont.23 Canada. It is he who emerges as the hero The second outcome of Simcoe’s of the moment. But what of the woman, Act, with which we are more familiar is Chloe Cooley, the woman whose fate the creation of Upper Canada as a haven was the catalyst that brought about the for foreign slaves. News travelled to the antislavery legislation and made Upper United States, especially after the War of Canada a refuge for oppressed American 1812, that if any foreign slaves made it to Blacks, and further gave the young colony Upper Canada they would find freedom. the distinction of being the first jurisdic- Those who were enslaved in the United tion within the British Empire to enact a States, on “learning that they would not piece of antislavery legislation?

23 Winks, Blacks in Canada, 99. For examples of advertisements giving notice of runaways in colonial newspapers see the Quebec Gazette 19 Oct. 1769 and the Upper Canada Gazette, 19 Aug. 1795. Further, Peggy Pompadour, slave woman of Upper Canadian political leader Peter Russell, constantly ran away from the Russell household. Russell confined her to jail after recapturing her after one of her flight- at tempts. See Edith Firth, The Town of York, 1793-1815 (Champlain Society, 1962), 243. 24 Daniel Hill, The Freedom-Seekers, Blacks in Early Canada (Toronto: The Book Society of Canada, 1981) 18. 16 ONTARIO HISTORY

We do not know Cooley’s age, or if sought to redefine notions of black feminine she had children, or even if she was mar- identity. The Black woman was ideologically ried. We assume she was young because constructed as essentially ‘non-feminine’ in she was called a “wench.” As a young so far as primacy was placed upon her alleged muscular capabilities, physical strength, ag- woman of childbearing age, she more gressive carriage and sturdiness. Proslavery than likely would have fetched a good writers presented her as devoid of feminine price. Her owner, William Vrooman, of tenderness and graciousness in which the Dutch ancestry, was a Loyalist from New white woman was tightly wrapped.27 York Hudson’s Valley region. Like most Cooley was outraged at the treat- of his compatriots he would have arrived ment she received from Vrooman. As a in Upper Canada after the close of the slave woman, she occupied the margins of war in 1783. It is likely that Cooley made society. She might have lived in Canada the trek with him and his family from for most of her life, and saw it as home. New York to Upper Canada. Perhaps she even had family here from Cooley’s removal from Upper Can- whom she was loath to part. Vrooman ada to the United States mirrors that of clearly was a brutal master, and might the removal of captured slaves from Af- have decided to sell Cooley because he rica. She was tied up, thrown in a boat, could not ‘control’ her, or because he had and sold away.25 The fact that Vrooman heard that Simcoe meant to abolish slav- bound Cooley with a rope showed how ery and wanted to get something from much Black women were thought of as his investment in Cooley before he lost brute, unfeminine, and unworthy of everything. Slaves tried in everyday acts masculine protection.26 This happened to assert their personhood. Black women at a time, when the ‘frailty’ of woman as enslaved persons in the Americas have was articulated in the patriarchal gender been beaten, overworked, raped, hanged, discourse gaining ground at that time in murdered, and brutalized in many forms. Europe and Euro-dominated societies. By manhandling Cooley, tying her up, Hilary Beckles in discussing how New and forcing her into a boat, Vrooman, as World slavery re-gendered Black woman slaveowner, continued the slaveholder’s by denying them ‘feminine’ characteris- and White man’s engagement with “kill- tics notes: ing the Black body.” The colonial gender discourse confronted Cooley was unable to protect her- and assaulted traditional concepts of wom- self but she had one thing at her disposal anhood in both Europe and Africa, and that she could use to express her anger,

25 Elgersman, Unyielding Spirits, 29. 26 The three men, William Grisley, Peter Martin, and definitely John Graves Simcoe could be seen as trying to ‘protect’ Cooley. And even though they failed to retrieve Cooley their actions can be interpreted as chivalrous. 27 Hilary Beckles, Centering Woman, Gender Discources in Caribbean Slave Society (Kingston, Ja.: Ian Randle, 1999), 10. acts of resistance 17 outrage, and fear—her voice. And so eran and colonial pioneer he had helped she screamed—a heart-rending scream found the new province of Upper Can- that echoed beyond the boundaries of ada, and had preserved it for the British Vrooman’s farm, and summoned Mar- Crown. In going to Simcoe and his coun- tin and Grisley to witness. Because the cil he acted as an empowered person, two men also related that she “made re- one who refused to watch the mistreat- sistance,” we can only imagine Cooley ment and abuse meted out to his people. screaming, crying, cursing, and straining By going to the council, he signalled his her limbs against the rope with which her intention to work for Black liberation. master tied her. In spite of Cooley’s low Cooley and Martin by their acts of resist- social status, which conspired to deny ance created for themselves new status as her a place in history, she nonetheless historical subjects. enters the historical record as a resisting Resistance, as a conceptual tool, is and freedom-seeking woman. useful in the construction of historical And what of Peter Martin, the Black knowledge about enslaved Africans in man who went to Government House to British North America and their quest report the matter? Peter Martin, former for freedom. Cooley and Martin re- slave, former soldier, now British subject sisted slavery on an individual basis, but and pioneer sought to bring about more their actions eventually led to a freedom freedom for Black people. Martin was movement with vast collective outcomes. outraged that he had fought for what he Many of the runaway slaves of the West- believed would have ensured freedom ern District of Upper Canada regrouped for his people only to discover that many as a collectivity in a foreign country. And were still enslaved, beaten, abused, and Henry Lewis likewise, made a small dent sold away as if they were cattle. By going in the institution of slavery when he to Government House to report Cooley’s emancipated his own self. abuse, he protested the treatment of Black In 1807 and 1808, the British and people in general in the province. Americans abolished their respective Can the subaltern speak? Cooley was transatlantic slave trades. The countless clearly a victim but she exercised what lit- number of Black men and women in Up- tle agency she could muster. Martin liter- per Canada and the wider British North ally spoke out in a loud and clear voice to America who rebelled against slavery the most powerful people in the land. As had set the stage for this milestone in a Revolutionary soldier he had fought to Canadian, African, Atlantic, and world preserve “British freedom.” As a war vet- history. s