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 the great relief he felt at being no longer hable to be railed upon to 
 sign permits for the importing of slaves. 
 
 This remained the position till i<S33, when the Imperial Act removed 
 all remains of the system. Before the passage of the Act of July, 
 1793. soniL' of the States of the Liuion had passed similar Acts, e.g. 
 Rhode Island and Pennsylvania. New York followed in 1799 with a 
 provision for gradual emancipation, which was followed by complete 
 abolition in that State, 4th July, 1827. Mr. Hamilton cited .several 
 cases of slave advertisements, notably that of the Administrator, Hon. 
 Peter Ru.ssell, who at York, on 19th February, 1800, offered Peggy, aged 
 40, and Jupiter, aged 15, for sale, the woman for $150 and the boy for 
 $200, " payable in three years secured by bond, but one-fourth less would 
 be taken for ready money." Mr. Russell's sister, Miss Elizabeth, had a 
 pure negress named Amy Pompadour, who attended her mistress dressed 
 in a red turban. Miss Russell made her a present to Mrs. Captain 
 Denison, of York, who was the great- grandmother of several of 
 Toronto's well known citizens. Amy had a son, born during a visit 
 of the Duke of Manchester to the town, who was named in memory 
 of the duke and Mrs. Denison, Duke Denison, and lived to the middle 
 of the century. 
 
 In the Niagara Herald several advertisements are found relating to 
 slaves ; so in the Gazette and Oracle early in the century — one refers 
 to an Indian slave or Pani. Mr. Charles Field, in the Herald of 
 25th August, 1802, forbids all persons harbouring his " Indian slave 
 Sal." Messrs. W. & J. Crooks, of West Niagara, in October 1797, adver- 
 tised in the Gazette and Oracle " that they wanted to purchase a negro 
 girl of good disposition from 7 to 12 years of age." It is interesting 
 to note that these beautiful grounds of the Chautauqua Assemb '' were 
 the old Crooks farm. On it still, within sight of the amphitheatre where 
 we are now assembled, is the frame buff-painted family farm-house or 
 homestead. Among the records in the register of St. Mark's parish 
 church, Niagara, is the following certificate : — 
 
 "Married, 1797, Feb'y 5, Moses and Phuibe, negro slaves of Mr. 
 Secretary Jarvis." 
 
 Another noted Niagara citizen. Colonel Thomas Butler, advertised in 
 the U. C. Gazette of July 4, 1793, offering $5 reward for his "negro man 
 servant named John." 
 
 An account was given of Solicitor-General Gray and his slaves, Dor- 
 inda Baker and her children, Simon and John. Mr. Gray lost his life on 
 the schooner Speedy, a Government vessel wrecked on Lake Ontario, 
 
IH89-yO.] 8LAVKKV IN CANADA. ° 
 
 7th October, 1804, and with him died his body servant, Simon Baker. 
 Simon's brother John lived till 1871, and died in Cornwall, Ont. But he, 
 and all Mr. Gray's other slaves were freed by his will, which is proved 
 in the Surrogate Court at Toronto. Lieut.-Govcrnor Sir A. Campbell 
 favored the reader with a note as to slaves in Kingston, stating his inter- 
 est in the subject, and concluding :— " I had personally known two slaves 
 in Canada ; one belonged to the Cartwright and the other to the Forsyth 
 family. When 1 remember them in their old age, each had a cottage, sur- 
 rounded by many comforts, on the family property of his master, and was 
 the envy of all the old people in the neighborhood." 
 
 Sir Adam Wilson also informed the reader of two young slaves, 
 " Hank " and " Sukey," whom he met at the residence of Mrs. O'Reilly, 
 mother of the venerable Miles O'Reilly, Q.C., in Halton County about 
 1830. They took freedom under the Act of 1833, and were perhaps the 
 last slaves in the Province. 
 
 NEGRO SLAVE.S ON OGDEN ISLAND. 
 
 A description was given of Ogden Island in New York State, in the 
 St. Lawrence R iver, opposite Morrisburg, Ontario, a beautiful place of 
 1,000 acres, where about 18 10 Judge David A. Ogden built a mansion, 
 and resided in patriarchal state, having 25 negro slaves, part of the 
 dowry of his wife, a North Carolina Lady. They were happy and con- 
 tented, and though free to go and come to the Canada shore, none ever 
 deserted. At the rear of this house and in the yard may be seen the 
 " negro quarters." Some of these servants were voluntarily set free by 
 Judge Ogden. One of them, an intelligent, amiable man, was known as 
 " Old Uncle Kit " on both banks of the St. Lawrence. He became a 
 clergyman of the African Episcopal Methodist Church, and pastor of the 
 old Leonard street and now Bleeker street colored church. New York 
 City, and passed among his colored brethren, till his death about 1880, as 
 Rev. ChristopRer Rush. 
 
 It is pleasant now to look back three score and ten years and see these 
 contented servants moving about the grounds, or in company with white 
 masters, and guests of this old and honorable family, pulling out to fish, 
 among the green islands, or with bows and firearms seeking game, then 
 abundant in the neighborhood. 
 
 Nova Scotian Slavery was referred to. The system was never there 
 abolished by Parliament, but was unsuited to the climate, and fell into 
 desuetude. The like was the case in the other Maritime Provinces. 
 
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 Two references to slavery there weie given, one in a deed re|»istered in 
 Truro in 1779, in which one Harris conveyed to Matthew Archibald his 
 interest in a twelve-year-old negro boy called Abram for 50 pounds cy. 
 The other is an advertisement dated 23rd June, 1800, of sale of " a stout 
 negro giri, aged 18 years, good-natured, fond of children, and accustomed 
 to both town and country work. For particulars, apply at the Old 
 Parsonage, Dutch Town." 
 
 The reader concluded with references to Africans held as slaves to 
 Indians. He showed that while such slavery was common among the 
 southern Indians, Creeks, Choctaws, and Cherokees, it did not obtain 
 among Canadian tribes. This was owing to their nomadic habits and to 
 the climate. The famous Mohawk, Captain Brant or Thayendenaga, is 
 by some thought to have been a slaveholder. It was shown by reference 
 to history and to enquiry now made of living descendants of Brant that 
 such was not the case. He had large estates at Burlington Bay and on 
 the Grand River. Here many runaway negroes from the States had 
 come, were treate<i hospitably, and remained working and living with the 
 Indians, often adopting their customs and mode of living. Several 
 descendants of such fugitives are now living on the Six Nation reserve 
 near Brantford. 
 
 Notwithstanding severe preventive laws pas.sed by the Choctaw and 
 other Southern Indian nations, mixture of blood obtained to a marked 
 degree, the negroes, free and slave, intermarrying the Indians, becoming 
 part of the nation. There is also a considerable intermixture of such 
 blood in Ontario on certain of the reserves. Though the word Panis in 
 the records referred to seems to have special reference to Indian slaves, it 
 is sometimes used by old Canadian writers to signify all persons in servi- 
 tude without regard to color. It is of Algonquin origin. Slavery in 
 Canada was of a mild patriarchal type. Slaves could not be sold under 
 compulsory process of law, nor members of families separated without 
 the owner's consent. Marriage and ties of kindred seem to have been 
 observed and regarded kindly. 
 
 It does not appear that Canadian owners participated in receiving any 
 part of the ;{;■ 20,000,000 appropriated under the Imperial Acts for the 
 indemnity of masters. The passing of our Act of 1793 was wise and 
 opportune, and left the Province free to work in harmony with the 
 Northern States of the Union and the other colonies which had already 
 adopted, or which were soon to adopt, similar measures. When the harsh 
 system of the Southern States drove many refugees to the Northern 
 States, and, owing to the feeling and laws of exclusion there, the blacks 
 went across the border they found in Canada a home. Here for half a 
 
1 
 
 1889-90.] 
 
 SLAVERY IN PANADA. 
 
 century they came as to a Goshen or land of refuge, until at the outbreak 
 of the late war between the North and South fully 30,000 had been 
 sheltered, and to a great extent educated and prepared, under our 
 municipal and benevolent institutions, for the proper exercise and enjoy- 
 ment of the rights and duties of free men. 
 
 To the end of time Africa will bless Canada for the refuge and home 
 given to her children in that period of their trouble and trial. 
 
 The figures shown are taken from the Lower Canada Gazette of June, 
 1802. The first, of the Pawnee, is used in connection with a French 
 advertisement for a runaway apprentice ; the other from a like notice in 
 English. These cuts had been used formerly in advertisements for 
 slaves. 
 
 REFERENCES. 
 
 " De. L'Esclavage en Canada," papers of the Soci^Jtd Historique dc 
 Montreal, by M. J. Viger and Sir L. H. LaFontaine, 1858. 
 " Toronto of Old," by Rev. H. Scadding, D.D. 
 Parkman's " Old Regime in Canada." 
 " Life of Lord Mansfield," by Lord Campbell. 
 " Kent's Commentaries," Vol. 2, 248. 
 " Cobb's Law of Negro Slavery." 
 " Somersett's case." English Stale Trials, Vol. 20, 
 " The American Slave Code," by Wm. Goodell. 
 " Life of Brant," by W. L. Stone, Vol. 2, App. 16. 
 Knox's Hi-storical Journal. 
 Travels of Duke de Liancourt in N. America, p. 252 
 
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