during King Louis XIV’s reign, established how enslaved Africans were to be treated. It was primarily intended for the West Indies but came to be the standard globally.
1689
Slavery was given limited approval for New France by Louis XIV since colonists complained about needing more servants. Now Pawnees (indigenous people) and Africans could be kept as slaves.
1701
French fur-trader Antoine de Lamothe Cadillac built Fort Pontchartrain (Detroit) with the support of enslaved Africans.
1709
Louis XIV formally established the enslavement of Africans to meet the demands of French colonists in what is now Canada by law.
1734
Marie-Joseph Angelique, in the process of making herself free or in the process of protesting her owner’s actions, caused a fire to start. This fire destroyed her owner’s home as well as most of the Montreal area nearby. For her role in this accident, or act of defiance, she was tortured and hung.
1775
In Virginia, Lord Dunsmore recognized the significant number of enslaved Africans that could be conscripted to defend the Crown against the growing Rebel forces. “Every person [man] capable of bearing arms … including servants, negroes, or others” were to be included in the Ethiopian Regiment. Three hundred men joined through the Lord Dunsmore Declaration.
1776
During the American Revolutionary War, General Henry Clinton extended the Dunsmore Declaration and invited all black persons to join the side of the Crown in order to defeat the rebel forces. They were known as the Black Pioneers. Skilled black men worked as buglers and musicians through to woodsmen and general labourers.
To weaken American forces during the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), the British promised black people freedom and land for their support upon arrival in Nova Scotia. At the time, Nova Scotia included present day New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia. The Company of Negroes (some were free, some were enslaved) left Boston with the British and began to settle the area.
1777
Sir Henry Clinton’s Philipsburg Proclamation guaranteed rebel-owned blacks who joined the British side their freedom, land, and start-up provisions. It further promised freedom to all enslaved Africans who requested protection. At least 100,000 enslaved African Americans flocked to the British side with the incentive further enhanced by British Commander-in-Chief Sir Guy Carleton promising freedom to all who formally requested it. Freedom was now possible for men and women and children for their connection to the British side.
1781
Reverend John Stuart, a Loyalist leader and the first minister established in the Church of England in Upper Canada, brought enslaved black people with him that had been purchased from the Mohawk Valley.
1784
Reverend David George, a black Loyalist Baptist preacher from Virginia settled in Shelburne, Nova Scotia. There to meet the needs of the large black Birchtown settlement, his sermons were soon valued by all Christians no matter what their race. With money raised through his efforts within the black community, Reverend George established many black Baptist churches.
1790
The Imperial Statute of 1790 permitted settlers coming into Upper Canada to bring their enslaved Africans with them as long as they were clothed and fed. Any children born to an enslaved woman was automatically deemed to be a slave and could become free at twenty-five years of age. No enslaved person could be set free unless they could prove that they could be financially independent.
1793
The invention of the cotton gin, invented by Eli Whitney, made it faster and easier to separate the tiny seeds from the cotton fibre. Producing cotton became more profitable and therefore the interest in having more enslaved people also increased.
The first Fugitive Slave Act was passed and allowed for the return of enslaved Africans who managed to cross into another state.
Upper Canada’s first Lieutenant-Governor, John Graves Simcoe, was shocked to learn that an enslaved woman in the Queenston area was forcibly bound and taken across the Niagara River and sold to slave traders. Fearing other slave owners would do the same thing, Simcoe sought to abolish slavery but was only successful in having compromise legislation passed limiting the length of time a person could be a slave.
1794
Black Loyalists in Upper Canada petitioned the government to have a separate black settlement in recognition of their military service during the American Revolutionary War. While this petition was not granted, later events supported the idea of having an all black settlement based near Barrie, Ontario. The Oro settlement was created in 1819.
1796
After successfully fending off the British from taking their land for almost one hundred years, the Jamaican Maroons were finally vanquished through the use of fighting dogs. About 600 Maroons were removed to Halifax and tasked with the building of the Citadel.
1808
The importation of Africans was ended by U.S. Congress
1812
Richard Pierpoint, a black Loyalist in the Niagara area, petitioned the government of Upper Canada to raise a company of black men to defend the Niagara frontier. While initially not approved, it was later decided that a company be formed under the command of a white officer, Captain Robert Runchey.
Americans declared war on the British Empire on June 18, beginning the War of 1812.
Motivated by a hatred of enslavement and the concern that the American forces might win, thousands of black volunteers served to defend the British. They wanted to have freedom from enslavement for themselves and their families.
1813–1816
As the War of 1812 waned, British Vice Admiral Alexander Cochrane extended an invitation to leave the United States and be transported to British territories. Four thousand black refugees accepted the invitation and two thousand headed for the Maritimes.
1815
The Underground Railroad began slowly with the end of the War of 1812 and the reputation that Canada had started to develop regarding slaves.
1819
John Beverley Robinson declared that residence in Canada made black people free and that this would be supported by the courts in Canada.
Lieutenant-Governor Peregrine Maitland of Upper Canada provided land grants to black veterans as part of a black settlement plan in the Township of Oro near Barrie, Ontario.
1829–1830
In response to newly introduced “Black Codes” (severe rules to restrict black activity and mobility) in Ohio, many black people from Cincinnati opted to create a huge settlement called Wilberforce near London, Ontario. Many other black settlements were smaller, and there were about forty in Upper Canada by the end of the eighteenth century.
1830
Josiah
