104 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. [Voi.. I. 



of the negro in Lower Canada. In February, 1798, " Charlotte," a colored 

 slave, was claimed by her mistress and released on habeas corpus by Chief 

 Justice Sir James Monk at Montreal. " Jude," another negress was soon 

 afterwards arrested, as a runaway slave, by order of a magistrate. The 

 negroes in Montreal, knowing of the " Charlotte " case, became excited 

 and threatened to revolt, but when the woman was brought before the 

 Chief Justice, he released her also, and declared to the effect, that in his 

 opinion slavery was ended. On the i8th February, 1800, the case of 

 " Robin " came before the full Court of King's Bench, Mr. James Fraser 

 claiming him, when, after argument, it is recorded that it was ordered 

 " that the said Robin alias Robert be discharged from his confinement." 

 It seems clear that the court was wrong in its judgment, and that slavery 

 in law existed in Lower Canada until the Imperial Act of 1833 removed 

 it from all the colonies. An effort was made in the Provincial Legisla- 

 ture to obtain an act to define the true position, but without success. The 

 masters, who were mostly residents of Montreal and Quebec, and the 

 country members not having such property, had no interest in sustaining 

 the system for the benefit of the wealthier citizens, who had to acquiesce 

 in the inevitable, and slavery ceased de facto in that Province from and 

 after the decision in the " Robin " case, iSth February, 1800. 



SLAVERY IN UPPER CANADA. 



The system was here introduced before the separa- 

 tion of the Upper and Lower Provinces in 1791, 

 but our population was then small and scattered. 

 We had a few hundred negro and a few Pawnee 

 slaves, mostly around the Niagara, Home and West- 

 ern districts. 



In 1793 the first Parliament of the Province, meeting in its second 

 session in Navy Hall, of which part remains in the low, brown, wooden 

 buildings still visible from the wharf at Niagara, then called Newark, 

 passed an Act which, while it prohibited the importation of slaves, con- 

 firmed the ownership in slaves then owned, and provided that their 

 children should be free on attaining 25 years of age. The members of 

 this first Parliament, thirteen in number, with Mr. Macdonell, of Glen- 

 garry, as Speaker, were mostly strong U. E. Lo3-alists. The Act 

 regarding slavery was, it is thought, drawn by Chief Justice Osgoode 

 (who became C. J. of Upper Canada, 29th July, 1792) at the sugges- 

 tion of that good Englishman, Governor Simcoe, who in his speech 

 on closing the session of 1793, and consenting to this Act, expresses 



