1889-90.] SLAVERY IN CANADA. 107 



Two references to slavery there were given, one in a deed registered 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 girl, 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 treated 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 passed 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 

 Ihe 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 



