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Heritage York Research Guide
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Slavery, Abolition and Black Settlement
Slavery in Upper Canada
For over two centuries, colonists in what would become Canada participated in the enslavement and trafficking of African peoples. It was not until 1834 that slavery was abolished in British North America, after the implementation of the Imperial Act of 1833 in Britain.
Well before abolition, there were anti-slavery movements and acts that made small steps towards emancipation. The Upper Canadian Act of 1793 was the first act against slavery from within the British Empire. However, this act called for no actual emancipation, merely banning the continued importation of enslaved individuals, and legislating freedom for the children of the enslaved upon reaching the age of 25.
Many enslaved persons were made to migrate with their loyalist slavers to Upper Canada after the American Revolution. One such slave-owning family was the Baby family from formerly-French Detroit, who came to settle in Windsor, Ontario, and in York, including along the Humber, in the neighbourhood today known as Baby Point.
Anti-slavery in York County
John Graves Simcoe was an abolitionist who pushed the British government and the Upper Canada Legislative Assembly for full emancipation. The result was unfortunately a compromise of gradual abolition in the form of the 1793 Upper Canada Act.
The Provincial Freeman was a newspaper published regularly between 1853-57 (in Toronto 1854-55) from editor Mary Ann Shadd – the first Black female publisher in North America. Its view was staunchly abolitionist, with the goal of social reform. Many issues are available to view online at Canadiana.ca
The Anti-Slavery Society of Canada was founded in Toronto in 1851 by George Brown and Rev. Michael Willis, prompted by the passing of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 in the US, which required all escaped enslaved individuals to be returned to their slavers, lest officials face a hefty fine. The Anti-Slavery Society's constitution stated that their object was to "aid in the extinction of Slavery all over the world, by means exclusively lawful and peaceable ... by manifesting sympathy with the houseless and homeless victims of Slavery flying to our soil."
George Brown, Constitution and bye-laws of the Anti-Slavery Society of Canada, 1851
First annual report presented to the Anti-Slavery Society of Canada by its executive committee, March 24th, 1852
Second annual report presented to the Anti-Slavery Society of Canada by its executive committee, March 23rd, 1853
Sixth annual report presented to the Anti-Slavery Society of Canada by its executive committee, April 19, 1857
​The American war and slavery; speech of the Hon. George Brown, at the anniversary meeting of the Anti-slavery society of Canada, held at Toronto, on Wednesday, February 3, 1863
​Samuel Ringgold Ward, Autobiography of a fugitive Negro, his anti-slavery labours in the United States, Canada & England, publisher John Snow, 1855. Baldwin collection of Canadiana. Reference to the Anti-Slavery Society of Canada begins on page 136.
Black Settlers in the Lower Humber River Area
Censuses
Census of Canada 1824: 242 Black individuals living in York County (source: Canadiana.ca p. 52)
Census of Canada 1901: 592 Black individuals living in the City of Toronto (formerly York County); 247 reside in Toronto West (source: Internet Archive p. 245)
Joshua Glover
Glover was an enslaved man who escaped from Wisconsin to Canada via the underground railroad, and settled in Etobicoke, near the Humber River. To learn more about Glover, please visit his page in this guide.
Louis Ghant
According to the secondary source linked below, Ghant was born in the southern United States. He worked as a sailor along the Great Lakes for several years before moving to York in the 1840s, where he worked for the Howland family at the Lambton Mills flour mill. After a few years, Ghant joined his brother in Dufferin County around 1850, where he occupied his own land and farms.
Stephen Sawden, A History of Dufferin County, Orangeville, Ont.: Orangeville Banner, 1952. Internet Archive. pp 52; 136
Additional Resources
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