Sampson Salter Blowers (March 10, 1742 – October 25, 1842) was aNorth American lawyer,Loyalist and jurist fromNova Scotia who, along with Chief JusticeThomas Andrew Lumisden Strange, waged "judicial war" in his efforts to freeBlack Nova Scotian slaves from their owners, leading to thedecline of slavery in Nova Scotia.
After graduating with aMaster of Arts fromHarvard College in 1765, he studied law atThomas Hutchinson's office. He became abarrister at theMassachusetts Superior Court in 1770.[1] His home on Southack's Court (present-day Phillips Street) atBeacon Hill, Boston bordered on the properties ofJohn Hancock,John Winthrop andJohn Phillips (mayor).[2] A very successful trial lawyer, he worked withJosiah Quincy andJohn Adams in defending the soldiers[3] involved in theBoston Massacre, a March 1770 confrontation in which British soldiers fired into a crowd of a few hundredBostonians who had been verbally harassing and throwing projectiles at them.
Considered a Loyalist, he was forced to relocate to England in 1774.[4] He resettled in America in 1777, inNewport, Rhode Island (then still under British control) as a judge in thevice admiralty court, later moving to New York, and then in 1783 moved permanently toHalifax, Nova Scotia.
In Halifax he built a busy law practice, and in 1784 was named attorney general of Nova Scotia.[1] The following year, he was appointed attorney general forNew Brunswick but refused the post, not wanting to relocate his family. Later that year, he was named attorney general forNova Scotia. In 1785, he was elected to theNova Scotia House of Assembly forHalifax County and was chosen to be speaker for the assembly. In 1788, he was named to theNova Scotia Council.[1]
Because Blowers put the onus on slave owners to prove that they had a legal right to purchase slaves, slavery died out in Nova Scotia early in the 1800s, unlike inNew Brunswick, where Chief JusticeGeorge Duncan Ludlow had ruled that slavery was legal.[1]
The young Sampson Salter Blowers became an orphan after his father died soon after his return from theSiege of Louisbourg.[1] Blowers was raised by his grandfather, Sampson Salter. In 1774, he married Sarah Kent, daughter of Massachusetts Attorney GeneralBenjamin Kent. In Halifax Blowers lived at the corner ofBarrington Street and the street now named after him.[5] Blowers died in Halifax in 1842, aged 100, soon after he broke his hip in a fall. Most of his estate went to his adopted daughter, Sarah Ann Anderson, who had marriedWilliam Blowers Bliss.[6] He is buried in the crypt ofSt. Paul's Church (Halifax) and his wife is buried in Camphill Cememtery.[7] Although he lost a substantial amount of property in the American War of Independence,[1] he regained his wealth in Nova Scotia, leaving a large estate to his adopted daughter.
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