Slavery in Canada includes historical practices of enslavement practised both by theFirst Nations until the latter half of the 19th century,[1] and by colonists during the period ofEuropean colonization.[2]
The practice of slavery in Canada by colonists effectively ended early in the 19th century, through local statutes and court decisions resulting from litigation on behalf of enslaved people seekingmanumission.[3] The courts, to varying degrees, rendered slavery unenforceable in bothLower Canada andNova Scotia. In Lower Canada, for example, after court decisions in the late 1790s, the "slave could not be compelled to serve longer than he would, and ... might leave his master at will."[4]Upper Canada passed theAct Against Slavery in 1793, one of the earliest anti-slavery acts in the world.[5][6] These developments in Canada preceded Britain's decision to ban slavery through most of theBritish Empire by passing theSlavery Abolition Act 1833.
Asslavery in the United States continued until the passage of theThirteenth Amendment in 1865, black people (free and enslaved) began immigrating to Canada from the United States after theAmerican Revolution and again after theWar of 1812, and later many by way of theUnderground Railroad.[7]
Because Canada's role in theAtlantic slave trade was comparatively limited, the history of Black slavery in Canada is often overshadowed by the more tumultuous slavery practised elsewhere in the Americas.[8]
Slave-owning people of what became Canada were, for example, the fishing societies such as theYurok, that lived along the Pacific coast from Alaska to California,[9] on what is sometimes described as the Pacific or Northern Northwest Coast.[10] Some of theindigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast, such as theHaida andTlingit, were traditionally known as fierce warriors and slave-traders, raiding as far as California.[11] Slavery was hereditary, the slaves beingprisoners of war and their descendants were slaves.[12][13] In what became British Columbia, slavery was flourishing in the 1830s, gradually declining throughout the century.[14] In the 1870s, the Superintendent of Indian Affairs,Israel Wood Powell, freed slaves on their appeal to him during his trips to the west coast of Vancouver Island.[15] Slavery had virtually ended by the 1880s and 1890s.[1] Some nations in British Columbia continued to segregate and ostracize the descendants of slaves as late as the 1970s.[16] Among a fewPacific Northwest nations about a quarter of the population were slaves.[17]
Oneslave narrative was composed by an Englishman,John R. Jewitt. He had been taken alive when his ship was captured in 1802 by theNuu-chah-nulth people due to the ship's captain having insulted their chief,Maquinna, and other slights inflicted against their people by other American and European captains. Jewitt's memoir provides a detailed look at life as a slave.[18][19]
The Maritimes saw 1,200 to 2,000 slaves arrive prior to abolition, with 300 accounted for in Lower Canada, and between 500 and 700 in Upper Canada.[20] A small portion ofBlack Canadians today are descended from these slaves.[21][22]
People of African descent were forcibly captured by local chiefs and kings aschattel slaves and sold to traders bound for southern areas of the Americas. Those in what is now called Canada typically came from the American colonies, as no shiploads of human chattel went to Canada directly from Africa.[23] There were no large plantations in Canada, and therefore no demand for a large slave work force of the sort that existed in most European colonies in the Americas.[23]
Under French rule, First Nations slaves outnumbered slaves of African descent.[24] According toAfua Cooper, author ofThe Hanging of Angélique: The Untold Story of Canadian Slavery and the Burning of Old Montréal, this was due to the relative ease with which New France could acquire First Nations slaves. She noted that the mortality of slaves was high, with the average age of First Nations slaves only 17, and the average age of slaves of African descent, 25. One of the first recorded black slaves in Canada was brought by a British convoy to New France in 1628.Olivier le Jeune was the name given to the boy, originally fromMadagascar.[25]
By 1688, New France's population was 11,562 people, made up primarily of fur traders, missionaries, and farmers settled in the St. Lawrence Valley. To help overcome its severe shortage of servants and laborers, King Louis XIV granted New France's petition to import black slaves from West Africa. Though no shipments ever arrived from Africa, colonists did acquire some black slaves from other French and British colonies. From the late 1600s, they also acquired Indigenous slaves, mostly from what is now the U.S. Midwestern states, through theirwestern fur-trade networks. Slaves of Indigenous origin were called "Panis", but few came from the Pawnee tribe. More commonly, they were of Fox, Dakota, Iowa, and Apache origin, captives taken in war by Indigenous allies and trading partners of the French.[26]
While slavery was prohibited in France, it was permitted in its colonies as a means of providing the massive labor force needed to clear land, construct buildings and (in the Caribbean colonies) work on sugar, indigo and tobacco plantations. The 1685Code Noir set the pattern for policing slavery in the West Indies. It required that all slaves be instructed as Catholics and not as Protestants. It concentrated on defining the condition of slavery, and established harsh controls. Slaves had virtually no rights, though the Code did enjoin masters to take care of the sick and old. TheCode Noir does not seem to have applied to Canada and so, in 1709, the intendantJacques Raudot issuedan ordinance officially recognizing slavery in New France; slavery existed before that date, but only as of 1709 was it instituted in law.
In total, by Marcel Trudel's count, 1,685 Native American slaves and 402 black slaves appeared in the records during French rule, for a total of 2087 slaves.[27]: 86 After theConquest of New France by the British, slave ownership remained dominated by the French. Trudel identified 1,509 slave owners, of which only 181 were English.[28] Trudel also noted 31marriages took place between French colonists and Indigenous slaves.[29]
| External videos | |
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 Chloe CooleyA CanadianHeritage Minute that followsChloe Cooley, an enslaved Black woman inUpper Canada in 1793. Her acts of resistance in the face of violence led to Canada’s first legislation limiting slavery.–Historica Canada (1:01 min) |
First Nations owned or traded in slaves, an institution that had existed for centuries or longer among certain groups. Shawnee, Potawatomi, and other western tribes imported slaves from Ohio and Kentucky and sold or gifted them to allies[30] and Canadian settlers.Mohawk Chief Thayendenaga (Joseph Brant) used black people he had captured during the American Revolution to build Brant House at Burlington Beach and a second home near Brantford. In all, Brant owned about forty black slaves.[31]
Black slaves lived in the British regions of Canada in the 18th century—104 were listed in a 1767 census of Nova Scotia, but their numbers were small until theUnited Empire Loyalist influx after 1783. As white Loyalists fled the new American Republic, they took with them more than 2,000 black slaves: at least 1,500 to the Maritimes (Nova Scotia,New Brunswick, andPrince Edward Island),[32] 300 to Lower Canada (Quebec), and 500 to Upper Canada (Ontario). In Ontario, the Imperial act of Parliament of 1790[which?] assured prospective immigrants that their slaves would remain their property.[33] As under French rule, Loyalist slaves were held in small numbers and were used as domestic servants, farm hands, and skilled artisans after being educated and trained by their Masters.
Following theBattle of the Plains of Abraham and the British conquest of New France, the subject of slavery in Canada is unmentioned—neither banned nor permitted—in both theTreaty of Paris of 1763 and theQuebec Act of 1774 or theTreaty of Paris of 1783.
The system of gang labor, and its consequent institutions of control and brutality, did not develop in Canada as it did in some parts of the United States. Because they did not appear to pose a threat to their masters, slaves were permitted to learn to read and write, Christian conversion was encouraged, and their marriages were recognized by law.[34]
The end of slavery in Lower Canada cannot be precisely dated[35]: 253 , and was a gradual process.[35]: 265 Early as 1787, slave owners became anxious about the more or less imminent abolition of slavery.[35]: 233
Newspaper published on slavery starting in July 1790, with the anti-slavery campaign gaining strength on summer of 1791. This coverage, however, was temporary, and mainly focused on slavery as a foreign phenomenon.[35]: 233–236
On January 28, 1793, the question of whether slavery should be abolished or kept was brought up in the Legislative Assembly byPierre-Louis Panet (as "a bill [...] to abolish slavery"). On March 8, there was the first reading of the bill; on April 19, there was the second reading of the bill and Panet moved for the creation of a Committee of the Whole House on the bill on the 25th. However,Pierre-Amable Debonne proposed adjourning debate on the subject in a destructive amendment and was seconded byGeorge McBeath : the amendment passed by a wide margin (31 to 3). This failed bill revealed opponents of slavery in the House:Pierre-Louis Panet,Bonaventure Panet,Amable Berthelot andLouis Dunière.[35]: 236–237
A precedent was set in 1794 when a judge[note 1] freed a slave brought to trial, claiming that slavery was unknown to the laws of England (a highly debatable statement). The Chief of JusticeWilliam Osgoode, appointed in 1794, did not recognize slavery and systematically freed all slaves that appeared in court sued as slaves.[35]: 242–243 The Chief Justice's refusal to acknowledge slavery, alongside the Legislative Assembly's refusal to pronounce itself, led to the mass desertions of slaves.[35]: 250 The Legislative Assembly's indecision also led to slaves deserting from other provinces and the United States, even before the legislature acted in Upper Canada to limit slavery.[4] After a slave was freed in such a manner in 1798, the slave population apparently threatened a general revolt.[35]: 242
The Chief Justice SirJames Monk, not recognizing the legality of slavery based on a technicality regarding the absence of houses of correction,[36] rendered a series of decisions undermining the ability to compel slaves to serve their masters in the late 1790s : the slave no longer had to obey his master and could leave at will. He systematically dismissed suits by owners against runaway slaves.[37] Monk's interpretation held, even once houses of correction were established.[38]
The last sale of a slave was in 1797. The next year, the last newspaper ad selling a slave appeared in theMontreal Gazette and the word "slave" last appeared in the civil registries.[35]: 251
Starting in 1799, slave owners petitioned theLegislative Assembly to legislate on the matters of slavery to remove all uncertainties regarding its status (by abolishing it, upholding it, regulating it and/or limiting it; depending on the petition). All attempts eventually stalled and failed (1799, 1800 and 1803), and no further attempts were made after 1803.[35]: 243–250 The subject of slavery was never raised again in the Legislative Assembly after 1803.[35]: 250
After 1799, only nineteen slaves remained in the records; only one of those appeared after 1808 (in 1821)[35]: 251 . By the time theSlavery Abolition Act of 1833 came into force, slavery had practically disappeared on its own in Lower Canada, with perhaps only a few old black slaves being freed by the legislation.[35]: 252–253
In 1829, the administrator of Lower Canada SirJames Kempt refused a request form the U.S. government to return an escaped slave, on the basis that fugitives must only be given up when the crime in question was also a crime in Lower Canada.[38]
In total, 787 Native American slaves and 730 black slaves appeared in the records, for a total of 1527 slaves.[27]: 86
By 1790, the abolition movement was gaining credence in Canada and the ill intent of slavery was evidenced by an incident involving a slave woman being violently abused by her slave owner on her way to being sold in the United States. In 1793,Chloe Cooley, in an act of defiance yelled out screams of resistance. The abuse committed by her slave owner and her violent resistance was witnessed by Peter Martin and William Grisely.[39] Peter Martin, a former slave, brought the incident to the attention ofLieutenant GovernorJohn Graves Simcoe. Under the auspices of Simcoe, theAct Against Slavery of 1793 was legislated. The elected members of the executive council, many of whom were merchants or farmers who depended on slave labor, saw no need for emancipation. Attorney-GeneralJohn White later wrote that there was "much opposition but little argument" to his measure. Finally the Assembly passed theAct Against Slavery that legislated the gradual abolition of slavery: no slaves could be imported; slaves already in the province would remain enslaved until death, no new slaves could be brought into Upper Canada, and children born to female slaves would be slaves but must be freed at age 25. To discouragemanumission, the Act required the master to provide security that the former slave would not become a public charge. The compromiseAct Against Slavery stands as the only attempt by any Ontario legislature to act against slavery.[6][40] This legal rule ensured the eventual end of slavery in Upper Canada, although as it diminished the sale value of slaves within the province it also resulted in slaves being sold to the United States. In 1798 there was an attempt by lobby groups to rectify the legislation and import more slaves.[40] Slaves discovered they could gain freedom by escaping to Ohio and Michigan in the United States.[41]
By 1800, the other provinces of British North America had effectively limited slavery through court decisions requiring the strictest proof of ownership, which was rarely available. In 1819,John Robinson, Attorney General of Upper Canada, issue a legal opinion that all persons of African descent entering Upper Canada should be guaranteed freedom, even if they had been enslaved in another country.[42][43] Slavery remained legal, however, until theBritish Parliament'sSlavery Abolition Act 1833 finally abolished slavery in most parts of theBritish Empire effective 1 August 1834.
While many black people who arrived in Nova Scotia during the American Revolution were free, others were not.[44] Some black slaves arrived in Nova Scotia as the property ofwhite American Loyalists. In 1772, prior to the American Revolution, Britainoutlawed the slave trade in the British Isles followed by theKnight v. Wedderburn decision in Scotland in 1778.[32] This decision, in turn, influenced the colony of Nova Scotia. In 1788, abolitionistJames Drummond MacGregor from Pictou published the first anti-slavery literature in Canada and began purchasing slaves' freedom and chastising his colleagues in the Presbyterian church who owned slaves.[45] Historian Alan Wilson describes the document as "a landmark on the road to personal freedom in province and country".[46] HistorianRobin Winks writes it is "the sharpest attack to come from a Canadian pen even into the 1840s; he had also brought about a public debate which soon reached the courts".[47] (Abolitionist lawyerBenjamin Kent was buried in Halifax in 1788.) In 1790John Burbidge freed his slaves. Led byRichard John Uniacke, in 1787, 1789 and again on 11 January 1808 theNova Scotian legislature refused to legalize slavery.[48][49] Two chief justices,Thomas Andrew Lumisden Strange (1790–1796) andSampson Salter Blowers (1797–1832), were instrumental in freeing slaves from their owners in Nova Scotia.[50][51][52] They were held in high regard in the colony. JusticeAlexander Croke (1801–1815) also impounded Americanslave ships during this time period (the most famous being theLiverpool Packet). During the war, Nova Scotian SirWilliam Winniett served as a crew on boardHMS Tonnant in the effort to free slaves from America. (As the Governor of theGold Coast, Winniett would later also work to end the slave trade in Western Africa.) By the end of theWar of 1812 and the arrival of the Black Refugees, there were few slaves left in Nova Scotia.[53] (TheSlave Trade Act 1807 outlawed the slave trade in the British Empire and theSlavery Abolition Act 1833 outlawed slavery altogether.)
TheSierra Leone Company was established to relocate groups of formerly enslaved Africans, nearly 1,200 black Nova Scotians, most of whom had escaped from the United States. Given the coastal environment of Nova Scotia, many had died from the harsh winters. They created a settlement in the existing colony in Sierra Leone (already established to make a home forthe "poor blacks" of London) at Freetown in 1792. Many of the "black poor" included other African and Asian inhabitants of London. The Freetown settlement was joined, particularly after 1834, by other groups of freed Africans and became the first African American haven in Africa for formerly enslaved Africans.
During the early to mid-19th century, theUnderground Railroad network was established in the United States to free slaves, by bringing them to locations where the slaves would be free from being re-captured.British North America, now known asCanada, was a major destination of the Underground Railroad after 1850, with between 30,000 and 100,000 slaves finding refuge.[54]
In Nova Scotia, former slaveRichard Preston established the African Abolition Society in the fight to end slavery in America. Preston was trained as a minister inEngland and met many of the leading voices in theabolitionist movement that helped to get theSlavery Abolition Act 1833 passed by the British Parliament. When Preston returned to Nova Scotia, he became the president of the Abolitionist movement in Halifax.
Preston stated:
The time will come when slavery will be just one of our many travails. Our children and their children’s children will mature to become indifferent toward climate and indifferent toward race. Then we will desire ... Nay!, we will demand and we will be able to obtain our fair share of wealth, status and prestige, including political power. Our time will have come, and we will be ready ... we must be.[55]
There are slave cemeteries in parts of Canada, in various states of condition, some neglected and abandoned.[56] They include cemeteries inSt-Armand, Quebec;Shelburne, Nova Scotia; andPriceville andDresden in Ontario.
The ratifying of theSlavery Convention by Canada in 1953 began the country's international commitments to address modern slavery.[57] Human trafficking in Canada is a legal and political issue, and Canadian legislators have been criticized for having failed to deal with the problem in a more systematic way.[58]British Columbia'sOffice to Combat Trafficking in Persons formed in 2007, making British Columbia the firstprovince of Canada to address human trafficking in a formal manner.[59] The biggest human trafficking case inCanadian history surrounded the dismantling of theDomotor-Kolompar criminal organization.[60] On June 6, 2012, theGovernment of Canada established theNational Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking in order to opposehuman trafficking.[61] The Human Trafficking Task force was established in June 2012 to replace theInterdepartmental Working Group on Trafficking in Persons[62] as the body responsible for the development ofpublic policy related to human trafficking in Canada.[63]
One current and highly publicized instance is the vast disappearances of Aboriginal women which has been linked to human trafficking by some sources.[64] Former Prime MinisterStephen Harper had been reluctant to tackle the issue on the grounds that it is not a "sociological issue"[65] and declined to create a national inquiry into the issue counter toUnited Nations andInter-American Commission on Human Rights' opinions that the issue is significant and in need of higher inquiry.[65][66]
In July 2024, a report for theUnited Nations Human Rights Council by UNSpecial Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery Tomoya Obokata described thetemporary foreign worker program as a "breeding ground for contemporary slavery".[67] Obokata's report found many instances ofdebt bondage,wage theft, lack ofpersonal protective equipment, abuse, and sexual misconduct.[67][68] Immigration ministerMarc Miller gave a statement toReuters saying that the program was "in need of reform" and that the low-wage stream needed to be examined.[69]
Between 1840 and 1860, more than 30,000 people enslaved in America came secretly to Canada and freedom
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