An Act to Prevent the further Introduction of Slaves and to limit the Term of Contracts for Servitude

The 1793 Act to Limit Slavery in Upper Canada, technically known as An Act to Prevent the further Introduction of Slaves and to limit the Term of Contracts for Servitude was a law passed by the legislature of British-held Upper Canada that limited the importation of enslaved people. The law did not ban slavery or the sale of enslaved people in Canada but marked the first time that slavery in the British colonies was restricted by legal decree.

The law was triggered by the violent abduction of Chloe Cooley, an enslaved woman who was forcibly taken across the border into New York State. The incident, combined with a growing abolitionist movement in North America at the time, led to the introduction and passage of the 1792 law. The trade of enslaved people continued for about another decade when Great Britain abolished the practice in 1807. Slavery in the British colonies was not abolished outright until 1833.

Background

In the mid-fifteenth century, Portuguese explorers began sailing along the west coast of Africa and establishing trading posts in the region. Slavery had long been practiced in Africa, where enslaved people were traded with the Muslim kingdoms to the north. The Portuguese became the first European nation to engage in the trade of enslaved people from Africa, transporting many of them to their colonies in the Cape Verde Islands and Brazil in South America.

Portugal was the dominant power in the Transatlantic trade of enslaved people during the sixteenth century, although Spain and the Netherlands also had a significant role in the practice. Great Britain began to expand its colonial foothold in the seventeenth century, establishing colonies in North America and the Caribbean. Great Britain used its naval superiority to challenge the other European powers and succeeded in becoming a dominant force in global trade by the end of the century.

Although British ships had engaged in the trade of enslaved people since the late sixteenth century, the British Parliament officially sanctioned the practice in 1663. By the start of the eighteenth century, Great Britain dominated the Transatlantic trade of enslaved people. From 1699 to 1807, an estimated twelve thousand British ships transported enslaved Africans from their homeland to British colonies in North America and the Caribbean.

Overview

Most enslaved people were transported to the southern American colonies and the islands of the Caribbean. Britain had established its first colonies along the eastern Canadian coast in the 1610s and consolidated its hold over the region through a series of military victories over the French. By 1763, almost all of eastern Canada was under British control.

Because the land in Canada was not conducive to sustaining large farms, slavery in the British territory was not practiced to the extent that it was to the south. According to the government of Canada, about four thousand enslaved Africans were forced into labor in Canada from 1626 to 1834. Thousands of Indigenous First Nations people were also forced into slavery during that time.

After the British defeat at the hands of the Americans during the Revolutionary War (1775–1783), thousands of British loyalists fled north and were granted land in Upper Canada, a region corresponding to modern-day southern Ontario. Many of these loyalists were enslavers and brought their enslaved people with them. At the same time, thousands of enslaved people had also fought for the British in the war and came north with a promise of freedom for their loyalty. This left Canada with a mix of enslaved Black people and free Black Loyalists often living and working in close proximity.

In the 1770s and 1780s, the tide against slavery had already begun to turn in Great Britain with the formation of the nation’s first abolitionist society. The push toward abolition was also growing in British Canada.

Sometime in the early 1790s, a former American loyalist had purchased an enslaved woman named Chloe Cooley in Upper Canada’s Niagara region. On March 14, 1793, the man and two others tied up Cooley and forcibly took her across the border into New York State. Her screams were heard by Peter Martin, a formerly enslaved person who had been a Black Loyalist during the war.

Martin reported the incident to John Graves Simcoe, the lieutenant-governor of Upper Canada and a noted abolitionist. Simcoe wanted to abolish slavery in the colony, but under British law at the time, enslaved people were still viewed as “property,” meaning he could not end slavery outright. Simcoe and Upper Canada’s attorney general, John White, introduced a measure in the Canadian Parliament to prohibit the importation of enslaved people into Upper Canada. Although the law met with resistance among some legislators who were enslavers themselves, it eventually passed on July 9, 1793.

Officially known as An Act to Prevent the further Introduction of Slaves and to limit the Term of Contracts for Servitude, the law also freed children born into slavery after they reached twenty-five years of age. In addition, the law limited the terms of indentured servitude to nine years to prevent a person from being unfairly forced into slavery after their contracted period of labor ended. However, the Act did not free any enslaved person or stop the sale of enslaved people across the US border, where the importation was still legal. It also legally entrenched the status of people enslaved before 1793 as “slaves.”

Although the law fell short of abolishing slavery, it marked the first time that the procedure was legally restricted in the British Empire. In 1799, New York banned the importation of enslaved people into the state, bringing an end to the sale of enslaved people across the border. Great Britain banned the trade of enslaved people in 1807 but did not ban slavery outright until 1833.

The last-known transaction regarding the sale of an enslaved person in Canada occurred in 1824. In the mid-nineteenth century, the nation’s abolition of slavery made it the destination for escaped enslaved people from the southern United States fleeing north along the Underground Railroad.

Bibliography

“Early History of Canada.” The Canada Guide, 2023, thecanadaguide.com/history/early-history/. Accessed 16 June 2023.

Henry, Natasha. “Chloe Cooley.” Canadian Encyclopedia, 30 Jan. 2023, www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/chloe-cooley-and-the-act-to-limit-slavery-in-upper-canada. Accessed 16 June 2023.

Henry, Natasha. “1793 Act to Limit Slavery in Upper Canada.” Canadian Encyclopedia, 7 Feb. 2022, www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/1793-act-to-limit-slavery-in-upper-canada. Accessed 16 June 2023.

McRae, Matthew, and Steve McCullough. “The Story of Black Slavery in Canadian History.” Canadian Museum for Human Rights, 16 Feb. 2023, humanrights.ca/story/story-black-slavery-canadian-history. Accessed 16 June 2023.

Oyeniran, Channon. “Black Loyalists in British North America.” Canadian Encyclopedia, 3 Feb. 2021, www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/black-loyalists-in-british-north-america. Accessed 16 June 2023.

“The Enslavement of African People in Canada (c. 1629–1834).” Government of Canada, 31 July 2020, www.canada.ca/en/parks-canada/news/2020/07/the-enslavement-of-african-people-in-canada-c-16291834.html. Accessed 16 June 2023.

“Timeline of The Slave Trade and Abolition.” Historic England, 2023, historicengland.org.uk/research/inclusive-heritage/the-slave-trade-and-abolition/time-line/. Accessed 16 June 2023.

“Upper Canada Passes British Empire’s First Legislation Against Slavery.” Canadian Museum of History, 22 Feb. 2017, www.historymuseum.ca/blog/upper-canada-passes-british-empires-first-legislation-against-slavery/. Accessed 16 June 2023.