Muster Roll of Colonel Stephen Blucke's Company at Birchtown, Shelburne County: A Black Settlement in Nova Scotia, 1784
Birchtown was one of several Black communities established in Nova Scotia between 1782 and 1784 by African Americans who had supported the British during the American Revolution. However, local hostility and difficult conditions eventually resulted in nearly half of the inhabitants of Birchtown leaving in 1792 for Sierra Leone in West Africa.
MG 9 B 9-14, vol. 1, file 3, p. 108-109
John Graves Simcoe, ca. 1893
Artist unknown
Under the administration of John Graves Simcoe (1752-1806), Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada (Ontario), legislation was introduced in 1793 which limited and eventually abolished slavery in Upper Canada.
The Memorial and Petition of James Frazer, Montreal, March 13, 1798
James Frazer, a Loyalist, protested that "the Honorable Court at Montreal, are about Setting all Negroes Free from their Owners." A protest against the freeing of enslaved people, which is an example that some Canadians supported the institution of slavery.
Civil and Provincial Secretary, Lower Canada/ Series/1760-1840, RG 4 A 1, vol. 66, reel C-3011, p. 21153-21154
Location Ticket, York, Upper Canada (Toronto, Ontario), March 13, 1824
Grant of land to Robert Jupiter, a veteran of a Black militia unit in Upper Canada, March 13, 1824. Members of the Black community took an active part in the defence of Canada during the War of 1812.
RG 8 series I, vol. 1702, reel C-3839, p. 242
A Negro Male, Nova Scotia, ca. 1845
By Lady Falkland
A full-length portrait of a Nova Scotian of African descent holding a hat in one hand and a branch in the other is attributed to Lady Falkland about 1845, when her husband was Governor of Nova Scotia. Approximately 3,000 Blacks immigrated to Nova Scotia during and after the American Revolution and 2,000 after the War of 1812.
Negro Man and Child on the Way Side, Southwestern Ontario, 1860
By Sir Henry Wentworth Acland
This image of an African Canadian man and child was made when southern Ontario was the home for several thousand refugees from the United States.
Treaty between Her Majesty and the United States of America, Washington, August 9, 1842
This treaty, also known as the Webster-Ashburton Treaty, was an attempt by Great Britain and the United States to suppress the international slave trade from Africa to North America.
Daniel G. Hill fonds
MG 31 H 155, vol. 26, file 11
The Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave. (Slave Market), Charleston, South Carolina, March 4, 1833
By Henry Byam Martin
Painting of a sale of enslaved people by Henry Byam Martin, a British officer on a trip through Canada and the United States.