Such a flag becomes an inspiration not only to the heart, but to the mind, and men may well be willing to risk their all, and life itself, for the maintenance of its unsullied honour. Such a flag is the Union Jack in Canada.
This three-crossed Jack in Canada is not only the national ensign of the British race, but it is more, for Canadians have made it the real "flag of freedom in America."
It is the proudest ascription of the Union Jack of the Empire that
"Though it may sink o'er a shot-torn wreck, It never flies over a slave."
This fact is true to-day of the Jack throughout all the British territories, but it has not always been so, and we may, with much interest, trace the condition of the slave under the flag in Great Britain, in the Colonies, in the United States, and in Canada.
It has been the happy lot of the Motherland, the cradle of the liberties of the earth, that freedom has been enjoyed for many centuries upon her own home soil; but even there legal doubts existed until 1772 about the position of persons who, being slaves in other lands, had reached her shores, when the notable decision of Lord Mansfield declared that, "When a slave has landed on the soil of the British Isles that slave is free." Although this legal definition had been reached, the abolition, by statute, of slavery under the Union Jack was not enacted by the British Parliament until 1811; and even after that, as this Act did not apply outside the British Isles, slavery continued in the outer realms to such an extent that in 1820 there were no fewer than 340,000 slaves under British rule in the Island of Jamaica alone.
At last, in 1833, the glorious Act of Emancipation was passed by the British Parliament, and the same freedom which had existed on the soil of the parent kingdom was extended to all races who lived anywhere under the Union Jack. The people of the parent isles gave further proof that this was done, not solely in the pursuit of an ideal, but out of real good-will, for they were not content with proclaiming freedom to the slave, but themselves purchased his emancipation by paying one hundred million dollars to his owners in those colonies in which, up to that time, slavery had existed with their consent. In the true spirit of British fair-play they thus scouted the idea of exercising their own compassion and good-will at any other person's expense.
| Number of Slaves. | Indemnity paid. | |
| Jamaica[153] | 311,700 | £6,152,000 |
| Barbadoes | 311,700 | £6,152,000 |
| Trinidad | 83,000 | 1,721,000 |
| Antigua, etc. | 172,093 | 3,421,000 |
| Guiana | 84,900 | 4,297,000 |
| Mauritius | 68,600 | 2,113,000 |
| Cape of Good Hope | 38,400 | 1,247,000 |
| ——— | ——— | |
| Total | 780,993 | £20,000,000 |
Such has been the story of freedom under the Union Jack on the other continents. Let us see how its history compares with that of other flags on the continent of America.