Colchester, 28th May, 1841.
"Sir:—I have to apologize for being thus late in acknowledging the receipt of Mr. Assistant Secretary Hopkirk's letter of the 27th ult., requesting me to furnish Government with such information as I might be able to afford, 'respecting the colored people settled in the Western District;'[89] and beg to assure you that the delay has neither arisen from indifference to the task, nor indisposition to comply with the wishes of Government upon the subject—being one upon which I have long and anxiously bent my most serious reflections,—but owing to bad health, and want of leisure, coupled with the difficulty I have experienced, (without entering into an extended correspondence,) in arriving at any thing like a correct account of the gradual increase of these people, or even a fair estimate of their present numbers. I trust, therefore, that should the particulars furnished by me upon these heads, be found more meager and defective than might be expected, it will either be assigned to these causes, or to others which may be given in the course of the following remarks: and if these remarks, themselves, be found to be drawn up with more of loose unmethodical freedom than official conciseness, I trust that that feature will rather be regarded in their favor than otherwise.
"The exact period at which the colored people began to make their appearance in the Western District, as settlers, I have not been able to ascertain to my satisfaction; but it is generally believed to have been about the time of the War with the Americans, in 1812. Before then, however, there had been a few scattered about, who, generally speaking, had, prior to the passing of the Emancipation Bill, been slaves to different individuals in the District. From 1813 to 1821, the increase was very trifling; and they were generally content to hire themselves out as domestic or farm servants; but about the latter period the desire of several gentlemen residing near Sandwich and Amherstburgh to place settlers on their lands, induced them, in the absence of better, to resort to the unfortunate, impolitic expedient of leasing out or selling small portions of land to colored people on such inviting conditions as not only speedily allowed many of those who had already settled in the country to undertake 'farming on their own account,' but encouraged many more to escape from their American masters, to try their fortunes in this now far-famed 'land of liberty and promise.' The stream having thus begun to flow, the secret workings of the humane, but not unexceptionable abolitionist societies, existing in the American States, speedily widened and deepened the channel of approach, until a flood of colored immigrants, of the very worst classes, has been progressively introduced into the District, which had, last year, reached an aggregate of about 1500 souls, and which threatens to be doubled in the course of a very short time, unless it be within the power of the Government to counteract it;—but which, if suffered to roll on unchecked, will sooner or later lead to the most serious, if not most lamentable consequences.
"From my making so strong an observation at the very threshold of my remarks, it will be readily perceived that my opinion of these unfortunate people is unfavorable. I am therefore anxious, before proceeding further, to shield myself from the imputation of either groundless antipathy or pre-indisposition toward men of color, and to have it thoroughly understood that, as far as I can judge of my own feelings, they are the very reverse, having not only been warmly in favor of the poor enslaved negro, but having for near twenty years of my life been surrounded by free colored people, and retained my favorable leaning toward even the African race, till some time after my arrival in this Province. Unfortunately, however, for this pre-disposition, as well as for the character of this ill-fated race, my attention was shortly after directed by particular circumstances to the quiet study of their disposition and habits, and ended in a thorough conviction that without a radical change they would ere long, like the snake in the bosom of the husbandman, prove a curse, instead of a benefit to the country which fosters and protects them.
"The first time that I had occasion to express myself thus strongly on the subject, in an official way, was less than two years after my arrival in the District, while holding the office of sheriff,—when, in corresponding with Mr. Secretary Joseph, during the troubles in January, 1838, I, in a postscript to a letter in which I expressed unwillingness to call in aid from other quarters, while our own population were allowed to remain inactive, was led to add the following remarkable words: 'My vote has been equally decided against employing the colored people, except on a similar emergency;—in fact, though a cordial friend to the emancipation of the poor African, I regard the rapidly increasing population rising round us, as destined to be a bitter curse to the District; and do not think our employing them as our defenders at all likely to retard the progress of such an event;'—an opinion which all my subsequent observation and experience, whether as a private individual, as Sheriff of the District, as a local Magistrate, as Chairman of the Quarter Sessions, or as an anxious friend to pure British immigration, have only the more strongly confirmed."
After these preliminary remarks, the Records of Major Lachlan, proceed to the details of the various points upon which he was required by Government to report. Much of this, though the whole is interesting, must be omitted in our extracts. In speaking of the several townships to which the colored immigration was directed, he says of Amherstburgh:
"That place may now be regarded as the Western rendezvous of the colored race,—being the point to which all the idle and worthless, as well as the well disposed, first direct their steps, before dispersing over other parts of the District,—a distinction of which it unfortunately bears too evident marks in the great number of petty crimes committed by or brought home to these people,—to the great trouble of the investigating local magistrates, and the still greater annoyance of the inhabitants generally,—arising from the constant nightly depredations committed on their orchards, barns, granaries, sheep-folds, fowl-yards, and even cellars.". . . . "In Gosfield, I am given to understand their general character is rather above par;. . . . while in the next adjoining township of Mersea, so much are they disliked by the inhabitants, that they are, in a manner, proscribed by general consent—a colored man being there scarcely suffered to travel along the highroads unmolested.
"The first thing that forcibly struck me, in these people, was a total absence of that modest and unpresuming demeanor which I had been some how led to expect, and the assumption, instead, of a 'free and easy' independence of manner as well as language toward all white inhabitants, except their immediate employers, together with an apparent utter indifference to being hired on reasonable average wages, though, as already stated, seemingly without any visible means of a livelihood, and their also, at all times, estimating the value of their labor on a par, if not above that of the white man. And I had scarcely recovered from my surprise, at such conduct, as a private individual, when, as a magistrate, I was still more astonished at the great amount of not only petty offenses, but of crime of the most atrocious dye, perpetrated by so small a body of strangers compared with the great bulk of the white population: and such still continuing to be the unabating case, Session after Session, Assize after Assize, it at length became so appalling to my feelings, that on being placed in the chair of the Quarter Sessions, I could not refrain from more than once pointing to it in strong language in my charges to the Grand Juries. In July last year, for instance, I was led, in connection with a particular case of larceny, to observe . . . . 'The case itself will, I trust, involve no difficulty so far as the Grand Jury is concerned; but it affords the magistrates another opportunity of lamenting that there should so speedily be furnished no less than five additional instances of the rapid increase of crime in this (hitherto in that respect highly fortunate) District, arising solely from the recent great influx of colored people into it from the neighboring United States,—and who unfortunately not only furnish the major part of the crime perpetrated in the District, but also thereby a very great portion of its rapidly increasing debt,—from the expense attending their maintenance in jail before trial, as well as after conviction!. . . .
"In spite of these solemn admonitions, a large proportion of the criminals tried at the ensuing September Assizes were colored people; and among them were two aggravated cases of rape and arson; the former wantonly perpetrated on a respectable farmer's wife, in this township, to whom the wretch was a perfect stranger; the latter recklessly committed at a merchant's store in the vicinity of Sandwich, for the mere purpose of opening a hole through which to convey away his plunder. And, notwithstanding 'the general jail delivery' that then took place, the greater part of the crimes brought before the following mouth's Quarter Sessions (chiefly larceny and assaults) were furnished by the same people!—a circumstance of so alarming and distressing a character, that I was again led to comment upon it in my charge to the Grand Jury in the following terms. 'Having disposed of the law relating to these offenses, I arrive at a very painful part of nay observations, in once more calling the particular attention of the Grand Jury, as well as the public at large, to the remarkable and appalling circumstance that among a population of near 20,000 souls, inhabiting this District, the greater portion of the crime perpetrated therein should be committed by less than 2,000 refugees from a life of abject slavery, to a land of liberty, protection and comfort,—and from whom, therefore, if there be such generous feelings as thankfulness and gratitude, a far different line of conduct might reasonably be expected. I allude to the alarming increase of crime still perpetrated by the colored settlers, and who, in spite of the late numerous, harrowing, convicted examples, unhappily furnish the whole of the offenses now likely to be brought before you!'. . . . .
"But, sir, the wide spreading current of crime among this unfortunate race was not to be easily arrested;—and I had long become so persuaded that it must sooner or later force itself upon the notice of the Legislature, that on feeling it my duty to draw the attention of my brother magistrates to the embarrassed state of the District finances, and to the greater portion of its expenses arising from this disreputable source, I was led, in framing the report of a special committee (of which I was chairman) appointed to investigate our pecuniary difficulties, to advert once more to the great undue proportion of our expenses arising from crime committed by so small a number of colored people, compared with the great body of the inhabitants, in the following strong but indisputable language: 'It is with pain and regret that your committee, in conclusion, feel bound to recur to the great additional burthen thrown upon the District, as well as the undeserved stigma cast upon the general character of its population, whether native or immigrant British, by the late great influx of colored people of the worst description from the neighboring States—a great portion of whom appear to have no visible means of gaining a livelihood,—and who, therefore, not only furnish a large proportion of the basest crimes perpetrated in the country, such as murder, rape, arson, burglary, and larceny, besides every other description of minor offense,—untraceable to the color of the perpetrators in a miscellaneous published calendar; but also, besides the constant trouble they entail upon magistrates who happen to reside in their neighborhood, produce a large portion of the debt incurred by the District, from the great number committed to and subsisted in prison, etc.; and they would with all respect for the liberty of the subject, and the sincerest good will toward their African brethren generally,—whom they would wish to regard with every kindly feeling, venture to suggest, for the consideration of Government, whether any legislative check can possibly be placed upon the rapid importation of the most worthless of this unfortunate race, such, as the good among themselves candidly lament, has of late inundated this devoted section of the Province, to the great detriment of the claims of the poor emigrant from the mother country upon our consideration, the great additional and almost uncontrollable increase of crime, and the proportionate demoralization of principle among the inhabitants of the country.' . . . . . .
