[18] Vermont excluded slavery by her Bill of Rights (1777), Pennsylvania and Massachusetts passed legislation somewhat similar to that of Upper Canada in 1780; Connecticut and Rhode Island in 1784, New Hampshire by her Constitution in 1792, Vermont in the same way in 1793: New York began in 1799 and completed the work in 1827, New Jersey 1829; Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and Iowa were organized as a Territory in 1787 and slavery forbidden by the Ordinance, July 13, 1787, but it was in fact known in part of the Territory for a score of years. A few slaves were held in Michigan by tolerance until far into the nineteenth century notwithstanding the prohibition of the fundamental law (Mich. Hist. Coll., VII, p. 524). Maine as such, never had slavery having separated from Massachusetts in 1820 after the Act of 1780, although it would seem that as late as 1833 the Supreme Court of Massachusetts left it open when slavery was abolished in that State (Commonwealth v. Aves, 18 Pick. 193, 209). (See Cobb's Slavery, pp. clxxi, clxxii, 209; Sir Harry H. Johnston's The Negro in the New World, an exceedingly valuable and interesting work but not wholly reliable in minutiæ, pp. 355 et seq.)
[19] Simcoe was almost certainly the prime mover in the legislation of 1793. When giving the royal assent to the bill he said: "The Act for the gradual abolition of Slavery in this Colony, which it has been thought expedient to frame, in no respect meets from me a more cheerful concurrence than in that provision which repeals the power heretofore held by the Executive Branch of the Constitution and precludes it from giving sanction to the importation of slaves, and I cannot but anticipate with singular pleasure that such persons as may be in that unhappy condition which sound policy and humanity unite to condemn, added to their own protection from all undue severity by the law of the land may henceforth look forward with certainty to the emancipation of their offspring." (See Ont. Arch. Rep. for 1909, pp. 42-43.) I do not understand the allusion to "protection from undue severity by the Law of the land." There had been no change in the law, and undue severity to slaves was prevented only by public opinion. It is practically certain that no such bill as that of 1798 would have been promoted with Simcoe at the head of the government as his sentiments were too well known.
[20] Ont. Arch. Rep. for 1909, pp. 64, 69, 70, 71, 74; ibid. for 1910, pp. 67, 68, 69, 70.
The bill was introduced in the Lower House by Christopher Robinson, member for Addington and Ontario, Ontario being then comprised of the St. Lawrence and Lake Ontario Islands, and having nothing in common with the present County of Ontario. He was a Virginian loyalist, who in 1784 emigrated to New Brunswick, and in 1788 to that part of Canada later Lower Canada and in 1792 to Upper Canada. He lived in Kingston till 1798 and then came to York, later Toronto, but died three weeks afterwards. He was one of the lawyers who took part in the inauguration of the Law Society of Upper Canada at Wilson's Tavern, Newark, in July, 1797, and was an active and successful practitioner. His ability was great, but his fame is swallowed up by that of his more famous son, Sir John Beverley Robinson, the first Canadian Chief Justice of Upper Canada, and of his grandson, the much loved and much admired Christopher Robinson, Q.C., of our own time. Accustomed from infancy to slavery, he saw no great harm in it—no doubt he saw it in its best form.
The chief opponent of the bill was Robert Isaac Dey Gray, the young solicitor general. John White was not in this the second house. The son of Major James Gray, a half-pay British Officer, he studied law in Canada. He was elected member of the House of Assembly for Stormont in the election of 1796 and again in 1804. He was appointed the first Solicitor General in 1797 and was drowned in 1804 in the Speedy disaster. An Indian, Ogetonicut, accused of a murder in the Newcastle District, was captured on the York Peninsula, now Toronto or Hiawatha Island, in the Home District, and had to be sent to Newcastle, now Presqu' Isle Point near Brighton, in the Newcastle District, for trial. The Government Schooner Speedy sailed for Newcastle with the Assize Judge Gray; Macdonell, who was to defend the Indian; the Indian prisoner, Indian interpreters, witnesses, the High Constable of York and certain inhabitants of York. It was lost, captain, crew and passengers—spurlos versenkt.
The motion for the three months' hoist in the Upper House was made by the Honorable Richard Cartwright seconded by the Honorable Robert Hamilton. These men, who had been partners, generally agreed on public measures and both incurred the enmity of Simcoe. He called Hamilton a Republican, then a term of reproach distinctly worse than Pro-German would be now, and Cartwright was, if anything, worse. But both were men of considerable public spirit and personal integrity. For Cartwright see The Life and Letters of Hon Richard Cartright, Toronto, 1876. For Hamilton see Riddell's edition of La Rochefoucault's Travels in Canada in 1795, Toronto, 1817, in Ont. Arch. Rep. for 1916; Miss Carnochan's Queenstown in Early Years, Niagara Hist. Soc. Pub., No. 25; Buffalo Hist. Soc. Pub., Vol. 6, pp. 73-95.
There was apparently no division in the Upper House although there were five other Councillors in addition to Cartwright and Hamilton in attendance that session viz.: McGill, Shaw, Duncan, Baby and Grant; and the bill passed committee of the whole.
[21] Slaves were valuable even in those days. A sale is recorded in Detroit of a "certain Negro man Pompey by name" for £45 New York Currency ($112.50) in October, 1794; and the purchaser sold him again January, 1795, for £50 New York Currency ($125.00). (Mich. Hist. Coll., XIV, p. 417.) But it would seem that from 1770 to 1780 the price ranged to $300 for a man and $250 for a woman (Mich. Hist. Coll., XIV, p. 659). The number of slaves in Detroit is said to have been 85 in 1773 and 179 in 1782 (Mich. Hist. Coll., VII, p. 524).
The best people in the province continued to hold slaves. On February 19, 1806, the Honourable Peter Russell, who had been administrator of the government, and therefore head of the State for three years, advertised for sale at York "A Black woman named Peggy, aged 40 years, and a Black Boy, her son, named Jupiter, aged about 15 years," both "his property," "each being servants for life"—the woman for $150 and the boy for $200, 25 per cent off for cash. William Jarvis, the secretary, two years later, March 1, 1811, had two of his slaves brought into court for stealing gold and silver out of his desk. The boy "Henry commonly called prince" was committed for trial and the girl ordered back to her master. Other instances will be found in Dr. Scadding's very interesting work, Toronto of Old, Toronto, 1873, at pp. 292 sqq.
[22] A number of interesting wills are in the Court of Probate files at Osgoode Hall, Toronto. One of them only I shall mention, viz.: that of Robert I.D. Gray, the first solicitor general of the province, whose tragic death is related above. In this will, dated August 27, 1803, a little more than a year before his death, he releases and manumits "Dorinda my black woman servant ... and all her children from the State of Slavery," in consequence of her long and faithful services to his family. He directs a fund to be formed of £1,200 or $4,800 the interest to be paid to "the said Dorinda her heirs and Assigns for ever." To John Davis, Dorinda's son, he gave 200 acres of land, Lot 17 in the Second Concession of the Township of Whitby and also £50 or $200. John, after the death of his master whose body servant and valet he was, entered the employ of Mr., afterwards Chief, Justice Powell; but he had the evil habit of drinking too much and when he was drunk he would enlist in the Army. Powell got tired of begging him off and after a final warning left him with the regiment in which he had once more enlisted. Davis is said to have been in the battle of Waterloo. He certainly crossed the ocean and returned later on to Canada. He survived till 1871, living at Cornwall, Ontario, a well-known character. With him died the last of all those who had been slaves in the old Province of Quebec or the Province of Upper Canada.