Escaped Slaves in Canada
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The escaped slaves who fled through the Underground Railroad to Canada hardly found the promised land they might have sought or expected, but their experience in Canada was invariably better than they had had as slaves in the South or as frightened and endangered fugitives in the North. At its worst, Canada offered a more free and humane life than did the South under the horrors of slavery. Canada itself was never a major player in the slave trade, although slavery was legal in the nation until well into the 19th century. Still, it outlawed slavery more than twenty-five years before it was declared illegal in the United States, and its outlawing did not cause the national division it caused in the United States. Nevertheless, the "promised land" of Canada was still marked by racism and resistance to the influx of slaves fleeing the United States. While some blacks returned to the United States after the Civil War and the end of slavery, many remained in Canada and both benefited from the better conditions in that country (even after the end of slavery in the United States) and contributed to the culture and society of their new nation, Canada. There is no doubt that a great number of slaves fled to Canada in the hope of finding a better life, which they did indeed find. The greatest period of flight to Canada by slaves was the decade from 1850 to just before the start of the Civil War. For example, the black population of New Brunswick doubled to 1600 in the decade i
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nti-slavery movement had long been active. As Stouffer writes:
Ontario abolitionists sought to enlist public support in the growing international crusade against slavery by organizing antislavery societies, and, through other institutions such as the Elgin Association. Canadian abolitionists responded to the immediate needs of the often destitute fugitive slaves who crossed the border. Individuals too . . . played crucial roles in the antislavery movement, particularly during the hiatus between the premature collapse of the upper Canada Anti-Slavery Society in the late 1830s and the formation of the Anti-Slavery Society of Canada at mid-century (Stouffer 1).
Still, as Stouffer adds, the response of many Canadians "to the freedmen reveals a virulent strain of racism that helps explain why British North Americans were slow" in joining the anti-slavery movement (Stouffer 1). Still, many Canadians who helped the fugitive slaves were formerly British who had fought against slavery while still in Britain (Stouffer 1).
Benjamin Drew provides a number of personal accounts of fugitive slaves who had fled slavery in the south, then persecution in the North, and finally settled in Canada. Each of the accounts make it clear that life
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1778
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)
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