INTRODUCTION

The items contained in this unit document events and circumstances in the history of Blacks in Canada during the period beginning with the Conquest in 1760 and culminating in the upheavals of the 1837 Rebellions. This period was marked by the liberation of Lower Canada's slaves.

The Articles of Capitulation between the French and British indicate that slavery existed in New France and that it was to be upheld by the British. Various other items in the unit show the arrival of Black Loyalists as a consequence of the American Revolution. This resulted in a large number of free Blacks living in Canada. John Marrant--soldier, sailor, minister, author and Loyalist--is of interest in his own right, and the extracts from a narrative recounting his life by the Reverend Mr. Aldridge, published in 1785, depict the era. Other Loyalists came in great numbers to various parts of Canada.

In her book, The Negro in Canada, Ida C. Greaves recounts that in 1797 "the Imperial Parliament had passed an Act repealing the provision of 1782 which made slaves on plantations liable to be sold by deed of execution, but the interpretation of the Courts made this Act of much wider effect in Lower Canada, and instead of merely regulating the status of the slave virtually abolished it. In the next few years the protagonists of slavery fought a losing battle with the hostility of the Courts ... (whose judgments) rendered slavery inoperative in Lower Canada more than 30 years before it was legally abolished by the Imperial Parliament." The records of Lower Canada's House of Assembly tell us that Montreal Blacks, both men and women, were not passive on this issue. It was in 1833 that slavery was abolished throughout the British Empire.

In the 1837 Rebellion two Black Militia Regiments were created by the Crown Forces, and Blacks were also present within other military units.

Various pictures included in this unit show the presence of Blacks in Montreal at this time. Individuals such as Jean Baptiste Pointe Du Sable, the founder of Chicago, attest to the important role played by Blacks in American and Canadian history.