Black Canadians

Blacks were among Upper Canada’s earliest settlers. The total numbers were small and the greatest concentrations were at Detroit and in the Niagara peninsula. Most blacks were ex-slaves who had received their freedom in return for military service during the American revolution; a small number were slaves, brought to the new land by loyalist masters. Occasionally, a criminal trial or a petition gives a glimpse of black lives in early Upper Canada. Most blacks in this period, however, never emerge from the historical shadows; quite simply, the conditions of their lives offered few opportunities for exposure. By 1830 circumstances had changed: increased migration from the American slave states combined with the growth of the anti-slavery movement to bring the black population into public view.