Chapter V

, note 5 ante.

[15] It is said that August 1797 was the date of the last public slave sale at Montreal, that of Emmanuel Allen for L36.

The last advertisement for sale by auction of a slave in the Maritime Provinces seems to be that in _The Royal Gazette and Nova Scotia Advertiser_ of September 7, 1790, where William Millet of Halifax offers for sale by auction September 9 "A stout likely negro man and sundry other articles."

In 1802 the census showed that there were 451 Blacks in Halifax; in 1791 there were 422.

Dr. T. Watson Smith says in a paper "Slavery in Canada" republished in "Canadian History," No. 12, December, 1900, at p. 321.

"About 1806, so Judge Marshall has stated, a master and his slave were taken before Chief Justice Blowers on a writ of habeas corpus. When the case and the question of slavery in general had been pretty well argued on each side, the Chief Justice decided that slavery had no legal place in Nova Scotia."

I have not been able to trace such a decision and cannot think that it has been correctly reported. Dr. Smith is wholly justified in his statement "there is good ground for the opinion that this baneful system was never actually abolished in the present Canadian Provinces until the vote of the British Parliament and the signature of King William IV in 1833 rendered it illegal throughout the British Empire."

[16] J. Allen Jack, Q. C., D. C., L., of St. John, New Brunswick, gives a full account of this case from which (and similar sources) most of the facts are taken. In a paper read before the Royal Society of Canada May 26, 1898, _Trans. R. S. Can._, 1898, pp. 137 sqq., Dr. Jack conjectures that Nancy Morton is the Negro female slave conveyed by bill of sale registered in the office of the Register of Deeds, St. John's, N. B. Slaves were treated as realty as regards fieri facias under the Act of 1732 (see ante, p. --) and at least "savoured of the realty." The bill of sale registered January 31, 1791, was dated November 13, 1778, and was executed by John Johnson of the Township of Brooklyn in King's County, Long Island, Province of New York. It conveyed with a covenant to warrant and defend title to Samuel Duffy, Innkeeper for L40 currency (say $100) "a certain negro female about fourteen years of age and goes by the name of Nancy," pp. 141, 142. However that may be, Stair Agnew bought Nancy from William Bailey of the County of York in the Province of New Brunswick for L40 with full warranty of title as a slave.

[17] He was born in Boston in 1753, the son of John Chipman, a member of the Bar. Graduating at Harvard, he joined the Boston Bar and practised in that City until 1776. After the Peace he went to England and in 1784 sailed for New Brunswick of which he was appointed Solicitor General. After a quarter of a century of successful practice he was appointed 1808 a puisne judge of the Supreme Court. He died in February, 1826.

His services to Nancy Morton were given without fee or hope of reward.

[18] That of Mr. Chipman is given in _Trans. R. Soc. Can._, 1898, pp. 155-184.

[19] It will be seen that the return sets up that Jones bought and owned the slave and the case was argued on that hypothesis, but the historians say that Captain Stair Agnew was the owner. The point is not of importance.

[20] _Mos regit legem, Mos pro lege, Leges moribus servient, Consuetudo est optimus interpres legum_, custom is the life of the law, custom becomes law, &c., &c. That slavery was necessary and therefore legal in the American Colonies was admitted in the Somerset case.

[21] The modern lawyer, in my opinion, would find no difficulty in coming to the same conclusion as the Chief Justice.

Mr. Chipman in his interesting correspondence with Chief Justice Blowers (_Trans. R. Soc. Can._, 1898, pp. 148 sqq.) admits that if his opponents had hit upon the Nova Scotia Statute of 1762 as revised in 1783 "the conclusiveness of their reasoning on their principles would have been considered as demonstrated." He adds: "In searching your laws upon this occasion I found this clause but carefully avoided mentioning it," which raises a curious question in legal ethics.

[22] The reconveyance to Bailey, a quit claim deed, is witnessed by George Leonard and Thomas Wetmore and is dated February 22, 1800. The indenture by which Nancy bound herself for fifteen years is dated February 23, 1800.

If Dr. Jack is right in his conjecture the argument took place when she was 36 and she would receive her freedom when she was 51. Agnew challenged Judge Allen for some reflection upon him by the Judge; the challenge was declined and Agnew then challenged Street who accepted--and they fought a bloodless duel. Street later in 1821 fought a duel with George Ludlow Wetmore over words which passed on leaving the Court. Wetmore was struck in the head and died in a few hours. Street was tried and aquitted. One result of this case was that Mr. Justice Upham freed his slaves. His wife had six inherited from her father and he himself had some, one a girl born in the East Indies whom he had bought from her master in New York, the master of a ship, afterwards married a soldier in Colonel Allen's regiment.

[23] What is believed to be the last advertisement for the sale of a slave in any maritime province is in the New Brunswick _Royal Gazette_ of October 16, 1809 when Daniel Brown offered for sale Nancy a Negro woman, guaranteeing a good title. The latest offer of a reward for the apprehension of a runaway slave is said to be in the same paper for July 10, 1816.

[24] For this act the perpetrator was excluded by his masonic lodge; being brought to trial before the Supreme Court in August 1792 he was "honourably acquitted" and afterwards he was reinstated by his lodge.

[25] Seldom mentioned and never much boasted of in the United States.

[26] The word _Camouflage_ may be new. The practice antedated humanity.

[27] There is a record of 371 arriving at St. John from Halifax on May 25, 1815, by the _Romulus_, who had taken refuge on board the British Men of War in the Chesapeake. The Negro settlement at Loch Lomond was founded by them.

At the Census of 1824, 1421 "persons of color" were found in New Brunswick. The Very Rev. Archdeacon Raymond, an excellent authority, thinks most of these "were at one time slaves or the children of slaves," but many were not slaves in New Brunswick.

Those that were brought by Admiral Cochrane to Halifax became a great burden to the community. It was proposed in 1815 by the British Government to remove them to a warmer climate, but this scheme does not seem to have been carried out. By a census taken in 1816 there was found to be 684 in Halifax and elsewhere in Nova Scotia. In the winter of 1814-15 they had suffered rather severely from small pox and were vaccinated to prevent its spread. Some were placed on Melville Island.

[28] Presumably because he had the greatest number of serfs in the world and was, therefore, the best judge of slaves.

[29] Of course, Britain refused to give up a single fugitive. She could not betray a trust even of the humblest. She knew that in "the land of the free and the home of the brave" for the Negro returned to his master, to be brave was to incur torture and death and death alone could make him free.

[30] The Act (1833) 3, 4 William III, c. 73 (Imp.), passed the House of Commons August 7 and received the Royal Assent August 28, 1833; and there were no slaves in all the British world after August, 1838.

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