June 9, 1793 - Canada Partially Abolishes Slavery - a podcast by Stephen Hammond

Upper Canada partially abolishes slavery. Canada, like other Western countries in the 18th century, allowed its citizens to own slaves. In fact, for many Canadians, slave ownership was fashionable, and the Imperial Statute of 1790 required nothing of slave owners but feeding and clothing their slaves. One man who disapproved of slavery, however – Upper Canada’s new Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe – began efforts in 1791 to have it abolished. He was joined by the attorney general for Upper Canada (Ontario), John White, who proposed legislation to outlaw slavery outright, a measure that received insufficient support. As the movement gained momentum, the Parliament of Upper Canada passed the “Anti-Slave Law of Upper Canada” on June 9, 1793. This put limitations on slavery, but did not eliminate it. It allowed those who owned slaves at the time the law was passed to keep them, while stipulating that no new slaves could be brought into Upper Canada for purchase. Also, children born to slaves after 1793 were freed after the age of 25. By 1819, Attorney General John Beverley Robinson outlawed slavery entirely, freeing remaining slaves and extending them protection within Upper Canada. Lower Canada (Quebec) and the Maritimes, however, which lacked laws on slavery, left it to the courts to abolish the practice.

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