A black man, a slave somewhere in Kentucky, having been sent on a
message, mounted on a very valuable horse, seized the opportunity of
escaping. He reached Buffalo after many days of hard riding, sold the
horse, and escaped beyond the lines into Canada. Here, as in all the
British dominions, God be praised! the slave is slave no more, but free,
and protected in his freedom.[5] This man acknowledged that he had not
been ill treated; he had received some education, and had been a
favourite with his master. He gave as a reason for his flight, that he
had long wished to marry, but was resolved that his children should not
be born slaves. In Canada, a runaway slave is assured of legal
protection; but, by an international compact between the United States
and our provinces, all felons are mutually surrendered. Against this
young man the jury in Kentucky had found a true bill for horse-stealing;
as a felon, therefore, he was pursued, and, on the proper legal
requisition, arrested; and then lodged in the jail of Niagara, to be
given up to his master, who, with an American constable, was in
readiness to take him into custody, as soon as the government order
should arrive. His case excited a strong interest among the whites,
while the coloured population, consisting of many hundreds in the
districts of Gore and Niagara, chiefly refugees from the States, were
half frantic with excitement. They loudly and openly declared that they
would peril their lives to prevent his being carried again across the
frontiers, and surrendered to the vengeance of his angry master.
Meantime there was some delay about legal forms, and the mayor and
several of the inhabitants of the town united in a petition to the
governor in his favour. In this petition it was expressly mentioned,
that the master of the slave had been heard to avow that his intention
was not to give the culprit up to justice, but to make what he called an
_example_ of him. Now there had been lately some frightful instances of
what the slave proprietors of the south called "making an example;" and
the petitioners entreated the governor to interpose, and save the man
from a torturing death "under the lash or at the stake." Probably the
governor's own humane feelings pleaded even more strongly in behalf of
the poor fellow. But it was a case in which he could not act from
feeling, or, "to do a great right, do a little wrong." The law was too
expressly and distinctly laid down, and his duty as governor was clear
and imperative--to give up the felon, although, to have protected the
slave, he would, if necessary, have armed the province.
In the mean time the coloured people assembled from the adjacent
villages, and among them a great number of their women. The conduct of
this black mob, animated and even directed by the females, was really
admirable for its good sense, forbearance, and resolution. They were
quite unarmed, and declared their intention not to commit any violence
against the English law. The culprit, they said, might lie in the jail,
till they could raise among them the price of the horse; but if any
attempt were made to take him from the prison, and send him across to
Lewiston, they would resist it at the hazard of their lives.
The fatal order _did_ at length come; the sheriff with a party of
constables prepared to enforce it. The blacks, still unarmed, assembled
round the jail, and waited till their comrade, or their brother as they
called him, was brought out and placed handcuffed in a cart. They then
threw themselves simultaneously on the sheriff's party, and a dreadful
scuffle ensued; the artillery men from the little fort, our only
military, were called in aid of the civil authorities, and ordered to
fire on the assailants. Two blacks were killed, and two or three
wounded. In the _melee_ the poor slave escaped, and has not since been
retaken, neither was he, I believe, pursued.
But it was the conduct of the women which, on this occasion, excited the
strongest surprise and interest. By all those passionate and persuasive
arguments that a woman knows so well how to use, whatever be her colour,
country, or class, they had prevailed on their husbands, brothers, and
lovers to use no arms, to do no illegal violence, but to lose their
lives rather than see their comrade taken by force across the lines.
They had been most active in the fray, throwing themselves fearlessly
between the black men and the whites, who, of course, shrank from
injuring them. One woman had seized the sheriff, and held him pinioned
in her arms; another, on one of the artillery-men presenting his piece,
and swearing that he would shoot her if she did not get out of his way,
gave him only one glance of unutterable contempt, and with one hand
knocking up his piece, and collaring him with the other, held him in
such a manner as to prevent his firing. I was curious to see a mulatto
woman who had been foremost in the fray, and whose intelligence and
influence had mainly contributed to the success of her people; M----,
under pretence of inquiring after a sick child, drove me round to the
hovel in which she lived, outside the town. She came out to speak to us.
She was a fine creature, apparently about five-and-twenty, with a kindly
animated countenance; but the feelings of exasperation and indignation
had evidently not yet subsided. She told us, in answer to my close
questioning, that she had formerly been a slave in Virginia; that, so
far from being ill treated, she had been regarded with especial kindness
by the family on whose estate she was born. When she was about sixteen
her master died, and it was said that all the slaves on the estate would
be sold, and therefore she ran away. "Were you not attached to your
mistress?" I asked. "Yes," said she, "I liked my mistress, but I did not
like to be sold." I asked her if she was happy here in Canada? She
hesitated a moment, and then replied, on my repeating the question,
"Yes--that is, I _was_ happy here--but now--I don't know--I thought we
were safe _here_--I thought nothing could touch us _here_, on your
British ground, but it seems I was mistaken, and if so, I won't stay
here--I won't--I won't! I'll go and find some country where they cannot
reach us! I'll go to the end of the world, I will!" And as she spoke,
her black eyes flashing, she extended her arms, and folded them across
her bosom, with an attitude and expression of resolute dignity, which a
painter might have studied; and truly the fairest white face I ever
looked on never beamed with more of soul and high resolve than hers at
that moment.
[Footnote 5: Among the addresses presented to Sir Francis Head in 1836,
was one from the coloured inhabitants of this part of the province,
signed by four hundred and thirty-one individuals, most of them refugees
from the United States, or their descendants.]
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