CLOSING CHAPTER.
CONTAINING AN ACCURATE ACCOUNT OF THE PAST AND PRESENT
CONDITION OF THE FUGITIVE SLAVES IN CANADA, WITH SOME
REMARKS ON THEIR FUTURE PROSPECTS.
I have been requested by many friends in this country to devote a
chapter of my book to the fugitive slaves in Canada; to a statement
of their present numbers, condition, prospects for the future, etc.
At the time of my first visit to Canada, in the year 1830, there
were but a few hundred fugitive slaves in both Canadas; there are
now not less than thirty-five thousand. At that time they were
scattered in all directions, and for the most part miserably poor,
subsisting not unfrequently on the roots and herbs of the fields;
now many of them own large and valuable farms, and but few can be
found in circumstances of destitution or want. In 1830 there were no
schools among them, and no churches, and only occasional preaching.
We have now numerous churches, and they are well filled from Sabbath
to Sabbath with attentive listeners; our children attend the Sabbath
School, and are being trained as we trust for Heaven. We depend
principally upon our farms for subsistence, but some of our number are
good mechanics--blacksmiths, carpenters, masons, shoemakers, etc.,
etc. We have found the raising of stock very profitable, and can
show some of the finest specimens of horse-flesh to be found on this
continent, and we find a ready market for all our products. The soil
is fertile and yields an abundant return for the husbandman's labor;
and, although the season is short, yet ordinarily it is long enough
to ripen corn, wheat, rye, oats, and the various productions of a
Northern New England or New York farm. Of late considerable attention
has been paid to the cultivation of fruit trees, apples, cherries,
plums, peaches, quinces, currants, gooseberries, strawberries, etc.,
and they are doing well, and in a few years we doubt not will be quite
profitable. It is a mistaken idea that many have, that fruit trees and
vines cannot be cultivated to advantage on account of the severity of
the climate; I have raised as delicious sweet potatoes on my farm as I
ever saw in Kentucky, and as good a crop of tobacco and hemp.
We have at the present time a large number of settlements, and
connected with these are schools at which our children are being
taught the ordinary branches of an English education. We are a
peaceable people, living at peace among ourselves and with our white
neighbors, and I believe the day is not far distant when we shall
take a very respectable rank among the subjects of her majesty, the
excellent and most gracious Queen of England and the Canadas. Even
now, the condition and prospects of a majority of the fugitive slaves
in Canada is vastly superior to that of most of the free people of
color in the Northern States; and if thousands who are hanging about
at the corners of streets waiting for a job, or who are mending old
clothes, or blacking boots in damp cellars in Boston, New York, and
other large cities, would but come among us and bring their little
ones and settle down upon our fine lands, it would be but a few
years before they would find themselves surrounded by a pleasant and
profitable home, and their children growing up around them with every
advantage for a good education, and fitting themselves for lives of
usefulness and happiness. The climate is good, the soil is good, the
laws protect us from molestation; each and all may sit under their own
vine and fig tree with none to molest or make them afraid. We are a
temperate people; it is a rare sight to see an intoxicated colored man
in Canada.
My task is done, if what I have written shall inspire a deeper
interest in my race, and shall lead to corresponding activity in their
behalf I shall feel amply repaid.
* * * * *
Transcriber's Notes
Minor punctuation typos have been silently corrected. Retained
author's spelling preferences except for the following changes:
Page 119: Removed duplicate "of."
(Orig: behind the trees, and dodging out of of sight if they)
Page 125: Switched "to" and "too."
(Orig: it was to late too cross the river that night.)
Page 168: Changed "Massachusets" to "Massachusetts."
(Orig: from Massachusets, by the name of Hiram Wilson,)
Page 169: Changed "settlememt" to "settlement."
(Orig: delegates from every settlememt of blacks)