SLAVERY IN CANADA?

Yes, my friends, since we have been talking about racism for the past few weeks your long suffering author must remind you that we too had slavery here in Canada..... although it was not as draconian as the States...... and had mostly disappeared by the eighteenth century! (The Indians though, had slaves for thousands of years, but that's a different story for a different time!)

By the late 1700s, attitudes to slavery among the free population of British North America were beginning to change. On March 25, 1807, the slave trade was abolished throughout the British Empire – of which British North America was a part – making it illegal to buy or sell human beings and ending much of the transatlantic trade. Slavery itself was abolished everywhere in the British Empire in 1834. Some Canadian jurisdictions had already taken measures to restrict or end slavery by that time. In 1793 Upper Canada (now Ontario) passed the Anti-slavery Act. The law freed enslaved people aged 25 and over and made it illegal to bring enslaved people into Upper Canada. On Prince Edward Island, the complete abolition of slavery was pronounced by the legislature on 1825, nine years before the Imperial abolition of 1834.The abolition of slavery allowed the British colonies in North America to become a safe haven for escaped enslaved people in the United States, with many making their way North via the famous Underground Railroad. The story of the Underground Railroad is a positive moment in Canadian history, worthy of commemoration. We must also recall, however, that for more than two hundred years, slavery happened here, too. 

Fortunately for the slaves in the United States we abolished slavery just in time to organize the "Underground Railroad" for runaway slaves up here in Canada.... and also develop a sense of disdain for the  Americans heathens who still practiced this barbaric custom for a few years longer than we did!

The Way I see it anyway!