If it was 19th Century, then it was probably New France, and as the name implies, not at all Canada. Canada has no history of slavery. Slavery was banned in the Empire in 1833. Canada became a nation in 1867. Any slavery in the New World was an act of our old mother countries.

I listened to some of the show on my way to work this morning. It was New France, but it was also Upper and Lower Canada. When buying slaves was abolished, the slaves weren't suddenly free. They could still be kept, and traded among households. And children born as slaves kept being property until they were 25. Just no new ones could be bought.

A lot of slaves too weren't listed a 'slaves', as they were taxed. Many were listed as 'adopted' or 'family' or even kept off official lists entirely. Many of the slaves though were First Nations, but quite a few came north from the Caribbean via Africa.

Many of the Northern US states had abolished slavery before it was abolished here, so there was a strong flight of slaves southward where they would be considered free people.

A little different than the 'all slaves were freed' narrative than we have come to believe.

And really, no nation on earth would be considered innocent from Slavery if we use the actions previous nations as justification for saying slavery existed in a modern nation. Legally Slavery was abolished on August 1, 1834, and Canada became the a nation on July 1, 1867. Before 1867, and really up until the Statute of Westminster and then the Constitution Act, 1982, we followed London's lead. Has an independent and modern entity there is no history of slavery, further, how can there be 200 years of anything in a nation that's only 150 years old?

On the land, sure, there is history. But the same argument can then be said for all or almost nation on Earth. We're guilty of doing other despicable things, but "The child cannot be held accountable for the sins of the father".

I've read about escaped slaves from the South (USA) going all the way to Canada. Now this is before and during the Civil War. Any talk about how they were viewed in Canada. We're they treated differently than the "Slaves" of Canada.

I used the "Slaves" because I don't know what the proper naming would be.

"Slaves" is correct. They were "property".

By the late 1800's, it was illegal to own a person in Canada. Anyone arriving with 'slaves' meant the slave was automatically a free person. That's the part of our history we trumpet.

But the history before, in the 1700's is a bit darker. That's what the program in the article deals with. It's a new book that tries to go into detail about the history of slavery in Canada at that time, using whatever records are still available. Like how there are streets in cities named after prominent families that were also slave owners, but the names of the slaves are mostly forgotten.

I wonder how many “old money” families first made their fortunes using slave labour and todat say “bitwhat does any of this have to do with me?”

You just can't get any more jealous than BF.


We'd be better off looking at how many slaves are currently being held today
in Toronto and Vancouver.

I wonder how many “old money” families first made their fortunes using slave labour and todat say “bitwhat does any of this have to do with me?”