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torned to the severities of our more northern winters. They had been, however, habituated to the remorseless rigours of the worst description of slavery under heaven, and with their ac-.customed patience they not only surmounted their difficulties, subsisted without eleemosynary aid, but in a few years carried surplus produce to market Those who received free grants of land, in the Wilberforce settlement, did not succeed so well as those ivbo, having laboured for some years, bought land with their own savings. This is not a fault to attach exclusively to the man of colour—it is too frequently to be seen in tbe white man, It arises from such persons being too apt to rely on the con-tin nation of benefactions once began, rather than on their own energies. Those thrive best who purchase land from their savings, and that not in a separate colony, but promiscuously among white settlers, who are ultimately shamed out of their prejudices by seeing industry, order, sobriety, prudence, frugality, and contentment, where they had been led to anticipate directly the reverse. With regard to their fidelity and valour as residents in the province, they have received the special approbation of the legislative council, the thanks of their various commanding officers, the commendation of every governor, and no one can better appreciate their services than the late Go-▼ernor-General of British North America, and the Commander of the Forces, General Lord Seaton. Lastly, with regard to their desires and expectations, a tragic event occurred on the frontier of Niagara on the 15th of September, 1S37. A slave-holder, Castleman, came from Lexington, Kentucky, to claim a slave, Moseby, whom he traced into Upper Canada, and claimed as a fugitive felon. The man was arrested and committed to Niagara gaol. Sir Francis Head, by the advice of the law officers of the Crown, and under the regulations of international law, was induced to surrender him. The coloured population of the province rallied to a man to resist this surrender, resolving to perish in their resistance to the law, rather than behold their fellow-man delivered up again to slavery. They came in from every section of the province, and lay in ambush for fourteen days and nights about the gaol. The supplications of the man to be shot on British ground, rather than to be surrendered to slavery, were heartrending and piteous in the extreme. The day for the delivery of him to the American authorities arrived. He was placed in a wagon, from which he
Newspaper Details
Patriot
London, Middlesex, GB
Wed, Jun 24, 1840
Page 5
Full Page
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Anonymous
CA 08 Aug 2024
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