Talk:Act Against Slavery

Untitled

Perhaps part of this should be moved to WikiSource. --Xiao Li 2005-06-09

Complete prohibition?

"In 1793, under the administration of Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe, legislation (the Act Against Slavery) was passed in Upper Canada that allowed for gradual abolition: slaves already in the province would remain enslaved until death, no new slaves could be brought into Upper Canada, and children born to female slaves would be freed at age 25." -from Slavery in Canada. By this description, this law was a little more complex than described in the article. The two entries should be reconciled. Padraic · talk 00:45, 14 July 2007 (UTC)

I agree, and I've done so. I left the detail about third generation slaves just in this entry, though (since the other article links here). mvc 16:00, 20 August 2007 (UTC)

the first jurisdiction in the British Empire to pass a law freeing slaves

I'm concerned about relying on a speech by former GG Michaëlle Jean. We quote her saying the law made Upper Canada "the first jurisdiction in the British Empire to pass a law freeing slaves". We should really have a better source than this for such a substantial claim. I would find it surprising that not a single law, freeing any slaves was ever passed before this, anywhere in the whole of the British Empire. That's a large stretch of time and space. What about the freeing of slaves who fought on behalf of the British Empire during the US Revolutionary War. That freed slaves in what was still claimed to be part of the British Empire. Note, I'm not challenging the truth of this, as I really don't know myself. I just want a good solid source. --Rob (talk) 22:02, 3 January 2011 (UTC)

I've removed the "verify" tag since and rephrased as the "first British colony" per the Alan Taylor book. Since I know that citing Kindle editions is still a matter of uncertainty, here is the full quote for the 3 citations I added to the article --Padraic 14:34, 1 May 2011 (UTC)

Simcoe also moved to abolish slavery as part of his drive to equate Upper Canada with England, where slavery was illegal. The colony had about three hundred slaves, primarily taken during the war from Patriot settlements by Indian and Loyalist raiders and then sold to merchants and magistrates, who balked at losing valuable property. At least six of the sixteen assembly representatives owned slaves. Obliged to compromise, Simcoe accepted a gradual emancipation law that freed no current slaves but barred further imports. Children subsequently born to slave mothers would become free at age twenty-five. By making Upper Canada the first British colony to abolish slavery, Simcoe reiterated his devotion to a "rational liberty" granted by a paternalistic state to common folk.

The quote may be correct - in Britain itself a judge had ruled that slavery within England and Wales (Scotland has its own separate legal system) had never been legal, so technically it had never existed in law - see Somersett's Case - so the Canadian law may have been the first in the Empire to explicitly ban it.

For earlier situations regarding black Americans entering Canada, then as far as British law was concerned they had never legally been recognised as 'slaves' under British law and so became free men and women the moment they crossed the border into Canada. Whilst there may have been black people and native American/Canadians classed by some as 'slaves' in parts of Canada prior to the subject of this article's passing, they would almost certainly have been being held in servitude illegally, as like Britain, being a common law judicial system, slavery had never been explicitly made legal, nor prohibited, or challenged one way or the other in a court of law - that's what Somersett's Case did, in the absence of any extant legislation on slavery it forced a ruling by a judge on a matter of law. The problem for these people would have been getting someone in authority to recognise that their servitude was illegal and that their 'owners' were in fact holding them contrary to law, which in itself would have constituted their 'owner's committing a crime liable to prosecution by the Crown.

Naturally, in a relatively 'new' country such as Canada then was, there was in effect, no police or other civil law enforcement service at that time, and unscrupulous people could generally get away with much that was contrary to law. And as 'slaves' had little, if any, money to spend on fighting legal cases - rather like the poor everywhere - they were dependant on the government to protect them. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.7.147.13 (talk) 09:53, 1 June 2012 (UTC)

capitalisation of title wrong

the capitalisation of the title (AAS) is wrong. 'against' is contained nowhere in text. can we think of a better title? 66.225.168.181 (talk) 02:51, 9 December 2013 (UTC)

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