Note 21 — THE SLAVE IN UPPER CANADA[A]

Slaves were valuable even in those days. A sale is recorded in Detroit of a "certain Negro man Pompey by name" for £45 New York Currency ($112.50) in October, 1794; and the purchaser sold him again January, 1795, for £50 New York Currency ($125.00). (Mich. Hist. Coll., XIV, p. 417.) But it would seem that from 1770 to 1780 the price ranged to $300 for a man and $250 for a woman (Mich. Hist. Coll., XIV, p. 659). The number of slaves in Detroit is said to have been 85 in 1773 and 179 in 1782 (Mich. Hist. Coll., VII, p. 524).

The best people in the province continued to hold slaves. On February 19, 1806, the Honourable Peter Russell, who had been administrator of the government, and therefore head of the State for three years, advertised for sale at York "A Black woman named Peggy, aged 40 years, and a Black Boy, her son, named Jupiter, aged about 15 years," both "his property," "each being servants for life"—the woman for $150 and the boy for $200, 25 per cent off for cash. William Jarvis, the secretary, two years later, March 1, 1811, had two of his slaves brought into court for stealing gold and silver out of his desk. The boy "Henry commonly called prince" was committed for trial and the girl ordered back to her master. Other instances will be found in Dr. Scadding's very interesting work, Toronto of Old, Toronto, 1873, at pp. 292 sqq.