Chapter 3 Lesson 7 Inquiry

Inquiry

What was the Underground Railroad?

Canada's motto is "They desire a better country." (“Desiderates Meliorem Patriam” in Latin).

Many people believed a better country was one that did not include slavery.

Four key people who fought against slavery in Canada were... 

• John Graves Simcoe, first Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada
• William Osgoode, Chief Justice, who passed a law that set three hundred slaves free in Quebec
• George Brown, founder of the Globe and Mail newspaper
• Oliver Mowat, head of Canada's anti-slavery Society of Canada, one of the fathers of Confederation, and a premier of Ontario for twenty-four years
  

In 1793, Simcoe learned that Chloe Cooley, a young slave had been tied with a rope in Canada and sold to a man in the United States. Simcoe passed a law that any slave who reached the “Canaan Land” of Canada would be free.

For more specific details about Canada's part in the underground railroad, click here.

Notebook

Digging Deeper

Are you interested in an American perspective on the Underground Railroad? 


Look at these websites:

• American Experience
• National Underground Railroad Freedom Center
• About.com – The Underground Railroad
• Myths of the Underground Railroad