Slavery Way Up North

The Simcoe Compromise bill of July 1793 did not free any slaves in then-Upper Canada, but did forbid the importation of slaves into that Province. Ironically, once Michigan was incorporated as a US territory in 1805, slaves escaping from Upper Canada were fleeing across the border – by 1806 there were sufficient free blacks in Detroit for form their own militia unit, as would be the case in New Orleans and its Louisiana Native Guards. In 1861, the latter was the first black unit to serve in the American Civil War, and for the South.

Slavery Way Up North

More @ Circa 1865