The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1860-01-21
The NEGROES I'm Canada.

The following extract is taken from
long statemept in tie New York Herald
giving an account of the present state o.
the negro settlements in Canada, their his
tory, &c:
At the southwest point of the province
OF Canada IS a neck of land running down
between Lake Erie and the Detroi' river
Lake st. Clair and the St Clair river II
contains the counties of Essex and Kent
the warmest portion of the province and
1T IS in those counties that the negroes who
escape from the States mainly congregate.
Windsor, situated on the river directly op.
poslte Detroit, is the western terminus OF
the Great Western railway, and is in the
township of Sandwich, in Essex county
On the south and southwest of Sandwich
along the Detroit river and Lake Erie, are
the townships of Anderdon, Maiden, Col
chester, Gosfield, Mersea, and Romney
In the three first-named townships, the
negroes are found in large numbers, and
tobacco growing is now carried on there to
considerable extent The comparative
mildness of the climate, and the black al
luvial soil appear to favor the growth OF
the plant, while the negro is conversant
with its culture In Gosfeld township
there are some blacks, but comparatively
few, as the white residents have done their
hest to exclude them. In Mersea and
Romney the people will not suffer a negro
to remain within the borders of the town
ships over night. These places are settled
principally by Hessians and other soldiers
of the war OF 1912, the government having
made grants of land to them there
The town of Amherstburg, about eight
cen miles below Windsor, on the Detroit
river, is in the township of Maiden, and is
one of the oldest settlements in that part
of Canada. 1t was laid out as town in
1897, and was settled by families who, at
the cession of Detroit, chose to 20 over to
the Canadian side of the river Some
years ago tract of land, about twelve
miles from Amherstburg, was purchased
by some benevolent Quakers, for the pur-
pose OF supporting fugitive slaves upon it.
1t is known as the Colchester settlement
The object was to raise contributions to
build a school, and to support the negroes,
partly by their own labor and partly by
charity But it was soon found that the
blacks preferred the charity to the labor,
and they sank into colony of lazy, worth
less thieves. The settlement has now
gone to pieces.
North of Sandwich are the townships OF
in Essex county, running along Lake St
Clair Along the river and on the Dor
ders of the lake the land is settled by
French, and along the main road running
through the centre of the townships the
residents are mainly Scotch and English.
But very few negroes are there, and the
interior of the townships are not much
settled.
In Kent county, adjoining Essex, the
township of Raleigh runs to Lake Erie
that of East Dover to Lake St Clair. and
Chatham and Dawn townships are in the
interior of the county In these places
the negroes are densely crowded at differ
ent settlements. The northern townships
of Kent county are too cold for the black
race
A thorough personal examination made
in all the townships named where negroes
are settled has led 10 the conviction that
every scheme for the amelioration of the
condition of the fugitive slaves in Cannds
has proved, and must prove, a failure, and
| that any assistance given to the white ant
black Abolitienists, British and American
/ who are at the present time engaged il
running off the slaves of Southern citizens
is only an injury to the negro, and helps tc
transfer him from comfortable home, anG
, a position in life to which nature has fitted
him, to plunge him into suffering, sicknes:
and crime