February is Black History Month in Canada. The Federal government's theme for the celebration this year is "Black Legacy and Leadership: Celebrating Canadian History and Uplifting Future Generations". The Niagara-on-the-Lake Museum is home to many records and artifacts linked to Canada's earliest Black history. Shawna Butts tells us today about the importance of what became known as the Solomon Moseby Affair.
In the spring of 1837, Solomon Moseby, an enslaved man, took his enslaver’s horse and escaped north to Niagara (NOTL) and to freedom.
Little did he know that his freedom was about to be jeopardized. In August, Moseby’s former enslaver came to Niagara with an arrest warrant and a request for his extradition. The town’s deputy sheriff took Solomon into custody and placed him in the Niagara District Courthouse and Jail, which was located where Rye Park is today.
While the local authorities thought that they were just doing their job, Solomon, and the hundreds of other Freedom Seekers living in Niagara, knew his extradition would set a dangerous precedent. Any freedom seeker could be falsely accused of a crime, be extradited, and be enslaved once again.
The Niagara community was determined to prevent this from happening.
The local white and Black communities submitted petitions to the government to try and prevent Solomon’s extradition. The Black community even offered to pay $1,000, an enormous sum at the time, to secure Moesby’s freedom. His former enslaver refused the money.
Moseby’s lawyer, Alexander Stewart (a local resident) wrote to the Lieutenant Governor, stating that this case needed special consideration and that he believed the charge of horse theft was “a mere pretext to obtain his [Moseby’s] servitude in vile bondage”.
Herbert Holmes, a local Black preacher and teacher, and Sally Carter, a woman of African descent and community leader, sounded the alarm on what had transpired, and soon a group of supporters some 200-400 strong had gathered outside the jail where Solomon was being held. The gathering was peaceful, and the women persuaded the men not to carry weapons.
Solomon’s former enslaver, as well as local Deputy Sheriff McLeod, attempted to commission steamships to carry Moseby across the Niagara River, but local ship captains refused to “disgrace their boats” and one even stated that “no vessel commanded by him would be used to convey a man back to slavery”.
On September 12, the official extradition orders came from the Lieutenant Governor. To prevent Solomon Moseby from leaving the Jail, women stood on a bridge to block the road, while others were armed with pitchforks, sticks, flails, and stones. One of the women grabbed the Sheriff and immobilized him, Herbert Holmes grabbed the reins of one of the horses, and Jacob Green pushed a fence rail through the wagon wheel to stop it from moving.
Deputy Sheriff McLeod ordered his constables to fire on the crowd.
Holmes was shot, Green was stabbed, and two others were badly wounded. Green and Holmes ended up dying because of their injuries, and they are buried at the Baptist Burial Ground on Mississauga Street.
Amid the commotion, Solomon Moseby escaped.
Many protestors, including Willaim McIntyre from St. Davids, were arrested and brought to trial. Most of these men were able to avoid jail time if they enlisted in the militia, which at the time was needed to help quell the Rebellion of 1837.
Since there wasn’t any clearly enacted legislation to protect Freedom Seekers, many people of African descent were apprehensive about how safe they were in Canada. In 1838, the law changed to ensure that people could not be extradited for crimes that they could not be charged for in Canada. Cases like this one were incredibly important in helping establish Canadian extradition and refugee policies that are still used to this day.