FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

CALGARY: A new research report from the Aristotle Foundation for Public Policy by historian and author Marjorie Gann uncovers the complex and overlooked history of slavery in Canada. Filled with surprising insights, Slavery in Canada: The facts rarely told, presents hard data and powerful stories that debunk widely-held myths. 

In early Canada, indigenous slave-trading networks were robust:

• Before European colonization, there were at least 39 indigenous societies practising slavery in North America.
• By the late 17th century, up to two-thirds of some Iroquois communities consisted of “adoptees” (i.e., captives), and, along the west coast, slaves constituted 5%-25% of most indigenous communities.
• Supplied by these networks, two-thirds of colonists’ slaves in New France were indigenous; only one-third were African.

Canada was an abolition leader:

• The British Empire’s first anti-slavery law was passed by Upper Canada’s legislature 70 years before the United States’ Emancipation Proclamation.
• All legal slavery was pre-Confederation. Slavery has always been illegal in Canada, the dominion confederated in 1867.
• Moreover, Canada welcomed well over 30,000 African-Americans who escaped slavery and found freedom at the northern terminus of the Underground Railroad.

The contrast with the United States is particularly eye-opening. A total of 9,797,728 persons were enslaved in the United States from 1619 to 1865. Across a similar period, high estimates peg the Canadian total at 7,385. In other words, for every slave in Canada, there were over 1,300 in the States.

Yet, indigenous slavery was not fully stamped out in British Columbia until the late 19th century. And human trafficking remains a grave evil facing Canadian society today.

“Canada’s record on slavery, while not spotless, stands in stark contrast to much of the world, especially the US and the rest of the Americas. It should be better understood—even celebrated,” says Gann.

Download the full report at: https://aristotlefoundation.org/study/slavery-in-canada-the-facts-rarely-told/

To arrange for an author interview, please note the contact below.  

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MEDIA CONTACT TO ARRANGE INTERVIEWS  

Ava Peacock, Executive Coordinator, Aristotle Foundation for Public Policy    

Email: media@aristotlefoundation.org