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Canada's Natural Wonders as Superheroes 1. Lake Superior The largest freshwater lake in the world by surface area & third largest by volume. It holds 10% of world's surface freshwater.

It is the International Day For The Remembrance of the Slave Trade and Its Abolition. While many enslaved people fled to Canada from the United States in the 1800s, there was a time when enslaved people escaped from Canada, to find freedom in the United States. Let's learn more. Slavery existed in North America prior to the arrival of Europeans, but it differed from the later African slave trade. When New France was established, both Black and Indigenous people were enslaved. Enslaved Indigenous People outnumbered Black slaves two-to-one. The first recorded Black enslaved person was in 1628 when a boy named Olivier was taken from Madagascar and brought to New France. In 1685, the Black Code or Code Noir was implemented. It consisted of 60 articles that gave some protection to the enslaved. This included an enslaver being responsible for damages if an enslaved person was harmed. The code also allowed an enslaver to whip or chain an enslaved person. Under the code, the enslaved were seen as property like furniture. Between 1600 and 1750, about 1,400 enslaved people were taken from West Africa and brought to New France. Indigenous Peoples were still enslaved at this time as well. By 1759, there were 4,000 enslaved people in New France, with two-thirds being Indigenous Peoples. Violence against the enslaved was not unusual. In Halifax in 1779, two Black women were accused of theft and publicly whipped in front of a crowd. In 1791, a Cape Breton enslaved person was killed by a white man for walking into an all-white public hall. The murderer was, according to the newspaper "honourably acquitted". The only punishment was he was banned from the Masonic Lodge. After the British took over New France, slavery continued. Thomas Mallard, who owned the building where the first New Brunswick Parliament was held, was an enslaver. Peter Russell, the first receiver and auditor general of Upper Canada was an enslaver. James McGill, who founded McGill University, was an enslaver. A total of 14 of 17 members of the second Parliament of Upper Canada from 1797 to 1800 were enslavers. In 1793, after hearing the story of Chloe Cooley who was violently removed from Canada for sale in the United States by her enslaver, Upper Canada Lt. Governor John Simcoe set about to end slavery. His Act Against Slavery was supposed to abolition slavery in Upper Canada but it met resistance in the Legislative Assembly. Many in the Assembly were enslavers. As a result, the Act became watered down. Instead of banning slavery, the importation of the enslaved was stopped and anyone born into slavery was freed when they were 25. However, all enslaved people at the time of the Act remained enslaved. When Vermont banned slavery in 1777, and New York in 1799, the enslaved in Canada sometimes fled into those states to find freedom. It was not until 1833 when Britain abolished slavery that Canada followed suit as its colony and the story of the Underground Railroad began. To learn more about Canada's slavery history, visit my episode about it: canadaehx.com/2020/06/16/can… If you enjoy my Canadian history content, please consider a donation to Canadian History Ehx at buymeacoffee.com/craigU