Which province was the first in the British Empire to move toward abolishing slavery, in 1793?
- Lower Canada
- New Brunswick
- Nova Scotia
- Upper Canada
Answer: Upper Canada
In 1793 Upper Canada, led by Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe, became the first province in the British Empire to move toward abolishing slavery. Britain banned the slave trade in 1807 and ended slavery in the whole Empire in 1833.
Learn more: Ending slavery
- The first movement to abolish the transatlantic slave trade began in the British Parliament in the late 1700s.
- In 1793 Upper Canada, led by Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe, became the first province in the Empire to move toward abolishing slavery.
- Simcoe, a Loyalist military officer, was Upper Canada’s first Lieutenant Governor and founded the City of York (now Toronto).
- In 1807 the British Parliament banned the buying and selling of slaves.
- In 1833 Britain abolished slavery throughout the Empire.
- Thousands of slaves escaped from the United States, followed “the North Star” and settled in Canada through the Underground Railroad, a Christian anti-slavery network.
- Mary Ann (Shadd) Carey, an anti-slavery activist, became the first woman publisher in Canada in 1853. She helped found and edit The Provincial Freeman, a weekly newspaper.