Sean Walker
October 18th, 2016
Dr. Tracey Penny Light
HIST 1120
Reading Log #6
Cooper’s Acts of Resistance
There was a great divide between the people of Upper Canada on the issue of slavery, many thought that it should be abolished and all of the slaves emancipated, while many others thought that the slaves were in their rightful place, that they were nothing more than cattle, things to be bought, sold, or traded at the leisure of their masters. Now in this day and age we know that the act of enslaving somebody against their will and for your own personal gain is an abhorrent practice, but that does not mean that looking at slavery in Canada and America and how it helped to shape the future is not important to history, in fact it would be ignorant to think so.
What about it is so important to look at, why is it so important to look at. Well it is important to observe and guess because if we do not do that then there is a chance that we will fall to the same vices that they did. We might be able to find new evidence that shows the way to as of yet undiscovered heroes of the underground railroad and maybe even the American Revolution. We may find documents or objects that point to the involvement of an Indigenous Band that we previously thought stayed well away from the bustling of the white cities.
We will probably never know the full details of the slave trade of Canada, but that is why there are historians, the people who dedicate their lives in the pursuit of knowledge of the past and make it their solemn duty to bring that knowledge forth and educate the masses on the wonders and mistakes of the past, so that the wonders be ever growing and the mistakes never repeating.
Bibliography
Cooper, Afua. “ACTS OF RESISTANCE: BLACK MEN ND WOMEN ENGAGE SLAVERY IN UPPER CANADA, 1793-1803.” Ontario History 99, no. 1 (Spring2007 2007): 5. Supplemental Index, EBSCOhost (accessed October 18, 2016).