Trailblazers In Canadian Legal History: Chloe Cooley

© Naomi Moyer in collaboration with historian Funké Aladejebi, 2017 / Taken from: https:/graphichistorycollective.com/project/poster-2-chloe-cooley

Chloe Cooley was an enslaved Black woman whose struggles against her enslaver precipitated the 1793 Act to Limit Slavery in Upper Canada. This Act was the first legislation to restrict the slave trade in the British Colonies that became Canada.

Most of what is known about Cooley is because of her attempted resistance when her enslaver decided to sell her across the Niagara River to New York on March 14, 1793. She was bound with rope by her enslaver and her screams alerted a Black loyalist. The incident was reported to the Lieutenant-Governor and the Executive Council, who used the incident to introduce a law to abolish slavery in Upper Canada. 

The abolition bill received opposition because several colonial officials and politicians — including provincial secretary William Jarvis — enslaved Black people in the province. Thus, the abolition bill was amended, and while the Act prohibited the importation of enslaved persons into Upper Canada, it did not outlaw the sale of slaves within the province or across the border into the United States. However, it laid the foundation for gradual abolition, ending slavery in 1834. Unfortunately, nothing is known about Chloe Cooley after March 1793, despite her leaving an indelible mark on Canadian history.

Artist’s rendition of Chloe Cooley in a poster created by the Graphic History Collective as part of their “Remember/Resist/Redraw: A Radical History Poster Project,” in response to Canada 150 commemorations. *Note that there are no known images of Chloe Cooley.

© Naomi Moyer in collaboration with historian Funké Aladejebi, 2017 / Taken from: https:/graphichistorycollective.com/project/poster-2-chloe-cooley

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