RAN AWAY: The Slavery Trial of Nancy

By Cynthia Wallace-Casey, PhD 

Honorary Research Associate

Fredericton Region Museum

It wasn’t until 1834 that slavery became illegal in New Brunswick. Up until that year, people could be bought or sold as property, with they and their children receiving no hope of freedom for as long as they lived. A typical bill of sale would be worded as such: 

This Indenture witnesses that for and in the consideration of the sum of fifteen pounds New Brunswick currency paid me, I do hereby bargain, sell and deliver unto my son John, a negro boy named Sippeo to be his property and his heirs and successors during the life of the said negro, the receipt of which money from the said John HARDING I do hereby acknowledge; and I, the said George HARDING, do also warrant the said property against all claimants whatsoever. In witness whereof I do hereby set my hand and seal at Maugerville, this eighth day of July in the year of our Lord 1797. – Be It remembered that on the tenth day of February 1802, personally appeared before me the above named George Harding and acknowledged the above signature to be his hand and seal and that he delivered the above instrument for the above mentioned purposes. Elijah MILES, J.P. [1]

Abolitionist coin (Credit: Joe Gee,
New Brunswick Black History Society)

Many prominent Loyalists were slave-owners—including the first Mayor of Saint John Col. Gabriel G. Ludlow, as well as Col. Edward Winslow, Major John Coffin, Rev. Jonathan Odell, Cpt. William Bailey, and Cpt. Stair Agnew. Historian Watson Smith has estimated that more than 400 “servant” slaves were brought to the region between 1783 and 1784. 

By the turn of the century, however, the anti-slavery movement had become very active in this province. Two of the leaders in this initiative were Saint John lawyers Samuel Denny Street and Ward Chipman. In 1800 they challenged the legality of slavery in New Brunswick by bringing to trial the case of Nancy, an individual who had been enslaved for more than fourteen years.