Enslaved African Canadian and American’s participated in gaining their own freedom in a few ways, and they also helped each other in certain cases. Due to differences in sovereignty this affected how slaves could become free based on their physical location. Due to the unclear permeable borders between Upper Canada and the States, this allowed slaves to cross over the border without question of their ownership or enslavement status. Upper Canadian slaves such as the mother and son from the house of James Woods in Sandwich Upper Canada left to America in search of freedom, and similarly Moseby found his way to freedom in Upper Canada from America due to an escape to a British colony which abolished slavery.
Governor Simcoe was unable to abolish
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They weren’t considered a threat or danger unless the towns peoples agreed and said that the fugitives were being a nuisance and a bother. I think they also found communities of people similar to them who were run away slaves who were black, and they gathered and yet still remained separated from white citizens. There was still a divide between them. Communities allowed a sense of safety in numbers, and support for one another. This is useful for Moseby who needed a lawyer and the community was able to rely around him. Not only that they were able to help protest, white citizens signed a petition which was a more removed form of involvement, regardless involvement.
Relations between United States and Upper Canada affected slavery and freedom for black people by making the definitions and borders very blurry. As previously mentioned the borders were permeable and not super clear. This also made for an interesting difference of fighting styles when war came around. An appeared appearance of support of black persons from Upper Canada allowed an advantage for Canada when it came to war because Black persons felt a connection and thus helped with battles for Canada. Regardless of how British authorities betrayed black slaves, they were still on their side with the