e and Godfrey to the Detroit
River _de jure_ and to the Mississippi _de facto_, were the property
of the United Empire Loyalists on the St. Lawrence in territory which
in 1791 became part of the new Province of Upper Canada.

The settlement crept up the St. Lawrence and Lake Ontario so as to be
as far as the River Trent by the end of the eighteenth century: and
Prince Edward County had also its quota of settlers. Until the
nineteenth century had set in there were practically no settlers from
the Trent to near York (Toronto) but that splendid territory of level
clay and loam land covered by magnificent forests of beech and maple
gradually filled in and by the 30's was fairly well settled. In the
latter territory there were very few, if any, slaves.[15]

Farther east, however, in what became the Eastern and Midland
Districts there were many slaves. It is probable that by far the
greatest number had their habitat in that region. When York became the
provincial capital (1796-7) slaves were brought to that place by their
masters. In the Niagara region there were also some slaves, in great
part bought from the Six Nation Indians as some of these in the
eastern part of the province were bought from the Mississaguas who
had a rendezvous on Carleton Island near Kingston. In the Detroit
region there were many slaves, some of them Panis;[16] and many of
both kinds, Panis and Negro bought from the Shawanese, Pottawattaimies
and other Western Indians, taken for the most part from the Ohio and
Kentucky country. Most of these slaves were west of the river, few
being in the Province of Upper Canada _de jure_. Omitting Detroit, the
number of slaves in the province at the time of the Act of 1793 was
probably not far from 500.[17]

In the Eastern District, part of which became the District of Johntown
in 1798, there were certainly some slaves. Justus Sherwood one of the
first settlers brought a Negro slave Caesar Congo to his location near
Prescott. Caesar was afterwards sold to a half pay officer Captain
Bottom settled about six miles above Prescott and after about twenty
years service was emancipated by his master. Caesar afterwards married
a woman of color and lived in Brockville for many years and until his
death. Daniel Jones another old settler had a female Negro slave and
there were a few more slaves in the district.[18]

It is possible that this part of the province was the home of a Negro
who at the age of 101 appeared at the