her deed.

[48] The law of Virginia as to marriages of slaves even with the
consent of the master was fully and clearly stated by the Court of
Appeals of Virginia in the case of Scott _v._ Raub (1872) 88 Virginia,
721. See also the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States
in the case of Hall _v._ United States, 92 U. S. 127; and in Alabama,
Matilda _v._ Gardner, 24 Alabama, 719.

[49] 31 Upper Canada Queens Bench Reports at p. 195, 1871.

CHAPTER VI

THE FUGITIVE SLAVE IN UPPER CANADA

Before the Act of 1793, there was some immigration of slaves fleeing
from their masters in the United States. After the Act of 1793,
however, a slave by entering Upper Canada became free, whether he was
brought in by his master or fled from him. Legislation of the United
States in the same year[1] increased the number of those fleeing to
the province under this law. Slaves who had effected their escape to
what were considered free States were liable to be reclaimed by their
masters. Shocking instances of the forcing into renewed slavery of the
escaped slave and even of enslaving the free persons of color are on
record and there are told worse which never saw the open light of
day.

Eli Whitney's invention of the cotton gin about the same time[2] made
slaves much more valuable and not only checked the movement toward
gradual emancipation but increased the ardor with which the fugitive
was pursued. From 1793 the influx of fugitive slaves into the province
never quite ceased. The War of 1812 saw former slaves in the Canadian
militia fighting against their former masters and Canada as an asylum
of freedom became known in the South by mysterious but effective
means. "As early as 1815 negroes were reported crossing the Western
Reserve to Canada in great numbers and one group of Underground
Railway workers in Southern Ohio is stated to have passed on more than
1000 fugitives before 1817."[3]

It is not proposed here to give an account of the celebrated
Underground Railway. It is sufficient to say that it was the cause of
hundreds of slaves reaching the province.[4] Some slaves escaped by
their own efforts in what can fairly be called a miraculous way. No
more dramatic or thrilling tales were ever told than could be told by
some of these refugees. Some having been brought by their masters near
to the Canadian boundary then clandestinely or by force effected a
passage. Some came from far to the South, guided by the Nort