Embedded Files
1704 Fort Odanak was built in the St Lawrence Valley (later will be a major battle ground in the Seven Years War)
Sometime between 1700 and 1710 coal mining began in Cape Breton, iron was found, mined and smelted in New France. Silver, lead and copper discoveries were made to the west, in what is now Northern Ontario.
1709: Louis XIV Formally Authorises Slavery in New France
1707 Birth of Carl Linnaeus who would create a system to name and classify living things that prompted scientific recording of natural creatures in North America. Some of our historical evidence comes from scientists in North America writing to the Linnaeus Society to report new plants, tress, or animals found (for some reason...not so many insects).
1707 A group of Scottish dignitaries settle a debt with the British Crown by signing a document which will dissolve Scottish parliament. Called "A Parcel of Rogues", these Scottish men would be considered outcasts and were immortilized in a poem and song by Robbie Burns (pasted onto the site here)
1713: Treaty of Utrecht with France gives British the control of Acadia. Newfoundland and Nova Scotia are named and under British rule.
1713 Thanadelthur is captured
1722-1725 Father Rales war (also called Dummer's War) created the border between New Brunswick (New France at that time) and Maine (New England at that time.) What will become New Brunswick was settled by a French population and relationships between the British and Wabanaki confederacy(Abinaki, Mi'kmaq, and Maliseet) became strained.
1723-1761 Peace and Friendship Treaties
1750 Fort Rouille is built where Toronto is now to promote Indigenous trade (furs)
1754 First recorded harvest of wheat in the west (by Louis La Corne in what will one day be Saskatchewan)
1755 Expulsion of the Acadians. Lt. Col. John Winslow says Acadians who refuse to pledge allegiance to the British Crown will forfeit their property and be relocated from their communities to Louisiana and British American colonies. Deportation begins.
1745 Siege on Louisbourg
1756 – Outbreak of the Seven Years War. It begins when Britain declares war on France. It starts in North America and spreads to Europe.
1759 – Battle of the Plains of Abraham. British Commander in Chief James Wolfe dies on the field after being shot three times during the battle of the Plains of Abraham. French Commander Louis- Joseph de Montcalm, mortally wounded, succumbs the next day. Quebec City is captured. When the British conquered New France in 1760, the Articles of Capitulation stated that Blacks and Pawnee Indians would remain slaves.
1760 Huron Treaty (Huron Nation agreed to put down their weapons in return for freedom of religion and safe passage). The treaty was challenged in 1990 when four Huron men were arrested for practicing a ceremony using a fire in a park. In a landmark decision, the strength of the treaty was upheld by the Supreme Court.
1760 Treaty of Oswegatchie This said the Haudenosaune (Iroquois) agreed to remain neutral and the British would not treat them as enemies.
1763a – The Treaty of Paris ends the Seven Year’s War, with Britain taking possession of Canada(and the end of "New France").
1763b –The Pontiac Rebellion erupts. France’s former Native allies rallied in an attempt to reclaim their traditional way of life and drive the Europeans from their land. 2 000 settlers were massacred and 400 soldiers killed.
1763 Royal Proclamation
1764 – General Amherst and the first record of biological warfare when smallpox inoculated blankets were given to representatives of surrounding First Nations as gifts.
1766 Pontiac Treaty formalised peace between Ottawa Nation and British. Resentment about the alliance would grow and Pontiac would be murdered three years later by a Peoria warrior.
1767 – American Settlers and others have brought 100 enslaved Black people to Nova Scotia; a small number of slaves also live in Prince Edward Island (then Isle St. Jean)
1769-1772 Samuel Hearne explores what is now Northwest Territories for the Hudson's Bay Company
1774 – The British Parliament passes the Quebec Act, establishing among other things French civil law and religious freedom for Roman Catholics
7 November 1775: Lord Dunmore's Declaration
With armed rebellion inevitable, Virginia's Governor Lord Dunmore declared martial law in his colony and decreed that "every person capable of bearing arms" including "indentured servants, negroes, or others" must report for duty. More than 300 Black men joined the "Ethiopian Regiment."
1776 – The first of thousands of United empire Loyalists fleeing the American Revolution arrive in Halifax
30 June 1777: Clinton's Philipsburg Proclamation
Sir Henry Clinton encouraged enslaved Blacks to desert rebel masters, promising them freedom and shelter. British Commander-in-Chief Sir Guy Carleton guaranteed that all slaves who formally requested British protection would be freed. An estimated 100, 000 Blacks fled to the British side during the American Revolution.
1779 – The North West Company is formed in Montreal to compete with the Hudson’s Bay Company in the fur trade. (voyageurs)
1 July 1782: Enslaved Sylvia Defends Colonel Creighton
When Lunnenburg, Nova Scotia was invaded by American soldiers, Colonel John Creighton's servant Sylvia rose to his defence. Sylvia shuttled cartridges in her apron from Creighton's house to the fort where he and his soldiers were engaged in battle. She also protected the Colonel's son and valuables. Following the battle, Creighton was publicly recognized and rewarded for her heroism.
1783 – 3 500 Black Loyalists and 1500 enslaved Black servants arrive in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick
1784 Haldimand Proclamation gives Six Nations of the Grand River "six miles either side of the Grand River"...it is still being contested as Six Nations of the Grand River currently live on 5% of the original land given.
1784-1792: David George
Baptist preacher David George was a Black Loyalist from Virginia. He settled in Shelburne, Nova Scotia in 1784 and began preaching in neighbouring Birchtown. His emotional sermons drew both Black and White Christians. Using only Black community funds, George founded several Black Baptist churches and initiated a "self-help" movement that still exists.
26-27 July 1784: Canada's First Race-Riot Rocks Birchtown
After the Revolutionary War, the "Black Pioneers" were among the first settlers in Shelburne, Nova Scotia. They helped build the new settlement. On its fringes they established their own community, "Birchtown." When hundreds of White, disbanded soldiers were forced to accept work at rates competitive with their Black neighbours the ensuing hostility caused a riot.
1783 The first survey to include Burlington. Made by Captain René Hypolité La Force. One of the vertices of the border was a white oak tree with paint and notches in its trunk. the first survey line was drawn using a chain four hundred thousand links long at a bearing of N45W Another line was drawn from this same tree south east to the south shore of Lake Ontario. The penalty for removing a tree used as a boundary marker during the 18th century was "death without the benefit of clergy."
1784 Niagara Purchase: 2 842 840 acres of land were recorded to be sold to British government from Mississauga Nation for 1/10 of a penny per acrea (1880 pounds, 7 shillings and 4 pence). "we have agreed and are willing to transfer our right of soil and property to the King our Father, for the use of his people and our Brethren the Six Nations from the Head of Lake Ontario, or Creek Waghquata, to the River La Tranche, then down that river until a south course will strike the mouth of Catfish Creek on Lake Erie." (Poquan, as spokesman for the Mississaugas)
The British felt this agreement meant they owned the land. The Mississaugas believed they had made a rental agreement. The disagreement over boundaries and terms continued until 1805.
12 May 1785: "Negro Frolicks" Prohibited
Officials in Nova Scotia ordered "50 Handbills [to] be immediately printed forbidding Negro Dances and Negro Frolicks in [the] town of Shelburne."
13 July 1787: NorthWest Ordinance Passed
In 1787, the new United States passed the NorthWest Ordinance, the first anti-slavery law in North America, which applied to its NorthWest Territory, where government authority was not clearly defined. The area was simultaneously "free" American territory and part of a larger, British "slave" province.
1788 Beach strip in Burlington is a military reserve, no settlement allowed
1790: Imperial Statute
The Imperial Statute of 1790 effectively allowed settlers to bring enslaved persons to Upper Canada. Under the statute, the enslaved had only to be fed and clothed. Any child born of enslaved parents became free at age 25 and anyone who released someone from bondage had to ensure that he/she could be financially independent.
1791 – The Constitutional Act creates Upper Canada, with its capital at Newark (later Niagara-on-the- Lake, Ontario) and Lower Canada, Quebec City as its capital. Each with its own laws and system of government
July 1791: Slave Case Heard at NS Court
Freedom for Black people was elusive, regardless of the promises made by the British at the end of the American War of Independence. Enslaved woman Mary Postell took her "owner," Jesse Gray, to court, twice for stealing her children. He was found not guilty, even though he had sold her and her daughter.
15 January 1792: The Black Loyalist Exodus
The difficulty of supporting themselves in the face of widespread discrimination convinced many Black Loyalists that they would never find true freedom and equality in Nova Scotia. When offered the opportunity to leave the colony in the 1790s, almost 1200 Blacks left Halifax to relocate to Sierra Leone.
21 March 1793: The Cooley Case
Upper Canadians were shocked when Chloë Cooley, an enslaved girl from Queenstown, was beaten and bound by her owner and sold to an American. Brought before Upper Canada's Executive Council 21 March 1793, English law made prosecution impossible. The incident convinced Lieutenant-Governor Simcoe that the abolition of slavery was necessary.
1793: Simcoe's Anti-Slave Trade Bill
When Simcoe left England to take up his appointment as the first lieutenant-governor of Upper Canada, he pledged never to support discriminatory laws. On 19 June 1793, Attorney General White introduced Simcoe's anti-slavery measure and it passed, although it was not a total ban on slavery but a gradual prohibition.
1794: Black Loyalists Petition for All-Black Settlement in UC
In 1794, based on their military service in the war between Great Britain and America, 19 free Blacks in the Niagara area petitioned Governor Simcoe for a grant of land to establish an all-Black settlement. The petition was rejected. In 1819 the government established Oro Settlement near Barrie.
1794 Jay's Treaty (Treaty of London) established the border
Joseph Brant was deeded 3 450 acres of land in the southwest corner of Nelson township (now downtown Burlington).
22 July 1796: The Maroons Land at Halifax
On 22 July 1796, a group of 600 freedom-fighters landed at Halifax. These immigrants, called Maroons, came from the Jamaican community of escaped slaves, who had guarded their freedom for more than a century and fought off countless attempts to re-enslave them.
1798 Prince Edward Island named (formerly named St John's Island)
1799: Papineau Presents Citizens' Petition to Abolish Slavery in Lower Canada
Joseph Papineau (father of Louis-Joseph Papineau) presented a citizens' petition asking the government to abolish slavery, prompting a series of anti-slavery measures. While these bills were defeated, a movement towards the abolition of slavery was clearly under way in Lower Canada.
Leonard Parkinson, a captain of the Maroons (courtesy Nova Scotia Archives/N-6202).
Page updated
Report abuse