Canada’s First Large Influx of Refugees

SESW 102 History of Immigration

Gladys Wong

Immigration before the Refugees’ Arrival

After the signing of the papers of capitulation in Sept. 1760, the

surviving French troops in Canada, and most of the colony’s

leaders and merchants, sailed back to France.

In the eyes of French officialdom, the colony had swallowed large

sums of money, but had yielded little in the way of returns.

With the crushing of the French empire in North America, France

lost interest in her former subjects. French immigration ceased, to

be replaced by Canada’s first wave of Scottish settlers: soldiers

from disbanded regiments that had served in the Seven Years war.

Among the ten regiments raised for the war were the Montgomery

Highlanders, the Black Watch, and the Fraser Highlanders, who

had played a pivotal role in the British capture of Quebec.

What role did the soldiers play? Where did they settle?

To reward the soldiers for their service, the British government gave the men free land and settled them in the Thirteen Colonies.

They would be available for military service, should the discontent so evident in that British possession erupt into open rebellion.

Established in the territories newly acquired from France, they would provide the skilled manpower necessary to deal with a possible French-Canadian insurrection, or protect Nova Scotia and Quebec from possible invasion from the Thirteen Colonies.

At the war’s end, therefore, men from the Fraser Highlanders and the Black Watch regiments settled in Quebec and Nova Scotia, principally around Murray Bay and Mount Murray on the north shore of the St. Lawrence River.

The Proclamation of 1763

At the end of the war, Britain issued the Proclamation of 1763,

hoping to lure a large influx of English-speaking settlers to Quebec.

The ordinance promised to bring British elective assembly, law and

land ownership into Quebec, but it lured few settlers to Nova Scotia

and fewer Anglo-Americans to Quebec, since the culture and climate

held no appeal to New Englanders.

Those who moved to Quebec were for the most part, contractors

and suppliers for British occupying forces. They settled in Montreal

and Quebec. Their business connections made them the dominant

force in the province’s economic life, especially its rich fur trade.

The Quebec Act

British governors concluded that Britain’s policy of anglicizing Quebec was unrealistic. Many British officials came to sympathize with, and admire, the French Canadians.

first British governor, Gen. James Murray, refused to reintroduce the elective assembly promised by the Proclamation. His successor Sir Guy Carleton, was convinced Canada would always have a French-speaking majority, and that Britain should replace the Proclamation with a new set of governing principles that respected the French-Canadians’ institutions, laws and traditions of government.

As a result of Carleton’s recommendations, the British government introduced the Quebec Act of 1774. It retained French law insofar as it applied to seigneurial dues, landholding, and marriage rites, guaranteed the position of the colony’s Roman Catholic Church, and crushed the merchant’s’ hopes for an elected assembly.

The Coming of the Loyalists

Quebec and Nova Scotia would soon be forced to accept thousands of United Empire Loyalists - English-speaking, largely Protestant settlers who had been uprooted by the American Revolution.

They were largely Protestant refugees who came to British North America because they didn’t want to be part of the new British North America, or feared further beatings, imprisonment and harassment for their support of the British during the War of Independence.

The first wave of Loyalist migration in 1783 furnished British North America with its first influx of English-speaking settlers. 35,000 went to the Maritimes, and 9,500 to the Province of Quebec.

Officials suddenly found themselves supplying food, clothing, tolls, seed, temporary accommodation, and later, land on which to erect permanent dwellings, deciding who settled where, etc. To the credit of the authorities, the challenge of achieving these tasks was met.

Frederick Haldimand and Settlement of the Loyalists

Frederick Haldimand: Quebec’s Swiss-born governor who was the man most responsible regarding the fate of the exiles in Quebec. It fell to him to settle a sizeable influx of Loyalists living in the province.

Haldimand helped settle 300 Loyalists in the Gaspe Peninsula. The Loyalists founded towns at Gaspe and Chaleur Bay. He also located homes for 7,500 exiles in the wilderness northwest of the junction of the St. Lawrence and Ottawa rivers, on land purchased from the Indians. Settled in large blocks Quebec’s western reaches, these newcomers would form a potential buffer against the Americans.

Before the western movement was completed, about 7,500 Loyalists had relocated along the north shore of the St. Lawrence River and Lake Ontario in territory known as “the “upper country” of Canada but in 1791, would become the colony of Upper Canada.

Upper Canada Comes Into Being

Most of the Loyalists in the upper country had come to Montreal and Niagara from New England, New York and Pennsylvania. The men served in Loyalist regiments and scattered along the frontier from Lake Huron to Lake Champlain, while their families lived in refugee escarpments between Quebec and Montreal.

Most Loyalists were frontier farmers who were used to living on the fringes of society. Others included Native Canadian tribes who had supported the British cause, hoping to preserve their independence and protect their territories from colonists.

Mohawk leader Joseph Brant helped some of his people to settle on the Bay of Quinte’s northern shore and some Six Nations people to occupy land in the vicinity that is now known as Brantford, Ontario.

Loyalist Migrations to the Maritimes

Most of the Loyalist migrants to the Maritimes were civilians from the Middle Colonies (New York, New Jersey), American-born, and from the lower and middle ranks of the societies they had fled. Those unable to support themselves were shipped at public expense to Nova Scotia, where they received free grants of land and provisions.

Gov. John Parr relocated many new arrivals to the Bay of Fundy’s mainland. About 19,000 stayed in Nova Scotia and established Shelburne, which saw huge growth, before its inhabitants scattered to other parts of the province or returned to the U.S. 3 years later.

Many Loyalists settled in Annapolis Royal in Annapolis County and , and in the valley behind it. Others put down roots from Annapolis Royal and founded the town that became Digby.

1784: Loyalists settled at Sydney and Baddeck. Cape Breton was declared a separate colony but was reunited with N.S. in 1820.

The Free Blacks in Nova Scotia

3,0000 free blacks evacuated New York in 1783 to become part of the first large influx of freed and fugitive slaves to Nova Scotia.

Shelburne and Birchtown would boast the highest concentration of free blacks settling in Nova Scotia.

Most of the new arrivals had responded to Sir Guy Carleton’s issued offer of freedom, which guaranteed that all slaves who made formal claim to protection behind British lines would receive their freedom.

Land grants and provisions were rarely distributed equally to free blacks in the same way as to white Loyalists. Also, free blacks knew little about farming local soil or about how best to help themselves.

Their hopes for equality and protection dashed, many free slaves left to start over in west Africa. Other free blacks, and slaves brought to Nova Scotia by white masters, continued to contribute their skills to building communities throughout the province and New Brunswick.

The Creation of New Brunswick

The civilian and military Loyalists who went to the St. John River Valley in 1783 also faced many difficulties carving out new homes.

Edward Winslow, himself a Loyalist agent, took the lead in proposing and promoting the separation these settlements from Nova Scotia.

In 1784, the Loyalists in the St. John River Valley settlements became the founding population of the province of New Brunswick.

Winslow and other Loyalists who had been prominent in the Thirteen Colonies envisaged New Brunswick being headed by an elite who would own large estates and provide the leadership and social structure they believed New Brunswick needed.

The ex-soldiers and working class refused to become tenants on the estates of the self-appointed gentry and denounced their ambitions . Thus, New Brunswick evolved as a society of small, independent proprietors rather than as an ordered hierarchical society of massive landed estates with large tenant populations.

Loyalist Settlement in Prince Edward Island (PEI)

Agents dispatched by Walter Patterson, Island of St. John’s (PEI’s) governor, had sent a sales pitch to some 600 Loyalists, but many Loyalists who found their way to PEI would not be able to obtain clear title to their lands due to conditions peculiar to the island.

To fulfill the terms of their grants, the proprietors were required to place settlers on their lands. However, few attempted to discharge their obligations. Those who released their property for settlement charged steep rents or purchase fees. Those owners who offered their land for sale did so on ambiguous terms that allowed them to withhold legal title to the land from Loyalist purchasers for years.

Discouraged by such duplicity and extortion, many Loyalists left the island for other parts of British North America.

Impact of the Loyalists

The arrival of Loyalists and their descendants determined that Canadians continued to maintain an interest in the culture and political development of Britain and adopted the British model for political institutions rather than the American one.

A vigorous Loyalist lobbying campaign supported by the British merchants and other like-minded settlers, facilitated the introduction of the new political arrangements for the province.

The Loyalists transformed Nova Scotia and brought New Brunswick into existence. They precipitated the division of Quebec into Lower Canada in the west and Upper Canada (Ontario) in the east

In Upper Canada, the Constitutional Act of 1791 established British laws and institutions, which the Loyalists had been seeking.

In Lower Canada, the Act retained French civil law, seigneurial tenure and the rights accorded to the Roman Catholic Church.

In both provinces, the Act granted an elective assembly.

Immigration into Upper Canada

Lt .Gov. John Graves Simcoe, believed that Upper Canada should be successful enough to attract former enemies from America, who through British institutions, would become ideal subjects. He spent a good deal of energy trying to make the colony a fit home for Loyalist heroes and an attractive location for former rebels, who he invited to emigrate to Upper Canada in return for grants of excellent free land.

Thousands of settlers from the Thirteen Colonies migrated to Upper Canada, where Simcoe was busily initiating construction of roads and the building of settlements.

Among the newcomers were the Society of Friends, as Simcoe had issued a special appeal to the Quakers promising them exemption from military service. Included were members of other American pacifist religious groups ( Mennonites and Dunkards). These groups settled in Prince Edward, York and Waterloo counties.

The Talbot Movement

Col. Thomas Talbot, who served as an aide to Gov. Simcoe in 1793 and 1794, spent 30 years life settling the western part of Upper Canada. He settled 27 townships before he left Ontario in 1786.

The success of new communities in Upper Canada attracted waves of newcomers, including Loyalists from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.

Before the War of 1812, Upper Canada was peopled by Americans, some descendants of the original Loyalists. Others, disillusioned by developments in the new republic, felt they would fare better in Upper Canada. After War of 1812, Simcoe’s welcome to Americans was retracted.

Since the War focused on Upper Canada’s need for settlers with British sympathies, British settlers were sought. British newcomers would continue to head the list of sought-after immigrants for British North America, later called the young Dominion of Canada.