Hands Across the Border
The Abortive Extradition of Solomon Moseby
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8894891 |
|---|---|
| Authors | David Murray (0000-0001-6769-3583, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2000 |
| Volume | 30 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 185-208 |
| Publication date | 2000-08-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Canadian Review of American Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0007-7720 • E-ISSN: 1710-114X |
| Publisher | University of Toronto Press Inc. (UTPress) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.3138/cras-s030-02-05 |
| OpenAlex | W2092391756 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
| References cited | 7 |
Four years after the abolition of slavery within the British Empire in 1833, the government of Upper Canada authorized the return of Solomon Moseby, a fugitive slave, to Kentucky. Moseby had escaped slavery in Kentucky by stealing his master’s horse and riding to Buffalo, where he had then crossed the border into Upper Canada and, as he believed, to freedom. Alexander McLeod, the deputy sheriff of the Niagara district, took Moseby into custody and confined him in the Niagara jail until he received the orders to deliver Moseby into the hands of his former American master, who had journeyed to Canada to reclaim him. The local population of African Canadians had other ideas. They were not going to let a brother who had successfully made the journey to freedom on British soil be returned to slavery by British authorities. Led by their preacher, Herbert Holmes, a group of determined men and women mounted a vigil at the jail for three weeks in late August and September 1837 to prevent the authorities from sneaking Moseby across the border. When McLeod finally received orders to extradite Moseby, he surrounded himself with special armed constables and some soldiers from the nearby British detachment at Fort George. With this armed escort, he then tried to deliver Moseby to the Americans. What happened next constitutes the first race riot in Upper Canada
Ancient history · Archaeology · Art history · Brother · George (robot · Government (linguistics · Political science · Population · Prison · Sociology · Vigil · Canadian Identity and History · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · Demography · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · History · Law
| Unique citing works | 5 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,36 |
| Citation span | 2012 - 2020 (9) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 5 |