I keep reading that the American slaves would try and escape into Canada after and even before the Fugitive Slave Act. Why is that? What did Canada (or Britain at the time?) do to the escaped slaves? Did they just let them go free?

by maxart2001
enygma9753

There's always more to be said, but in the meantime you can find answers to your question here by u/enygma9753, specifically the situation of fugitive slaves and Black Loyalists in Canada.

Canada never had the industrial-scale plantation economy that required the mass importations of black slaves, though slavery did exist in Canada since the time of New France. The fur trade drove commerce in Canada for nearly two centuries, which required alliances with various native groups. When Quebec fell to Britain in 1759, most slaves at the time were native, not black. Native groups would often "gift" rival native prisoners captured in raids to the French as slaves, as an act of friendship or to seal a political or commercial agreement.

Black slaves did exist too, but they were much smaller in number and were obtained indirectly from the United States, not Africa. An influx of black slaves occurred in the aftermath of the American Revolution from the 1780's onward, when Loyalists brought their slaves with them to Canada. These slaves would work as labourers clearing land or as domestic help, but they also did other jobs like artisans, sailors and tradesmen. By 1800, the Canadian colonies had passed laws essentially banning the importation of slaves to Canada -- decades ahead of the rest of the British Empire.

Blacks who fought for Britain during the American Revolution and the War of 1812 were set free and received land grants and compensation -- with a majority moving to Canada, and others to the Caribbean or Sierra Leone. Many settled with their former units in Nova Scotia or in the Great Lakes region of what is now Ontario.