As Black History Month got underway, Canada Post unveiled a new stamp honoring Chloe Cooley, a young black woman who is known for challenging slavery at the end. 18th century.
Cooley lived in Queenston, Upper Canada, an area where slavery was on the rise at the time but attitudes towards the practice began to change and the abolitionist movement was also growing.
Rumors of a potential slavery ban began to heat up. Slave owners, fearing that they might eventually lose what was considered their property at the time, began selling slaves. Among those slaves was Adam Vrooman, who enslaved Chloe Cooley, according to the Canada Post.
On March 14, 1793, Cooley was kidnapped by Vrooman, who roughly bound her and dragged her to the banks of the Niagara River. Cooley fought back. Her cries for help and protests against freedom were so loud that they seemed to have attracted the attention of those around them.
In the end, however, Cooley was taken across the river to New York State and sold.
We don’t know what happened to Cooley after that, but witnesses shared what they saw with Lieutenant General John Graves Simcoe, an abolitionist. He was apparently able to use their testimony to introduce new legislation. On July 9, 1793, legislation known as the Upper Canada Slavery Restriction Act was passed.
Years later, in 1833, slavery was officially abolished throughout the British Empire.
The Canada Post said Cooley’s protest action in 1973 had a “profound” impact on the history of slavery in Canada.
Although no photograph of Cooley has survived, Canada Post says the stamp’s illustration was created in extensive consultation with experts on local and regional history, history and history. Black history and fashion period.
Reporting for this story was paid for through the Meta-funded Afghan Journalists Project in Residence.
