“Laws that make them slaves there, make them slaves here:” The Status of Slavery in England and its influence on the colony of Nova Scotia

Nova Scotia was the only colony in the transatlantic world to possess no statute laws or slave codes; thus, Nova Scotia did not have legal authorization to enforce slavery. The absence of statute law in Nova Scotia engendered significant legal ambiguities on the general status of slavery in the colony. Following 1783, Nova Scotia’s legislative and judicial institutions were greatly destabilized by Loyalist migration, and the colony searched across the transatlantic world for legal answers. England, similarly to Nova Scotia, did not possess any statute laws to enforce slavery; the metropole and the colony of Nova Scotia thus shared a similar ambiguity towards the status and regulation of slavery. Therefore, evidence suggests that judicial rulings made in Nova Scotia regarding the status of slavery were directly influenced by common law established in England. Specifically, Somerset v Stewart and subsequent cases in England legitimized and influenced Chief Justice Blowers and Strange to impose a judicial war of attrition against slavery in Nova Scotia. Although Nova Scotia’s legal system had become effective in eradicating slavery, the system did not always provide permanent freedom, and in many cases freed black men and women risked kidnapping and re-enslavement. Ultimately, slavery in the Canadian colonies is a topic that has been erased from the historiographical narrative and has been ignored by generations of historians. Nonetheless, it signifies that more work is required to establish stronger connections between the metropole and Canadian colonies, but also, the intercolonial and transatlantic influences on slavery.