London
Aby B. Jones
I was formerly a field hand in Madison Co., Ky.,—remained there until thirty years of age. My treatment was not harsh,—nor was there any hard treatment in the neighborhood.
My brother was set free in this way: his master was a millwright, and told him if he would serve him so many years he would set him free. He did so,—meanwhile building a large merchant mill, and employing my brother in it. My brother was subsequently employed in this mill as a miller and received high wages, his employer thinking there never was such a man, from his trustworthiness and the general confidence he could repose in him. His good opportunities enabled him to advance nearly money enough to free myself and a younger brother,—the deficiency we borrowed, and afterward paid up. The sum paid for the two was seven hundred dollars; our master favoring us in the price.
I was never sent to any school. Since I have been free I have learned to read and write.
Yet, although I was nominally free, and had free papers, I did not consider myself free in the eye of the law: the freedom was limited. The papers said I was to have as much liberty as was allowed to a free man of color. I saw at once that I was not really free; that there was a distinction made. I wished then to emigrate to some place where I could be really a FREE MAN.
I heard that in Canada colored men were free; therefore I came here, and am only sorry to say that I did not come years before I did.
When I came here I was not worth one cent. I neither begged nor received a farthing of money. I went to work at once, and, by the blessing of the Lord, I was prospered, and have placed my family beyond the reach of want.
I am satisfied, that any colored man coming to Canada, can, in a few years, accumulate property to give himself and family a living.
Slavery is, I believe, the most abominable system that ever men were subjected to. Although my treatment was not severe, I never could form a good opinion of slavery. I believe it ruinous to the mind of man, in that it keeps the key of knowledge from him: it is stupefying to man. I believe that all men should be made free at once.
The future prospects of the colored people of Canada are very favorable. All that is required of them is, to use industry in common with white people. The colored children and white children are educated together in this place, and I see as fair an advancement in one as in the other.
The colored people usually attend divine service: some in the same societies with the whites; others maintain separate churches. But I do not think it advisable to have separate churches. In this place the door is open into all the churches of the denominations that the colored people profess, therefore I think those lines of distinction drawn by the colored people themselves will soon be put down. I speak of London.
I think there is as much morality and temperance among the colored people as among any others.
The amount required for supplying the wants of fugitives is so small, that it is hardly worth talking about. It can be silently raised in the towns by contribution, without any stirring appeals to the public. Where there is work to be done and money to pay for it, pecuniary assistance does more hurt than good.
[Mr. Jones, whose testimony is given above, resides on Gray St. in a brick dwelling-house, as good or better than the average of houses in London. In front is a garden of choice flowers, and it has a well-ordered kitchen garden in the rear. The estate, deducting the incumbrance of ground-rent, is worth about four thousand dollars. Mr. J. owns other property in various parts of the city,—a brick building, in the business quarter, comprising two stores which rents for between seven hundred and eight hundred dollars per annum,—and several building lots in the immediate vicinity of the freight depot of the Great Western Railway. Mr. J. is of unmixed African blood.]