Other Reactions
Africans
Racial tension in the Niagara area reached a peak in the late summer of 1837. Solomon Moseby had successfully escaped slavery in Kentucky and had arrived in Niagara. That in itself was not unusual. The community, then one of the largest in Upper Canada, had about 4000 residents, including some 400 people of African descent, many former slaves. But Moseby's owner tracked him to Niagara and demanded his return. The Canadian authorities buckled under American pressure and arrested Moseby on the charge of horse theft. He had apparently stolen his master's horse to aid his escape -- a horse made it easier to escape the bloodhounds that would be let loose on a runaway slave -- but had released the horse once he was far enough away. The Canadian courts agreed to deport Moseby back to the States, where he would certainly be returned to slavery, if he was not hanged or beaten to death as a example to other slaves.
News of the court cecision electrified the local African community. Soon a crowd estimated between 200 to 300 people, armed with farm tools, sticks and stones, surrounded the jail. A number of the white residents supplied food and the siege stretched out into days and then a week. The sherrif made a number of unsuccessful attempts to sneak Moseby out of the jail.
Then, with the siege into its third week, a wagon suddenly burst out of the jail yard. In the back was Moseby, handcuffed and guarded by six armed constables. The trick almost worked, but two of the protestors, Hubbard Holmes and Jacob Green jumped forward and each grabbed hold of a horse stoping the wagon. A confused scuffle broke out on the wagon, and either Moseby's handcuffs had been left unlocked by the one of the guards, or they were faulty. In any, he managed to break free and ran off into the crowd where he made his escape. Holmes, however, had been killed instantly by a gun blast, while another of the constables bayonetted Green and killed him. About three dozen more Blacks were arrested and jailed, and the rest of the crowd dispersed. Moseby eventually made his way to Montreal and then to England.
Although slavery had been abolished in the British empire by 1834, the Niagara riot shows the insecurity of the Africans, and how little they could rely on the protection of their own government. Nevertheless, when Mackenzie's rebellion began that December, the Africans proved to be some of the strongest loyalists. They feared that a rebel victory would lead to annexation of Upper Canada to the United States and the reintroduction of slavery.
On December 11, 1837, Thomas Runchey, a whiteman, was ordered to raise a corps of Africans, and a company of 50 men was in arms by December 15, under the command of James Sears. A second African company was raised in Niagara under Hugh Eccles. Apparently, the men jailed as a result of the riot were released on condition they join one of the companies. The two companies were joined to together to form what was called the "Colored Corps" with a combined strength of about 130 men. The unit served along the Niagara frontier and Lake Erie shorline, from Chippewa to Drummondville during the winter.
During the summer of 1838, however, when many militia units were to be disbanded as the rebel threat had largely passed, Runchey ran off with the money that was to have been paid to his men. Captain Sears paid the men out of his own pocket and he was not reimbursed by the government until 1840. Runchey, it appears, had deserted to the United States and never returned to Canada.
The colonial government after 1838 decided to reform the militia forces and sought to form a full battalion of 400 Africans, but this time, with no immediate emergency, few volunteers turned out. Africans, it appeared, had not fought to save the colonial government in Toronto, as much as they had fought to save their own distinct community.
First Nations
Like the Africans, the First Nations in the two colonies of Upper and Lower Canada, were excluded from participation in many areas of politics and the economy. First Nations settlement in Upper Canada was complex and included the Six Nations on the Grand River reserve; and the widespread clans of the Algonkian-speaking Anishnabe (who were divided into a number of separate nations including the Ojibwa in the north and Mississauga in southcentral Ontario). There were also separate Six Nations settlements along the St. Lawrence. The situation was roughly similar in Lower Canada, with a concentration of largely Mohawk towns and villages near Montréal, while the rest of the province was inhabited by various Algonkian-speaking nations. Overall the rebellions were viewed by the natives as a white man's dispute in which they had little direct interest.
A number of Six Nations men did fight with the government against the rebels, retaining the old alliance between the Six Nations confederacy and the imperial forces that goes back to the time of the American Revolution. They are reported in action against Duncombe's rebel forces at Sodom west of present day Hamilton on December 14, 1837. Six Nations warriors are recorded as having killed three rebel stragglers that day. Most of the rebels had fled their camp the day before on the news of Mackenzie's defeat at Toronto and the approach of loyalist forces under MacNab.