The Narrative of Gordon Sellar Who Emigrated to Canada in 1825Sellar, Gordon
History
The Narrative of Gordon Sellar Who Emigrated to Canada in 1825
Sellar, Gordon
Frontier and pioneer life -- Ontario; Sellar, Gordon
Aug. 21--Quite cool with a brisk northerly breeze. Wife and myself
started for Toronto, and never enjoyed a walk more. Did us good to watch
the clearances as we passed along. Fall wheat all cut and stacked.
Barley being cradled and oats looking extra heavy though short in the
straw. The sight of gardens and patches of potatoes pleased Ailie, and
we both were surprised by the Indian corn, which we never saw before. It
was tasseling. The bell was ringing when we reached Toronto and had to
ask our way to the Presbyterian church. The crowd was going to the
Episcopal and Methodist churches. The service was dry and cold, but it
did us both good to worship with our fellows once more and join in the
psalms. As we were walking away I heard somebody behind us call, Andrew
Anderson, and looking back saw Mrs Bambray. Told her we were going to
the tavern for dinner. 'Thee shall go to no tavern on the seventh day,'
and slipping her arm into my wife's, led us to her house. Pointing to a
door she told me to go in and I would see what I never saw in Scotland,
and led my wife upstairs. Opening the door I found myself in a backshed,
with Bambray rubbing ointment on a negro's arm. The man was a runaway
slave and had arrived that morning on a schooner from Oswego. Bambray
had washed him and dressed him in clean overalls. He bade the negro pull
off his shirt so that I might see the marks of the welts made by a
whipping he had got with a blacksnake whip and his master's brand, made
with a hot iron, on his right arm. The left arm had got injured in his
flight and had an unhealed wound. The poor fellow said he came from
Maryland and had known no trouble until his wife had been taken from him
and sold. His master ordered him to pick on another woman, but he loved
his wife and ran away to find her; had been caught and whipped to within
an inch of his life. Hearing slaves were free in Canada, he took the
first chance to slip away. He hid during the day, and at night, guided
by the plow in the sky, kept northwards. He got some food by visiting
negro huts, and at one of these he was told how a band of white people
helped negroes seeking their liberty. Finding a house he was directed to
call at, he found it was true. The man fed him and ferried him across a
river and gave him the landmarks of the next house he was to call at for
help, and from one to another he was passed along until he got to
Oswego, where he was hid in the hold of a schooner whose captain was an
Englishman. It had taken him a long time to make the journey, he could
not tell me how long, for he did not know the days of the week much less
the months. On getting to Toronto he was guided by a sailor boy to
Bambray's house, which was one of several where runaways were sure of
help. Asked Bambray what he would do with the man. When fit for work he
would be given an ax, saw, and sawhorse and was sure of earning a
living. 'Me strong,' said the man, standing up, 'and me free.' Left
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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