The Screams of Chloe Cooley

“I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!”

Quick—who said that? One correct answer is Chloe Cooley, an enslaved African American who tried to buck the system. When her owner bound and forced her into a boat for the purpose of selling her down the Niagara River, Chloe screamed and kicked up a storm, resisting so violently three men had to manhandle her into the skiff. Bottom line, Chloe Cooley had no right to refuse. She had no rights.

Her protest was likely personal. Maybe she was being torn from her children, or the man she loved, or the only home she ever knew. Maybe she was fed up with being treated as a piece of property driven to market and longed to rise above her misery and breathe free air. Maybe she was scared.

Chloe’s riverside ‘hell no!’ attracted the attention of William Grisley and Peter Martin, who told Lieutenant-Governor John Graves Simcoe, a supporter of abolishment, about it. Simcoe was outraged. He’d made speeches in the British Parliament calling for an end to slavery and, after learning of Chloe’s struggle, rose in the House of Assembly here and called for the same.

There was opposition from slave-holding members and a compromise was reached. On July 9, 1793, the Upper Canada Legislature passed the first piece of legislation in the British Empire that limited slavery, an “Act to prevent the further introduction of slaves and to limit the term of contract for servitude.”

A first step, but it set the stage for “the great freedom movement of enslaved African Americans known as the Underground Railroad.” Maybe fate turns on a whisper, but I wonder ... what if Chloe Cooley hadn’t screamed?