Heritage Minutes

Chloe Cooley (8x4)

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Chloe Cooley was an enslaved Black woman in Upper Canada in the late 18th century. Under the watchful eye of estate owner Adam Vrooman, Chloe engaged in acts of resistance however she could: by refusing to work or temporarily leaving the property without permission. With rumours of abolition circulating, Vrooman and his men kidnapped Chloe on March 14, 1793, and violently forced her on a boat across the Niagara River to the United States. There, he believed he could still profit from what he considered his investment. Witnesses, including the free man Peter Martin, later testified to Chloe’s resistance in the face of her violent removal, leading to Canada’s first legislation limiting slavery. Despite this, slavery in Canada was not abolished until 1834.