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MARTIN, PETER (also known as Martin Stout), enslaved Black man, soldier, and labourer; b. c. 1753, likely in New York; d. sometime between 1802 and 1816, probably in Upper Canada.

Martin Stout and his brother Richard Stout were enslaved by Colonel John Butler* and his family in the Mohawk valley of New York, one of Great Britain’s Thirteen Colonies. Both brothers served in Butler’s Rangers, a loyalist unit, for more than four years during the American Revolutionary War. From 1781 to the close of hostilities, they were stationed in the Niagara region, in what would become Newark (Niagara-on-the-Lake). Martin likely saw action and also fulfilled various labour duties. Afterwards Butlers’ Rangers was disbanded, and in accordance with Lord Dunmore’s proclamation of 1775, which promised enslaved Black men freedom in exchange for military service, Martin and Richard were manumitted. They then settled in Newark. As an army veteran, Martin was eligible for a 300-acre land grant, but it seems he did not initially apply for it. Richard was also entitled to a grant but died shortly after being discharged.

Peter Martin, as Martin Stout came to call himself, was one of at least 20 Black loyalists who relocated to western Quebec (present-day southern Ontario), which in 1791 became Upper Canada. Although there is a lack of information about his occupation after the war, it is probable that Peter, like many other Black loyalists, became a wage labourer for his former enslaver or for other white loyalists. He was among the small number of Black inhabitants in the Niagara region, the majority of whom were in bondage. Martin was a principled man who challenged the injustice and violence of slavery. In March 1793 he witnessed the cruel treatment of a Black woman named Chloe Cooley*, whose enslaver, Adam Vrooman, forcibly took her across the Niagara River to sell her in the United States. Martin brought the matter before the colony’s Executive Council and, along with a white man named William Grisley, testified to what he had seen. Because of this courageous action, the Cooley incident became a matter of public record and influenced the passage that year of the Act to Limit Slavery in Upper Canada, which introduced gradual abolition.

Although Martin was a free man, his companion, Pat, and his two children, George* and Jane, remained enslaved by Butler. Martin’s family was illustrative of the complexities of the two different social statuses of Black people in Upper Canada and in other colonies where racial chattel slavery was practised.

In their wills some slave-holders freed the people they had subjugated [see John Baker*], but Butler, who died on 13 May 1796, refused to manumit Martin’s family. He bequeathed Jane to his granddaughter Catherine and George to his grandson John. (Both were the offspring of Butler’s son Lieutenant Thomas Butler, who assumed control of Jane and George on their behalf.) Colonel Butler left Pat to his son Andrew Butler, an act that separated mother and daughter. This was not an unusual event for enslaved Black families in British North America; they faced the constant threat and frequent reality of separation [see Peggy*].

Pat and Jane’s fate is a mystery, but some evidence exists about what happened to George. Immediately after Butler died and George effectively came under the ownership of Thomas Butler, Peter Martin set in motion a plan to free his son by acquiring and then selling land to raise the money needed to purchase his liberty. The price Butler demanded was high – £60 in New York currency – but Martin was aware that land in Upper Canada was valuable and easy to liquidate at a time when many loyalists who wanted cash were selling it and others were buying as much of it as they could.

On 21 May 1796, just eight days after Butler’s death, Martin successfully petitioned Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe for the 300 acres he was entitled to claim as a veteran. He next sought the land grant owed to his deceased brother Richard, but his 28 September petition was rejected. Undeterred, Martin tried again on 20 Aug. 1797, this time explaining that he intended to sell his brother’s land grant and use the proceeds to buy George’s freedom. The petition was approved the following day and Martin was awarded 300 acres. The year before, he had acquired the 300-acre grant of a fellow Black loyalist, Jack Becker (Baker, Barker), who transferred it to Martin for £25. It appears that Martin’s plan worked: it was probably the sale of some or all of these 900 acres that allowed him to pay Lieutenant Butler and secure George’s freedom.

At some point after liberating his son, Martin relocated to York (Toronto). He is listed in the city’s census in 1801 with another male, likely George, and on his own the following year. Nothing else is known about his final years except that he was “infirm with lameness,” a fact stated in his petition of 20 Aug. 1797. His army service may have been the cause of this condition; there is no record indicating whether he received any treatment from military doctors. By 14 May 1816, when George petitioned for a land grant as the child of a Revolutionary War veteran, Peter was deceased. It is not known when, where, or how he died.

Peter Martin’s forced migration and subsequent manumission were consequences of the American Revolutionary War and British imperialism. His life was guided by the idea of freedom. After achieving it for himself, he obtained it for his son, George, and he sought justice for Chloe Cooley. Although he could not save her, his action inspired legislation that created a gradual pathway to freedom for enslaved people in Upper Canada and for freedom-seekers from the United States.

Natasha Henry-Dixon