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PEGGY, enslaved Black woman; b. c. 1766, likely in the Thirteen Colonies; d. sometime after August 1827, probably in York (Toronto).

Peggy was enslaved by Peter Russell*, a senior figure in the government of Upper Canada. She and her children – son Jupiter and daughters Amy and Milly – were held on Russell’s large homestead on the southwest corner of Princess and Front streets in York. The estate, where Russell lived with his half-sister Elizabeth, was called Russell Abbey. Peggy’s husband and the father of her children, Pompadour, was a free Black man. The differing legal statuses of Peggy, Pompadour, and their children, enslaved and free, created a complicated situation for the family.

It is not known how Russell acquired Peggy and her son and daughters, but he likely purchased them from a loyalist settler a short time after his arrival in Upper Canada in 1792. The earliest record of Peggy living in the household is the entry for 11 Nov. 1800 in the diary of Joseph Willcocks*, Russell’s farm manager and private clerk. Like all the other surviving documents relating to her, this one gives no surname. In the global system of chattel slavery, the use of only a first name was a way of indicating race and subjugated status.

A life of forced labour

Peggy performed a range of domestic duties. She cooked, did laundry, cleaned, looked after other household tasks, and made soap and candles. She also would have tended fires, washed dishes, and emptied chamber pots. Her young daughters probably assisted with these chores. Peggy served the Russells daily as well as their elite guests when they hosted dinners and parties. On at least one occasion she provided traditional medical treatment: when a friend of Elizabeth Russell was burned by a kitchen fire, Peggy applied her own homemade soothing balm, dressed the injury, and served the woman mint tea she had made herself.

Peggy was also forced to carry out tasks at her enslaver’s farm, Petersfield. The property was a short distance northwest of Russell Abbey, a 100-acre plot that ran northwards from Queen Street West to Bloor Street and was bordered by Beverley and Huron streets. Enslaved Black women often performed some of the same labour as their male counterparts in small-scale agricultural operations. Peggy helped to tend cows, oxen, sheep, and horses. She also assisted in growing and harvesting crops such as wheat, oats, barley, and timothy, as well as fruits and vegetables, including potatoes, melons, cauliflower, cabbage, parsnips, carrots, beets, spinach, and raspberries.

Peggy’s resistance

By 1801 Peggy’s behaviour had become a matter of concern for her enslaver. With the assistance of Matthew Elliott*, one of the largest slave-holders in Upper Canada [see Name Unrecorded*], Russell attempted to broker a deal to sell Peggy to Mohawk chief Joseph Brant [Thayendanegea*], who lived in Six Nations territory, at the western end of Lake Ontario. On 23 June that year Willcocks recorded, “Mr. Elliot and I wanted to send black Peggy to the head of the lake, but the boatman would not carry her.” Later that summer Peggy was committed to the York jail for a few weeks; Russell was forced by Chief Justice John Elmsley* to pay ten pounds to cover the cost of her incarceration and release. Her name is not recorded in any court minutes from this period, which suggests that Russell used his power and influence to have her jailed without charges. He tried in vain to sell her to Brant or Elliott throughout the rest of the year.

Russell described Peggy to Elliott as “very troublesome” and stated that he might have to send her to jail again as a way to contain and control her because his half-sister refused to allow Peggy to enter the house. The Russells accused her of corrupting Jupiter, Amy, and Milly by setting a bad example through lying and stealing, being disrespectful, idle, and insolent, and speaking ill of them to her children and townsfolk.

Peggy exercised her will and autonomy within the confines of chattel slavery. In 1803 she left the Russell property and her enslaver’s control. On 3 September he published a notice in the Upper Canada Gazette warning local residents not to help facilitate her escape:

The Subscriber’s Black Servant PEGGY, not having his permission to absent herself from his service, the public is hereby cautioned from employing or harbouring her without the owner’s leave. Whoever does so after this notice, may expect to be treated as the Law directs.

Peggy likely made the choice to run away for short periods as a form of resistance, a temporary reprieve from her enslaver’s control and her subjugation. She may have decided not to flee permanently because her family remained with Russell in York. After she returned days later, Russell began paying her a $4 monthly allowance, possibly to appease her so that she would not run away again and he would have access to her labour. These payments lasted into 1804.

The threat of sale and family separation

In February 1806 Peggy’s family was once again threatened with separation when Russell published an advertisement in the Gazette for the sale of Peggy and Jupiter:

TO BE SOLD, A BLACK WOMAN, named PEGGY, aged about forty years, and a black boy, her son, named JUPITER, aged about fifteen years, both of them the property of the subscriber.

The Woman is a tolerable cook and washer woman, and perfectly understands making Soap and Candles.

The Boy is tall and strong for his age, and has been employed in Country business, but brought up principally as a House Servant. They are each of them servants for life. The Price for the Woman is one hundred and fifty Dollars. For the Boy two hundred dollars, payable in three years with interest from the day of Sale and to be properly secured by Bond &c. But one fourth less will be taken in ready Money.

The threat of separation for enslaved Black families was constant and real. While there are no records to confirm, it appears that Peggy was not sold, though it is not known what happened to Jupiter. Three events around this time affected Peggy’s life. First, Pompadour died in the fall of 1807. Secondly, Peter Russell died in September 1808. Thirdly, Elizabeth, who seems to have inherited Peggy and her children, gifted Amy to her goddaughter Elizabeth Denison, the daughter of Captain John Denison (who had taken over as Russell’s farm manager). The possibility of being separated had become a devastating reality for Peggy and her loved ones. Only after Elizabeth Russell’s death in 1822 would Peggy and Milly secure their freedom.

Old age and destitution

Peggy continued to reside in York and was recorded in two court cases. In October 1808 she appeared as a witness alongside Black loyalist James Baker in the trial of another Black loyalist, William Lee. One month later a person named Peggy, without a surname, was found not guilty of a nuisance charge. This was probably the same Peggy; she was a well-known resident in York, where people commonly knew her by that name.

It is likely that she is also the Peggy who is listed, again without a last name, in the records of the Society for the Relief of the Sick and Destitute in August 1827. Now in her early sixties, she was a poor, elderly woman. After having laboured as a “servant for life,” Peggy was unable to work and had to fend for herself. Some manumitted individuals, such as John Baker*, were provided for by their former enslavers, but it appears that the Russells did not leave Peggy any financial resources. She received food rations from the society every second day between December 1826 and August 1827. It is probable that she died shortly afterwards; her name is not present in any other records.

Peggy was a woman, a spouse, and a mother, but according to the law and social customs of Upper Canada – and in the view of powerful people such as the Russells, who defended and perpetuated racial chattel slavery – she was merely property. Within the brutal confines of this system, she did what she could to live, work, and foster relationships with her husband and children. Peggy resisted her forced condition and stole back pieces of her humanity to survive the inhumane.

Natasha Henry-Dixon