Canada Post has unveiled a new Black History Month stamp honouring Chloe Cooley.
Canada Post says Cooley had a strong impact on the history of enslavement in Canada as her act of resistance in 1793, brought in legislation that would lead to the end of enslavement in Upper Canada.
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Cooley was a Black woman slave who lived in Queenston, Upper Canada at a time when enslavement was on the rise.
Soon, attitudes toward slavery were shifting and the abolitionist movement was growing.
Slave owners afraid of losing their investment and property started selling their slaves.
Sergeant Adam Vrooman, who enslaved Chloe Cooley, did just that.
With the help of two men, Vrooman abducted Cooley and tied her up and dragged her to the shores of the Niagara River.
But Cooley was defiant but was overpowered and taken across the river to New York State and sold.
It’s not clear what happened to her after that.
Witnesses told what they saw to Lieutenant-Governor John Graves Simcoe, an avowed abolitionist.
He used their accounts to introduce new legislation.
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On July 9, 1793, the Act to Limit Slavery in Upper Canada was passed.
Cooley herself did not benefit from the legislation.
In 1833, enslavement was officially abolished.
