CHLOE COOLEY MARCH 14-1793 CANADA

CHLOE COOLEY MARCH 14-1793 CANADA On March 14, 1793, Chloe Cooley an enslaved African woman made history when she fought for her freedom. Cooley was being sold once again (she had been sold at least twice before) and she vigorously resisted one more indignity to her sense of self, her humanity. She struggled against being tied up and sold, one more incident in a lifetime of indignities against her personhood. The result of Chloe Cooley’s struggle is responsible for the acclamation that John Graves Simcoe receives on the first weekend of August. When we celebrate Simcoe Day, we need to also remember Chloe Cooley whose valiant struggle to gain her freedom led to Simcoe’s effort to limit slavery in Upper Canada in 1793. On Wednesday, March 21st, 1793, Peter Martin appeared before members of the Executive Council of Upper Canada. Martin informed the Council that a violent outrage had occurred to an enslaved African woman named Chloe Cooley. Peter Martin was a member of the Black Loyalists who had moved to Canada after fighting on the side of the British during the American War of Independence (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783.) Martin had witnessed William Vrooman, who “owned,” Chloe Cooley trying to sell her to someone in New York State. She resisted, (three white men armed with ropes had to wrestle her into a boat) and Vrooman forcibly transported her across the Niagara River to her new owner. Martin said he knew of other enslaved Africans who had suffered a similar fate and he reported hearing that several other slave owners in the area intended doing the same thing with their slaves. Simcoe tried unsuccessfully to pass a law to end slavery in Upper Canada/Ontario. He was unsuccessful because 12 of the 25 members of Upper Canada's Executive Council, either owned slaves or had family members who were slave owners. Cooley’s struggle for her freedom gave the lie to the myth of the happy slave. During the four hundred years enslavement of Africans by Europeans there was a concerted effort to portray enslaved Africans as being happy with their lot. The image of the fat, always grinning “Mammy,” who loved the White family of her enslavers more than she loved her own life was used by White people to rationalize the inhumanity of slavery. To deal with the cognitive dissonance of holding other humans in captivity and exploiting their labour enslavers had to convince themselves that enslaved Africans enjoyed being enslaved and loved the people who enslaved them. Members of White families would brutalize enslaved Africans daily and then on Sunday attend church, so they had to convince themselves that as good Christians the brutality they meted out to the Africans they enslaved was justified. Slavery was a brutal institution that dehumanized a race of people. Female slave bondage was different from that of men. It was not less severe, but it was different. Sexual abuse, childbearing, and childcare responsibilities affected enslaved females’ pattern of resistance and how they conducted their lives. Women were less able to leave their chains and children behind. Deborah Gray White in her book "Aren't I a Woman?" wrote; "for those fugitive women who left children in slavery, the physical relief which freedom brought was limited compensation for the anguish they suffered." It is important for us as African people to recognize and celebrate the women in our community and ensure that “ourstory” includes the achievement of all people from our community regardless of gender. On March 8 we celebrated “International Women’s Day” and many of us took the opportunity to recognize and celebrate African women who went before us regardless of where they were born, when they lived or where they lived. We know the names of many African women who sacrificed much to move us forward as a people. Sometimes we forget what they endured and how they resisted. Some of us believing that the rights we have today were given to us. Whatever “rights,” we have access to in 2025 did not come easily. We need to pause and think about those women who went before us and the sacrifices they made to get us to where we are today. Chloe Cooley, Peggy Pompadour, Marie Joseph Angelique and many other enslaved African women whose names we do not know risked their lives in resisting their enslavement by any means necessary. The enslavement of Africans would have lasted much longer if women had not resisted in their own way. We must continue to tell the stories of our sheroes who resisted slavery and colonization.