Coloured Corps-- Part 10: The Question of Land Grants

When land grants for service were distributed to veterans in 18 1821, those of the Coloured Corps received just 100 acres, half that of their white counterparts.  Many veterans did not settle the land they were given because it was of such poor quality.

Despite these inequities, the Coloured Corps defended Canada honorably, setting the precedent for future black military personnel.

A Colured Corps was again raised  in Niagara during the Rebellions of 1837-1838, one of several black military groups volunteering for service then..

Other unites were raised in Toronto, Hamilton,  Chatham and Sandwich (Windsor).

--Brock-Perry

Coloured Corps-- Part 9: Disbandment and Legacy

The Royal Engineers continued to employ the Coloured Corps on the Niagara Peninsula for the remainder of the War of 1812.  The Corps' zeal in these works impressed British engineers, one reporting in February 1815 that "no people could be better calculated to build temporary barracks than these Free Men of Colour, as they are in general expert axemen."

I have been writing about the 135th United States Colored Troops in my Saw the Elephant: Civil War blog and they were classified as pioneers and were quite good at building bridges and corduroying roads.

The company was disbanded  on 24 March 1815, following the end of the war.

In claiming rewards for their service, many faced adversity and  discrimination.  Sergeant William Thompson was informed he "must go and look for his pay himself."  Richard Pierpoint, then in his 70s, was denied his request for passage home to Africa in lieu of a land grant.

--Brock-Perry

Coloured Corps-- Part 8: Fort Mississagua on the Niagara Frontier

One British officer later noted that:  "Mississagua... is a pretty  little Fort, and would prevent vessels coming up the river.."

These duties prevented the Coloured Corps from participating in the Niagara Campaign that summer.

Their services would have been of great assistance during the British Siege of Fort Erie in which the British desperately lacked the services of trained engineers.

Fort Mississagua:  The tower and earthworks are all that remain  of the barracks, guardroom and cells of Fort Mississagua.  Built between 1813 and 1816 to replace Fort George as the counterpoise to the American Fort Niagara directly  across the Niagara River from it,  it was garrisoned until 1826.

Repaired and rearmed following the Rebellion of 1837, it continued to be maintained  until 1854 in response to border disputes with the United States.

It was manned during the  tense years of the American Civil War and the Fenian Scare of 1866, but by 1870 it was no longer considered of military value.

--Brock-Perry

Canada's Coloured Corps-- Part 7: Construction of Fort Mississauga

After the British captured Fort Niagara on 19 December 1813, the Coloured Corps was attached to the Royal Engineers to help repair fortifications at the mouth of the Niagara River.

Whether racism influenced the authority's choice for this duty is not known,  as one engineer later reported:  "When I visited the Niagara Frontier... I found that  a corps of Free Men of Colour had been raised... but had been turned over to that of the Engineers, any necessity for this I could never learn, but it seemed to be the fashion in Canada to heap all kinds  of duties upon the latter."

Toward the spring of 1814,  the company was ordered to construct a new fort on the Canadian shore named Fort Mississauga.  With the American Navy in control of Lake Ontario, this work was essential to  the security of British forces on the Niagara Peninsula.

--Brock-Perry

Canada's Coloured Corps-- Part 6: 1813 Campaigns, Fort George and Burlington Heights

Renamed the "Coloured" or "Black" Corps, the company entered general service and spent the winter at Fort George.  On 27 May 1813,  a large American force launched an amphibious attack on Fort George.  

The Coloured Corps and British troops rushed to the beach to oppose the landing and "exchanged a destructive and rapid fire" with the enemy at short range.  The Coloured Corps lost four of its men wounded or captured before it was forced back by naval gunfire.

It retreated with Brigadier General John Vincent's troops to Burlington Heights.

For the remainder of the year, the Coloured Corps participated in the blockade of  the American Army at Fort George, enduring the harsh conditions  and privations of the British troops.

--Brock-Perry

Canada's Coloured Corps-- Part 4: Captain Robert Runchey

But, instead of making Richard Pierpont commander of the corps,  that went to a local white officer,  Captain Robert Runchey.

Characterized as a "worthless, troublesome malcontent" by his superiors, Runchey fulfilled his  reputation for poor leadership by segregating  black men from  other militiamen.  In  some cases, Runchey hired out black soldiers as domestic servants to  other officers.

Not surprisingly, recruitment in  the Niagara Peninsula proved to be very difficult and "Runchey's Company of Coloured Men" remained small.    In early October 14, 1812,  14 black soldiers were transferred to the unit from the 3rd York Militia.

The majority of the men of the unit lived in Upper Canada -- in towns and villages in the Niagara region, in York (Toronto) and Bay of Quinte, near Belleville.  One of the men, George  Martin, from Niagara, had been freed from slavery by his father, Peter, in 1797.

Four years before that, Peter Martin had witnessed and reported the Chloe Cooley Incident to Lt.-Gov. Simcoe--  an event that led to the Act to Limit Slavery in Upper Canada.

Once raised to about 40 men, the unit began training at Fort George.

--Brock-Perry

Canada's Coloured Corps-- Part 3: Raising the Coloured Corps

Toward 1812, the prospect of war with the United States and a possibility of invasion from them posed a major threat to the liberties of black Canadians, leading many black men to join militias.  Many understood that an American victory would lead to re-enslavement of them and their families

Free black men had served in the Canadian militia since its organization in 1793.   However, the formation of an independent unit consisting solely of Blacks was not proposed until the eve of the War of 1812 when Richard Pierpoint offered to raise a corps of black men in the Niagara region.

The offer was initially refused by the Canadian government, but reconsidered upon the American occupation of Sandwich (Windsor) on 12 July 1812.

By late August, the core of the all-black company  had formed in Niagara, as part of the 1st Lincoln militia.

Next:  Who is to command the company?

--Brock-Perry

Canada's Coloured Corps-- Part 2: A Move Toward Abolition

The first substantial settle of Blacks in Canada occurred at the end of the American Revolution.  Some like Richard Pierpoint am enslaved man who had gained his freedom by fighting for the British in that war.  Most, however, were enslaved people brought there as spoils of war or as property of Loyalists.

About 500-700 Blacks lived in Upper Canada (Ontario)  by the time Lieutenant-Governor John Simcoe arrived there in 1792.  He wished to abolish slavery entirely, but the legislature of Upper Canada  opposed many of his reforms.

Many of the members of both houses either had slaves themselves or were from slave owning families and were concerned over the economic impact of abolition.  As a result, when the Act to Limit Slavery in Upper Canada passed on 9 July 1793, it severely limited Simcoe's intentions.

It banned the further importation of slaves and limited the terms of enslavement to nine years.

--Brock-Perry

The Coloured Corps: Black Canadians and the War of 1812-- Part 1: Free and Enslaved Blacks

Since I have been writing a lot about the Black Experience in the United States  in many of my other blogs lately in honor of Black History Month, I'll will be exploring one of their roles in the War of 1812.

From the Canadian Encyclopedia.

The Coloured Corps (also known as Runchley's Company of Colored Men, or Black Corps) was a militia company of black men raised during the War of 1812.

Created in Upper Canada, where enslavement had been limited in 1793,  the corps consisted of free  and enslaved black men.  Many of them were veterans of the American Revolution, in which they fought for the British and were called Black Loyalists.

The Coloured Corps (British/Canadian spelling) fought in the Battle of Queenstown Heights and the Battle of Fort George before it was attached to the  Royal Engineers as a construction company.

In later years, it was reactivated  during the Rebellions of 1837-38 and also served as a police force during the construction of the Welland Canal.

--Brock-Perry