1SLAVERY IN NORTH COAST
Slavery in Canada dates back since the time it was occupied by the First Nations
people. Slavery then were practiced by the native tribes. In tribal warfare, when one tribe lost
to the other, the winning tribe would make the people of the defeated tribe as their slaves1.
Later, this continued with the European traders and colonizers, who continued buying, selling
and enslaving people for personal and business reasons. This practice was popular in the
Northwest coast, which is now called the British Columbia, Washington state, certain parts of
Alaska, Oregon and Northern California. During the colonization period, the slave trade
served as an important instrument for economic prosperity in Canada. There were also
international slave trade that Canada was involved in, through the exchange of salted cod and
timber for sugar, tobacco, rum and molasses2. This essay traces the history of slavery in north
eastern coastline of Canada since First nations till the time of abolition of slavery and beyond
and seeks to find the reasons behind the flourishing trade.
Before the European colonizers came to Canada, the indigenous people enslaved
those who they defeated in war. The indigenous tribe culture clearly distinguished between
their own kin or tribe members and the outsiders. The outsiders could be their enemy tribes,
who were legitimate captives in warfare and sometimes they could be their trade allies. The
tribal codes were complex and had no structure of state or prisons to hold their captives and
thus, killing the enemies, enslaving them or including them in their own community were
only three choices. The treatment and practices of slavery in indigenous community were
diverse, while many communities treated them as family members eventually, many tribes
tortured them or used them as symbol of status or sometimes in warfare3. There were a slave
owning tribe called Yurok, Haida and Tlingit that lived from Alaska to California along the
1 Natasha Henry, "Black Enslavement In Canada | The Canadian Encyclopedia", Thecanadianencyclopedia.Ca,
2016, https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/black-enslavement.
2 Kenneth M Ames, "The northwest coast." Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews: Issues,
News, and Reviews 12, no. 1 (2003): 19-33.
3 Bonita Lawrence, "Enslavement Of Indigenous People In Canada | The Canadian
Encyclopedia", Thecanadianencyclopedia.Ca, 2016,
https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/slavery-of-indigenous-people-in-canada.

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