New Lisbon (OH) Anti-Slavery Bugle, "Canada West - Colored People - their Situation," December 28, 1850

                             From the True Democrat. 

   Canada West--Colored People--their Situation. 

  Messrs. Editors:––The undersigned was appointed an agent by the friends of the "Fugitive Slaves" in Randolph, Marlboro'. Ravetma, and Wyndham, to visit and report the wants of the fugitives in Canada West, and to administer to them such aid as was committed to his care, by the friends of the slave in the above named places. 

   There are in Canada West probably not far from 3,000 fugitives. It is impossible to arrive at the exact number, as they are daily arriving, many of them having been hurried away from the Free (?) States, where they had accumulated some property; have sold their possessions at a great sacrifice, and are in need at present. 

   Large donations of clothing have been forwarded, and as there are plenty of opportunities for labor to those who will labor, and they can obtain provisions there cheaper than on the Reserve, there cannot be much suffering. Wheat is but four to five shillings per bushel. Corn three shillings per bushel.––Pork three dollars per barrel.

   Canada West is the place for the people of color to settle. 

   The soil is fertile, and well covered with beautiful timber, and the rivers Thames and Sydenham are navigable for vessels of the first class, that sail upon Lakes. 

   As good land 'as lay before the sun,' can be purchased for $2,500 per acre, and sufficiently near those rivers to afford them an opportunity of shipping their wood to the Detroit market. 

   There is a steam mill owned by colored men at Dawn, on the Sydenham river, that this season loaded a vessel with black walnut lumber for the Boston market, at $14 per thousand. 

   Many of the people of color are making money in Canada West. 

   From what information I could obtain from the most reliable sources, there have been sufficient donations to meet their present necessities, and unless the Christmas holiday shall furnish enlarged stampedes, there cannot be much needed in Canada West. 

   The Eastern district I did not visit, and of course cannot judge. 

   Any donation that may hereafter be made, had better be forwarded to Detroit, directed to the care of Messrs. Hallock & Raymond, corner of Woodward and Jefferson Avenue, who will give them their earliest attention, and forward them to the Committee of Vigilance in the several settlements of colored people. 

   But by all means make no donations in grain, for all provisions can be obtained cheaper here than there, and the grain had better be sold, and the money forward as above directed, and thus the expense of transportation, dockage, drayage, ferriage and duty, &c., would be saved. 

   In conclusion, I would say to the colored people, by all means make your homes in Canada, where your rights are at least politically acknowledged, and become owners of the soil, and identified with the interests of the country, and by habits of industry and economy, they can secure a competency of the comforts and even luxuries of life. 

               Yours, &c.,        WM. Stedman.