showing gains were
those bordering on Canada where the runaway slave or the free man of
color in danger could flee when threatened. It is estimated that from
fifteen to twenty thousand Negroes entered Canada between 1850 and
1860, increasing the Negro population of the British provinces from
about 40,000 to nearly 60,000. The greater part of the refugee
population settled in the southwestern part of the present province of
Ontario, chiefly in what now comprises the counties of Essex and Kent,
bordering on the Detroit River and Lake St. Clair. This large
migration of an alien race into a country more sparsely settled than
any of the Northern States might have been expected to cause trouble,
but records show that the Canadians received the refugees with
kindness and gave them what help they could.[2] At the close of the
Civil War many of the Negroes in exile returned, thus relieving the
situation in Canada.

The Fugitive Slave Bill had been signed but a month when Garrison
pointed out in _The Liberator_ that a northward trek of free people of
color was already under way. "Alarmed at the operation of the new
Fugitive Slave Law, the fugitives from slavery are pressing northward.
Many have been obliged to flee precipitately leaving behind them all
the little they have acquired since they escaped from slavery."[3] The
American Anti-Slavery Society's report also notes the consternation
into which the Negro population was thrown by the new legislation[4]
and from many other contemporary sources there may be obtained
information showing the distressing results that followed immediately
upon the signing of the bill. Reports of the large number of new
arrivals were soon coming from Canada. Hiram Wilson, a missionary at
St. Catharines, writing in _The Liberator_ of December 13, 1850, says:
"Probably not less than 3,000 have taken refuge in this country since
the first of September. Only for the attitude of the north there would
have been thousands more." He says that his church is thronged with
fugitives and that what is true of his own district is true also of
other parts of southern Ontario. Henry Bibb, in his paper _The Voice
of the Fugitive_[5] published frequent reports of the number of
fugitives arriving at Sandwich on the Detroit River. In the issue of
December 3,1851, he reports 17 arrivals in a week. On April 22, 1852,
he records 15 arrivals within the last few days and notes that "the
Underground Railroad is doing good b