ilitary barracks, most of them in need of both fuel
and clothing. At Sandwich, near by, he also found distress and
mentions seeing a family of eight children who were almost nude and
who were suffering from the cold.[39] Sickness was, in many cases, a
result of the exposure to which the Negroes had been subjected in
their effort to reach Canada. Later on, the situation improved and by
1855 the workers of the American Missionary Association reported that
"in general, those who have gone there from the United States, even
the fugitives, may provide for the wants of their families, after a
short residence there; especially if they meet a friendly hand and,
more than all, good counsel on their arrival."[40]

Various agencies in both the United States and Canada were active in
the work of relieving the distress among the newcomers. The American
Anti-Slavery Society early addressed itself to this task. "Several
agents," said Bibb, "have during the past year proceeded to Canada to
exert the best influence in their power over the fugitives that have
flocked to the province in years past and especially those who have
gone the past year. They are supplied with the means of instructing
the colored population, clothing some of the most destitute fugitives
and aiding them in various ways to obtain employment, procure and
cultivate land and train up their children. Our friends in Canada are
exerting a good influence in the same direction."[41]

The fugitives themselves were banded together to aid the newcomers.
The Windsor Anti-Slavery Society and the Fugitives' Union were both
organized to relieve distress and assist their fellows in making a
living.[42] Supplies were sent in from points at considerable
distances in some cases, clothing, food, money, and in one case a
donation of 2,000 fruit trees from Henry Willis, of Battle Creek, for
refugees who were going on the land.[43] Michigan people were
exceedingly generous in extending aid and there is record also of
supplies sent from Fall River, Whitestown, New Jersey, Boston and
other places in New England. There was plenty of work for the Negroes,
the fifties being a period of railroad building in western Ontario, so
that writing in 1861, William Troy maintained, that nine tenths of the
fugitives had got along without outside aid of any kind. "The
fugitives show a marked disposition to help each other and relieve
want," he says. "I could show hundreds of instances of kindheartedness