The story of Nancy: Confronting New Brunswick's past with slavery

Members of the province's black history community say while it's important to call out the sins of past New Brunswickers, it shouldn't be done at the expense of celebrating the province's rich black heritage.

"We need to change the conversation is what I really feel," said Jennifer Dow, a historian of Black Loyalist decent.

"When I hear [someone] owned slaves I want to know who [the slaves] were. I want to give these people a name."

New Brunswick has been dealing with its historic connection to slavery as of late.

This includes considering renaming buildings, the most popular example being Ludlow Hall, the University of New Brunswick's law faculty building.

Ludlow Hall is named after George Duncan Ludlow, a judge who ruled in favour of slavery and is believed by many historians to have owned slaves.

But Graham Nickerson, whose Black Loyalist ancestors originally settled in Shelburne, N.S., said it's a shame that people now are being reintroduced to Ludlow but are still ignorant of the more important figure in the story, Nancy.

"We need to acknowledge Nancy, right," said Nickerson. 

"Like, it's no point if we rename Ludlow Hall ... and completely ignore the other people who are involved in that case. I think Nancy is someone who should be known nationally."

Who was Nancy?

Nancy was the slave at the heart of an 1800 slavery case, which Ludlow ruled on, that aimed to settle the legality of slavery in New Brunswick.

Unfortunately, according to Cynthia Wallace-Casey, an education professor who's done research on Nancy, there's just not a lot of documentation.

"We don't know a great deal about her," said Wallace-Casey.

But there are a few things we do know.

Nancy would likely have been born in Somerset, Md., on the plantation of a man named Caleb Jones.

She would've been taken to New Brunswick at the end of the American Revolutionary War along with her Loyalist owner.

It was not too long after this that Nancy attempted to run away from captivity.

Wallace-Casey said Nancy would've faced great hardships when she arrived in the province, which would have made escape all the more tempting.

"I mean if nothing else the climate and and not having a shelter, starting from virtually nothing would have been so difficult for everyone and even more so I suspect for the [slaves,]" said Wallace-Casey.

Day in court

Nancy was eventually captured and returned to Jones, but she would see some modicum of retribution 14 years later when she would be called to court.

The case, heard at the New Brunswick Supreme Court in Fredericton, was essentially a test case trying to determine the legality of slavery in the colony.

On one hand, you had abolitionists, who argued that since there was no law legalizing slavery in the province that it should be considered illegal.

Conversely, you had people who wanted to maintain the institution of slavery who argued that since there were no laws on the books codifying slavery in New Brunswick, a British Empire law legalizing slavery in the empire, barring Great Britain itself, should stand.

But Wallace-Casey sees this reasoning as suspicious considering the colonies practice of legislating for themselves.

"New Brunswick was a newly evolving colony with its own laws and its own governance and in so many other instances laws were being established to regulate life within this colonial province," said Wallace-Casey.

"My question would be why would there have not been some sort of regulation put in place with regards to slavery?"

Nickerson said what makes the case even more bizarre is that the proponents of slavery agreed that it was a horrible practice.

"The idea is that in the British Empire slavery is legal, other than in Britain ... but that slavery is so odious that because there's no ...  law saying that it's illegal then it must be legal," said Nickerson.

The trial ended in a split decision, with Ludlow ruling in favour of slavery, which had the effect of keeping the status quo, effectively legalizing slavery in New Brunswick.

Wallace-Casey said Nancy was present at the trial, although there are no records saying if she testified.

After the trial, what happened to Nancy isn't known.

What now?

But that still leaves the question of what should happen with Ludlow Hall.

Several groups at the university have advocated for the name of the law building to be changed, including the law students' association.

The university said they would start a working group to look at the renaming this building, and the university's naming policy in general, and report back by May with a final decision coming in December.

Nickerson said he is of two minds on the issue.

"I find it quite distasteful that as a society that's the way we went," said Nickerson. 

"But I mean it is a statement of those times ... You can't apply today's norms to the past ... it doesn't work."

Wallace-Casey said she would support the name change because, while other Loyalists owned slaves, Ludlow played an active role in letting the practice continue in the province.

"This was his chance to make a difference and he chose not to," said Wallace-Casey.

Dow said she also has mixed feelings about the name change, because she said she places more importance on preserving black history and she doesn't see how a name change would accomplish that goal.

"How much are they going to be spending on renaming a building or whatever the case may be," said Dow. 

"Why can't that money be invested in a project to preserve and promote black history in the province?"

More resources needed

Dow said when she began researching her family tree, which includes Black Loyalists, she relied largely on relatives and connections she had in the province's black community.

But those connections are aging and Dow said there needs to be a greater emphasis placed on preserving the knowledge of black history in the province.

"We could be creating a database, something similar [to] the Irish portal on the provincial archives website," said Dow. "We could have something like that for the black community."