Editing Underground Railroad (section)

===War of 1812 routes===

{{See also|Slavery in Canada}}

[[File:William Williams Black Soldier U.S. Army War of 1812.jpg|thumb|William Williams was an enslaved runaway and a Black Soldier in the U.S. Army in the War of 1812.<ref>{{cite web |title=William Williams |url=https://www.nps.gov/people/william-williams.htm |website=Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine, Star-Spangled Banner National Historic Trail |publisher=The National Park Service |access-date=10 September 2024}}</ref>]]

During the [[War of 1812]], 700 enslaved people in [[History of slavery in Maryland|Maryland]] escaped from slavery.<ref>{{cite web |title=African Americans and the War of 1812 |url=https://msa.maryland.gov/msa/mdstatehouse/war1812/html/afam_war.html#:~:text=Upwards%20of%20700%20slaves%20from,widow%20of%20Governor%20Benjamin%20Ogle. |website=The Maryland State Archives |access-date=10 September 2024}}</ref> Before the war, freedom seekers escaped to the [[Michigan Territory]] by crossing the [[Detroit River]]. Over the years the numbers of escaped African Americans grew in the territory. Territorial governor [[William Hull]] offered Peter Denison, an enslaved man, "a written license" allowing him to form a militia company of free Blacks and escaped slaves. The men were armed and trained but Hull disbanded the militia. Some of the Black men in the militia escaped from slavery in British Canada. In the 18th century, slavery was practiced in Canada, and by 1793 it was phased out, but some [[Black Canadians]] remained enslaved. During the late 18th century and early 19th century, the route of freedom seekers went south beginning in British Canada to their final destination in free American territories in the Old Northwest. By the War of 1812, slave laws in British Canada prohibited the continuation of slavery. This changed the final destinations of freedom seekers in the United States to look north to Canada to obtain their freedom. In the summer of 1812, Hull declared that enslaved runaways and free Blacks in the Michigan Territory were free citizens, and when war broke out with Britain, Black citizens of Michigan were armed to fight against the British. After his military service, Peter Denison and his family left Michigan and relocated north to Canada.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Allen Smith |first1=Gene |title=The Underground Railroad of 1812: Paths to freedom along the Canadian border |url=https://www.nps.gov/articles/the-underground-railroad-changes-course.htm#:~:text=Yet%20by%20the%20end%20of,new%20Canadian%20land%20of%20freedom. |website=The National Park Service |access-date=10 September 2024}}</ref>

====Black Refugees====

In April of 1814, the British Army promised freedom to enslaved Black Americans who joined the British military or who choose freedom in [[British colonization of the Americas|British colonies]]. In the Chesapeake Region of Virginia and Maryland and coastal areas of Georgia, about 4,000 enslaved Black Americans escaped from slavery. Within the number of 4,000 freedom seekers who escaped, 2,000 sailed to Nova Scotia between September 1813 and August 1816 on naval vessels and private ships chartered by the British and were taken to Nova Scotia and [[New Brunswick|New Brunswick, Canada]] and 400 freedom seekers were taken to [[Trinidad]] in the Caribbean. The Black people who settled in British Canada are known as [[Black refugee (War of 1812)|Black refugees]] who escaped slavery in the United States and sided with the British during the War of 1812.<ref>{{cite web |title=African Nova Scotians in the Age of Slavery and Abolition |url=https://archives.novascotia.ca/africanns/results/?Search=&SearchList1=4 |website=Nova Scotia Archives | date=April 20, 2020 |access-date=16 September 2024}}</ref>

====Merikens====

The [[Merikin]]s were formerly enslaved Black Americans that escaped slavery and joined the British military's all-Black unit of [[corps of Colonial Marines|Colonial Marines]] during the War of 1812. When the war ended, they were taken to numerous British colonies to live as free people. About 700 Colonial Marines were taken to [[Trinidad]] in the Caribbean. Although slavery was legal in Trinidad, they were guaranteed protection under commander Robert Mitchell. The formerly Black Americans called themselves Merikens, "an abbreviated word for 'Americans'" and started new lives in Trinidad in six Company Villages in the southern part of the island.<ref>{{cite web |title=Celebrating the Merikins |url=https://natt.gov.tt/sites/default/files/pdfs/Celebrating-the-Merikins.pdf |website=National Archives of Trinidad and Tobago |access-date=16 September 2024}}</ref> The Trinidadian government provided the Merikens with food, rations, clothing, and tools needed to build their homes, and they grew their own food of corn, pumpkin, plantain, and rice.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Merikins |url=https://www.nps.gov/stsp/learn/historyculture/merikins.htm |website=Star-Spangled Banner National Historic Trail |publisher=The National Park Service |access-date=16 September 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Fergus |first1=Claudius |title=Revolutionary Emancipation Slavery and Abolitionism in the British West Indies |date=2013 |publisher=Louisiana State University Press |isbn=9780807149898 |page=113 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kUrRM-RVRJ4C&dq=merikins+slavery&pg=PA115}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=A Guide to the Merikin Collection |url=https://www.natt.gov.tt/sites/default/files/images/NATT%20Merikin%20Collection%20GuideREV2021.pdf |website=National Archives of Trinidad and Tobago |access-date=16 September 2024}}</ref>