Richard Pierpoint

Richard's real name is unknown. He was named Richard when he was owned by a man named Richard Peirpoint. He was born in Bondu, Senegambia, West Africa into the Fulani tribe. They grew varios crops including cotton and rice, were traders, and were excellent cattle ranchers. He was a Moslem and might have known how to read and write.

There was not enough labourers, so the tribes in Africa raided each other, bringing back people to work for them. The European slavers adopted this from the Africans and bought their slaves from Africa. Richard was captured and taken to James Fort where he was sold to Europeans. He was branded with a hot iron, treated as their property and forced abord a ship.

The trip across the ocean was almost enough to kill Richard. He was chanied to another man and slept with the next bunk only inches above his head. The stench of the horrible sanitation lingured in the air and many died. Some broke free and plunged into the ocean rather than try to survive. 15% of the human cargo died, but Richard survived.

Once he arrived in Barbados he was taken to a slave market somewhere on the mainland and made to look a little better. They cleaned him up and then put him on market. He was bought by a British soldier, Richard Peirpoint, and named. He lost his freedom, home, family, religion and even his name.

Richard served his master, also Richard for 16 years. It was a hard time of no freedom. Slaves worked hard long hours and were treated like property. They were flogged, abused and uncared for. Millions of slaves lived in horrible living conditions, serving their masters and being their work force without getting paid. Richard was ages 16 to 32 during his slavery, so this would have been especially hard for him. While other teens started getting more freedoms and decided what they wanted to do for a living, Richard was enslaved.

Richard earned his freedom from the very same King whose slave company had taken him to America and chartered him as a slave in the first place. He fought for King George against the Americans and when the British lost, he was taken to Fort Niagara. When he came across the border, he was free. His name was changed to Pawpine because he was a member of Butler's Rangers.

Pawpine was granted 200-acres near St.Catharines, On. He was required to clear the land and build a house on it. In 1791 after spending 3 years backbreaking labour Pawpine received full ownership of the land. Eventually he abandoned or sold his property, we don't really know why.

Pawpine now lived on his land, free in Canada, but he still was not happy. He felt unwelcome with the Caucasian people and few Africans. They probably looked down on him and thought of him as lower than them. After all, this was only a few years since the time where Africans would have been the slaves in America, and a little earlier and for a shorter time, in Canada. Richard, along with a few other Africans sent a petition to Governor John Simcoe to receive land adjacent to one another, so that they could have their own community and not have to live as close to the people who they disliked and who disliked them. He was refused.

Richards name was taken off the list of United Empire Loyalists. This meant that the servitude he did in the war was no longer considered legitimate. Possibly because they thought he had acted in a way that considered him no longer a loyalist, or because he was African and they were racist.

Peirpoint, at age 68, offered to lead a Corps of Coloured men into battle against the Americans. He was refused but eventually was accepted with the condition that Robert Runchey, a white tavern owner, would lead. In 1815 Runchey's "Coloured Corps" was disbanded and Richard lived as a labourer for another six years.