Upper Canada

The Province of Upper Canada was a British colony established in 1791 to govern the interior of British North America along the Great Lakes, corresponding to modern southern Ontario. The Constitutional Act divided the old Province of Quebec into Upper and Lower Canada, giving Upper Canada English civil law, a bicameral parliament and a lieutenant-governor at its capital, first at Newark and then at York. The colony was the main destination of Loyalist refugees after the American Revolution, and land was obtained from Indigenous peoples through a series of treaties in exchange for payments and annuities. John Graves Simcoe, the first lieutenant-governor, promoted roads, townships and the abolition of slavery, which the assembly legislated in 1793. During the War of 1812 Upper Canada was invaded by the United States and fought several battles, including Queenston Heights; the war ended with the border unchanged. In the 1820s and 1830s a small group known as the Family Compact dominated the appointed council, and in 1837 William Lyon Mackenzie led a short-lived rebellion in favour of responsible government. Upper Canada was united with Lower Canada in February 1841 to form the Province of Canada.