Drawing of Adam Vrooman

Adam Vrooman was a member of Butler's Rangers and settled in the area of Queenston after the American Revolution. On March 14, 1793, Vrooman violently bound his slave, Chloe Cooley, and transported her across the Niagara River to be sold in New York State. Chloe's screams were heard and reported to The Executive Countil (the governement in Upper Canada).

The Executive Council resolved to put an end to the violent removal of slaves and instructed Attorney General John White to prosecute Vrooman for disturbing the peace. Within the next few weeks, White filed charges against Vrooman in the Court of Quarter Sessions, held at Newark (now Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario). On 18 April 1793, Vrooman responded to the charges in a petition in which he stated that he had:

[...] been informed that an information had been lodged against him to the Attorney General relative to his proceedings in his Sale of said Negroe Woman; your Petitioner had received no information concerning the freedom of Slaves in this Province, except a report which prevailed among themselves, and if he has transgressed against the Laws of his Country by disposing of Property (which from the legality of the purchase from Benjamin Hardison) he naturally supposed to be his own, it was done without knowledge of any Law being in force to the contrary.

Vrooman’s petition reveals that he provided a defence of ignorance to his sale of Cooley, stating that he did not break the law. The charges against Vrooman were dropped.