river while she screamed. Peter Martin, a Black Loyalist of Butler's Rangers, witnessed the incident. He brought William Grisely, a white man who had also witnessed the abduction, to make a report to the Executive Council of Upper Canada. Others saw the incident but took no action. Cooley's fate after she was taken across the river remains unknown. The Executive Council of Upper Canada brought charges against Sergeant Vrooman for disturbing the peace. However, he petitioned against the charges, which were eventually dropped, because Chloe Cooley was considered property. But Lieutenant-Governor Simcoe was outraged by the incident and decided to act to prohibit slavery. While at least 12 members of the 25-person government owned slaves or were members of slave-owning families, they offered little opposition to the bill. The Chloe Cooley incident was considered a catalyst in the passage of Canada's first and only anti-slavery legislation: the Act Against Slavery (Its full name is "An Act to Prevent the further Introduction of Slaves and to limit the Term of Contracts for Servitude (also known as the Act to Limit Slavery in Upper Canada)"). Simcoe gave it Royal Assent on 9 July 1793. Provisions of the Act It prohibited the importation of slaves into the province. It allowed the sale of slaves within the province and across the border into the United States. The last slave sale known took place in 1824. The law had three classes of persons: those held in slavery at the time of enactment would continue to be the property of their masters for life unless freed. Persons born to slave mothers would be granted freedom at age 25 (at that age they were judged able to support themselves), and masters were encouraged to employ them as indentured servants, for maximum terms up to nine years, which were renewable. Persons born to free blacks would be free from birth. In 1799 New York State passed a similar law to gradually abolish slavery and forbid any more sales of slaves within its borders. The last slaves in New York were freed in 1827. Other northern states, such as Vermont and Massachusetts, ended the institution earlier. Legacy A historical marker was installed by the Ontario Heritage Trust to recognize Cooley near Niagara-on-the-Lake. Cooley's story was featured in a five-minute documentary The Echoes of Chloe Cooley (2016) by Andrea Conte, entered in a contest for short works. In 2022, a