Charles Stuart was born in 1783 in
Bermuda, as shown by Canadian census records (countering assertions that he was born in
Jamaica). His father was presumably a
British army officer posted to the
Bermuda Garrison, possibly Lieutenant Hugh
Stewart of the detachment of invalid regular soldiers belonging to the
Royal Garrison Battalion, which was disbanded in 1784, following the
Treaty of Paris, probably resulting in Stuart's emigration from the colony; the surviving parish registries for the period, compiled by AC Hollis-Hallett as
Early Bermuda Records, 1619-1826, list no birth of a Stuart, Stewart, or Steward in or about 1783 other than an unnamed child of Lieutenant Steward, baptised in St. George's on 8 December 1781. Stuart was educated in
Belfast and then pursued a military career as his first vocation. He left the military in 1815 and, in 1817, emigrated to
Upper Canada (Ontario) with a tidy pension. He settled in
Amherstburg, Upper Canada, and began his pursuit of a cause both in Canada and England. By 1821, he was involved with the black refugees (
fugitive slaves) who were beginning to arrive in the area from south of the border. He began a small black colony near Amherstburg, where he actively assisted the new arrivals to start new lives as farmers. In 1822, Stuart took a position as the principal of
Utica Academy in New York State. There he met the young
Theodore Dwight Weld, who became one of the leaders of the American
abolitionist movement during its formative years. By 1829, he returned to England for a time. There, Charles wrote some of the most influential anti-slavery pamphlets of the period. Any product made from the use of
slave labour was forbidden in his home. == Writings ==