Public Life
From a young age Uniacke held a liberal attitude and a desire to see reform within British society. Upon his arrival in St. Kitts in 1773, he was exposed for the first time to slavery, an institution which he opposed. He could not understand how the institution of slavery could be practiced against a people whose only difference was that God had "made them black instead of white". In Nova Scotia he took up the cause for the abolition of slavery arguing before a court it had no basis in law.
His affinity to Catholics stayed with him throughout his life. He favored the reform of the Penal Laws (Ireland) that so disadvantaged the Catholics and took up the cause of religious reform in Nova Scotia. In 1783 he redrafted a bill passed by the Nova Scotia House of Assembly to repeal the law passed in 1758 that had proscribed Catholics. The bill had been struck down by the British government. Uniacke's redraft was confirmed thus allowing Catholics to own land, build churches and hire priests. In subsequent years Uniacke put forward additional amendments which allowed Catholics to establish schools and to vote in elections. His effects to bring about complete emancipation of Catholics continued until success was achieved in 1829.
In 1786 Uniacke was one of the founding members of the Charitable Irish Society; established to assist needy Irish regardless of whether they were Protestant or Catholic. Earlier, in 1780, he joined the Halifax Masonic Lodge, rising to the position of Worshipable Master in 1792.
Uniacke was also instrumental in the establishment in 1789 of King's College (see also King's Collegiate School) at Windsor, and he sat, despite being a non-Anglican, on its board.
The threat of war and invasion in late eighteenth and early nineteenth-century Nova Scotia, as part of the British Empire, was an every looming specter. To counter the threat the Province maintained a militia. In 1793 Uniacke was second-in-command of the Second Battalion of the militia and in 1794 was promoted to Lieutenant-colonel of the Eighth Battalion.
In 1827 Uniacke took up the position of President of the Halifax Society for the Encouragement of the Fisheries.
Read more about this topic: Richard John Uniacke
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