Photographed on 19 August 2003
Most Black Loyalists in New York at the end of the American Revolution were evacuated to Nova Scotia with the bulk of other Loyalists. There were roughly 4000 black refugees brought to Nova Scotia in 1785. The community of Birchtown had about 1,500 people and at the time was the largest community of free blacks outside Africa...
Source:
http://www.americanrevolution.org/blackloyalists.html
When the end (of the American Revolution, 1776-1783) came, the top British
commanders kept their word to the King's Black soldiers. In November 1782,
Britain and America signed a provisional treaty granting the former colonies
their independence. As the British prepared for their final evacuation, the
Americans demanded the return of American property, including runaway slaves,
under the terms of the peace treaty. Sir Guy Carleton, the acting commander
of British forces, refused to abandon black Loyalists to their fate as slaves.
With thousands of apprehensive blacks seeking to document their service to the
Crown, Brigadier General Samuel Birch, British commandant of the city of New York,
created a list of claimants known as The Book of Negroes...
Source: A Monument to George Washington's Slaves
http://www.blackcommentator.com/washingtons_slaves.html
Links to Relevant Websiteshttp://www.blackloyalist.com/ Birchtown Home to First Black Heritage Site http://www.gov.ns.ca/news/details.asp?id=20000128002 Birchtown Plaque http://nsgna.ednet.ns.ca/shelburne/main/BirchtownPlaque.php Birchtown History http://www.nsaccess.ns.ca/~birchhall/heritage.htm Birchtown Archaeology http://museum.gov.ns.ca/arch/sites/birch/ Black Loyalist History http://nsgna.ednet.ns.ca/shelburne/main/BlackLoyalistHistory.php Boston King Boston King was one of the many enslaved African Americans, perhaps as many as 100,000, who risked punishment and even death to reach the British lines and a chance at freedom ... Boston, along with others, formed a black community in Birchtown, six miles outside of Shelburne, Nova Scotia... http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part2/2p60.html A Monument to George Washington's Slaves When the end (of the American Revolution, 1776-1783) came, the top British commanders kept their word to the King's Black soldiers. In November 1782, Britain and America signed a provisional treaty granting the former colonies their independence. As the British prepared for their final evacuation, the Americans demanded the return of American property, including runaway slaves, under the terms of the peace treaty. Sir Guy Carleton, the acting commander of British forces, refused to abandon black Loyalists to their fate as slaves. With thousands of apprehensive blacks seeking to document their service to the Crown, Brigadier General Samuel Birch, British commandant of the city of New York, created a list of claimants known as The Book of Negroes... http://www.blackcommentator.com/washingtons_slaves.html Building on History: Black Loyalist in Nova Scotia The Nova Scotia government is looking for a place to put a landfill... http://bbi.ns.ca/Newsletters/Summer%201998/BLACKLOYALI.htm Waves of Black Pioneers: Slavery in Canada and the First Wave If one were to ask if Canada ever had slaves, many Canadians would respond with an indignant 'no', yet we did have slaves for a period of about 20 years. When the American colonies fought for freedom from British rule between 1775 and 1793, colonists who swore loyalty to the British Crown were offered land in Canada and provisions. Thousands of American colonists who took advantage of the British offer left the colonies in the south and in New England and headed north where the only established British colonies were in the eastern part of the new land. The Loyalist pioneers arrived in Halifax by shipload, carrying with them whatever possessions they needed to start their new life. About 2,500 indentured servants and slaves were part of that 'baggage'... http://www.highway7.com/t_culture/culture_0102_black_heritage2.html Black Loyalists "Most Black Loyalists in New York at the end of the war were evacuated to Nova Scotia with the bulk of other Loyalists. There were roughly 4000 black refugees brought to Nova Scotia in 1785. The community of Birchtown had about 1,500 people and at the time was the largest community of free blacks outside Africa..." http://www.americanrevolution.org/blackloyalists.html Birchtown, Shelburne County: Heritage and Community http://www.coastalcommunities.ns.ca/v6_i4.html#cp Visitors Information about Birchtown http://www.nsaccess.ns.ca/~birchhall/visitors.htm Monument at Birchtown Nova Scotia Museum http://museum.gov.ns.ca/blackloyalists/19002000/Places1900/birchtown.htm Geomatics at Birchtown http://museum.gov.ns.ca/arch/sites/btown/pages/gis.html The Goulden Map http://museum.gov.ns.ca/arch/sites/btown/pages/gis/goulden.html |
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Birchtown, Shelburne County Heritage and Community: One Step at a Time by Scott Milsom Archived: 2001 May 3 http://web.archive.org/web/20010503161448/http://coastalcommunities.ns.ca/v6_i4.html Archived: 2001 July 7 http://web.archive.org/web/20010707170556/http://coastalcommunities.ns.ca/v6_i4.html |
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