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01491-14 Whitfield Research Note_Layout 2017-05-30 10:03 AM Page 213 HISTORIOGRAPHIC COMMENTARY/ COMMENTAIRE HISTORIOGRAPHIQUE The African Diaspora in Atlantic Canada: History, Historians, and Historiography BLACK MIGRATION IS ONE OF THE HALLMARKS of Atlantic Canadian history. These migrations, forced and voluntary, connected the Atlantic region with Africa, Europe, and the Caribbean. Between 1750 and 1820, thousands of black people migrated to the Atlantic colonies. 1 The intricacies and complexities of these black migrations are captured in several documents. An exploration of slave for sale notices, runaway advertisements, and other sources highlight the multifaceted migrations of people of African descent to and from Atlantic Canada. This essay highlights several primary source documents – the sale of Halifax slaves in Boston in 1751, Joshua Mauger’s 1752 slave sale in Halifax, Hector and Peter’s runaway notices, and opposing letters about race and immigration from two Nova Scotian writers – that are part of my research into slavery, the Black Loyalists, and the War of 1812 Black Refugees. Taken together, they prompt a reflection on the historiography of the African Diaspora in Atlantic Canada. Since the late 19th century, there has been an outpouring of scholarship about people of African descent in the Atlantic Region. This essay explores the trends and patterns that have emerged in the historiography and highlights the role that migration and various historical contexts – especially the local, national/continental, and imperial – have had on the black population. 2 Regional history is intimately related to the wider African Diaspora through immigration, emigration, enslavement, freedom, commerce, and family 1 The exact number of black people who migrated to Atlantic Canada between 1750 and 1860 is necessarily impressionistic due to the lack of precise documentation.
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