Thilln60 hu-beea.produccd by the lmerpretation ~t cl the NOYa Scotia MUMUm WlltOq Section. with me ~t~iatance of Ruth Holmes Whitehead; Carmdita Robemon, Carolyn The Black Loyalists Smith, Davicl'Statcs, Palrick Klkembo, Gloria Damond, arrived in Nova Scotia Scott Robson·and Angela between 1783 and 1785, Melgaard. as a result of the It comet out of.the,racarch and American Revolution. exhibition project"Rcmembering They were the largest Black Loyalists, Black Communities•. The project- group of people of "' l'eCO\IerCCl information relating African birth and of to the Blaclc. Loyalist settlements Mrican descent to come ofBirchtown, Shelburne County and the Tneaclie area of to Nova Scotia at any Antigonish and Guysborough one time. Counties. Research results h:lve been given to the Black Loyalist Heri~ Society, the In 1775, some people Brownspriggs Historical Society, and the Black Cultural Centn: in the British North for Nova Scotia. American colonies were arguing with the British This project W3S funded by Dept. of Canadian Heri~: government about how Multiculturalism, the Nova much control Great Scotia Museum, and the NS Dept. of Education's Learning Britain should have over Resources &. Technology. Y/nJM erlrl7fi:r iii taxes and life in the 5\NtJ:-wnr, ,;, 17.'13 colonies. The colonists Nc.a-~-,.,.-~"'-Scoc.. MAP BY GRANT Muu.\Y. wanted to influence NovA St;OTIA MusEUM. Patrlmome 1+1 ~: canadien decisions about laws and taxes but had no NOVA SCOTIA MUSEUM representation in the British parliament. They In the northern colonies, slaves worked as "FAMILY oflS MUSEUMS declared themselves independent of Britain farm hands or at various jobs as domestic when they weren't able to come to an agreement. workers, or at semi~specialized trades such N~ The American Revolution, also called the as lumbering, mining, road-making, black Tourism lind Cullun: American War oflndependence, was the result. smithing, shoemaking, weaving and spinning.

People of African birth, who were brought When Lord Dunmore, Royal Governor of forcibly to the colonies to provide slave labour, Virginia, lost control of that colony to the and their descendants, were caught in this war. rebels in the summer of 1775, the economy In the late 1600s and 1700s, the British had ofVirginia was based on slave labor. Lord established rice, indigo, and tobacco plantations Dunmore issued a proclamation that slaves in the southern part of North America. or indentured persons would be given their Plantation owners required lots of labourers to freedom if they took up arms with the British do field work and other jobs. To reduce costs, against the rebels. As a result, 2,000 slaves they used slaves. At first they enslaved the and indentured persons joined his forces. native Indians but then used mostly African Later, other British supporters in the colonies slaves. issued similar proclamations. Then the British Commander-in-Chief at New York, Sir Henry Clinton, issued the Philipsburg proclamation when the British realized they were losing the war. It stated that any Negro to desert the rebel cause would receive full protection, freedom, and land. It is estimated that many thousands of people of Mrican descent joined the British and became British supporters.

When the Americans won the war and the Treaty of Paris was signed in 1783, British forces and their supporters had to leave the new United States. They gathered at New THE BooK oF NEGRoES York, waiting to be evacuated. In the meantime, Thit book it a hondwrirten lin of Block passeng.:r1 lc~ving New York on British thips in 1783. It gives the Americans wanted their lost property • nome, og.:, physical description, ond llatus (dove returned. Sir Guy Carleton, the new British or free) for ~ch passeng.:r, and often an owner'• n<~ mc ~nd pbce of residence. Three copies of the Commander-in-Chief, refused General George Boolt oj'Ntpvn exist: one in Engl~nd, at the Public Washington's demand for the return of those Reco rds Office, Kcw; one in the United States, at the N~rio nal Archives, Washington; and one in slaves who had joined the British before Canad~, at the Nova Scotia Archives, Halifax. Knowkdg.: of the Black Lo~ts begins with this November 30, 1782. The two men agreed that list, made by British and American inspec1or1. l'hoOJ br l<.nUnc ~ &T..tu.o~ou. N..,. Sa:>an

CERTIFICATE OF fREEDOM Book ofNegroes, but perhaps as many as 5,000 1l1is cenific>re of freedom, issued in New York Black people left New York for Nova Scotia, City to C~to Ramsay, is one of the few to sumor. Non. Scoria ArciMWJ and R«urd• P.bnqmwnt the West Indies, (hlebec, England, Germany, and Belgium. The British-American Commission identified the Black people in New York who had joined the British before the surrender, and issued "certificates of freedom" signed by General Birch or General Musgrave. Those who chose When about 40,000 newcomers, today referred to emigrate were evacuated by ship. To make to as United Empire Loyalists, arrived in the sure no one attempted to leave who did not British colony ofNova Scotia between 1776 have a certificate of freedom, the name of any and 1785, the population tripled. There were Black person on board a vessel, whether slave, about 3,500 Black Loyalists in this group. indentured servant, or free, was recorded, along They included newly freed slaves, those who had bought their freedom, and those born free, as well Port Mouton, renamed Guysborough in honour of Sir Guy as indentured servants and slaves to White Loyalists and Carleton, was home to 558 Black Loyalist settlers until a disbanded soldiers. fire ripped through the town and destroyed everything. The people were removed by the government in June of 1784 to The Black Loyalists were landed at Port Roseway (now Chedabucto Bay, in north-eastern Nova Scotia where they Shelburne), Birch town, Port Mouton, Annapolis Royal, Fort created the township of Guysborough, named after their Cumberland, Halifax, and Saint John. New Brunswick, until original settlement. that time a part of Nova Scotia, was created in 1784 as a new province, to distribute the administrative burden of dealing with so many new arrivals.

Black Loyalist settlements in Nova Scotia were established in Annapolis Royal and in the areas of Cornwallis/Horton, Weymouth, Digby, Windsor, Preston, Sydney, Fort Cumberland, Parrsboro, Halifax, as well as Shelburne, Birchtown, and Port Mouton. In New Brunswick, Black " Loyalists were settled in Saint John and along the Saint John River.

··· t- THE 8ROWNSPRICCS 1»11> CIIANT Thi• SUt\'<:)'Uf' dr.twing shoW! the PIT HOUSE 3 ,000-:~U~: Brownspriggs gr.ont 3t lmogine orriving in Nov:t Scotia in the summer or f:ill T r.tc:tdic, given to 74 Blxk Loy:llists of 1783. You need a roof over yuur head, but lumber is in in 1787. short supply. Or yuu don't hov.: ume before winter comes to build a house. So you ···- N'on Scotia An::N.u alld R«:oN. ~t!n~Fmcn1 dig a hole in the ground and make a roof of tree trunks and can= over the hole. The British Army often lived this way while on the march, ond Black soldien ond engineen hod built hundreds of them during the war. This pit house (AkOi-12) was ""cav:ned by St. M3ry's Univenity Field School3rch3cologists in 1994. N'UYS !kvt!j Mli~ l'hotiJ 1 l...Mnl Nivm.

Resettlement was hard for White Loyalists, but it was worse for Black Loyalists. Nova Scotia, under the direction of Governor

SURVEY OF 8JRCHTOWN Parr, was not prepared for the arrival of so many people. Many This surveyor'• dl':lwing shoW! sever.al Block Loy.Uist names. arrived late in the fall and had no opportunity to clear land, It w.u discov.:rcd in a W:.U of> house in Shelboume County in 1998. This dr.twing and • ledger kept by merchant Stephen build a home, or plant crops. Many spent the winter in tents Skinner ore the earliest evidence that Black Loy;Uists owned and makeshift huts in the thick woods. Others built pit homes. land in the present-day Birchtown. l'liYato C..o..Don. l'horo by ~ lleoowSlavery was still legal and enforced in Nova Scotia markets for goods. at this time. People could still be bought and They also had sold until1834, when slavery was abolished new sources of in the British Empire. One of the biggest goods to sell in fears of Black Loyalists was to be Europe and the kidnapped and sold in the Americas. United States or the West Indies by slave traders, European countries began to establish SCARRED BACK oF GoRDoN, colonies in the AN AM£RICAN SLAVE, CI86J, Americas in the LOUISIANA This m~n be.n the scan of 1600s and 1700s. flogging. John Fanner of Dirchtown, Nov:t Scotio, told When the British C!:tnt Dennis in the 1920s, established rice, "S[o\'el were used h:mi .. .If onything went wrong they were indigo, and tobacco tied up ~nd !oshed, then their plantations in the bacia wcr< bothcd in pickle. Gr:andfothcr hod it done to him southern part of in sl:iV<:ry". Jolm wos • dcsccndont of Nov:t Srotion Bl:ick Loyolisu, North America, Jupiter ond Venus Famcr. plantation owners V ~,CORBIS.!':...-lut~ needed lots ofworkers. First they used native Indians as slave In the Americas and the Caribbean, the Mricans were sold for labour but then they mostly used Mrican slaves because the cash. This money purchased sugar, rum, spices, cotton, tobacco, Mricans were able to withstand the heat and malaria. coffee, rice, indigo, and molasses for sale in Europe. The trans-Atlantic trade between Mrica, the Americas, and Europe, known as the Triangular Trade, created immense wealth for SLAVE SALE AD, SoUTH CAROLINA European nations. Mtllions of BLack people were t•kl:n from Mrico, to be wid m Europe •nd the New World. The BritiSh entered It is estimated that more than 10 million people were brought the West Mricon sl~vc tndc in the 1500s, 2nd brought most of the future across the Atlantic Ocean to North America during the three Block Loy.Uists or their •nceston to hundred years of active slave trading. It was a cruel commerce North America. Almon 50 per cent of these people came through 2 single N I! G R 0 I! 11, in human lives, carried on by both Blacks and Whites, with no port: Charltston, South Carolina. At J~-=~~· .... ~~~ regard for anything except profit and power. the time of the Americ•n Revolution, Ch:uieston had the largest Bbck populotion in the North Americ:~n colonies The British colonies of the 1700s passed laws to control slaves. Photo by TaT)" Rich&nloon. ChoflaiMI.ibrvy !iooety Choflaton, ~' c..,u,. A slave was not free to marry, vote, move about freely, or meet with friends. A slave legally could be whipped, starved, tortured, mutilated, or branded. A slave could be forced to have children or to work eighteen hours a day. A slave could be abused or

RUNAWAY SLAVE AD, murdered or sold at any time. A slave was regarded as a piece NovA ScOTIA of property. Slavery is a denial of basic human rights. In spite Slavery was not obolished in Nov:>. Scoti2 or in the rest of of the strict laws and punishments, slaves did rebel against this the British Empire until 1834. treatment. From the 1500s to the 1800s, there were more than Some BLacks who c:unc to Nov:>. Scorio as sJa,•es in 1783 250 known slave revolts. m•nagcd to run away and join the luger popul2tion of free Block Loy:Uists. England made the slave trade illegal in 1807, but did not outlaw NDW~ Stoti.a Atthivn and ~ M•"'l!'mcnt slavery itself unril1834. In the United States, the institution of slavery and the selling of slaves continued until1863. To In the 1700s, quite a few European countries, including protect the price of their domestic slaves, in 1808 the United Great Britain, had slave-trading companies on the west coast States made it illegal to import slaves from Africa. of Africa, in the present-day countries of Gambia, Senegal, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Dahomey, and Nigeria. These companies built fortified towns, with full-time European and Mrican staff who maintained BRITISH SHIPS LEAVING NEw YoRK HAuoR diplomatic relations with Mrican kings and chiefs, and traded More than 114 •hips mnsponed White and BLack Loyalists to Nova Scoti2 in 1785, mony m:aiUng two textiles, weapons, ceramics, liquor, and raw iron in exchange Of more rrips. This wood engraving was done c. 1884 for slaves. by Howard Pyle {1853-1911). N•Oon.IArdlt.,ofC..W..O...wa, ...... no.I990-5SJ-&S&

Men, women and children were captured inland and brought to the coast by Mrican dealers, then sold and held in the European Kslave factories" where they might wait weeks for a slave ship to transport them across the ocean. They might spend more months in the hold of a vessd, waiting for a full cargo of slaves. Some would die crossing the Atlantic Ocean, from dehydration caused by heat, lack of water and severe diarrhea - the result of unhealthy crowded conditions. For more about the Black Loyalists in Nova Scotia, see Part 2. Cordon, Grant. 1992. From Slavery to Frredom: The Life ofDafJid George, Pioneer BIRck Baptist Minsto-. Lancclot Press, for the Acadia Divinity College ... : H:mtsport, Nova Scotia. •

Grant, john N. 1973. "Black Immigrants into Nova Scotia, 1776-1815" in foumRiofNegroHutory, Vol. 58, No.3.

MacKinnon, Neil. 1986. Thu Unfrimdly SoiL· The Loy11/ut Experimu in Now Scoti11, 1783-1791. McCiU-Qieens University Press: Kingston and Montreal.

Niven, Laird. 1994. Birthto'Wn Archaeological Su,.,ey 'I99i· Roseway Publishing Company: Lockcport, Nova Scotia. __. 2000. WIIS thu the home ofStephen Blucke': The exc11wtion ofAIDi-23, Birthto'Wn, Shelburne County. Novn Scotia Museum Curatorial Report No. 93: Halifax. --· 2000. ''Testing Two Sites in Birch town" in Archaeological SuMJeys in T'WO Bl11d Communities, 1998. Novn Scotia Museum Curatorial Report No. 92: Halifax.

Pachai, Bridglal. 1987. Beneath the Clouds ofthe Promued Land; The Sun~i'fiiZI of Nof)a Scotia's Blacks. J'aL 1, 1600-1800, Black Educators Association of Nova Scotia: Halifax.• __. 1991. Beneath the Clouds ofthe Promued Land: The Su,.,ival of No'fiiZ Scotia's Blacia. Vol. 2, 1800-1989. Black Educators Association of Nova Scotia: Halifax.

Phillips, Dorrie. 1983. "Early Years of the Black Loyalists" in SeUick, B. Lester and Donald Wetmore. Loyalists in Now Scoliil: Biographies ofLoyalut Sen/en. Lancclot Press: Hantsport .. f'!l. Powell, Stephen. 2000. "Surveying the Tracadie Area" in .Archaeological SuMJeys in T'WO Black Communities, 1998. Nova Scotia Museum Curatorial Report No. 92: Halifax.

Robertson, Carmellta. 2000. Tracing the Hutory ofTracadie Layaluts, 1776-1787. Nova Scotia Museum Curatorial Report No. 91: Halifax.

Various. 1999. Black History and Mrican Heritage Supplement in Shunpiking,No"'a Scotia's DucowryMagazine: Halifax. ---· 2000. "A People's Odys ~ey, 400 Years of Nova Scotian History" in Shunpiking, Nov11 Scotia's Discowry Magazine: Halifax.

Walker, James W. St. C. 1976. The Black Loy11lists: The Se11rth for a Promised Land in NofJa Scotia and Sierra Leone, 1783-1870. Mricana Publishing Company and Dalhousie University Press: New York. •

Whitehead, Ruth Holmes. 2000. The Shelbumt/Birthtrn»n Black Loyalists. Nova Scotia Museum Curatorial Report No. 94: Halifax.

Whitehead, Ruth Holmes and Carmclita Robertson. In publication. The Memoin ofthe Lift ofBoston /(jng.

Wilson, Ellen Gibson. 1976. The Loyal Bl11ch. G.P. Putnam's Sons: New York.

• Available to Nova Scotian teachers at Department of Education Book Bureau

available to Nova Scotians from Education Media Library, Nova Scotia Mricans in America I Pan 2: The Revolutionary War Department of Education http://www.pbs.org/wgbhlaia/part2/2narr4.hunl http:/llrt.ednet.ns.ca Education Media Library, Nova Scotia Dept. of Education "Digging for Slaves." 50 min. 1989. International Tcle-Film Ltd. 22388 [VHS http:/llrt.ednet. ru.ca loan] The Black Loyalist Heritage Society · History "Escape to Nova Scotia: 58:51 min. 1998. Learning Resources and http://www.blackloyali st.com/history.html Technology, Now Scotia Department of Education. V 2170 [Video dubbing) The On-Line Institute for Advanced Loyalist StudieitBlack Loyalists "Hymn to Freedom" Series. 230 min. 1994. International Tcle· Film Ltd. index page [Video dubbing) http://www.royalprovincial.com/ military/blacklbl ack.htm

Includes ~Nova Scotia: Against the Tides" 57:30 min. 1994. V 1643 [Video The On-Line Institute for Advanced Loyalist Studies:Black Loyalists - dubbing] David George http://www.royalprovincial.com/military/blaclclblkgeo,htm Loylllties. 56:50 min. 1998. Ziji Productions and the National Film Board of Canada. (Av:illable from www.nfb.cn) Nova Scotia Museum Black Loyalists http://muscum.gov.ns.ca/BiackLoyalitts Lucy's Bet: Bltzd LOJlllim irr Nr~w Scotia. 33:37 min, 1991. Learning Resources and Technology, Nova Scotia Department of Education. V 1144 Nova Scotia ArchiVei & Records Management (Video dubbing] Teacher's guide included. http://www .nsarm.ednet.ns.ca