The write up of the Black Loyalists of theAmerican Revolutionis the story of a people slip into bondage who are given the chance to fight for their freedom , exact retaliation on savage victor , and launch one of the first loose bleak village on the continent . It ’s also a tarradiddle of broken promises , racial discord and the distance to which multitude will go to find a better life . And it ’s a nearly forgotten chapter in North American account .
When the American Colonies declare independence in 1776 , African slaves made up20 percentof the colonial population . The population of South Carolina was 60 percent slaves , and Virginia was 40 percent , mostly toiling on large plantation . ( Slavery was not just a Southern institution then — in some northerly urban center like Boston , slave made up 20 pct of the universe . ) Even before the War for Independence officially start , the British render to enrol American slaves to rise up and fight against their " rebel " plantation owners . " Loyalist " was the term give to masses in the American Colonies who supported Britain .
In 1775 the British royal governor of Virginia , Lord Dunmore , issued a stunning " emancipation proclamation " promising freedom and land to all slave who would take up sleeve against their rebel masters . Dunmore was appear for hands to put down an armed revolt in Virginia , and he recover it . Between 800 and 2,000 slaves and indentured servants flee their plantation and connect with the British , including a firmly - fighting militia that would become sleep together asDunmore ’s Ethiopian Regiment . The Ethiopian Regiment marched to battle in uniforms inscribed with the insignia " Liberty to Slaves . "
Dunmore ’s declaration was the " first mass emancipation in American history , " enjoin Isaac Saney , a history prof at Saint Mary ’s University in Nova Scotia . It happened nearly 90 years before Abraham Lincoln sign the Emancipation Proclamation , terminate slavery in area not under the restraint of the United States government .
When the tides turned against the British in 1779 , they issue a second emancipation called the Philipsburg Proclamation , which lead the hope of freedom and landed estate to any slave who would cross the British lines without the necessity to crusade . The move , says Saney , was a form of economical war against the colonies .
" Escaping Africans would weaken the rebel thriftiness , " says Saney . " You ’d have this mass emancipation lead place , and the colonists would now have to drop resources to guard the plantations , instead of using them in fight . "
An estimated12,000 slavesof African descent struggle for the British , but the war was lost . When the British surrendered in 1783 , one of the central compass point of contention , Saney say , was " the yield of what George Washington hold ' U.S. prop , ' which are the enslaved Africans . "
After the Revolutionary War
The British commander - in - chief Guy Carleton kept his word and negociate " credential of exemption " for all so - called Black Loyalists who had joined the British social station before the surrender , under one consideration : They had to leave the country . Carleton ’s human being cautiously memorialise the public figure of 3,000 newly freed gentleman and woman in what ’s eff as theBook of Negroes , and then put them on ships channelise to Nova Scotia , then a British - prevail Canadian responsibility .
Nova Scotia in the late 18th century was bed as " Nova Scarcity . " When 40,000 whitened and Black loyalists take flight to Nova Scotia in 1783 — including 1,232 slaves of white loyalists — they tripled the aboriginal population and completely overwhelm the province ’s scrimpy resources . The newly release Black Loyalists , far from receiving their just rewards in a new family , find themselves last in strain for land , and tap as brassy labor .
Widespread poverty and underemployment across Nova Scotia brew distrust among Edward Douglas White Jr. , who blame the gimcrack African labor for stealing their task . Racial stress erupted into violence , says Saney , when a pitch-dark preacher named David George baptized a snowy woman , sparking what many think is one of the first wash riots in North America . The 1784 violence razz for months , take many shameful homes and lives until troops were finally sent in from the capital Halifax .
The Black Loyalists repeatedly petitioned the Crown to keep its promise from the state of war , finally beam the emissaryThomas Petersall the way to London to make the case in soul . Peters got nowhere with purple functionary , but did meet with a group of British emancipationist who were launching a social experiment in Sierra Leone , West Africa , a sanctuary for victims of the slave patronage . They convinced Peters that the safe place for the freed striver was back in Africa .
Black Loyalists Today
Jason Farmer is a 9th - generation descendent of the Black Loyalists who first settled Birchtown . Farmer can trace his roots back toJupiter Farmer — one of five Jupiters in the Book of Negroes , and an at large striver from Brunswick , New Jersey . Jupiter married a woman named ( yes ) Venus and launch a continuous wrinkle of the Farmer family that has remained in the Birchtown expanse for more than 230 years .
Farmer is an interpreter at theBlack Loyalist Heritage Centre & Historical Sitein Nova Scotia , where he ’s proud to share the remarkable news report of his ancestors , who dare to escape the plantations and join with an occupying army to win their freedom , only to extend to defend for true freedom and equality in a unexampled land .
" It ’s an unknown history right here in Nova Scotia , " enounce Farmer , who particularly relish telling the story of Black Loyalists to fellow Nova Scotians of African descent . " They ’re amazed . It ’s powerful . Some of them ca n’t even sit there and listen to it all . They have to take breaks . Some of them cry . " Some20,000 fateful peoplelive in Nova Scotia today , most of whom are come down from the Black Loyalists .
Saney the historian articulate that the legacy of the Black Loyalists is of a oppress the great unwashed work out bootleg agency .
" These are people who took their lot and their portion into their own hands , " Saney says . " Just to get to the British side took a lot of courage , skill and cleverness . The fact that so many of them chose to fight back — and watch themselves as not only defend their freedom , but participating in the liberation of others — talk the breadth and depth of their invention of agency , but also as part of a collective battle for exemption . "
