Interesting site, Black Cultural Centre For Nova Scotia Here are some bits from it. Black Migration 1782-85 About 3,500 Blacks fled to what is now Nova Scotia and New Brunswick at the close of the American Revolution. They had fought for Britain in return for freedom. Once in the Maritimes, they were cheated of land, forced to work on public projects such as roads and buildings and denied equal status. 1792 Exodus to Africa: 1,190 men, women and children left Halifax on 15 ships for the long voyage to Sierra Leone. Sixty-five died en route. 1796 Nearly 600 Trelawney Maroons exiled from Jamaica arrived in the Maritimes. They faced miserable conditions and opted for Sierra Leone. They left Halifax in 1800. 1813-15 Roughly 2,000 U.S. Blacks, refugees from the War of 1812, settled in the Maritimes. bccns/history/ Slavery A popular impression that the first slaves in Canada were introduced into the Maritime Provinces by the Loyalists in 1783 is false. Historical records indicated that slavery was established in Quebec, by the French, through a royal mandate issued by Louis XIV in 1689. Between 1783-4, some 1232 Black slaves were brought by British masters into Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. Of this number, 26 went to Prince Edward Island and 441 went to New Brunswick. The number of slaves in Upper Canada during the Loyalist immigration was estimated to be about 500 while Lower Canada accounted for 304. Of a total of some 2000 slaves who entered Canada in 1783-4, more than half that number were distributed in the Atlantic Provinces, with Nova Scotia receiving the largest consignment, Annapolis Royal leading with 230 and Digby second with 152. Slavery began to decline in the opening decades of the nineteenth century due to a combination of factors that made slavery uneconomic in Canada, including the opposition of the law courts throughout British North America from the third quarter of the eighteenth century. When slaves were legally emancipated as of August 1, 1834, there were very few slaves in British North America who had not already obtained their legal freedom. On that date 781,000 slaves were set free in the British Empire. A hundred million dollars were distributed by the British Government to compensate slave owners. Not a single dollar was paid in Canada since no claims for compensation were submitted. The institution of slavery was no longer of consequence. bccns/history/slavery/ Black Loyalist The Black Loyalists arrived in Nova Scotia between 1783 & 1785 as a result of the American Revolution. They were the largest group of people of African descent to come to Nova Scotia at any one time. When the Americans won the war and the Treaty of Paris was signed in 1783, British forces and supporter had to leave the new United States. 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. Those who chose to emigrate were evacuated by ship. To make sure no one attempted to leave who did not have a certificate of freedom, the name of any Black person on board a vessel, whether slave, indentured servant, or free, was recorded along with the details of the enslavement, escape, and military service, in a document called the Book of Negroes. bccns/history/loyalists/ The Refugees The War of 1812 between the United States and Britain was another era that saw a new influx of Black families to the British territories of Nova Scotia & New Brunswick . As former slaves the chance to seek freedom outside of the United States was to good to resist. The result was that between 1813 -1816 approximately two thousand Black men , women & children commonly referred to as Black Refugees arrived in the Maritimes. New Brunswick received between four or five hundred and Nova Scotia the remainder, which in year 1816 numbered to over one thousand & six hundred. Their settlement was full of difficulties as well as opposition from White settlers afraid of losing control of their power in society. Discrimination in land grants , jobs, and supplies was rampant as these individuals tried to make a living and provide a better life for their families in areas such as Preston, Africville, Hammonds Plains and Beechville. bccns/history/refugees/ The Maroons From the time of British conquest in 1655, the Maroons in Jamaica waged war against the British colonizers of the island. The Jamaican Government succeeded in overcoming the Maroons in 1796, after 140 years of intermittent warfare, and subsequently deported one group of defeated Maroons (Trelawney) to Halifax. On June 26, 1796, the ships Dover, Mary, and Anne sailed from Port Royal Harbour in Jamaica, bearing 543 men, women and children. The Commander-in-Chief of the British Army in North America was impressed with the proud bearing and other characteristics of the Maroons when they arrived in Halifax, so he employed the entire group to work on the new fortifications at Citadel Hill. The Lieutenant-Governor Sir John Wentworth believed the Maroons would be good settlers. He was ordered by the Duke of Portland to settle the Maroons in Nova Scotia. The winters of 1796-98 were very severe. The Maroons suffered discomfort and grew restive and angry at their situation. In the spring of 1799, Governor Wentworth felt obliged to dispatch Captain Solomon and 50 men of the Royal Nova Scotia Regiment to Preston where they withheld supplies from the most refractory so as to maintain order. Meanwhile, Wentworth became increasingly disillusioned with the Maroons as settlers, and the money from the Jamaican government for their support was wearing very thin. The Maroons were not in favour of the suggested ways of supporting themselves in Canada and seemed likely to become a charge on the public purse. Governor Wentworth, in accordance with the demands of the Maroons, concluded the best resolution would be to remove them from Nova Scotia to Sierra Leone in Africa. Although the majority of the Maroons left Nova Scotia, there were a few who remained: a census done in 1817 of the Black community of Tracadie in Guysborough revealed that several persons living there were descendants of the Maroons. The Maroons also left descendents in the Preston Area of Halifax County. bccns/history/maroons/
Posted on: Sun, 22 Jun 2014 14:21:48 +0000
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