Nova Scotia Archives - African Nova Scotians in the Age of Slavery and Abolition

  “Although diminished in numbers, Birchtown remains a proud symbol of the struggle by Blacks in the Maritimes and elsewhere for justice and dignity.” –Plaque at Black Loyalist Heritage Park in Birchtown Black Loyalist Heritage Park Black Loyalist Heritage Centre | (novascotia.ca) 119 Old Birchtown Road Site 10, Mod 3, Comp 14 Shelburne, NS B0T1W0 Exit 27 Trans Canada HWY 103 Explore the site and visit Birchtown’s historic buildings including the Old School House and Saint Paul’s Church. The National Historic Monument, situated on the shore, commemorates the 1783 Black Loyalist Landings in Nova Scotia. You can also walk the Heritage Trail and visit the Pit House.  

  Rough Crossings This BBC-documentary tells how thousands of African-American slaves flew the plantations to Nova Scotia and what happened to them. Buy:  Amazon.com: Simon Schama's Rough Crossings (DVD) : Various, Various: Filme & TV   Book of Negroes Fictional CBC-miniseries about the same topic. The Shelburne riots are told in episode 5. The Book of Negroes (cbc.ca)

  Birchtown and Black Loyalists, by Wanda Taylor This book recounts the incredible story of the Black Loyalists of Birchtown for young readers in an educational and accessible language. Buy:  Birchtown and the Black Loyalists - Nimbus Publishing and Vagrant Press   Black Loyalists: Southern Settlers of Nova Scotia's First Free Black Communities, by Ruth Holmes Whitehead This book tells the bigger pictures of the first black settlers in Nova Scotia and the Shelburne riots as an important part of it. Buy:  Black Loyalists - Nimbus Publishing and Vagrant Press

  Jupiter Farmer, Black loyalist The government gave the negroes land here, but they had no houses, not even log cabins. They just dug a hole in the ground and put a little peaked roof over it. They chose a hill for their purpose because the ground was drier. And that was the black man’s home — a hole in the ground with a roof over the hole.   Benjamin Marston, Loyalist land agent in Shelburne Great Riot today. The disbanded soldiers have risen against the free negroes to drive them out of town because they labor more cheaply.   Simeon Perkins, white Loyalist from Liverpool, N.S. An extraordinary mob or riot has happened at Shelburne. Some thousands of people assembled Clubs and Drove the Negroes out of the Town.  

  David George, preacher When we came off Halifax, I got leave to go to Shelburne, (150 miles or more, I suppose). Numbers of my own color were there, but found the white people were against me. The persecution Increased, and became so great, that it did not seem possible to preach, and I thought I must leave Shelburne. Several of the black people had houses upon my lot, but forty (40) or fifty (50) disbanded soldiers were employed, who came with the tackle of ships, and turned my dwelling house, and every one of their houses, quite over, and the meeting house they would have burned down, had not the ringleader of the mob himself prevented it. But I continued to preaching it till they came one night, and stood before the pulpit, and swore how they would treat me If I preached again. But I stayed and preached, and the next day they came and beat me with sticks and drove me into the swamp. I returned in the evening, and took my wife and children over to the river to Birchtown, where ...

  David George , a popular black  Baptist  preacher, became a lightning rod for racist anger. He had founded a Baptist church in Shelburne and attracted many followers, both black and white.  On the night of July 25, the riot began as a large group of white men attacked David George and the Black Loyalists in Shelburne. George's home and 20 other homes were destroyed in the first night of rioting. Many Blacks fled to Birchtown for safety. George stayed and continued to preach in Shelburne but at his next service a number of white rioters stormed into the church and threatened him. The next day they attacked him, beating him with sticks until he escaped into swampy area outside of Shelburne.  The next day the rioters attacked the house of Benjamin Marston, a Loyalist land agent, despite the fact he sympathized with them. He escaped to the military barracks across the harbor and boarded for Halifax, shortly before rioters arrived at the barracks reportedly intent ...

  In the first years, the communities suffered harsh climactic conditions, soil unsuitable for cultivation, high unemployment, and unfair treatment from authorities. The Black Loyalists were located in exclusively Black settlements with farms too small to ensure self-support, or they were scattered as landless members of the white Loyalist settlements. Many Blacks were day workers for Whites and exploited by them. Wage rates for blacks averaged one-quarter of what was acceptable for Whites. Tragically, this exploitation was the reason for the riots since the disbanded white soldiers from the American Revolution wanted to secure employment for themselves and didn’t intend to accept a similar small wage for themselves.

On 26 July 1784, a mob of disbanded white soldiers stormed the home of a Black preacher in  Shelburne ,  Nova Scotia . They were armed with hooks and chains seized from ships in the harbor. The confrontation ignited a wave of violence in Shelburne County that lasted over 10 days. The majority of the attacks targeted the county’s free  Black population . The Shelburne Riots were the first race riot in North America. This blog is dedicated to this important historical event. Who were the Black Loyalists? In 1783 more than 3,500 Black people arrived by ships in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick following the end of the American Revolution. They had been loyal to the British Crown for very a good reason: to escape slavery and become free people. Many of them had risk their lives to fight for the Brits against their savage oppressors, the American colonists. In Nova Scotia, they established around 40 settlements. One of earliest and the largest by far was Birchtown with a populati...

Race Riots Yesterday...                                                           ....and today: