Birchtown and the Black Loyalists

When ships filled with United Empire Loyalists dropped anchor at what was then Port Roseway, Nova Scotia, on May 4, 1783, among those on board were 936 free Blacks; in late August of that same year, a further 500 Black Loyalists arrived. These settlers were granted land along the inner reaches of the harbour, in an area that had initially rejected by the earlier group of arrivals. It was called Birchtown not because of birch trees that grew in the area, but in honor of New York Governo r Colonel Samuel Birch, who had not only provided them with certificates of freedom but had also strongly resisted the efforts of American authorities to re-enslave them. 

The ground here was extremely rocky and hilly, with poor prospects for agriculture; it was far from the near-paradise they had been promised before setting out for Nova Scotia. The Black loyalists persevered, though, and used the stones removed from the rocky ground to build fences and stone walls for livestock enclosures and divisions between fields.

The settlers encountered prejudice and outright bigotry from many white Loyalists, and low pay and poor treatment were commonplace. Birchtown's dwellings in most cases consisted of pit houses set below the ground's surface; this development was in response to the burning of houses by white rioters and opponents of the settlement, particularly in the Shelburne Riot of 1784 when out-of-work former soldiers blamed Black settlers for their continuing poverty and lack of employment opportunities.

By the 1790s the Black Loyalists of Shelburne had grown tired of shabby treatment and outright hostility from the area's white population and an exodus took place from Birchtown to Sierra Leone; ironically, the greatest opposition to this move came from some of the people who had been most active in the mistreatment and exploitation of Black workers. Conditions on the ships that carried the Birchtown residents to Sierra Leone, although not as horrific as those on the slave ships many had traveled on years before, were overcrowded and disease-ridden, and many Birchtown Blacks did not survive the crossing to Africa.

A small museum in the old Birchtown school house (top photo) relates the story of Birchtown's Black Loyalists, and plans are under way for a larger and more detailed exhibit.

To learn more about Nova Scotia's Black Loyalist heritage, I recommend Lawrence Hill's remarkable novel, The Book of Negroes (published in Australia, New Zealand and the U.S. as Someone Knows My Name).

Shelburne's Historic Waterfront

The town of Shelburne, on Nova Scotia's scenic South Shore, was one of several communities that were destinations for the United Empire Loyalists who fled the United States during and after the American Revolution, from 1775 to 1812. Known in the U.S. as Tories, they had remained loyal to Britain and had not supported the efforts of the revolutionaries, sometimes actively opposing them. On May 4 of 1783, ships carrying 3073 Loyalists from New York anchored in the harbour of what was then known as Port Roseway, dramatically changing the course of southwestern Nova Scotia's history.

Prior to their landing, the entire territory of Nova Scotia, which then included the present-day province of New Brunswick, had a population of less than 20,000.  By the end of 1783, over 35,000 Loyalists had arrived, overwhelming both the limited infrastructure and the ability of the government in Halifax to cope with the arrivals.

In July of 1783, the name of Port Roseway was changed to Shelburne to honour Lord Shelburne, Secretary of State for the colonies who had served briefly as Britain's Prime Minister in 1782.

By 1784, the population of Shelburne had swelled to over 10,000 -- the largest town in British North America and more than twice the size of Halifax. Eventually most of these Loyalists either returned to the United States as the political climate became less hostile, or moved on to other areas of Canada. They left behind a carefully laid-out town with streets named after members of the Royal Family, and a number of handsome and well-constructed homes and businesses. Today, Shelburne provides an interesting stop for the cultural explorer, with its cluster of museums and restored buildings. Shown here, from the top, are the Shelburne County Museum, the Ross-Thomson House, the Old Dory Shop Museum, and the impressive Cox's Warehouse, its cupola and spire added for the filming of The Scarlet Letter in 1995.