Birchtown
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Birchtown
Birchtown is a community and National Historic Site in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, located near Shelburne in the Municipal District of Shelburne County. Founded in 1783, the village was the largest settlement of Black Loyalists and the largest free settlement of ethnic Africans in North America in the eighteenth century. The two other significant Black Loyalist communities established in Nova Scotia were Brindley town and Tracadie. Birchtown was named after British Brigadier General Samuel Birch, an official who helped lead the evacuation of Black Loyalists from New York. Creation Birchtown was first settled by Stephen Blucke, who has been referred to as "the true founder of the Afro-Nova Scotian community". Birchtown was the major settlement area of the African Americans known as Black Loyalists who escaped to the British lines during the American War of Independence. These were Africans who escaped from slavery and fought for the British during the war. T ...
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Stephen Blucke
Stephen Blucke or Stephen Bluck (born –after 1796) was a Black Loyalist, in the American Revolutionary War, and one the commanding officers, of the British Loyalist provincial unit, the Black Company of Pioneers. He was one of 3,000 people who left New York for Nova Scotia on British ships. He settled in a town designed for African-Americans, Birchtown, Nova Scotia. He was a leader in the town, called a magistrate and commissioned as lieutenant colonel of the Black Militia of the greater Shelburne district by Governor Governor John Parr. He worked with a surveyor to identify the area that would become Birchtown and was involved in coordinating labour for roads and other public works. He lived the life of a middle-class person while his neighbors lived a life of poverty. He had a substantial well-built house, while most people lived in simple housing. He was a go-between for employment of some of the townspeople in labor or similar jobs. When Blucke arrived in Birchtown, he was ...
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Black Nova Scotians
Black Nova Scotians (also known as African Nova Scotians and Afro-Nova Scotians) are Black Canadians whose ancestors primarily date back to the Colonial United States as slaves or freemen, later arriving in Nova Scotia, Canada, during the 18th and early 19th centuries. As of the 2021 Census of Canada, 28,220 Black people live in Nova Scotia, most in Halifax. Since the 1950s, numerous Black Nova Scotians have migrated to Toronto for its larger range of opportunities. Before the immigration reforms of 1967, Black Nova Scotians formed 37% of the total Black Canadian population. The first Black person in Nova Scotia, Mathieu da Costa, a Mikmaq interpreter, was recorded among the founders of Port Royal in 1604. West Africans were brought as enslaved people both in early British and French Colonies in the 17th and 18th centuries. Many came as enslaved people, primarily from the French West Indies to Nova Scotia during the founding of Louisbourg. The second major migration of Bl ...
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Black Loyalists
Black Loyalists were people of African descent who sided with the Loyalists during the American Revolutionary War. In particular, the term refers to men who escaped enslavement by Patriot masters and served on the Loyalist side because of the Crown's guarantee of freedom. Some 3,000 Black Loyalists were evacuated from New York to Nova Scotia; they were individually listed in the ''Book of Negroes'' as the British gave them certificates of freedom and arranged for their transportation. The Crown gave them land grants and supplies to help them resettle in Nova Scotia. Some of the European Loyalists who emigrated to Nova Scotia brought their enslaved servants with them, making for an uneasy society. One historian has argued that those slaves should not be regarded as Loyalists, as they had no choice in their fates. Other Black Loyalists were evacuated to London or the Caribbean colonies. Thousands of enslaved people escaped from plantations and fled to British lines, especially aft ...
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Nova Scotian Settlers
The Nova Scotian Settlers, or Sierra Leone Settlers (also known as the Nova Scotians or more commonly as the Settlers) were African-Americans who founded the settlement of Freetown, Sierra Leone and the Colony of Sierra Leone, on March 11, 1792. The majority of these black American immigrants were among 3,000 African-Americans, mostly former slaves, who had sought freedom and refuge with the British during the American Revolutionary War, leaving rebel masters. They became known as the Black Loyalists. The Nova Scotian settlers were jointly led by African-American Thomas Peters, a former soldier, and English abolitionist John Clarkson. For most of the 19th century, the Settlers resided in Settler Town and remained a distinct ethnic group within the Freetown territory, tending to marry among themselves and with Europeans in the colony. The Settler descendants gradually developed as an ethnicity known as the Sierra Leone Creole people. Loan words in the Krio language and the "b ...
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Shelburne, Nova Scotia
Shelburne is a town located in southwestern Nova Scotia, Canada. History Shelburne lies at the southwest corner of Nova Scotia, at roughly the same latitude as Portland, Maine in the United States. The Mi'kmaq call the large and well-sheltered harbour ''Logumkeegan'' or ''Sogumkeagum.'' The first Europeans to make a settlement on these shores were the French Acadians. They set up a small fishing settlement known as Port Razoir in the late 17th century, named after the harbour's resemblance to an open razor. Early European settlers had small subsistence farms, but most of the inhabitants' income from that time to the present has been derived from the sea. The Acadian fishing settlement was abandoned after repeated raids from New England colonists during Queen Anne's War in 1705, in which five Acadians were taken prisoner, and again in 1708. Raid on Port Roseway (1715) On May 14, 1715, New England naval commander Cyprian Southack attempted to create a permanent fishing station a ...
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American War Of Independence
The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of the United States, fighting began on April 19, 1775, followed by the Lee Resolution on July 2, 1776, and the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. The American Patriots were supported by the Kingdom of France and, to a lesser extent, the Dutch Republic and the Spanish Empire, in a conflict taking place in North America, the Caribbean, and the Atlantic Ocean. Established by royal charter in the 17th and 18th centuries, the American colonies were largely autonomous in domestic affairs and commercially prosperous, trading with Britain and its Caribbean colonies, as well as other European powers via their Caribbean entrepôts. After British victory over the French in the Seven Years' War in 1763, tensions between the motherland and her ...
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Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native English-speakers, and the province's population is 969,383 according to the 2021 Census. It is the most populous of Canada's Atlantic provinces. It is the country's second-most densely populated province and second-smallest province by area, both after Prince Edward Island. Its area of includes Cape Breton Island and 3,800 other coastal islands. The Nova Scotia peninsula is connected to the rest of North America by the Isthmus of Chignecto, on which the province's land border with New Brunswick is located. The province borders the Bay of Fundy and Gulf of Maine to the west and the Atlantic Ocean to the south and east, and is separated from Prince Edward Island and the island of Newfoundland by the Northumberland and Cabot straits, ...
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Samuel Birch (military Officer)
Major General Samuel Birch (21 February 1735 – 1811) was an officer in the British army during the American Revolution that served as the commandant of New York City. He helped free and shelter thousands of slaves as recorded in the Book of Negroes. He was the commander of the 17th Regiment of (Light) Dragoons, the only British cavalry regiment in America. He participated in most of the significant engagements in the north. He is known for leading the failed attempt to kidnap George Washington. Career Birch initially served in the 11th Dragoons during the Seven Years' War. Under the command of John Hale, Birch served as Captain in the newly formed 17th Regiment of (Light) Dragoons in 1759. The regiment was stationed in Scotland for three years. In 1771, as Major Birch, he fell under the command of George Preston. On 24 April 1773 he became commissioned as a Lieut. Colonel. After the war, the regiment was stationed in Ireland for 11 years. The regiment was sent to Nort ...
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Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierra Leone has a tropical climate, with diverse environments ranging from savanna to rainforests. The country has a population of 7,092,113 as of the 2015 census. The capital and largest city is Freetown. The country is divided into five administrative regions, which are subdivided into Districts of Sierra Leone, 16 districts. Sierra Leone is a constitutional republic with a unicameral parliament and a directly elected executive president, president serving a five-year term with a maximum of two terms. The current president is Julius Maada Bio. Sierra Leone is a Secular state, secular nation with Constitution of Sierra Leone, the constitution providing for the separation of state and religion and freedom of conscience (which includes freedom of ...
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Book Of Negroes
The ''Book of Negroes'' is a document created by Brigadier General Samuel Birch, under the direction of Sir Guy Carleton, that records names and descriptions of 3,000 Black Loyalists, enslaved Africans who escaped to the British lines during the American Revolution and were evacuated to points in Nova Scotia as free people of colour. Background The first African person in Nova Scotia arrived with the founding of Port Royal in 1605. African people were then brought as slaves to Nova Scotia during the founding of Louisbourg and Halifax. The first major migration of African people to Nova Scotia happened during the American Revolution. Enslaved Africans in America who escaped to the British during the American Revolutionary War became the first settlement of Black Nova Scotians and Black Canadians. Other Black Loyalists were transported to settlements in several islands in the West Indies and some to London. Recorded in 1783, this 150-page document is the only one to have recor ...
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Shelburne, Nova Scotia (municipal District)
District of Shelburne, officially named the Municipality of the District of Shelburne, is a district municipality comprising the eastern section of Shelburne County, Nova Scotia, Canada, but does not include the Towns of Shelburne or Lockeport. Statistics Canada classifies the district municipality as a municipal district. It is home to the Bowers Meadows Wilderness Area. Demographics In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, the Municipality of the District of Shelburne had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of . With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021. Communities The following communities are included within the Municipality of the District of Shelburne: Access routes Highways and numbered routes that run through the district municipality, including external routes that start or finish at the municipal boundary:Atlantic Canada Back Road Atlas Page 89 *High ...
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Shelburne County, Nova Scotia
Shelburne County is a county in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. History Shelburne County was founded in 1784 shortly following the influx of Loyalist settlers evacuated from the newly independent United States of America. It was originally named Port Roseway, until it became a very busy town and was considered to be the capital of Nova Scotia, in which the name was changed to Shelburne in an attempt to please Lord Shelburne, the British Prime Minister from 1782 to 1783. The boundaries of Shelburne County were established by Governor and Council on December 16, 1785. The first Loyalists arrived in May 1783. They were faced with a somewhat bleak environment in which to make their homes. The land is very rocky with acidic soil. There is also a lot of forest. The area had previously been settled by French-speaking Catholic Acadians, many of whom had been deported to British Colonies. The new arrivals included Black Loyalists who were given substandard land, particularly around ...
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