Birchtown is a community and National Historic Site in the

Canadian province Canada has ten provinces and three territories that are sub-national administrative divisions under the jurisdiction of the Constitution of Canada, Canadian Constitution. In the 1867 Canadian Confederation, three provinces of British North Amer ...

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada, located on its east coast. It is one of the three Maritime Canada, Maritime provinces and Population of Canada by province and territory, most populous province in Atlan ...

, located near Shelburne in the Municipal District of Shelburne County.Government of Nova Scotia website: Community Counts
/ref> 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 Samuel Birch may refer to: * Samuel Birch (Egyptologist) (1813–1885), British Egyptologist and antiquary * Lamorna Birch (Samuel John Birch, 1869–1955), English artist * Samuel Birch (athlete) (born 1963), Liberian Olympic sprinter * Samuel Birc ...

, 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 African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa ...

known as Black Loyalists who escaped to the British lines during the American War of Independence. These were Africans who escaped from

slavery Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...

and fought for the British during the war. The majority of Nova Scotian settlers who later immigrated to the new colony of

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone, officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered to the southeast by Liberia and by Guinea to the north. Sierra Leone's land area is . It has a tropical climate and envi ...

in 1792 were such African Americans who had lived first in Birchtown. Most Birchtown blacks entered

through the nearby town of Port Roseway, soon renamed Shelburne. Brigadier General Samuel Birch recorded the names of these African-American settlers in the '' Book of Negroes''. They were issued passports which established their freedom; these were signed by General Birch, and became known as General Birch Certificates. The core of the settlement were five companies of the Black Pioneers who were Black Americans who helped the British forces during the American War of Independence. More than two thirds of the Blacks who immigrated to Canada were from the American South. Birchtown was acknowledged as being the largest settlement of free

in the world by newspapers in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

and in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. Birchtown's population grew further in July 1784 when free Blacks who lived in Shelburne were attacked by whites in the Shelburne Riots. Many blacks, such as the clergyman David George, fled to Birchtown for safety.

The departure for Sierra Leone

Poor land, inadequate supplies, harsh climate, discrimination and broken promises of assistance led many Birchtown residents (led by Thomas Peters) to petition the British Government for a remedy. As a result of these grievances, many Birchtown residents chose to accept Britain's offer and join a 1792 migration to found a free ethnic African settlement in

in West Africa. The majority of blacks who left for Sierra Leone were from Birchtown. Of the blacks who left for

, 600 were from the Birchtown and Digby areas, 220 were from Preston, 200 were from

New Brunswick New Brunswick is a Provinces and Territories of Canada, province of Canada, bordering Quebec to the north, Nova Scotia to the east, the Gulf of Saint Lawrence to the northeast, the Bay of Fundy to the southeast, and the U.S. state of Maine to ...

, and 180 were from the Annapolis- Digby area. Fifty-five had been born into slavery in

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

. The descendants of the settlers form part of the Sierra Leone Creole ethnicity.

Later history

Although the population of Birchtown was greatly reduced by the migration to Sierra Leone, many settlers remained. They formed the ancestral basis of the Black Nova Scotian population of Shelburne County today. Employment opportunities in the nearby town of Shelburne attracted many families to move to Shelburne in later years. Birchtown stayed as a small rural community of a few hundred based on farming, fishing and forestry. A two-room schoolhouse was built in 1829. A new eight-room school was built in 1959. Birchtown was declared a National Historic Site in 1997. A seasonal museum complex commemorating the Black Loyalists was opened in that year by the Black Loyalist Heritage Society; it included the historic Birchtown school and church. The offices and archives of the museum were largely destroyed by an arson attack in 2006. The remaining archives were moved to temporary quarters on the site. A new facility, the Black Loyalist Heritage Centre, opened its doors in June 2015; it tells the story of the Black Loyalists in America, Nova Scotia and Sierra Leone through their staff and interactive digital displays.

In literature

The community's history of being given freedom by the British was the subject to British historian Simon Schama's non-fiction book '' Rough Crossings'', which won the National Book Critics Circle Award. Lawrence Hill wrote a novel, '' The Book of Negroes,'' whose fictional narrator, Aminata Diallo, resides in Birchtown and describes its founding.

Notable residents

* Stephen Blucke - "founder of Afro-Nova Scotian community" * David George - African-American

Baptist Baptists are a Christian denomination, denomination within Protestant Christianity distinguished by baptizing only professing Christian believers (believer's baptism) and doing so by complete Immersion baptism, immersion. Baptist churches ge ...

preacher who founded Silver Bluff Baptist Church * Boston King, first

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christianity, Christian Christian tradition, tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother ...

missionary to African indigenous people * John Marrant - the first African-American preacher; a

* Moses Wilkinson - African- American

preacher

Notes

References

External links

Clarkson, Clarkson's mission to America, 1791–1792, ed. and intro. C. B. Fergusson

Birchtown
''Destination Nova Scotia''
The Black Loyalist Heritage Society
*http://www.newsouthassoc.com/African%20American%20Archaeology%20Newsletters/Summer1994.html *https://web.archive.org/web/20080511234625/http://www.lawrencehill.com/freedom_bound.pdf *https://web.archive.org/web/20080311110229/http://nsgna.ednet.ns.ca/shelburne/main/BlackLoyalistHistory.php *https://web.archive.org/web/20071218192834/http://museum.gov.ns.ca/arch/sites/birch/loyalists.htm

{{Coord, 43, 44, 40, N, 65, 22, 57, W, region:CA, display=title Black Canadian culture in Nova Scotia Black Canadian settlements Populated places established by African Americans Pre-emancipation African-American history Unincorporated communities in Nova Scotia Communities in Shelburne County, Nova Scotia