Black Loyalist: Difference between revisions

Black Loyalist
Black Loyalist
	Smock similar to those worn by Black Loyalist soldiers in Lord Dunmore's Ethiopian Regiment
Active	1775–1784
Country	British America
Allegiance	Great Britain
Branch	British provincial units, Loyalist militias, associators
Type	infantry, dragoons (mounted infantry), irregular, labor duty
Size	companies-regiments
Engagements	American Revolutionary War
Commanders
Notable; commanders	Both White British military officers and Black Loyalist officers

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Black Loyalists were people of African descent who sided with the Loyalists during the American Revolutionary War.^[1] 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.^[2] 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.^[3] Other Black Loyalists were evacuated to London or the Caribbean colonies.

Thousands of enslaved people escaped from plantations and fled to British lines, especially after British occupation of Charleston, South Carolina. When the British evacuated, they took many former enslaved people with them. Many ended up among London's Black Poor, with 4,000 resettled by the Sierra Leone Company to Freetown in Africa in 1787. Five years later, another 1,192 Black Loyalists from Nova Scotia chose to emigrate to Sierra Leone, becoming known as the Nova Scotian Settlers in the new British colony of Sierra Leone. Both waves of settlers became part of the Sierra Leone Creole people and the founders of the nation of Sierra Leone. Thomas Jefferson referred to the Black Loyalists as "the fugitives from these States".^[4]

Background

Slavery in England had never been authorized by legal statutes. Villeinage, a form of semi-serfdom, was legally recognized but long obsolete. In 1772, a slave threatened with being taken out of England and returned to the Caribbean challenged the authority of his master in the case of Somerset v Stewart. The Chief Justice, Lord Mansfield, ruled that slavery had no standing under common law and slave owners, therefore, were not permitted to transport slaves outside England and Wales against their will. Many observers took it to mean that slavery was ended in England.

Lower courts often interpreted the ruling as determining that the status of slavery did not exist in England and Wales, but Mansfield ruled more narrowly. The decision did not apply to the North American and Caribbean colonies, where local legislatures had passed laws to institutionalize slavery. A number of cases were presented to the English courts for the emancipation of slaves residing in England, and numerous American runaways hoped to reach England where they expected to gain freedom.

American slaves began to believe that King George III was for them and against their masters as tensions increased before the American Revolution. Colonial slaveholders feared a British-inspired slave rebellion, and Lord Dunmore wrote to Lord Dartmouth in early 1775 of his intention to take advantage of the situation.^[5]

Proclamations

Dunmore's Proclamation

In November 1775, Lord Dunmore issued a controversial proclamation. As Virginia's royal governor, he called on all able-bodied men to assist him in the defence of the colony, including slaves belonging to the Patriots. He promised such slave recruits freedom in exchange for service in the British Army:

I do require every Person capable of bearing Arms, to resort to His MAJESTY'S STANDARD, or be looked upon as Traitors to His MAJESTY'S Crown and Government, and thereby become liable to the Penalty the Law inflicts upon such Offences; such as forfeiture of Life, confiscation of Lands, &c. &c. And I do hereby further declare all indented Servants, Negroes, or others, (appertaining to Rebels,) free that are able and willing to bear Arms, they joining His MAJESTY'S Troops as soon as may be, for the more speedily reducing this Colony to a proper Sense of their Duty, to His MAJESTY'S Crown and Dignity.
— Lord Dunmore's Proclamation, November 7, 1775^[6]

Within a month, about 800 slaves or former slaves had fled to Norfolk, Virginia to enlist.^[7]^[8] Outraged Virginia slave owners decreed that runaway slaves would be executed, and they also counteracted the promises of Lord Dunmore by claiming that slaves who escaped to Lord Dunmore would be sold to sugar plantations in the Caribbean. But many slaves were willing to risk their lives for a chance at freedom.^[9]

Lord Dunmore's Proclamation was the first mass emancipation of slaves in America.^[7] The 1776 Declaration of Independence refers obliquely to the Proclamation by citing it as one of its grievances, that King George III had "excited domestic Insurrections among us".^[10] An earlier version of the Declaration was more explicit, stating the following of King George III, but these controversial details were dropped during the final development of the document in Congress:

He is now exciting those very people to rise in arms among us, and to purchase that liberty of which he has deprived them, by murdering the people on whom he has obtruded them: thus paying off former crimes committed again the Liberties of one people, with crimes which he urges them to commit against the lives of another.
— Draft Declaration of Independence, 1776^[11]

Jamaica's Governor John Dalling drafted a proposal in 1779 for the enlistment of a regiment of mulattoes and another regiment of free Negroes.^[12]

Philipsburg Proclamation

With the arrival of 30,000 Hessian mercenary troops, the British did not have as much need of former slaves. Sir William Howe banned the formation of new Black regiments and disbanded his own. But freeing slaves of rebels still held value as economic warfare against the American so-called Patriots. In 1779, Sir Henry Clinton issued the Philipsburg Proclamation, expanding Dunmore's Proclamation and promising freedom to any escaped slave of a Patriot.^[13] However, Clinton often ordered the returned escaped slaves to Loyalist masters, though he requested the owner to refrain from punishment. In 1778 the Patriots promised freedom to escaped slaves of Loyalists. But as Boston King noted in his memoir, both Patriots and Loyalists who captured escaped slaves often sold them back into slavery.^[13]

Evacuation and resettlement

When the British evacuated their troops from Charleston and New York after the war, they made good on their promises and took thousands of freed slaves with them. They resettled the freedmen in colonies in the Caribbean, such as Jamaica, and in Nova Scotia and Upper Canada, as well as transporting some to London. The Canadian climate and other factors made Nova Scotia difficult. In addition, the Poor Blacks of London, many former slaves, had trouble getting work. British abolitionists ultimately founded Freetown in what became Sierra Leone on the coast of West Africa, as a place to resettle Black Loyalists from London and Canada, and Jamaican Maroons. Nearly 2,000 Black Loyalists left Nova Scotia to help found the new colony in Africa. Their descendants are the Sierra Leone Creole people.^[14]^[15]^[16]^[17]

Black Loyalist military units

Lord Dunmore's proclamation and others led to the formation of several Black regiments in the British army. The most notable were Dunmore's Royal Ethiopian Regiment and Clinton's Black Company of Pioneers. Other regiments included the Jersey Shore Volunteers, the Jamaica Rangers, the Mosquito Shore Volunteers, and the Black Dragoons of the South Carolina Royalists. It was also common for Black Loyalists to serve the military in non-combat positions, such as the Black Company of Pioneers.^[18]^[19]

Royal Ethiopian Regiment

Lord Dunmore organized 800 Black Loyalist volunteers into the Royal Ethiopian Regiment. They trained in the rudiments of marching and shooting before engaging in their first conflict at the Battle of Kemp's Landing. The Patriot militia at Kemp's Landing was unprepared for the attack and retreated. Next, Dunmore led the Royal Ethiopians into the Battle of Great Bridge; Dunmore was overconfident and misinformed about the Patriot numbers, however, and the Patriots overwhelmed the British troops. After the battle, Dunmore loaded his Black troops onto ships of the British fleet, hoping to take the opportunity to train them better. The cramped conditions led to the spread of smallpox. By the time that Dunmore retreated to the Province of New York, only 300 of the original 800 soldiers had survived.^[18]

Black Company of Pioneers

The largest Black Loyalist regiment was the Black Company of Pioneers, better known as the "Black Pioneers" and later merged into the Guides and Pioneers. In the military terminology of the day, a "pioneer" was a soldier who built roads, dug trenches, and did other manual labor. These soldiers were typically divided into smaller corps and attached to larger armies. The Black Pioneers worked to build fortifications and other necessities, and they could be called upon to work under fire.^[19] They served under General Clinton in a support capacity in North Carolina, New York, Newport, Rhode Island, and Philadelphia. They did not sustain any casualties because they were never used in combat. In Philadelphia, their general orders to "attend the scavengers, assist in cleaning the streets & removing all newsiances being thrown into the streets".^[20]

Black Brigade

The "Black Brigade" was a small combat unit of 24 in New Jersey led by Colonel Tye, a slave from Monmouth County, New Jersey who had escaped to British lines early in the war.^[21] The title of colonel was not an official military designation, as he was not formally commissioned as an officer, but such titles were permitted anyway in an unofficial capacity. Tye and the Black Brigade were the most feared Loyalists in New Jersey, and he led them in several raids from 1778 at the Battle of Monmouth to defending the British in occupied New York in the winter of 1779. Beginning in June 1780, Tye led several actions against Patriots in Monmouth County, and he was wounded in the wrist during a raid on a Patriot militia leader in September. Within weeks, he died from gangrene,^[19] and Black Pioneer leader Stephen Blucke took over the Black Brigade and led it through the end of the war.^[21]

Postwar treatment

When peace negotiations began after the siege of Yorktown, a primary issue of debate was the fate of Black British soldiers. Loyalists who remained in the United States wanted Black soldiers returned so their chances of receiving reparations for damaged property would be increased, but British military leaders fully intended to keep the promise of freedom made to Black soldiers despite the anger of the Americans.^[22]

In the chaos as the British evacuated Loyalist refugees, particularly from New York and Charleston, many American slave owners attempted to recapture their former slaves. Some would capture any Black, including those born free before the war, and sell them into slavery.^[23] The U.S. Congress ordered George Washington to retrieve any American property, including slaves, from the British, as stipulated by the Treaty of Paris of 1783.

Since Lieutenant General Guy Carleton intended to honor the promise of freedom, the British proposed a compromise that would compensate slave owners and provide certificates of freedom and the right to be evacuated to one of the British colonies to any Black person who could prove his service or status. The British transported more than 3,000 Black Loyalists to Nova Scotia, the greatest number of people of African descent to arrive there at any one time. One of their settlements, Birchtown, Nova Scotia was the largest free African community in North America for the first few years of its existence.^[24]

Black Loyalists found the northern climate and frontier conditions in Nova Scotia difficult and were subject to discrimination by other Loyalist settlers, many of them slaveholders. In July 1784, Black Loyalists in Shelburne were targeted in the Shelburne Riots, the first recorded race riots in Canadian history. Crown officials granted land to the Black Loyalists of lesser quality and that were more rocky and less fertile than that given to White Loyalists. In 1792, the British government offered Black Loyalists the chance to resettle in a new colony in Sierra Leone. The Sierra Leone Company was established to manage its development. Half of the Black Loyalists in Nova Scotia, nearly 1200, departed the country and moved permanently to Sierra Leone. They set up the community of "Freetown".^[25]

In 1793, the British transported another 3,000 Blacks to Florida, Nova Scotia and England as free men and women.^[26] Their names were recorded in the Book of Negroes by Sir Carleton.^[27]^[28]

Approximately 300 free Black people in Savannah refused to evacuate at the end of the war, fearing they would be re-enslaved once they arrived in the West Indies. They established an independent colony in swamps near Savannah River, though by 1786 most of them were discovered and returned to slavery, as Southern planters ignored the fact that they had been freed by the British during the war. When the British ceded the colonies of East Florida and West Florida back to Spain per the terms of the Treaty of Paris, hundreds of free Black people which had been transported there from the South were left behind as British forces pulled out of the region.^[29]

Descendants

Many descendants of Black loyalists have been able to track their ancestry by using General Carleton's Book of Negroes.^[30] The number of these descendants is unknown.^[31]

Nova Scotia

Between 1776 and 1785, around 3,500 Blacks were transported to Nova Scotia from the United States, part of a larger migration of about 34,000 Loyalist refugees. This massive influx of people increased the population by almost 60%, and led to the establishment of New Brunswick as its own colony in 1784. Most of the free Blacks settled at Birchtown, the largest Black township in North America at the time, next to the town of Shelburne, settled by Whites.^[32] There are also a number of Black loyalists buried in unmarked graves in the Old Burying Ground (Halifax, Nova Scotia).

Among, the descendants of the Black Loyalists are noted figures such as Rose Fortune, a Black woman living in Nova Scotia who became a police officer and a businesswoman.^[33] Measha Brueggergosman (née Gosman), the Canadian opera and concert singer, is a New Brunswick native and descendant of a Black Loyalist through her father. In the closing days of the Revolution, along with British troops and other Black Loyalists, her paternal four-times-great-grandfather and grandmother left the colonies. They were resettled in Shelburne with their first child, who had been born free behind British lines in New York.

Commemoration

The Black Loyalist settlement of Birchtown, Nova Scotia was declared a National Historic Site in 1997. A seasonal museum commemorating the Black Loyalists was opened in that year by the Black Loyalist Heritage Society. A memorial has been established at the Black Loyalist Burying Ground. Built around the historic Birchtown school and church, the museum was badly damaged by an arson attack in 2008 but rebuilt. The Society began plans for a major expansion of the museum to tell the story of the Black Loyalists in America, Nova Scotia and Sierra Leone.^[34]

Sierra Leone

Some Black Loyalists were transported to London, where they struggled to create new lives. Sympathy for the black veterans who had fought for the British stimulated support for the Committee for the Relief of the Black Poor. This organization backed the resettlement of the black poor from London to a new British colony of Sierra Leone in West Africa. In addition, Black Loyalists in Nova Scotia were offered the opportunity to relocate, and about half chose to move to the new colony. Today the descendants of these pioneers are known as the Sierra Leone Creole people, or Krios. They live primarily in the Western Area of Freetown.

Black Loyalists from the American South brought their languages to Freetown, such as Gullah^{[citation needed]} from the Low Country and African American Vernacular English. Their lingua franca was a strong influence on the descendants of this community, who developed Krio as a language. Many of the Sierra Leone Creoles or Krios can trace their ancestry directly to their Black Loyalist ancestors.

An example of such an ancestor is Harry Washington, likely born about 1740 in The Gambia, enslaved as a young man and shipped to Virginia.^[36] He was purchased by George Washington in 1763; he escaped about 1776 in Virginia to British lines, eventually making his way to New York.^[37] He was among free blacks evacuated to Nova Scotia by the British following the war.^[37]^[38] He later took the opportunity to migrate to Freetown in Africa. There by 1800 he became the leader of a rebellion against colonial rule and faced a military tribunal.^[36] His descendants are part of the Creole population, who make up 5.8% of the total.

Notable people

Stephen Blucke, commanding officer of the Black Company of Pioneers
David George, American Baptist preacher
Abraham Hazeley, Nova Scotian settler
Boston King, first Methodist missionary to indigenous Africans
Moses Wilkinson, American Methodist preacher
John Kizell, American immigrant to Sierra Leone
John Marrant, Methodist preacher
Cato Perkins, American missionary to Sierra Leone
Thomas Peters, one of the "Founding Fathers" of the nation of Sierra Leone
Colonel Tye, soldier
Harry Washington, freedman who resettled in Sierra Leone after enslavement to George Washington

In popular culture

The saga of the Black Loyalists inspired Lawrence Hill's 2007 novel The Book of Negroes (published as Someone Knows My Name in the United States). It won the 2008 Commonwealth Award for Fiction.
In the second episode of the 2016 miniseries Roots, protagonist Kunta Kinte is a Black Loyalist and briefly serves in Lord Dunmore's Ethiopian Regiment.

References

^ Cassandra Pybus, Epic Journeys of Freedom: Runaway Slaves of the American Revolution and Their Global Quest for Liberty, (Beacon Press, Boston, 2006); Graham Russell Hodges, Susan Hawkes Cook, Alan Edward Brown (eds), The Black Loyalist Directory: African Americans in Exile After the American Revolution (subscription required)
^ The Book of Negroes Archived 2022-07-30 at the Wayback Machine, Black Loyalists.
^ Barry Cahill, "The Black Loyalist Myth in Atlantic Canada", Acadiensis, University of New Brunswick
^ Jefferson, Thomas (1900). The Jeffersonian Cyclopedia. Funk & Wagnalls Company. p. 621 (#5808). Retrieved August 6, 2010.
^ Selig, Robert A. "The Revolution's Black Soldiers". AmericanRevolution.org. Retrieved 2007-10-18.
^ "Lord Dunmore's Proclamation". Digital History. 2007-10-18. Archived from the original on 2008-04-22. Retrieved 2007-10-18.
^ ^a ^b "Lord Dunmore's Proclamation". Black Loyalists: Our History, Our People. Canada's Digital Collection. Archived from the original on 2007-11-16. Retrieved 2007-10-17.
^ Jack Phillip Greene, Jack Richon Pole (2000). A Companion to the American Revolution. Blackwell Publishing. p. 241. ISBN 0-631-21058-X. Retrieved 2007-10-18.
^ "Escape from Slavery". Black Loyalists: Our History, Our People. Canada's Digital Collection. Archived from the original on 2007-11-17. Retrieved 2007-10-17.
^ Kaplan, Sidney (July 1976). "The "Domestic Insurrections" of the Declaration of Independence". Journal of Negro History (PDF). 61 (3): 243–255. doi:10.2307/2717252. JSTOR 00222992. S2CID 149796469. ^{[dead link]}
^ "(1776) The Deleted Passage of the Declaration of Independence". Blackpast.org. 10 August 2009. Retrieved 2019-11-24.
^ Dalling, John (May 25, 1779). "Black Loyalists Proposed Corps". Loyalist Institute. Retrieved 2007-10-18.
^ ^a ^b "The Philipsburg Proclamation". Black Loyalists: Our History, Our People. Canada's Digital Collection. Archived from the original on 2007-11-17. Retrieved 2007-10-17.
^ Thayer, James Steel (1991). A Dissenting View of Creole Culture in Sierra Leone. pp. 215–230. https://www.persee.fr/doc/cea_0008-0055_1991_num_31_121_2116
^ Browne-Davies, Nigel (2014). A Precis of Sources relating to genealogical research on the Sierra Leone Krio people. Journal of Sierra Leone Studies, Vol. 3; Edition 1, 2014 https://www.academia.edu/40720522/A_Precis_of_Sources_relating_to_genealogical_research_on_the_Sierra_Leone_Krio_people
^ Walker, James W (1992). "Chapter Five: Foundation of Sierra Leone". The Black Loyalists: The Search for a Promised Land in Nova Scotia and Sierra Leone, 1783–1870. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. pp. 94–114. ISBN 978-0-8020-7402-7., originally published by Longman & Dalhousie University Press (1976).
^ Taylor, Bankole Kamara (February 2014). Sierra Leone: The Land, Its People and History. New Africa Press. p. 68. ISBN 9789987160389.
^ ^a ^b "The Royal Ethiopian". Black Loyalists: Our History, Our People. Canada's Digital Collection. Archived from the original on 2007-11-17. Retrieved 2007-10-17.
^ ^a ^b ^c "The Black Pioneers". Black Loyalists:Our History, Our People. Canada's Digital Collection. Archived from the original on 2007-09-28. Retrieved 2007-10-18.
^ Nan Cole and Todd Braisted (February 2, 2001). "A History of the Black Pioneers". Loyalist Institute.
^ ^a ^b Jonathan D. Sutherland, African Americans at War, ABC-CLIO, 2003, pp. 420–421, accessed 4 May 2010
^ "The Treaty of Paris". Black Loyalists: Our People, Our History. Canada's Digital Collections. Archived from the original on 2007-11-17. Retrieved 2007-10-18.
^ "Chaos in New York". Black Loyalists: Our People, Our History. Canada's Digital Collections. Archived from the original on 2007-11-17. Retrieved 2007-10-18.
^ "Who were the Black Loyalists?". Remembering Black Loyalists, Black Communities in Nova Scotia. Nova Scotia Museum. Archived from the original on 2007-10-24. Retrieved 2007-10-18.
^ Walker, James W. (1992). "Chapter Five: Foundation of Sierra Leone". The Black Loyalists: The Search for a Promised Land in Nova Scotia and Sierra Leone, 1783–1870. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. pp. 94–114. ISBN 978-0-8020-7402-7. Originally published by Longman & Dalhousie University Press (1976).
^ Among them was Deborah Squash, a 20-year-old woman who had escaped from George Washington's plantation in 1779. She is described in the Book of Negroes as a "stout wench, thick lips, pock marked. Formerly slave to General Washington, came away about 4 years ago." "Life Stories: Profiles of Black New Yorkers During Slavery and Emancipation" (PDF). Slavery in New York. New-York Historical Society. 2005. p. 103. Retrieved 2007-10-19."Book of Negroes". Black Loyalists: Our People, Our History. Canada's Digital Collections. 1783. Archived from the original on 2007-11-17. Retrieved 2007-10-19.
^ "Certificates of Freedom". Black Loyalists: Our People, Our History. Canada's Digital Collections. Archived from the original on 2007-11-17. Retrieved 2007-10-18.
^ "The Book of Negroes". Africans in America: Revolution. PBS. Retrieved 2007-10-19.
^ "Returned to Slavery". Black Loyalists: Our People, Our History. Canada's Digital Collections. Archived from the original on 2007-11-17. Retrieved 2007-10-18.
^ Sege, Irene (February 21, 2007). "The search:Interest in piecing together family trees grows among African-Americans". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 2007-10-18.
^ "Canada makes amends to descendants of black loyalists". The Economist. 30 September 2017.
^ "Black Loyalist Communities in Nova Scotia". Remembering Black Loyalists, Black Communities in Nova Scotia. Nova Scotia Museum. Archived from the original on 2007-11-11. Retrieved 2007-10-18.
^ "Rose Fortune, a special Canadian!". African American Registry. 2005. Archived from the original on 2007-09-30. Retrieved 2007-10-18.
^ Black Loyalist Heritage Society website
^ Canadian Biography Also see Hartshorne's portrait by Robert Field (painter)
^ ^a ^b Pybus, Cassandra (2006). "Washington's Revolution". Atlantic Studies. 3 (2): 183–199. doi:10.1080/14788810600875414. S2CID 159201709.
^ ^a ^b Lepore, Jill (8 May 2006). "Goodbye, Columbus: When America won its independence, what became of the slaves who fled for theirs?". The New Yorker. Retrieved 8 March 2015.
^ Black Loyalist website.

External links

Black Loyalist website
"Biographies of the Loyalist Era: Thomas Peters, Black Loyalist", The Loyalists, Learn Quebec
"Loyalties" Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine, University of Manitoba, Vol. 17, No. 1
Heritage: Black Loyalists, Saint John
Black Loyalist Heritage Society, official website
Black History, National Archives, United Kingdom
Africans in America: Revolution, PBS
Loyalist Institute, Documents and writings on Black Loyalists
Anti-Slavery movement, Collections Canada
Enslaved Africans in Upper Canada, Archives
Nova Scotia archives, virtual exhibition Archived 2013-10-11 at the Wayback Machine
Black Loyalists' experience in Canada, Atlantic Canadian Portal

[1] Cassandra Pybus, Epic Journeys of Freedom: Runaway Slaves of the American Revolution and Their Global Quest for Liberty, (Beacon Press, Boston, 2006); Graham Russell Hodges, Susan Hawkes Cook, Alan Edward Brown (eds), The Black Loyalist Directory: African Americans in Exile After the American Revolution (subscription required)

[2] The Book of Negroes Archived 2022-07-30 at the Wayback Machine, Black Loyalists.

[3] Barry Cahill, "The Black Loyalist Myth in Atlantic Canada", Acadiensis, University of New Brunswick

[4] Jefferson, Thomas (1900). The Jeffersonian Cyclopedia. Funk & Wagnalls Company. p. 621 (#5808). Retrieved August 6, 2010.

[5] Selig, Robert A. "The Revolution's Black Soldiers". AmericanRevolution.org. Retrieved 2007-10-18.

[6] "Lord Dunmore's Proclamation". Digital History. 2007-10-18. Archived from the original on 2008-04-22. Retrieved 2007-10-18.

[Dunmore-7] "Lord Dunmore's Proclamation". Black Loyalists: Our History, Our People. Canada's Digital Collection. Archived from the original on 2007-11-16. Retrieved 2007-10-17.

[Greene-8] Jack Phillip Greene, Jack Richon Pole (2000). A Companion to the American Revolution. Blackwell Publishing. p. 241. ISBN 0-631-21058-X. Retrieved 2007-10-18.

[9] "Escape from Slavery". Black Loyalists: Our History, Our People. Canada's Digital Collection. Archived from the original on 2007-11-17. Retrieved 2007-10-17.

[10] Kaplan, Sidney (July 1976). "The "Domestic Insurrections" of the Declaration of Independence". Journal of Negro History (PDF). 61 (3): 243–255. doi:10.2307/2717252. JSTOR 00222992. S2CID 149796469. ^{[dead link]}

[declaration-11] "(1776) The Deleted Passage of the Declaration of Independence". Blackpast.org. 10 August 2009. Retrieved 2019-11-24.

[12] Dalling, John (May 25, 1779). "Black Loyalists Proposed Corps". Loyalist Institute. Retrieved 2007-10-18.

[clinton-13] "The Philipsburg Proclamation". Black Loyalists: Our History, Our People. Canada's Digital Collection. Archived from the original on 2007-11-17. Retrieved 2007-10-17.

[Thayer-14] Thayer, James Steel (1991). A Dissenting View of Creole Culture in Sierra Leone. pp. 215–230. https://www.persee.fr/doc/cea_0008-0055_1991_num_31_121_2116

[Browne-Davies-15] Browne-Davies, Nigel (2014). A Precis of Sources relating to genealogical research on the Sierra Leone Krio people. Journal of Sierra Leone Studies, Vol. 3; Edition 1, 2014 https://www.academia.edu/40720522/A_Precis_of_Sources_relating_to_genealogical_research_on_the_Sierra_Leone_Krio_people

[Walker-16] Walker, James W (1992). "Chapter Five: Foundation of Sierra Leone". The Black Loyalists: The Search for a Promised Land in Nova Scotia and Sierra Leone, 1783–1870. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. pp. 94–114. ISBN 978-0-8020-7402-7., originally published by Longman & Dalhousie University Press (1976).

[Taylor-17] Taylor, Bankole Kamara (February 2014). Sierra Leone: The Land, Its People and History. New Africa Press. p. 68. ISBN 9789987160389.

[ethopian-18] "The Royal Ethiopian". Black Loyalists: Our History, Our People. Canada's Digital Collection. Archived from the original on 2007-11-17. Retrieved 2007-10-17.

[pioneers-19] "The Black Pioneers". Black Loyalists:Our History, Our People. Canada's Digital Collection. Archived from the original on 2007-09-28. Retrieved 2007-10-18.

[20] Nan Cole and Todd Braisted (February 2, 2001). "A History of the Black Pioneers". Loyalist Institute.

[war-21] Jonathan D. Sutherland, African Americans at War, ABC-CLIO, 2003, pp. 420–421, accessed 4 May 2010

[22] "The Treaty of Paris". Black Loyalists: Our People, Our History. Canada's Digital Collections. Archived from the original on 2007-11-17. Retrieved 2007-10-18.

[23] "Chaos in New York". Black Loyalists: Our People, Our History. Canada's Digital Collections. Archived from the original on 2007-11-17. Retrieved 2007-10-18.

[24] "Who were the Black Loyalists?". Remembering Black Loyalists, Black Communities in Nova Scotia. Nova Scotia Museum. Archived from the original on 2007-10-24. Retrieved 2007-10-18.

[25] Walker, James W. (1992). "Chapter Five: Foundation of Sierra Leone". The Black Loyalists: The Search for a Promised Land in Nova Scotia and Sierra Leone, 1783–1870. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. pp. 94–114. ISBN 978-0-8020-7402-7. Originally published by Longman & Dalhousie University Press (1976).

[26] Among them was Deborah Squash, a 20-year-old woman who had escaped from George Washington's plantation in 1779. She is described in the Book of Negroes as a "stout wench, thick lips, pock marked. Formerly slave to General Washington, came away about 4 years ago." "Life Stories: Profiles of Black New Yorkers During Slavery and Emancipation" (PDF). Slavery in New York. New-York Historical Society. 2005. p. 103. Retrieved 2007-10-19."Book of Negroes". Black Loyalists: Our People, Our History. Canada's Digital Collections. 1783. Archived from the original on 2007-11-17. Retrieved 2007-10-19.

[27] "Certificates of Freedom". Black Loyalists: Our People, Our History. Canada's Digital Collections. Archived from the original on 2007-11-17. Retrieved 2007-10-18.

[pbs_book-28] "The Book of Negroes". Africans in America: Revolution. PBS. Retrieved 2007-10-19.

[29] "Returned to Slavery". Black Loyalists: Our People, Our History. Canada's Digital Collections. Archived from the original on 2007-11-17. Retrieved 2007-10-18.

[30] Sege, Irene (February 21, 2007). "The search:Interest in piecing together family trees grows among African-Americans". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 2007-10-18.

[veconomist-31] "Canada makes amends to descendants of black loyalists". The Economist. 30 September 2017.

[32] "Black Loyalist Communities in Nova Scotia". Remembering Black Loyalists, Black Communities in Nova Scotia. Nova Scotia Museum. Archived from the original on 2007-11-11. Retrieved 2007-10-18.

[33] "Rose Fortune, a special Canadian!". African American Registry. 2005. Archived from the original on 2007-09-30. Retrieved 2007-10-18.

[34] Black Loyalist Heritage Society website

[35] Canadian Biography Also see Hartshorne's portrait by Robert Field (painter)

[pybus-36] Pybus, Cassandra (2006). "Washington's Revolution". Atlantic Studies. 3 (2): 183–199. doi:10.1080/14788810600875414. S2CID 159201709.

[lepore-37] Lepore, Jill (8 May 2006). "Goodbye, Columbus: When America won its independence, what became of the slaves who fled for theirs?". The New Yorker. Retrieved 8 March 2015.

[38] Black Loyalist website.

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 | anniversaries                 =
 }}
+{{See also|African Americans in the Revolutionary War}}
 '''Black Loyalists''' were people of African descent who sided with the [[Loyalist (American Revolution)|Loyalists]] during the [[American Revolutionary War]].<ref>Cassandra Pybus, ''Epic Journeys of Freedom: Runaway Slaves of the American Revolution and Their Global Quest for Liberty,'' (Beacon Press, Boston, 2006); Graham Russell Hodges, Susan Hawkes Cook, Alan Edward Brown (eds), [https://www.jstor.org/stable/2947159 ''The Black Loyalist Directory: African Americans in Exile After the American Revolution''] {{subscription required|via JSTOR}}</ref> In particular, the term refers to men who escaped enslavement by [[Patriot (American Revolution)|Patriot]] masters and served on the Loyalist side because of the [[The Crown|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.<ref>[http://www.blackloyalist.info/sources ''The Book of Negroes''], Black Loyalists.</ref> 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.<ref>[http://journals.hil.unb.ca/index.php/acadiensis/article/view/10801/11587 Barry Cahill, "The Black Loyalist Myth in Atlantic Canada"], ''Acadiensis'', University of New Brunswick</ref> Other Black Loyalists were evacuated to [[London]] or the Caribbean colonies.
+Some 3,000 Black Loyalists were evacuated from [[New York (state)|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.<ref>[http://www.blackloyalist.info/sources ''The Book of Negroes''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220730211633/http://www.blackloyalist.info/sources |date=2022-07-30 }}, Black Loyalists.</ref> 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.<ref>[http://journals.hil.unb.ca/index.php/acadiensis/article/view/10801/11587 Barry Cahill, "The Black Loyalist Myth in Atlantic Canada"], ''Acadiensis'', University of New Brunswick</ref> Other Black Loyalists were evacuated to [[London]] or the Caribbean colonies.
 Thousands of enslaved people escaped from plantations and fled to British lines, especially after British occupation of [[Charleston, South Carolina]]. When the British evacuated, they took many former enslaved people with them. Many ended up among London's [[Committee for the Relief of the Black Poor#The Poor Black in 18th-century Britain|Black Poor]], with 4,000 resettled by the [[Sierra Leone Company]] to [[Freetown, Sierra Leone|Freetown]] in Africa in 1787.  Five years later, another 1,192 Black Loyalists from Nova Scotia chose to emigrate to Sierra Leone, becoming known as the [[Nova Scotian Settlers]]  in the new [[Sierra Leone Colony and Protectorate|British colony of Sierra Leone]]. Both waves of settlers became part of the [[Sierra Leone Creole people]] and the founders of the nation of Sierra Leone. [[Thomas Jefferson]] referred to the Black Loyalists as "the fugitives from these States".<ref>{{cite book
@@ Line 39: / Line 39: @@
 ==Background==
-Slavery in England had never been authorized by legal statutes. [[Villeinage]], a form of semi-serfdom, was legally recognized but long obsolete. In 1772, a slave threatened with being taken out of England and returned to the Caribbean challenged the authority of his master in the case of ''[[Somerset v Stewart]]''. Chief Justice [[William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield|Lord Mansfield]] ruled that slavery had no standing under common law and slave owners, therefore, were not permitted to transport slaves outside England and Wales against their will. Many observers took it to mean that slavery was ended in England.
+Slavery in England had never been authorized by legal statutes. [[Villeinage]], a form of semi-serfdom, was legally recognized but long obsolete. In 1772, a slave threatened with being taken out of England and returned to the Caribbean challenged the authority of his master in the case of ''[[Somerset v Stewart]]''. The [[Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales|Chief Justice]], [[William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield|Lord Mansfield]], ruled that slavery had no standing under common law and slave owners, therefore, were not permitted to transport slaves outside England and Wales against their will. Many observers took it to mean that slavery was ended in England.
 Lower courts often interpreted the ruling as determining that the status of slavery did not exist in England and Wales, but Mansfield ruled more narrowly. The decision did not apply to the North American and Caribbean colonies, where local legislatures had passed laws to institutionalize slavery. A number of cases were presented to the English courts for the emancipation of slaves residing in England, and numerous American runaways hoped to reach England where they expected to gain freedom.
@@ Line 45: / Line 45: @@
 American slaves began to believe that King [[George III]] was for them and against their masters as tensions increased before the American Revolution. Colonial slaveholders feared a British-inspired [[slave rebellion]], and [[John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore|Lord Dunmore]] wrote to [[William Legge, 2nd Earl of Dartmouth|Lord Dartmouth]] in early 1775 of his intention to take advantage of the situation.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.americanrevolution.org/blk.html |title=The Revolution's Black Soldiers |access-date=2007-10-18 |first=Robert A. |last=Selig |publisher=AmericanRevolution.org}}</ref>
-== Proclamations ==
+==Proclamations==
-=== Dunmore's Proclamation ===
+===Dunmore's Proclamation===
-In November 1775, [[John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore|Lord Dunmore]] issued [[Dunmore's Proclamation|a controversial proclamation]]. As [[Colony of Virginia|Virginia]]'s royal governor, he called on all able-bodied men to assist him in the defence of the colony, including slaves belonging to the Patriots. He promised such slave recruits freedom in exchange for service in the British Army.
+In November 1775, [[John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore|Lord Dunmore]] issued [[Dunmore's Proclamation|a controversial proclamation]]. As [[Colony of Virginia|Virginia]]'s royal governor, he called on all able-bodied men to assist him in the defence of the colony, including slaves belonging to the Patriots. He promised such slave recruits freedom in exchange for service in the British Army:
 {{quote|I do require every Person capable of bearing Arms, to resort to His MAJESTY'S STANDARD, or be looked upon as Traitors to His MAJESTY'S Crown and Government, and thereby become liable to the Penalty the Law inflicts upon such Offences; such as forfeiture of Life, confiscation of Lands, &c. &c. And I do hereby further declare all indented Servants, Negroes, or others, (appertaining to Rebels,) free that are able and willing to bear Arms, they joining His MAJESTY'S Troops as soon as may be, for the more speedily reducing this Colony to a proper Sense of their Duty, to His MAJESTY'S Crown and Dignity.|Lord Dunmore's Proclamation, November 7, 1775<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/learning_history/revolution/dunsmore.cfm |title=Lord Dunmore's Proclamation |publisher=Digital History |access-date=2007-10-18 |date=2007-10-18 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080422231140/http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/learning_history/revolution/dunsmore.cfm |archive-date=2008-04-22 }}</ref>}}
-Within a month, about 800 former slaves had fled to [[Norfolk, Virginia]] to enlist.<ref name="Dunmore">{{cite web |url=http://www.blackloyalist.com/canadiandigitalcollection/story/revolution/dunmore.htm |title=Lord Dunmore's Proclamation |work=Black Loyalists: Our History, Our People |access-date=2007-10-17 |publisher=Canada's Digital Collection |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071116143245/http://www.blackloyalist.com/canadiandigitalcollection/story/revolution/dunmore.htm |archive-date=2007-11-16 }}</ref><ref name="Greene">{{cite book |author=Jack Phillip Greene, [[Jack Richon Pole]] |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ic2xyhfbUWcC |title=A Companion to the American Revolution |publisher=[[Blackwell Publishing]] |year=2000 |isbn=0-631-21058-X |page=241 |access-date=2007-10-18}}</ref> Outraged Virginia slave owners decreed that runaway slaves would be executed, and they also counteracted the promises of Lord Dunmore by claiming that slaves who escaped to Lord Dunmore would be sold to [[sugar plantations in the Caribbean]]. But many slaves were willing to risk their lives for a chance at freedom.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.blackloyalist.com/canadiandigitalcollection/story/revolution/escape.htm |title=Escape from Slavery |work=Black Loyalists: Our History, Our People |access-date=2007-10-17 |publisher=Canada's Digital Collection |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071117054457/http://www.blackloyalist.com/canadiandigitalcollection/story/revolution/escape.htm |archive-date=2007-11-17 }}</ref>
+Within a month, about 800 slaves or former slaves had fled to [[Norfolk, Virginia]] to enlist.<ref name="Dunmore">{{cite web |url=http://www.blackloyalist.com/canadiandigitalcollection/story/revolution/dunmore.htm |title=Lord Dunmore's Proclamation |work=Black Loyalists: Our History, Our People |access-date=2007-10-17 |publisher=Canada's Digital Collection |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071116143245/http://www.blackloyalist.com/canadiandigitalcollection/story/revolution/dunmore.htm |archive-date=2007-11-16 }}</ref><ref name="Greene">{{cite book |author=Jack Phillip Greene, [[Jack Richon Pole]] |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ic2xyhfbUWcC |title=A Companion to the American Revolution |publisher=[[Blackwell Publishing]] |year=2000 |isbn=0-631-21058-X |page=241 |access-date=2007-10-18}}</ref> Outraged Virginia slave owners decreed that runaway slaves would be executed, and they also counteracted the promises of Lord Dunmore by claiming that slaves who escaped to Lord Dunmore would be sold to [[sugar plantations in the Caribbean]]. But many slaves were willing to risk their lives for a chance at freedom.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.blackloyalist.com/canadiandigitalcollection/story/revolution/escape.htm |title=Escape from Slavery |work=Black Loyalists: Our History, Our People |access-date=2007-10-17 |publisher=Canada's Digital Collection |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071117054457/http://www.blackloyalist.com/canadiandigitalcollection/story/revolution/escape.htm |archive-date=2007-11-17 }}</ref>
-Lord Dunmore's Proclamation was the first mass emancipation of slaves in America.<ref name="Dunmore"/>  The 1776 [[United States Declaration of Independence|Declaration of Independence]] refers obliquely to the Proclamation by citing it as one of its grievances, that King George III had "excited domestic Insurrections among us".<ref>{{cite journal | last = Kaplan | first = Sidney |date=July 1976 | title = The "Domestic Insurrections" of the Declaration of Independence | journal = Journal of Negro History | volume = 61 | issue = 3 | pages = 243–255 | doi =  10.2307/2717252| type = PDF | jstor = 00222992 | s2cid = 149796469 }} {{Dead link|date=November 2010|bot=H3llBot}}</ref> An earlier version of the Declaration was more explicit, stating the following of King George III, but these controversial details were dropped during the final development of the document in Congress.
+Lord Dunmore's Proclamation was the first mass emancipation of slaves in America.<ref name="Dunmore"/>  The 1776 [[United States Declaration of Independence|Declaration of Independence]] refers obliquely to the Proclamation by citing it as one of its grievances, that King George III had "excited domestic Insurrections among us".<ref>{{cite journal | last = Kaplan | first = Sidney |date=July 1976 | title = The "Domestic Insurrections" of the Declaration of Independence | journal = Journal of Negro History | volume = 61 | issue = 3 | pages = 243–255 | doi =  10.2307/2717252| type = PDF | jstor = 00222992 | s2cid = 149796469 }} {{Dead link|date=November 2010|bot=H3llBot}}</ref> An earlier version of the Declaration was more explicit, stating the following of King George III, but these controversial details were dropped during the final development of the document in Congress:
 {{quote|He is now exciting those very people to rise in arms among us, and to purchase that liberty of which he has deprived them, by murdering the people on whom he has obtruded them: thus paying off former crimes committed again the Liberties of one people, with crimes which he urges them to commit against the lives of another.|Draft Declaration of Independence, 1776<ref name="declaration">{{cite web |url=https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/declaration-independence-and-debate-over-slavery/ |title=(1776) The Deleted Passage of the Declaration of Independence|date=10 August 2009|access-date=2019-11-24| publisher=Blackpast.org}}</ref>}}
-After the war began, a number of British generals issued proclamations calling for Loyalists to free their slaves so that they could join the undermanned British army and bolster its numbers. Among those issuing proclamations were Lord Dunmore, Governor of Virginia,<ref name="Dunmore"/> and Sir [[Henry Clinton (British Army officer, born 1730)|Henry Clinton]].<ref name="clinton"/> Jamaica's Governor [[John Dalling]] drafted a proposal in 1779 for the enlistment of a regiment of [[mulatto]]es and another regiment of [[free Negroes]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.royalprovincial.com/military/black/blkcorps.htm |title=Black Loyalists Proposed Corps |first=John |last=Dalling |author-link=John Dalling |access-date=2007-10-18 |date=May 25, 1779 |publisher=Loyalist Institute}}</ref>
+Jamaica's Governor [[John Dalling]] drafted a proposal in 1779 for the enlistment of a regiment of [[mulatto]]es and another regiment of [[free Negro]]es.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.royalprovincial.com/military/black/blkcorps.htm |title=Black Loyalists Proposed Corps |first=John |last=Dalling |author-link=John Dalling |access-date=2007-10-18 |date=May 25, 1779 |publisher=Loyalist Institute}}</ref>
 ===Philipsburg Proclamation ===
@@ Line 68: / Line 68: @@
 {{Main|Loyalists fighting in the American Revolution}}
-Lord Dunmore's proclamation and others led to the formation of several Black regiments in the British army. The most notable were Dunmore's [[Ethiopian Regiment]] and Clinton's [[Black Company of Pioneers]]. Other regiments included the Jersey Shore Volunteers, the Jamaica Rangers, the Mosquito Shore Volunteers, and the Black Dragoons of the South Carolina Royalists. It was also common for Black Loyalists to serve the military in non-combat positions, such as the Black Company of Pioneers.<ref name="ethopian">{{cite web |url=http://www.blackloyalist.com/canadiandigitalcollection/story/revolution/ethiopia.htm |access-date=2007-10-17 |title=The Royal Ethiopian |work=Black Loyalists: Our History, Our People |publisher=Canada's Digital Collection |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071117073542/http://www.blackloyalist.com/canadiandigitalcollection/story/revolution/ethiopia.htm |archive-date=2007-11-17 }}</ref><ref name="pioneers">{{cite web|url=http://www.blackloyalist.com/canadiandigitalcollection/index.htm |title=The Black Pioneers |access-date=2007-10-18 |work=Black Loyalists:Our History, Our People |publisher=Canada's Digital Collection |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928222057/http://www.blackloyalist.com/canadiandigitalcollection/index.htm |archive-date=2007-09-28 }}</ref>
+Lord Dunmore's proclamation and others led to the formation of several Black regiments in the British army. The most notable were Dunmore's Royal [[Ethiopian Regiment]] and Clinton's [[Black Company of Pioneers]]. Other regiments included the Jersey Shore Volunteers, the Jamaica Rangers, the Mosquito Shore Volunteers, and the Black Dragoons of the South Carolina Royalists. It was also common for Black Loyalists to serve the military in non-combat positions, such as the Black Company of Pioneers.<ref name="ethopian">{{cite web |url=http://www.blackloyalist.com/canadiandigitalcollection/story/revolution/ethiopia.htm |access-date=2007-10-17 |title=The Royal Ethiopian |work=Black Loyalists: Our History, Our People |publisher=Canada's Digital Collection |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071117073542/http://www.blackloyalist.com/canadiandigitalcollection/story/revolution/ethiopia.htm |archive-date=2007-11-17 }}</ref><ref name="pioneers">{{cite web|url=http://www.blackloyalist.com/canadiandigitalcollection/index.htm |title=The Black Pioneers |access-date=2007-10-18 |work=Black Loyalists:Our History, Our People |publisher=Canada's Digital Collection |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928222057/http://www.blackloyalist.com/canadiandigitalcollection/index.htm |archive-date=2007-09-28 }}</ref>
+===Royal Ethiopian Regiment===
-===Black Company of Pioneers and Guides and Pioneers===
+{{main article|Ethiopian Regiment}}
+Lord Dunmore organized 800 Black Loyalist volunteers into the Royal [[Ethiopian Regiment]]. They trained in the rudiments of marching and shooting before engaging in their first conflict at the [[Battle of Kemp's Landing]]. The Patriot militia at Kemp's Landing was unprepared for the attack and retreated. Next, Dunmore led the Royal Ethiopians into the [[Battle of Great Bridge]]; Dunmore was overconfident and misinformed about the Patriot numbers, however, and the Patriots overwhelmed the British troops. After the battle, Dunmore loaded his Black troops onto ships of the British fleet, hoping to take the opportunity to train them better. The cramped conditions led to the spread of [[smallpox]]. By the time that Dunmore retreated to the [[Province of New York]], only 300 of the original 800 soldiers had survived.<ref name="ethopian"/>
+===Black Company of Pioneers===
 The largest Black Loyalist regiment was the [[Black Company of Pioneers]], better known as the "Black Pioneers" and later merged into the Guides and Pioneers. In the military terminology of the day, a "pioneer" was a soldier who built roads, dug trenches, and did other manual labor. These soldiers were typically divided into smaller corps and attached to larger armies. The Black Pioneers worked to build fortifications and other necessities, and they could be called upon to work under fire.<ref name="pioneers"/> They served under General Clinton in a support capacity in North Carolina, New York, [[Newport, Rhode Island]], and [[Philadelphia]].  They did not sustain any casualties because they were never used in combat. In Philadelphia, their general orders to "attend the scavengers, assist in cleaning the streets & removing all newsiances being thrown into the streets".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.royalprovincial.com/military/rhist/blkpion/blkhist.htm |title=A History of the Black Pioneers |author=Nan Cole and Todd Braisted |publisher=Loyalist Institute |date=February 2, 2001}}</ref>
-===Ethiopian Regiment===
-{{main article|Ethiopian Regiment}}
-Lord Dunmore organized his 800 Black Loyalist volunteers into the [[Ethiopian Regiment]]. They trained in the rudiments of marching and shooting before engaging in their first conflict at the [[Battle of Kemp's Landing]]. The Patriot militia at Kemp's Landing was unprepared for the attack and retreated. Next, Dunmore led the Royal Ethiopians into the [[Battle of Great Bridge]]; Dunmore was overconfident and misinformed about the Patriot numbers, however, and the Patriots overwhelmed the British troops. After the battle, Dunmore loaded his Black troops onto ships of the British fleet, hoping to take the opportunity to train them better. The cramped conditions led to the spread of [[smallpox]]. By the time that Dunmore retreated to the [[Province of New York]], only 300 of the original 800 soldiers had survived.<ref name="ethopian"/>
 ===Black Brigade===
@@ Line 85: / Line 87: @@
 In the chaos as the British evacuated Loyalist refugees, particularly from New York and Charleston, many American slave owners attempted to recapture their former slaves. Some would capture any Black, including those born free before the war, and sell them into slavery.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.blackloyalist.com/canadiandigitalcollection/story/exile/chaos.htm |title=Chaos in New York |access-date=2007-10-18 |work=Black Loyalists: Our People, Our History |publisher=Canada's Digital Collections |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071117073405/http://www.blackloyalist.com/canadiandigitalcollection/story/exile/chaos.htm |archive-date=2007-11-17 }}</ref> The U.S. Congress ordered [[George Washington]] to retrieve any American property, including slaves, from the British, as stipulated by the [[Treaty of Paris (1783)|Treaty of Paris of 1783]].
-Since Sir [[Guy Carleton, 1st Baron Dorchester|Guy Carleton]] intended to honor the promise of freedom, the British proposed a compromise that would compensate slave owners and provide certificates of freedom and the right to be evacuated to one of the British colonies to any Black person who could prove his service or status. The British transported more than 3,000 Black Loyalists to Nova Scotia, the greatest number of people of African descent to arrive there at any one time. One of their settlements, [[Birchtown, Nova Scotia]] was the largest free African community in North America for the first few years of its existence.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://museum.gov.ns.ca/blackloyalists/who.htm |title=Who were the Black Loyalists? |access-date=2007-10-18 |work=Remembering Black Loyalists, Black Communities in Nova Scotia |publisher=[[Nova Scotia Museum]] |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071024151754/http://museum.gov.ns.ca/blackloyalists/who.htm |archive-date=2007-10-24 }}</ref>
+Since Lieutenant General [[Guy Carleton, 1st Baron Dorchester|Guy Carleton]] intended to honor the promise of freedom, the British proposed a compromise that would compensate slave owners and provide certificates of freedom and the right to be evacuated to one of the British colonies to any Black person who could prove his service or status. The British transported more than 3,000 Black Loyalists to Nova Scotia, the greatest number of people of African descent to arrive there at any one time. One of their settlements, [[Birchtown, Nova Scotia]] was the largest free African community in North America for the first few years of its existence.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://museum.gov.ns.ca/blackloyalists/who.htm |title=Who were the Black Loyalists? |access-date=2007-10-18 |work=Remembering Black Loyalists, Black Communities in Nova Scotia |publisher=[[Nova Scotia Museum]] |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071024151754/http://museum.gov.ns.ca/blackloyalists/who.htm |archive-date=2007-10-24 }}</ref>
 Black Loyalists found the northern climate and frontier conditions in Nova Scotia difficult and were subject to discrimination by other Loyalist settlers, many of them slaveholders. In July 1784, Black Loyalists in Shelburne were targeted in the [[Shelburne Riots]], the first recorded race riots in Canadian history. Crown officials granted land to the Black Loyalists of lesser quality and that were more rocky and less fertile than that given to White Loyalists. In 1792, the British government offered Black Loyalists the chance to resettle in a new colony in [[Sierra Leone]]. The [[Sierra Leone Company]] was established to manage its development. Half of the Black Loyalists in Nova Scotia, nearly 1200, departed the country and moved permanently to Sierra Leone. They set up the community of "[[Freetown]]".<ref>{{cite book|last=Walker |first=James W. |year=1992 |chapter=Chapter Five: Foundation of Sierra Leone |title=The Black Loyalists: The Search for a Promised Land in Nova Scotia and Sierra Leone, 1783–1870 |location=Toronto |publisher=University of Toronto Press |pages=[https://archive.org/details/blackloyalistsse0000walk/page/94 94]–114 |url=https://archive.org/details/blackloyalistsse0000walk |url-access=registration |isbn=978-0-8020-7402-7}} Originally published by Longman & Dalhousie University Press (1976).</ref>
@@ Line 97: / Line 99: @@
 ===Nova Scotia===
-[[File:William Furmage, Halifax, Nova Scotia.jpg|thumb|Reverend [[William Furmage]], [[Old Burying Ground (Halifax, Nova Scotia)]], [[Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon|Huntingdonian Missionary]] to the [[Black Loyalists]]; established school for Black students in Halifax (1786)<ref>[http://haddingtonhouse.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Huntingdonian-Missionaries-to-NS-NB.pdf  Jack C. Whytock. The Huntingdonian Missionaries to Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, c. 1785–1792 ]</ref><ref>Jack C. Whytock.  Historical Papers 2003: Canadian Society of Church History. Edited by Bruce L. Guenther, p.154.</ref>]]
-Between 1776 and 1785, around 3,500 Blacks were transported to Nova Scotia from the United States, part of a larger migration of about 34,000 Loyalist refugees. This massive influx of people increased the population by almost 60%, and led to the establishment of [[New Brunswick]] as its own colony in 1784.  Most of the free Blacks settled at [[Birchtown]], the largest Black township in [[North America]] at the time, next to the town of [[Shelburne, Nova Scotia|Shelburne]], settled by whites.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://museum.gov.ns.ca/blackloyalists/communities.htm |title=Black Loyalist Communities in Nova Scotia |access-date=2007-10-18 |publisher=[[Nova Scotia Museum]] |work=Remembering Black Loyalists, Black Communities in Nova Scotia |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071111014753/http://museum.gov.ns.ca/blackloyalists/communities.htm |archive-date=2007-11-11 }}</ref>  There are also a number of Black loyalists buried in unmarked graves in the [[Old Burying Ground (Halifax, Nova Scotia)]].
 [[File:AricanNovaScotianByCaptain William Booth1788.png|thumb|left|A Black Loyalist wood cutter, at [[Shelburne, Nova Scotia]], in 1788]]
+Between 1776 and 1785, around 3,500 Blacks were transported to Nova Scotia from the United States, part of a larger migration of about 34,000 Loyalist refugees. This massive influx of people increased the population by almost 60%, and led to the establishment of [[New Brunswick]] as its own colony in 1784.  Most of the free Blacks settled at [[Birchtown]], the largest Black township in [[North America]] at the time, next to the town of [[Shelburne, Nova Scotia|Shelburne]], settled by Whites.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://museum.gov.ns.ca/blackloyalists/communities.htm |title=Black Loyalist Communities in Nova Scotia |access-date=2007-10-18 |publisher=[[Nova Scotia Museum]] |work=Remembering Black Loyalists, Black Communities in Nova Scotia |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071111014753/http://museum.gov.ns.ca/blackloyalists/communities.htm |archive-date=2007-11-11 }}</ref>  There are also a number of Black loyalists buried in unmarked graves in the [[Old Burying Ground (Halifax, Nova Scotia)]].
 [[File:Black Loyalist Heritage Society coat of arms.svg|thumb|The coat of arms of the Black Loyalist Heritage Society in Canada]]
 Among, the descendants of the Black Loyalists are noted figures such as [[Rose Fortune]], a Black woman living in Nova Scotia who became a police officer and a businesswoman.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.aaregistry.com/african_american_history/2582/Rose_Fortune_a_special_Canadian |title=Rose Fortune, a special Canadian! |access-date=2007-10-18 |publisher=African American Registry |year=2005 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070930031617/http://www.aaregistry.com/african_american_history/2582/Rose_Fortune_a_special_Canadian <!-- Bot retrieved archive --> |archive-date = 2007-09-30}}</ref> [[Measha Brueggergosman]] (née Gosman), the Canadian [[opera]] and concert singer, is a [[New Brunswick]] native and descendant of a Black Loyalist through her father. In the closing days of the Revolution, along with British troops and other Black Loyalists, her paternal four-times-great-grandfather and grandmother left the colonies. They were resettled in Shelburne with their first child, who had been born free behind British lines in New York.
@@ Line 110: / Line 112: @@
 {{See also|Nova Scotian Settlers|Sierra Leone Creole people}}
 [[File:Lawrence Hartshorne, Old Burying Ground, Halifax, Nova Scotia.jpg|thumb|[[Lawrence Hartshorne]], d. 1822, a [[Quaker]] who was the chief assistant of [[John Clarkson (abolitionist)|John Clarkson]] in helping the  [[Black Nova Scotians|Black]] [[Nova Scotian Settlers]] emigrate to [[Sierra Leone]] (1792), [[Old Burying Ground (Halifax, Nova Scotia)]]<ref>[http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/hartshorne_lawrence_6E.html Canadian Biography] Also see Hartshorne's portrait by [[Robert Field (painter)]]</ref>]]
 Some Black Loyalists were transported to London, where they struggled to create new lives. Sympathy for the black veterans who had fought for the British stimulated support for the [[Committee for the Relief of the Black Poor]]. This organization backed the resettlement of the black poor from London to a new British colony of [[Sierra Leone]] in [[West Africa]]. In addition, Black Loyalists in Nova Scotia were offered the opportunity to relocate, and about half chose to move to the new colony. Today the descendants of these pioneers are known as the [[Sierra Leone Creole people]], or [[Krio people|Krios]]. They live primarily in the Western Area of Freetown.
@@ Line 116: / Line 119: @@
 An example of such an ancestor is [[Harry Washington]], likely born about 1740 in [[The Gambia]], enslaved as a young man and shipped to Virginia.<ref name="pybus"/> He was purchased by George Washington in 1763; he escaped about 1776 in Virginia to British lines, eventually making his way to New York.<ref name="lepore"/> He was among free blacks evacuated to Nova Scotia by the British following the war.<ref name="lepore">{{cite magazine|last1=Lepore|first1=Jill|author-link=Jill Lepore|title=Goodbye, Columbus: When America won its independence, what became of the slaves who fled for theirs?|url=http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2006/05/08/goodbye-columbus|access-date=8 March 2015|magazine=[[The New Yorker]]|date=8 May 2006}}</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20100524160143/http://www.blackloyalist.info/ Black Loyalist website.]</ref> He later took the opportunity to migrate to Freetown in Africa. There by 1800 he became the leader of a rebellion against colonial rule and faced a military tribunal.<ref name="pybus">{{cite journal|doi=10.1080/14788810600875414 | volume=3 | issue=2 | year=2006 | journal=Atlantic Studies | pages=183–199 | last1 = Pybus | first1 = Cassandra| title=Washington's Revolution | s2cid=159201709 }}</ref> His descendants are part of the Creole population, who make up 5.8% of the total.
-== Notable Black Loyalists ==
+==Notable people==
 * [[Stephen Blucke]], commanding officer of the Black Company of Pioneers
 * [[David George (Baptist)|David George]], American Baptist preacher
@@ Line 134: / Line 137: @@
 ==See also==
+*[[Black Patriot]], an African American who fought for the Patriots during the American Revolution
 *[[Black refugee (War of 1812)]]
 *[[Black Nova Scotians]]
@@ Line 143: / Line 147: @@
 {{Reflist|30em}}
+==Further reading==
 <!--Keep in alphabetical order if adds are made-->
-*Cassandra Pybus, ''Epic Journeys of Freedom: Runaway Slaves of the American Revolution and Their Global Quest for Liberty,'' New York: Beacon, 2006
-*[[Simon Schama]], ''[[Rough Crossings: Britain, the Slaves, and the American Revolution]]'' (London: BBC Books, 2005) (New York: Ecco, 2006 )
-* [[James Holman]], [https://archive.org/details/travelsinmadeir00holmgoog/page/n129 <!-- pg=113 quote=hastings sierra leone soldiers. --> ''Travels in Madeira, Sierra Leone, Teneriffe, St. Jago, Cape Coast, Fernando Po, Princes island, etc.''] (Google eBook), 1840
+*Gilbert, Alan. ''Black Patriots and Loyalists: Fighting for Emancipation in the War for Independence''. Chicago: University of Chicago Press 2012. {{ISBN|978-0-226-10155-2}}
-== External links ==
+* [[James Holman|Holman, James]], [https://archive.org/details/travelsinmadeir00holmgoog/page/n129 <!-- pg=113 quote=hastings sierra leone soldiers. --> ''Travels in Madeira, Sierra Leone, Teneriffe, St. Jago, Cape Coast, Fernando Po, Princes island, etc.''] (Google eBook), 1840
+*Pulis, John W. ed. ''Moving On: Black Loyalists in the Afro-Atlantic World''. New York: Garland 1999.
+*Pybus, Cassandra. ''Epic Journeys of Freedom: Runaway Slaves of the American Revolution and Their Global Quest for Liberty,'' New York: Beacon, 2006
+*[[Simon Schama|Schama, Simon]], ''[[Rough Crossings: Britain, the Slaves, and the American Revolution]]'' (London: BBC Books, 2005) (New York: Ecco, 2006)
+==External links==
 * [https://web.archive.org/web/20100524160143/http://www.blackloyalist.info/ Black Loyalist website]
 * [https://web.archive.org/web/20080512054208/http://www.learnquebec.ca/en/content/curriculum/social_sciences/features/loyalists/background/loybkgr_peters.html "Biographies of the Loyalist Era: Thomas Peters, Black Loyalist"], ''The Loyalists'', Learn Quebec
-* [http://www.umanitoba.ca/cm/vol7/no1/loyalties.html "Loyalties"], University of Manitoba, Vol. 17, No. 1
+* [http://www.umanitoba.ca/cm/vol7/no1/loyalties.html "Loyalties"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304050429/http://www.umanitoba.ca/cm/vol7/no1/loyalties.html |date=2016-03-04 }}, University of Manitoba, Vol. 17, No. 1
 * [https://web.archive.org/web/20071217170026/http://www.saintjohn.nbcc.nb.ca/Heritage/Black/Loyalists.htm Heritage: Black Loyalists], Saint John
 * [http://www.blackloyalist.com/ Black Loyalist Heritage Society], official website
@@ Line 159: / Line 167: @@
 * [https://web.archive.org/web/20080423031509/http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/anti-slavery/05310201_e.html Anti-Slavery movement], Collections Canada
 * [https://web.archive.org/web/20080703221535/http://www.archives.gov.on.ca/ENGLISH/exhibits/slavery/index.html Enslaved Africans in Upper Canada], Archives
-* [http://www.gov.ns.ca/nsarm/virtual/africanns/ Nova Scotia archives, virtual exhibition]
+* [http://www.gov.ns.ca/nsarm/virtual/africanns/ Nova Scotia archives, virtual exhibition] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131011125824/http://www.gov.ns.ca/nsarm/virtual/africanns/ |date=2013-10-11 }}
 * [http://atlanticportal.hil.unb.ca/acva/blackloyalists/en/  Black Loyalists' experience in Canada], Atlantic Canadian Portal
@@ Line 166: / Line 174: @@
 [[Category:Pre-emancipation African-American history]]
 [[Category:American rebel slaves]]
-[[Category:African Americans in the American Revolution]]
+[[Category:African Americans in the American Revolution|-]]
-[[Category:Black Loyalists| ]]
+[[Category:Black Loyalists]]
 [[Category:Slavery in the United States]]
 [[Category:History of immigration to Canada]]
-[[Category:History of Sierra Leone]]
+[[Category:18th century in Sierra Leone]]
 [[Category:Ethnic groups in Nova Scotia]]

v t e Black Loyalists
Slavery in the U.S. African Americans in the Revolutionary War Loyalists United Empire Loyalist Black Canadians
Proclamations	Dunmore's Proclamation (1775) Philipsburg Proclamation (1779)
American Revolutionary War	Black Loyalists Black Company of Pioneers Ethiopian Regiment
Post-war Emancipation	Treaty of Paris (1783) Book of Negroes Merikins Petition of Free Negroes (Niagara)
White Loyalists involved in Emancipation	General Samuel Birch Stephen Skinner
Nova Scotia	Birchtown Halifax County Port Rosey (now Shelburne) Shelburne riots
Black Nova Scotians	Colonel Stephen Blucke Rose Fortune Rev. John Marrant Richard Pierpoint Deborah Squash See also Sierra Leone settlers below
Nova Scotian / Sierra Leone Settlers (1792)	Committee for the Relief of the Black Poor Settler Town Sierra Leone Company
Sierra Leone people	Davis family David George Abraham Hazeley John Kizell Boston King Cato Perkins Thomas Peters Harry Washington Moses Wilkinson
In media	The Book of Negroes miniseries