Nova Scotian Settlers facts for kids
The Nova Scotian Settlers were a group of African Americans who played a key role in founding Freetown, Sierra Leone on March 11, 1792. Most of these settlers were formerly enslaved people who gained their freedom by joining the British during the American Revolutionary War. They became known as the Black Loyalists.
The Nova Scotian Settlers were led by Thomas Peters, a former soldier, and John Clarkson, an English person who worked to end slavery. For many years, these settlers lived in a special area of Freetown called Settler Town. They often married within their own group or with Europeans in the colony.
Over time, the descendants of these settlers became known as the Sierra Leone Creole people. Their culture, including words in the Krio language, still shows their influence. While other groups also helped build Freetown, the 1200 Nova Scotian Settlers had the biggest impact from Western black communities. They brought their American culture with them and created the first lasting colony for formerly enslaved people in West Africa. This colony became very important in the region.
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Why They Went to Nova Scotia
During the American Revolutionary War, the British offered freedom to enslaved people who left their rebel owners and joined the British forces. Thousands of enslaved people escaped during the war. After the British lost the war, they kept their promise to these freed people. About 3,000 formerly enslaved people were taken to Nova Scotia, a region in Canada, to start new lives. Their names were written down in a special book called the Book of Negroes.
Most of these black settlers came from Virginia, with others from South Carolina, Maryland, Georgia, and North Carolina. The United States asked for these people to be returned, but the British refused. The British also settled white Loyalists in Nova Scotia and other parts of Canada. They gave land and supplies to help everyone get started.
Life in Nova Scotia
When the Black Loyalists arrived in Nova Scotia, they faced many challenges. They experienced unfair treatment and discrimination. They often received less land, fewer supplies, and lower pay than white Loyalists. Some even fell into debt and had to work under indentured servitude agreements, which felt a lot like their old enslavement. The cold weather was also very different from the warmer places they had come from.
In the late 1700s, black Nova Scotians were given a new choice: to move to a new colony in West Africa. This colony was being set up by Great Britain for black people from London and some free black people from the Caribbean. In 1792, about 1,192 Black Nova Scotian settlers left Halifax and sailed to Sierra Leone. Many free black people chose to stay in Nova Scotia, and their descendants are known today as the Black Nova Scotians.
The Nova Scotian settlers who went to Sierra Leone often spoke early forms of African-American Vernacular English. Some from South Carolina spoke Gullah, which is a unique language with African roots. The Nova Scotians were the only large group of formerly enslaved people allowed to move to Sierra Leone by the Sierra Leone Company. After the company saw how much the Nova Scotians believed in democratic ideas, they didn't allow other large groups of formerly enslaved people to immigrate.
Fifteen ships, the first fleet to bring free black people to Africa, left Halifax Harbour on January 15, 1792. They arrived in Sierra Leone between February 28 and March 9, 1792. Sadly, about 65 passengers died during the journey.
Visitors to Sierra Leone could tell the Settlers apart from other groups because of their "American accent." Many of them had some Native American or European ancestors. Only about fifty people in the group had been born in Africa and recently enslaved.
After settling in Sierra Leone, many Nova Scotian black people married Europeans as the colony grew. The Nova Scotians believed in a democratic government where people had a say. This was different from the Sierra Leone Company, which ran the colony like an empire. The Nova Scotians called themselves "Settlers" or "Nova Scotians" in Sierra Leone. Later, people would call them "Afro-American" because of their background in the Thirteen Colonies.
Settler Town
In 1792, the Nova Scotians founded and built Freetown in Sierra Leone. They designed the town like the North American colonial towns they knew, with a grid of streets. But when they found out the Sierra Leone Company had kept the best land near the water for themselves, problems started. Soon, the British also brought some Jamaican Maroons from Jamaica to settle in the colony. They mixed with the Nova Scotians, and this part of Freetown became known as Settler Town.
Settler Town was close to Cline Town. Most Nova Scotians lived on streets like Rawdon, Wilberforce, Howe, East, and Charlotte. Many of their main churches were in Settler Town, such as Rawdon Street Methodist Church. The modern-day Ebenezer Methodist Church grew from Rawdon Methodist. Some Settler families had to sell their land because of debt. However, some descendants of early settlers were able to keep their land in Settler Town.
Relationship with Granville Town Settlers
The Granville Town settlers were initially separate from the Nova Scotian community. Over time, through Methodist teachings, they slowly became part of the Nova Scotian society. Nova Scotians like Boston King even taught children of the Granville Town settlers. However, until 1800, the "Old Settlers," as the Granville Towners were called, mostly stayed in their own town.
French Attack
During a war called the War of the First Coalition (1792-1797), the French attacked and burned Freetown in September 1794. For more than two weeks, the settlement suffered from the French army, whose leader had little control over them. The Settlers were the only ones who fought back against the French. The Settlers told the French they were "Britons from North America" and friends of France. Despite this, the French still took two Nova Scotian boys as enslaved people.
After the attack, a British official named Zachary Macauley demanded that the Nova Scotians return any supplies they had taken from the French. Many Methodist preachers said the attack was God's judgment against their white oppressors. Because of this, two settlers, Nathaniel Snowball and Luke Jordan, started their own colony on Pirate's Bay to live freely.
Trade
The Nova Scotians were excellent traders. Many of their wooden houses in Settler Town were later upgraded to stone houses. At this time, the Nova Scotians lived in Eastern Freetown, and the Jamaican Maroons lived in Western Freetown. The Maroons, though different, became a stronger group and adopted some Settler customs. They eventually became the main traders in Sierra Leone in the 1820s, taking over from the Nova Scotians.
Some Nova Scotian traders, like Cato Preston and Eli Ackim, lost their homes because of failed business ventures. In a census from 1826, about half of the Nova Scotian men were skilled workers, and only a few were unskilled. Initially, the Sierra Leone Company allowed the Nova Scotians to use American money (dollars and cents). But later, they put limits on this to reduce American economic influence. Trade with the United States opened up in 1831 but grew slowly, mostly through illegal trading.
Culture
The Settlers had dance nights called 'Koonking' or 'Konken.' During these nights, Settler young women would sing songs they brought from Colonial America or new songs they made up in Sierra Leone that made fun of Europeans. Letters written by the settlers show that most of them spoke a type of English common among lower-class Americans, both white and black. One person noted that the Settlers' way of speaking came from the American South and was kept alive by their preachers and teachers. It was seen as a distinct dialect in the 1800s.
Settler women were independent and worked as schoolteachers and in other jobs. Some even started their own schools. Some Settler men had relationships outside of marriage and supported their children from these relationships, often leaving them land or property in their wills.
Most Nova Scotians were Methodist or belonged to the Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion. A smaller number were Baptist. About half to two-thirds of the Nova Scotians were Methodist. Even former Anglican settlers changed to Methodism, and Methodist churches included congregations led by Moses Wilkinson, Boston King, and Joseph Leonard.
British Policy Towards African Americans
Because of disagreements between the independent Nova Scotian settlers and British leaders, no more Nova Scotians were allowed to resettle in Sierra Leone. When the ship Elizabeth arrived from New York with 82 African Americans, the British did not let them land or settle in Freetown. These Nova Scotians, led by Daniel Coker, were offered land on Sherbro Island by John Kizell, a Nova Scotian settler who was born in Africa.
Unhappy with the difficult conditions at Sherbro, they moved to land on the Pepper Coast. These African Americans who moved there in 1820 were the first settlers of what would become Liberia. During the War of 1812, the British thought about sending another group of Africans who escaped American slavery, called the Black Refugees, to Sierra Leone. But instead, they chose to settle them in Nova Scotia and the West Indies. In the 1830s and 1840s, the Nova Scotians in Sierra Leone would see many Africans freed from slave ships by the British Royal Navy.
Connection to Black Nova Scotians and Black Americans
Some of the settlers had children during their nine years in Nova Scotia. These children were Black Nova Scotians but kept many cultural habits similar to black people in North America and Britain. The descendants of the Nova Scotian settlers, who are now the Sierra Leone Creole people, are related to both Black Nova Scotians and Black Americans.
Notable Nova Scotian Settlers
- Thomas Peters - A black leader in Sierra Leone
- David George - A black American Baptist preacher
- Boston King - A black American Methodist preacher
- Harry Washington - A formerly enslaved person of U.S. President George Washington
Descendants of the Settlers
- Dr. McCormack Easmon - A well-known Creole doctor
- Professor Noah Arthur Cox-George - An economist and university professor
- Professor Arthur Thomas Porter - A university professor and administrator
Images for kids
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The gravestone of Lawrence Hartshorne, a Quaker who helped John Clarkson (abolitionist).
