Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio, Hey brain Stuff,
Speaker 1: Lauren fog Obam here. The story of the Black Loyalists
Speaker 1: to Britain during the American Revolution is the story of
Speaker 1: a people stolen into slavery who fought for their freedom,
Speaker 1: exacted revenge h on cruel self proclaimed owners, and established
Speaker 1: one of the first free black settlements on the continent.
Speaker 1: It's also a story of broken promises, a racial discord,
Speaker 1: and the lengths to which people will go to find
Speaker 1: a better life. And it's a nearly forgotten chapter in
Speaker 1: North American history. When the American colonies declared independence in
Speaker 1: seventeen seventy six, enslaved Africans and their descendants made up
Speaker 1: twenty percent of the colonial population. The population of South
Speaker 1: Carolina was sixty enslaved people, and Virginia was due to
Speaker 1: the large plantations in those states, though slavery was not
Speaker 1: just a Southern institution. In some northern cities like Boston,
Speaker 1: and enslaved people made up twenty percent of the population.
Speaker 1: Even before the War for Independence officially began, the British
Speaker 1: tried to recruit the enslaved to rise up and fight
Speaker 1: against their rebel plantation owners. Loyalist was the term given
Speaker 1: to people who still supported Britain in the American colonies.
Speaker 1: In seventeen seventy five, the British Royal Governor of Virginia,
Speaker 1: Lord Dunmore, issued a stunning emancipation proclamation, promising freedom and
Speaker 1: land to all enslaved people who would take up arms
Speaker 1: against their rebel masters. Dunmore was looking for manpower to
Speaker 1: put down an armed rebellion in Virginia, and he found it.
Speaker 1: Between eight hundred and two thousand enslaved people and indentured
Speaker 1: servants fled their plantations and joined with the British, including
Speaker 1: a hard fighting militia that would become known as Dunmore's
Speaker 1: Ethiopian Regiment. This militia marched to battle in uniforms inscribed
Speaker 1: with the insignia Liberty to Slaves. Dun Moore's proclamation was
Speaker 1: quote the first mass emancipation in American history. That's according
Speaker 1: to one Isaac Saaney, a history professor at St. Mary's
Speaker 1: University in Nova Scotia. It happened nearly ninety years before
Speaker 1: Abraham Lincoln signed the US Emancipation Proclamation, which ended slavery
Speaker 1: in areas not under the control of the United States government.
Speaker 1: When the tides turned against the British in seventeen seventy nine,
Speaker 1: they issued a second emancipation called the Phillipsburg Proclamation, which
Speaker 1: extended the promise of freedom and land to any enslaved
Speaker 1: person who would cross the British lines without the requirement
Speaker 1: to fight. The move was a form of economic warfare
Speaker 1: against the colonies, Saney said. Escaping Africans would weaken the
Speaker 1: rebel economy. You'd have this mass emancipation taking place, and
Speaker 1: the colonists would now have to expend resources to guard
Speaker 1: the plantations instead of using them in battle. An estimated
Speaker 1: twelve thousand emancipated people fought for the British, but the
Speaker 1: war was lost when the British surrendered in seventeen eighty three.
Speaker 1: One of the central points of contention, Saaney says, was
Speaker 1: quote the return of what George Washington deems us property,
Speaker 1: which are the enslaved Africans. The British commander in Chief,
Speaker 1: Guy Carlton, kept his word and negotiated certificates of freedom
Speaker 1: for all so called black loyalists who had joined the
Speaker 1: British ranks before the surrender. Under one condition, they had
Speaker 1: to leave the country. Carlaton's men carefully recorded the names
Speaker 1: of three thousand newly freed men and women in what's
Speaker 1: known as the Book of Negroes, which was an accepted
Speaker 1: term for black people at that time. The freedmen were
Speaker 1: then put on ships heading to Nova Scotia, which was
Speaker 1: a British ruled Canadian province, but Nova Scotia in the
Speaker 1: late seventeen hundreds was sometimes known as Nova Scarcity. In sight.
Speaker 1: Three forty thousand loyalists, both black and white, fled to
Speaker 1: Nova Scotia, including one thousand and two hundred and thirty
Speaker 1: two black people who were still enslaved by white loyalists.
Speaker 1: All of these people tripled the native population and completely
Speaker 1: overwhelmed the province's meager resources. The newly freed black loyalists,
Speaker 1: far from receiving their just rewards in a new home,
Speaker 1: found themselves last in line for land and exploited as
Speaker 1: cheap labor. Widespread poverty and underemployment across Nova Scotia brewed
Speaker 1: ugly discontent among white people, some of whom blamed the
Speaker 1: black laborers for working for two little pay and thus
Speaker 1: stealing their jobs. Racial tensions erupted into violence in four,
Speaker 1: when a black preacher by the name of David George
Speaker 1: baptized a white woman. The riots and massacres raged for months,
Speaker 1: claiming many black homes and lives, until troops were finally
Speaker 1: sent in from the capital, Halifax. The Black loyalists repeatedly
Speaker 1: petitioned the crown to keep its promises from the war,
Speaker 1: eventually sending the emissary Thomas Peters, all the way to
Speaker 1: London to make the case in person. Peter's got nowhere
Speaker 1: with royal officials, but did meet with a group of
Speaker 1: British abolitionists who were launching a social experiment in Sierra Leone,
Speaker 1: West Africa, a sanctuary for victims of the slave trade.
Speaker 1: They convinced Peters that the best place for the emancipated
Speaker 1: people was back in Africa. In fifteen, ships sailed from
Speaker 1: Halifax Harbor in Nova Scotia to Sierra Leone carrying one thousand,
Speaker 1: one d and ninety six Black loyalists, who had Sandy
Speaker 1: said quote voted with their feet against broken promises of
Speaker 1: land and freedom. Sandy calls it the maiden voyage of
Speaker 1: the Back to Africa movement. Those who stayed behind in
Speaker 1: Nova Scotia largely settled in the village of birch Town,
Speaker 1: named for Samuel Birch, one of the British generals who
Speaker 1: signed the original Certificates of Freedom. Today, Jason Farmer is
Speaker 1: a ninth generation descendant of the Black Loyalists who first
Speaker 1: settled birch Town. Farmer can traces roots back to Jupiter Farmer,
Speaker 1: an enslaved person who escaped from Brunswick, New Jersey. Jupiter
Speaker 1: married a woman named Venus Yes and established a continuous
Speaker 1: line of the Farmer family that's remained in the Birchtown
Speaker 1: area for more than two hundred and thirty years. Farmer
Speaker 1: is an interpreter at the Black Loyalist Heritage Center and
Speaker 1: Historical Site in Nova Scotia, where he's proud to share
Speaker 1: the remarkable story of his ancestors who dared to escape
Speaker 1: the plantations and join with an occupying army to win
Speaker 1: their freedom, only to continue to fight for true freedom
Speaker 1: and equality in a new land. The Farmer said, it's
Speaker 1: an unknown history right here in Nova Scotia. They're amazed.
Speaker 1: It's powerful. Some of them can't even sit there and
Speaker 1: listen to it. All. They have to take breaks, some
Speaker 1: of them cry. Some twenty thousand black people live in
Speaker 1: Nova Scotia today, most of whom are descended from the
Speaker 1: Black Loyalists the same He says that the legacy of
Speaker 1: the Black Loyalists is of a persecuted people exercising black agency.
Speaker 1: He said, these are people who took their fate and
Speaker 1: their destiny into their own hands. Just to get to
Speaker 1: the British side took a lot of courage, skill and ingenuity.
Speaker 1: The fact that so many of them chose to fight
Speaker 1: and saw themselves is not only defending their freedom, but
Speaker 1: participating in the liberation of others, speaks to the breadth
Speaker 1: and depth of their conception of agency, but also as
Speaker 1: part of a collective struggle for freedom. Today's episode was
Speaker 1: written by Dave Ruse and produced by Tyler Klang. For
Speaker 1: more on this and lots of other topics, visit how
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