| Book of Negroes | |
|---|---|
| |
| Date | 1783 |
TheBook of Negroes is a document created byBrigadier GeneralSamuel Birch, under the direction ofSir Guy Carleton, that records names and descriptions of 3,000Black Loyalists, enslaved Africans who escaped to the British lines during theAmerican Revolution and were evacuated to points inNova Scotia asfree people of colour.
The first African person in Nova Scotia arrived with the founding ofPort Royal in 1605.[1] African people were then brought as slaves to Nova Scotia during the founding ofLouisbourg andHalifax. The first major migration of African people to Nova Scotia happened during the American Revolution.Enslaved Africans in America who escaped to the British during theAmerican Revolutionary War became the first settlement ofBlack Nova Scotians andBlack Canadians. Other Black Loyalists were transported to settlements in several islands in theWest Indies and some toLondon. Recorded in 1783, this 150-page document is the only one to have recorded Black Canadians in a large, detailed scope of work.[2]
The document contains records on 3000 Africans; the former slaves recorded in theBook of Negroes were evacuated toBritish North America, where they were settled in the newly established Birchtown and other places in the colony. According to theTreaty of Paris (1783), the United States argued for the return of all property, including slaves. The British refused to return the slaves, to whom they had promised freedom during the war for joining their cause. The detailed records were created to document the freed people whom the British resettled in Nova Scotia, along with other Loyalists. The book was assembled by Samuel Birch, the namesake ofBirchtown, Nova Scotia, under the direction ofSir Guy Carleton.
Some freedmen later migrated from Nova Scotia toSierra Leone, where they formed the original settlers ofFreetown, under the auspices of theSierra Leone Company. They are among the ancestors of theSierra Leone Creole ethnic group.
Notable people recorded in theBook of Negroes includeBoston King,Harry Washington,Moses Wilkinson andCato Perkins.
As theBook of Negroes was recorded separately by American and British officers, there are two versions of the document. The British version is held inThe National Archives in Kew, London.[3] The American version is held by theNational Archives and Records Administration inWashington, D.C.[4] It was published under the titleThe Black Loyalist Directory: African Americans in Exile After the American Revolution (1996), edited by Graham Russell Hodges, Susan Hawkes Cook, and Alan Edward Brown.[5]
The Canadian novelistLawrence Hill wroteThe Book of Negroes (2007, published in the United States asSomeone Knows My Name). It is inspired by the 3,000 former Black African Slaves from America, many of whom were owned by White slave owners. The Former Black African slaves were given free land and housing by the British, in a Nova Scotia town called Birchtown, named after the original author of "The Book of Negros" British Brigadier General Samuel Birch.
In 1792 1,200 residents of Birchtown chose to emigrate to another British Colony called Sierra Leone, which was founded by a British LieutenantJohn Clarkson for freedmen in South Africa.
During the 1784Shelburne riots that lasted 5 days - no fatalities. The American refugees were upset the free land and jobs were only being given to the former black African slaves who worked for less pay.
He features Aminata Diallo, a young African woman captured as a child; she is literate and acts as a scribe to record the information about the former slaves. The book won the top 2008Commonwealth Writers' Prize.[6]
Canadian directorClement Virgo adapted the book into a six-hour televisionmini-series of the same title. The series premiered on CBC in Canada on 7 January 2015 and on BET in the United States on 16 February 2015 and starredAunjanue Ellis,Lyriq Bent,Cuba Gooding Jr. andLouis Gossett Jr.[7]