Boston King (c. 1760–1802) was a former American slave andBlack Loyalist, who gained freedom from the British and settled inNova Scotia after theAmerican Revolutionary War. He laterimmigrated toSierra Leone, where he helped findFreetown and became the firstMethodistmissionary to African indigenous people.
He published his autobiography in 1798, which was one of only three by Black Nova Scotians and also notable amongslave narratives as a work that was trans-Atlantic. King, who had been born aslave inSouth Carolina, was apprenticed as a carpenter. He joined theBritish when they occupiedCharleston, as they promised freedom to slaves.
Boston King was born in South Carolina, the son of a literate slave taken from Africa. His mother knew of herbal preparations from the Native Americans. Boston first joined the British near Charleston; after survivingsmallpox, he made his way to New York during theAmerican Revolution, twice escaping capture. In New York, he met and married Violet, an enslaved woman from North Carolina who had also joined the British.[1] They had each made their way to New York on the promise of freedom for their contribution to thewar effort.[2] The Kings were among the 3,000 black American slaves who were given certificates of freedom, entered into theBook of Negroes, and evacuated with the British; they were resettled inNova Scotia.[3]
King, a master carpenter, helped to form a community with his wife inBirchtown, where he worked a number of odd jobs to survive. The Black Loyalists especially struggled through the early years of the colony; there were delays in their land grants and supplies, and it turned out that the soil was too poor to support much farming. Before the Kings decided to leave Nova Scotia, Boston King was appointed as Methodist minister to a congregation at Preston, nearHalifax.[4]
Although conditions were improving for them in Nova Scotia, King and his wife decided to immigrate to the new British colony, theProvince of Freedom (nowSierra Leone) in 1792. It was established for blacks from London and Canada. The Black Canadians, numbering nearly 1200 and traveling on several ships, established their own settlement ofFreetown, Sierra Leone. Violet King died of fever soon after arrival.[4]
At first Boston was employed by the company to preach to the native Africans in Sierra Leone, despite the fact that he could not understand their language. Soon he opened a school, later traveling to England to be schooled himself as a teacher.
In 1794, theSierra Leone Company sent King to England for education as a teacher and missionary at the MethodistKingswood School near Bristol. He returned to Sierra Leone in 1796 to teach other settlers and act as a missionary to local native peoples.[4] During that period, he wrote his autobiography, which was published in London.
King married again in Sierra Leone after Violet died of malaria. While serving as amissionary to theSherbro people, who were located in the coastal area about 100 miles south of Freetown, he and his second wife died about 1802.[3] King was survived by two sons and a daughter, according to the 1802 census of Sierra Leone.[4]
While studying in Bristol, England, he wrote an autobiography,Memoirs of the Life of Boston King (1798), which was published in four installments in theWesleyan Methodist Magazine in London. It was one of the genre of African Americanslave narratives, notable as one of three by Black Nova Scotians and one that spanned the Atlantic, as he wrote about his emigration to Sierra Leone.[3] A new edition was published asThe Life of Boston King, Black Loyalist, Minister, and Master Carpenter (2003), by Nimbus Publishing Ltd. and the Nova Scotia Museum.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
