Black Loyalist

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Black Loyalists were people of Black African descent who sided with the Loyalists during the American Revolutionary War, in favour of the British. In particular, the term referred to the men enslaved by the Patriots who served on the Loyalist side because of the British 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. More than 3,000 Black Loyalists relocated to Nova Scotia after the British defeat in 1783, settling in Birchtown, Digby, Guysborough County, Annapolis Royal, Preston and Halifax. By 1785, the majority of Black Loyalist communities had formed independent Black churches, and many had also established their own schools. However, the Black Loyalists were consistently denied land grants and exploited as a source of free labor by the colonial government. Some of the European Loyalists who...

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