| Birchtown | |
|---|---|
| — Community — | |
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Birchtown
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| Coordinates: [1] | |
| Country | Canada |
| Province | Nova Scotia |
| County | Shelburne |
| Municipal district | Shelburne |
| Time zone | AST (UTC-4) |
| • Summer (DST) | ADT (UTC-3) |
| Postal code(s) | B0T 1W0 |
| Area code(s) | 902 |
| Access Routes | Trunk 3 |
Birchtown is a community in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, located near Shelburne in the Barrington Municipal District of Shelburne County.[2] Founded in 1783, it is famous as the largest settlement of Black Loyalists and was the largest free settlement of Africans in North America in the 18th Century. (Another smaller settlement of Black Loyalists in Guysborough County, Nova Scotia was also called Birchtown.)[3] Both communities were named British Brigadier General Samuel Birch, an official who assisted in the evacuation of Black Loyalists from New York.
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Birchtown was the major settlement area of the African Americans known as Black Loyalists who escaped to the British during the American War of Independence. These were Africans who escaped from slavery in the American South and fought for the British during the war. The majority of Nova Scotian settlers who later immigrated to Sierra Leone in 1792 lived first in Birchtown. Most Birchtown blacks entered Nova Scotia through the nearby town of Port Roseway soon renamed Shelburne. Many of these African settlers were recorded in the Book of Negroes. They were issued passports which established their freedom signed by General Birch, known as General Birch Certificates. The core of the settlement were five companies of the Black Pioneers who were Black Americans who helped the British forces during the American War of Independence. Over two thirds of the Blacks who immigrated to Canada were from the American South. Birchtown was acknowledged as being the largest settlement of free African Americans in the world by newspapers in New York and in London.
Poor land, inadequate supplies and broken promises of assistance led many Birchtown residents to petiton the British Government for a remedy, led by Thomas Peters. These grievances led to many Birchtown residents joining a 1792 migration to found a free African settlement in Sierre Leone. The majority of blacks who left for Sierra Leone were from Birchtown. [4] Of the blacks who left for Sierra Leone 600 were from the Birchtown and Digby areas, 220 were from Preston, 200 were from New Brunswick, and 180 were from the Annapolis-Digby area. Fifty five had been born in Virginia.
Although the population of Birchtown was greatly reduced by the migration to Sierra Leone, many settlers remained and formed the basis of the African Nova Scotian population of Shelburne County today. Employment in the nearby town of Shelburne led many families for move to Shelburne in later years. Birtchtown remained a small rural community of a few hundred based on farming, fishing and forestry.[5] Birchtown was declared a National Historic Site in 1997. A seasonal museum complex commemorating the Black Loyalists opened in that year by the Black Loyalist Heritage Society and included the historic Birchtown school and church. The offices and archives of the museum were largely destroyed by an arson attack in 2008 and the remaining archives were moved to temporary quarters on the site. Plans are underway for a major expansion of the museum,which would tell the story of the Black Loyalists in America, Nova Scotia and Sierra Leone.[6]
| Welshtown | ||||
| Shelburne | ||||
| Birchtown | ||||
| Clyde River | Churchover |