Birchtown, Nova Scotia

Birchtown
Community
Birchtown Location of Birchtown, Nova Scotia
Coordinates: 43°44′40″N 65°22′57″W / 43.744444°N 65.3825°W / 43.744444; -65.3825[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 and National Historic Site in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, located near Shelburne in the Shelburne 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. The community was named after British Brigadier General Samuel Birch, an official who assisted in the evacuation of Black Loyalists from New York. (Also named after the general was a much smaller settlement of Black Loyalists in Guysborough County, Nova Scotia called Birchtown.)^[3]

Creation

Birchtown was first settled by Stephen Blucke, who has been referred to as "the true founder of the Afro-Nova Scotian community.^[4] 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.

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Port Royal established 1605 Conquest of Acadia 1710 Halifax established 1749 Bay of Fundy Campaign 1755 Fall of Louisbourg 1758 Representative Government established 1758 Burying the Hatchet ceremony 1761 First significant Scottish immigration 1773 Battle of Fort Cumberland 1776 Birchtown established 1783 Capture of USS Chesapeake 1813 Freedom of the Press 1835 First Acadian MLA elected 1837 Responsible Government established 1848 ‪Chesapeake Affair 1861 Co Op Movement begins 1861 ‪Anti-Confederation Party elected 1867 Saxby Gale 1869 Launch of William D. Lawrence 1873 First airplane in the British Commonwealth 1909 Halifax Explosion 1917 Nova Scotia [Women’s] Franchise Act 1918 Launch of Bluenose 1922 Coal Miners' Memorial Day 1925 Pugwash Conferences established 1957 Springhill mining disaster 1958 NS Human Rights Commission established 1967 First 'Treaty Day' 1986 First Black MLA elected 1993 Viola Desmond Apology 2010
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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.

The Departure for Sierra Leone

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 Sierra Leone. The majority of blacks who left for Sierra Leone were from Birchtown. ^[5] 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.

Later history

Although the population of Birchtown was greatly reduced by the migration to Sierra Leone, many settlers remained and formed the basis of the Black Nova Scotian population of Shelburne County today. Employment in the nearby town of Shelburne led many families to move to Shelburne in later years. Birchtown remained a small rural community of a few hundred based on farming, fishing and forestry.^[6]

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 2006 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.^[7]

In literature

The community's history was central to British historian Simon Schama's book Rough Crossings, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award. Aminata Dallis, the fictional narrator of Lawrence Hill's The Book of Negroes resides in Birchtown and describes its founding.

Notable residents

• Stephen Bluck - "founder of Afro-Nova Scotian community"
• David George - African American Baptist preacher who founded Silver Bluff Baptist Church
• John Marrant - the first African American preacher; a Methodist
• Moses Wilkinson - African American Methodist preacher
• Boston King

See also

• List of communities in Nova Scotia

References

External links

• Birchtown on Destination Nova Scotia
• The Black Loyalist Heritage Society
• http://www.newsouthassoc.com/African%20American%20Archaeology%20Newsletters/Summer1994.html
• http://www.lawrencehill.com/freedom_bound.pdf
• http://nsgna.ednet.ns.ca/shelburne/main/BlackLoyalistHistory.php
• http://museum.gov.ns.ca/arch/sites/birch/loyalists.htm

		Welshtown
			Shelburne
	Birchtown
	Clyde River	Churchover

Coordinates: 43°44′40″N 65°22′57″W / 43.74444°N 65.38250°W / 43.74444; -65.38250