Nova Scotian Settlers (Sierra Leone) - Background and Immigration To Nova Scotia

Background and Immigration To Nova Scotia

After the British lost the American War of Independence, 3,000 Black Americans were evacuated to Nova Scotia and their names were recorded in the Book of Negroes. The majority of these settlers had been in America for two, three or four generations although some had been born in Africa. Nearly two thirds of the Nova Scotian settlers were from Virginia. The second largest group of settlers were from South Carolina, and a smaller number were from Maryland, Georgia, and North Carolina. Thomas Jefferson referred to these people as "the fugitives from these States". One visitor to Sierra Leone distinguished the Settlers from other ethnic groups because of the "American tone" or accent, common to American slaves and lower class North American working-class people of the time. Some of the settlers also had Native American or European ancestry; at least fifty were born in Africa. Many Nova Scotian blacks intermarried with Europeans while living in Sierra Leone. The Nova Scotians' political ideology of a democratic government was at odds with the Sierra Leone Company's imperialistic colony. The Nova Scotians referred to themselves as the "Settlers" or "Nova Scotians" in Sierra Leone. Later scholars would describe them as "Afro-American".