Nova Scotian Settlers (Sierra Leone) - British Policy Toward American Blacks

British Policy Toward American Blacks

Because of friction between the independent Nova Scotia settlers and British authorities, no further resettlement of Freed American slaves followed. When the Elizabeth from New York arrivedwith 82 black Americans, the British did not permit them to land or settle in Freetown. These black Americans, led by Daniel Coker, were offered land to settle in Sherbro by John Kizell an African-born Nova Scotian settler. After the terrible conditions for the settlers at Sherbro, they were moved to land in the Grain Coast; the black Americans who moved there in 1820 were the first settlers of what would be Liberia. In the War of 1812, the British considered Sierra Leone as a home for the Black Refugees, another generations of Africans who escaped American slavery, but chose to settle them in Nova Scotia and the West Indies instead. The Nova Scotians in the 1830s and 40s would be faced with large-scale settlement of Africans freed from slave ships by the British Royal Navy's anti-slave trade campaign.