Archives Virtual Exhibit Tells the Story of African Diaspora

A significant new online exhibit at the Nova Scotia Archives draws upon unique resources to tell the story of courage and survival of African Nova Scotians as the world marks the United Nations' International Year for People of African Descent.

African Nova Scotian Diaspora: Selected Government Records of Black Settlement, 1791-1839, was launched today, Sept. 23, to coincide with the beginning of the International African Diaspora Heritage Trail Conference in Halifax.

"We are pleased to see this fascinating information on the experiences of early African Nova Scotian settlers available online," said Communities, Culture and Heritage Minister David Wilson. "Anyone with access to the internet will be able to browse through these significant documents and learn about an important chapter in our province's history."

The exhibit contains more than 500 digitized and fully searchable government documents relating to early African Nova Scotian immigration and emigration. It adds to the Archives' existing virtual exhibits on African Nova Scotians.

The earliest documents concern the 1792 emigration to Sierra Leone of about 1,200 free black people, who had come to Nova Scotia as part of the Loyalist migration at the close of the American Revolutionary War in 1783. Other early documents relate to the arrival of the Jamaican Maroons in 1796 and to government costs for their emigration to Sierra Leone in 1800.

The majority of the documents relate to the settlement of 2,000 Black Refugees in Nova Scotia between September 1813 and August 1816. They came as the result of a proclamation by British military authorities during the War of 1812, giving Americans who deserted to the British side the opportunity of going as free settlers to one of the British colonies.

Many of the documents are of great interest since they are rich in the names of individual Black Refugees. These include a number of passenger lists for Black Refugees arriving on British ships, and lists of those who settled in Preston, Hammonds Plains, Beechville, and elsewhere.

African Nova Scotian Diaspora is available online at www.gov.ns.ca/nsarm/virtual/diaspora/ .

Nova Scotia Archives acquires, preserves and makes available the province's documentary heritage.