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Read before the Royal Nova Scotia Historical Society 21 October 2009
Many historians are familiar with Thomas Peters. His personal story has been told and retold to the point that it can be found in textbooks about United States history1 He is worthy of this attention. Peters s well known journey from Africa to America to Nova Scotia and finally back to Africa does not need to be recounted here. Perhaps lesser known are his comments about slavery in Loyalist Nova Scotia. In 1790, Peters petitioned Lord Gren ville and argued that "People of Colour" were "injured also by a public and avowed Toleration of Slavery"2
At the other extreme was the view of Nova Scotia slaveholders who seventeen years later petitioned the colonial government in hope of obtaining legal protection for their black property. The petitioners argued that Royal Proclamations and Acts of Parliament "expressly authorize[d] them to bring their Negro Slaves" to Nova Scotia after the Revolutionary War. Although they did not wish to "advocate Slavery as a System," they complained that the local court system had created "certain doubts" about the legal status of slave property. Moreover, black slaves were "daily leaving their service and setting your petitioners at defiance."3
These petitions, one from a former slave and another from slaveholders, open up fundamental questions about slavery What role did slavery play in Loyalist Nova Scotia society - was it a mere oddity or something much more significant and telling about race relations and the exploitation of black labour? How many slaves came to Nova Scotia after the American Revolution? What do the primary source documents say about black slavery and servitude? Where did slaves and slaveholders come from in the United States? What type of slavery existed in Nova Scotia before the Loyalists' arrival? Where was slavery prevalent? Who owned slaves? This paper provides a preliminary exploration of these questions.
The Loyalist enumerator for the township of Chester wrote that one James Green had "built a large House, [and] made great improvements on his Land." He noted that Greens "three Servants are Slaves," and had helped their owner develop his property4 In noting this fact, the enumerator unwittingly provided the precise status of these three slaves in a small township...