The Black Loyalists

 

As we celebrate American Independence on the 4^th of July I think it fitting to write about the founding of America and the founding of Freetown, the capital city of Sierra Leone, especially given that this year marks the latter's 50th Independence Anniversary from British colonial rule. The relationship between these two events and how much they are intertwined gets lost on us as we let an important slice of history fall between the cracks. The founding of Freetown came out of the seeds of the American Revolution when then Governor of Virginia, Lord Dunmore, issued a proclamation that promised blacks their freedom if they crossed the lines and fought for the British against the patriots led by George Washington.
At the time, the American colonies were resisting British imperial rule and were determined to fight for their liberty. This, of course, had its contradictions as these Americans had enslaved Africans who were in no stretch of the imagination considered liberated. Even though Thomas Jefferson and many of the founding fathers appeared to abhor slavery, they were slave owners themselves and resisted freeing their slaves. Although the founding fathers appeared torn with this contradiction of slavery, their slaves were fully aware of what liberation meant. So, following Lord Dunmore's proclamation, thousands of slaves rushed to pick up arms. Lord Dunmore was no abolitionist; this was a tactical move on his part considering that the British did not have enough troops. The patriots were terrified of the prospect of a slave rebellion, which would have been a military disaster on their part. They reciprocated by allowing blacks “under certain conditions” to fight on their side. Thus, the main question for the slaves was, “should I fight for the Americans or should I fight for the British”. The slaves that fought for the British were called the Black Loyalists, some of whom later became the founders of Freetown.

It is interesting to note that among the slaves who went to Freetown was Harry Washington, who was owned by George Washington and was around 60 years old when he arrived in 1792. Another Black Loyalist was a slave called Ralph Henry who ran away from Patrick Henry in 1776. You may remember Patrick Henry from his famous statement, “Give me liberty or give me death”.  Another Black Loyalist was David George who was one of the founders of the first Black Baptist church in America. There were many others including a blind preacher called Moses Wilkinson who was known as “Daddy Moses” and Boston King who was a carpenter and ship builder.  However, my focus today is on the Black Loyalist leader, Thomas Peters.

Thomas Peters

Thomas Peters was captured in Nigeria in 1760 and brought to North Carolina as a slave. He was a very rebellious slave and refused to accept his predicament. He was sold several times and then one day he heard the proclamation of freedom made by the British. He crossed enemy lines and became a sergeant in the black British regiment called the Black Pioneers. As we all know the British lost in 1783 and these Loyalists which included both blacks, whites and Indians, were evacuated to Canada to a place called Nova Scotia. What I find interesting is that in the history that we are taught in Sierra Leone, the founding of Freetown starts in Nova Scotia.  Most Sierra Leoneans fail to ask where Nova Scotia is located and how did these blacks get to Nova Scotia? Indeed, they were refugees from the American Revolutionary war. The relationship betwen Sierra Leone and Nova Scotia cannot be understated even though there has been little contact between both communities. I was in touch with the development manager at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Nova Scotia, John Hennigar-Shuh, and he played the Black Loyalist video at the official reception for the 225th anniversary of the Black Loyalists arriving in Nova Scotia. He said that the people loved it and it helped to "globalize our celebrations". It is incumbent upon us as Sierra Leoneans to further explore our historical ties.
When the Black Loyalists arrived in Nova Scotia they became extremely disillusioned as the promises made by the British went unfulfilled. The blacks had been promised land and basic sustenance but ended up living in poverty and in some cases as indentured servants while the white loyalists received the large portions of land and food. Some blacks were actually re-enslaved as the whites refused to treat them with any respect or dignity. The Black Loyalists refused to accept there condition as they had shed blood and fought valiantly for the British in return for their freedom and they were unwilling to accept anything less than what was due them. They vigorously protested their situation and chose Thomas Peters as their leader. Below is a link to the actual petition written by Thomas Peters.


http://www.royalprovincial.com/military/black/blkpet1.htm
(The Online Institute for Advanced Loyalist Studies)


In 1790 Peters was sent on  a mission to take the petition to London and demand that the British honor their promise. Peters traveled to London to deliver this message at an enormous risk to himself as the slave trade was in full force during this time and he could have easily been captured and sold back into slavery. When he got to London he was able to find his former commander General Henry Clinton who used to be one of the leaders of the British forces in North America. General Clinton felt obligated to introduce Thomas Peters to the leading abolitionists of the day. During this period, as the slave trade was wreaking havoc on the African continent, the abolition movement in England was gathering steam with people like Granville Sharp, William Wilberforce, Thomas Clarkson and others. These abolitionists had thought of a scheme to create a settlement in Africa where blacks and whites could live together in equality. It was their sense of what a “democratic” nation should look like. A botanist by the name of Henry Smeathman who was doing research on ants in Sierra Leone between 1771 and 1774 suggested to the abolitionists that the country would be a perfect place for their new settlement. Smeathman at the time lived on Banana Islands which was governed by the Caulker family.

Granville Sharp

As the American Revolutionary War was raging on, many white loyalists left America with their slaves to go to England. Many of these slaves were able to run away when they got to England and became known as “the black poor” because they were living on the streets; destitute and homeless. This was so because in 1772 Chief Justice Mansfield had ruled that it was illegal under British law for a slave master to forcibly remove his slave from England and sell them into slavery. This decision came down after Granville Sharp took up the case of a runaway slave called James Somerset. The abolitionists seized upon Smeathmans idea and in 1787 Granville Sharp and the others sent the first set of “black poor” to Sierra Leone and called the place Granville town. This perilous journey included a little over 300 blacks and 100 whites and they called their new home the “Province of Freedom”. These settlers included a runaway slave from Philadelphia called Richard Weaver who became their governor and chief magistrate.

The mission was unsuccessful and Granville Sharp's dream failed. There was chaos in Granville Town; the settlers faced extraordinary hardship as they tried to build huts in the jungle with wild animals roaming about and preying on them. The rains were treacherous and disease spread quickly. The settlers were dying daily and to compound their problems there was a conflict with the local Temne chief, King Tom, who is reputed to have sold two of the settlers back into slavery. His successor, King Jimmy, burned down Granville Town after some British sailors burned down one of his towns. As the conflict raged on there were also stories of some of the settlers escaping the chaos of Granville Town and going to work at the slave depots on Bance island.  It is important to note that even though King Tom and King Jimmy wreaked havoc on the new settlement and were actively engaged in the slave trade, King Naimbana, their leader, was opposed to the slave trade but conceded that he didn’t have the power to stop it. In fact one of the settlers named Elliot Griffiths became the interpreter for King Naimbana and married his daughter. Naimbana was a savvy leader and realized that "western" education was crucial to enable them to interact effectively with Europeans because of their predominant influence in trade.  He sent two of his sons to Europe to study.

King Naimbana

Granville Town had become a failure and Granville Sharp was looking for new blood when he met with Thomas Peters.  When Peters told Sharp that he wanted to take his people in Nova Scotia to Africa it worked perfectly into the abolitionist's plan. Thomas Peters left London in 1791 with John Clarkson who was the younger brother of Thomas Clarkson and also a Navy Captain. The abolitionists chose John Clarkson to lead the mission because he was needed for logistical purposes as it was a tremendous feat to organize these ships and the journey. They also concluded that the young Clarkson was also needed because he was white, and the  Nova Scotian officials would not have looked kindly on a black man leading such a mission. This became evident when Peters and Clarkson arrived in Nova Scotia and started rallying support for their trip to Sierra Leone. The response from the blacks was tremendous as many of them fantasized about going back home. They saw this in biblical terms and talked about “going back home to Zion the promised land”. The churches were packed and blacks traveled for miles to hear Clarkson, Peters and the preachers like David George and Daddy Moses talk about going home and being free. The Governor of Nova Scotia quickly realized that if he didn’t undermine this trip nearly all of the blacks would leave and this would have devastated the economy so he did everything he could to sabotage the journey. However, on the 15^th of January 1792, Thomas Peters and John Clarkson led 1,196 blacks in a flotilla of 16 ships, to found a new settlement, which they called Freetown and which is now the capital of Sierra Leone.

John Clarkson

When they arrived in Freetown there was an instant leadership struggle between Peters and Clarkson as both of them saw themselves as the leader. This struggle often became intense and Clarkson challenged Peters to a duel under the cotton tree in the middle of Freetown as he felt extremely threatened by Peters assertion of leadership. Unfortunately, Peters died within six months of their arrival and Clarkson was prevailed. Our history books tend to focus more on Clarkson's leadership and belittle the role played by Thomas Peters who was the one appointed by the blacks in Nova Scotia to represent them in England. I personally feel that we should not forget the legacy of people like Thomas Peters who went through an ordeal we could only imagine, to achieve their dream. He and the other Black Loyalists embody the true resilience of the African spirit which has made us hopeful and fueled our survival even when during moments in our history that we could see no light at the end of the tunnel.

On a personal note, I stumbled upon the story of Thomas Peters when searching for my slave ancestor Thomas Bright, who is my maternal grandmother's (Mama Amy) grandfather and who came to Sierra Leone as a preacher. After I wrote the song I went to a good friend of mine Adrian "Netty" Fraser who does graphic design work for me and told him about my exciting discovery. He then told me that he was a descendant of Thomas Peters. His now late mother put together a family tree which he gave me. As I was looking at the family tree I noticed a common relative. My mother had told me that Thomas Bright married a Mrs Peters whose husband had died. I later figured out that my ancestor Thomas Bright appears to have married the widow of Thomas Peters. It is amazing how the spirit of our ancestors lives on through us.

There are several books that tell the Black Loyalist story including the most recent one by an associate professor of history at Harvard University, Maya Jasanoff. Her book, "Liberty's Exiles, American Loyalists in the Revolutionary World", was published by Knopf (a division of Random House) and released this year (2011). The book's focus is more on the White Loyalists but she does tell the story of the Black Loyalists quite well and I'm proud to have made my little contribution to her effort.



There have been other books like "Rough Crossings" by reknowed British Historian, Simon Schama, who teaches at Columbia University. It was Schama who said that the reason Thomas Peters is not in the pantheon of African American greats like Frederick Douglas is that he fought on "the wrong side" during the revolutionary war. Another fascinating book is by an Australian Professor, Cassandra Pybus, called "Epic Journeys of Freedom" and she goes into detail about the stories of "runaway slaves" of the American Revolution. These books were all published within the past few years so their appears to be a resurging interest in this "untold story" of the American Revolution. There are other books that have been published including "From Slavery to Freetown: Black Loyalists after the American Revolution by Mary Louise Clifford, John Peterson's "Province of Freedom, A History of Sierra Leone", James Walker's "The Black Loyalists, The Search for a Promised Land in Nova Scotia and Sierra Leone", and many others. There is even a work of fiction by Canadian writer Lawrence Hill called "Someone Knows My Name" that tells this story. I will try to give a complete listing of books and websites about the Black Loyalist story and I'm sure I'll get help from readers. It is important that we keep these stories alive as we carry the blood of these people in our veins. As part of Sierra Leone's 50th anniversary celebrations in December 2011, we have embarked on what we call "The New Black Loyalist Project", which will bring together Sierra Leoneans,  Sierra Leonean descendants, and friends of Sierra Leone who live in the Diaspora, for three days of festivities in Freetown. There will be several events that will both entertain and educate as we celebrate the Black Loyalist story and other aspects of Sierra Leone history and culture. The festivities will also include music concerts that will also feature me and my band. I'll keep you posted as things develop.

This is my first blog posting and over the next few months I will be taking one of my songs and posting a blog about the song, its lyrics and any behind the scene stories or issues surrounding the song. I hope you enjoy my postings and my music. The CD is $12 and you can purchase an individual song for just $0.99. Click on my music store below, register with cdbaby, and enjoy the music. Please stick around  and join me for this ride into my world of edutainment.



　
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