Birchtown Plaque

On July 20, 1996 two plaques commemorating the Black Loyalists were unveiled in Birchtown, Shelburne Co. NS. The unveiling ceremony was preformed by:

Derek Wells, MP, South Shore
Pat Atwood, Deputy Warden, Shelburne County
Elizabeth Cromwell, President, Shelburne County Cultural Awareness Society.

Two of the areas direct descendants of the Black Loyalists, Everett Cromwell of Birchtown and Lawrence Bruce of Lower Ohio, were also on hand for the unveiling ceremony.

Of the two plaques one displays art work by Henry Bishop, the curator of the Black Cultural Centre in Halifax, Nova Scotia. It depicts the passage to freedom from slavery through the General Birch certificate which gave permission to its holder for passage to Nova Scotia. The other plaque contains the following insciption commemorating the landing of Black Loyalists at Birchtown.

THE BLACK LOYALISTS AT BIRCHTOWN

After the American Revolution , over 3500 free African Americans loyal to the Crown moved to Nova Scotia and New Brunswick where they established the first Black Communities in Canada. Birchtown, founded in 1783, was the largest and most influential of these settlements. The population declined in 1792 when many Black Loyalists, frustrated by their treatment in the Maritimes, emigrated to Sierra Leone in West Africa. Although diminished in numbers, Birchtown remains a pround symbol of the struggle by Blacks in the Maritimes and elsewhere for justice and dignity.

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Last modified May 16, 2002.