About this item
Highlights
- During the American Revolution over 3,000 persons of African descent were promised freedom by the British if they would desert their American rebel masters and serve the loyalist cause.
- About the Author: Mary Louise Clifford became interested in the first settlers of Freetown while living in Hill Station while her husband served as UN economic advisor to the prime minister of Sierra Leone.
- 259 Pages
- Social Science, Ethnic Studies
Description
Book Synopsis
During the American Revolution over 3,000 persons of African descent were promised freedom by the British if they would desert their American rebel masters and serve the loyalist cause. Those who responded to this promise found refuge in New York. In 1783, after Britain lost the war, they were evacuated to Nova Scotia, where for a decade they were treated as cheap labor by the white loyalists. In 1792 they were finally offered a new home in West Africa; over 1,200 responded and became the founders of Freetown in Sierra Leone.
This history follows ten of these freed slaves from their escape from masters in Virginia and the Carolinas to their sojourn in wartime New York, their evacuation to Nova Scotia and finally their exodus to Freetown, where they struggled for another decade for not only freedom and dignity but the right to worship as they choose, make an honest living, and govern themselves.
Review Quotes
"an important contribution...Clifford has uncovered a fascinating and underrepresented aspect of the black diaspora"-Library Journal; "a significant story movingly told"-Daily Press; "draws on a variety of sources, including memoirs of some of the settlers, diaries of the British in Sierra Leone, and official records in London and Halifax"-The Virginia Gazette.
About the Author
Mary Louise Clifford became interested in the first settlers of Freetown while living in Hill Station while her husband served as UN economic advisor to the prime minister of Sierra Leone. She has also written works on Liberia, Afghanistan, Malaysia, and the Arabian Peninsula. She lives in Venice, Florida.
