WHEN Britain needed reinforcements to fight American revolutionaries it tried to entice enslaved blacks to join up by promising them “freedom and a farm”. More than 200 years later, the offer has come back to haunt the governments of Canada and Nova Scotia, where many black loyalists settled. In September a UN human-rights working group criticised them for failing to ensure that the loyalists’ descendants have clear title to land they inherited. Despite Canada’s reputation for celebrating multiculturalism and diversity, said the group’s report, it is “deeply concerned by the structural racism that lies at the core of many Canadian institutions”.
Those stinging words prodded the provincial government into action. On September 27th it said it would spend C$2.7m ($2.2m) over two years to help descendants of black loyalists and other early settlers, including Jamaican Maroons, establish their claims in five mainly black communities, including Sunnyville and Cherry Brook. “We’re turning a corner,” said Tony Ince, the provincial minister of African Nova Scotian Affairs.
The 3,000 black loyalists who followed the defeated troops north to British-held Nova Scotia were given land as promised, although their lots were often smaller and less fertile than those given to their white comrades in arms. Some “farmland” lay beneath swamps or...Continue reading
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