Forgotten hero's
Forgotten hero's.
Forgotten hero's.
I like history-mainly Roman but I am partial to all sorts of interesting facts that my magpie like brain cannot resist. I write predominantly but not exclusively dark humor/ satire and have just finished the
Vengeance Trilogy.
Casting around somewhat aimlessly for new book ideas, I chanced upon a remarkable tale that defies any satire.
In the UK & mainly through 'Hollywood'(the perpetrator of all lies) we assume that the American War of Independence was all the colonists up in arms against the British Empire. Apparently it was not, as I discovered, purely by accident when researching stuff for a possible new book.
In 1785 at the end of the American war of independence 70,000 or so loyalists moved out of America and into Canada (Nova Scotia.) The motto of their leader at the time was 'Better to have one tyrant a thousand miles away than a thousand tyrants one mile away.'
Approximately 5000 black African Americans went with them, some were freedmen some were still slaves. (Many were runaway slaves who answered the Britsish call for volunteers to fight the insurgent colonists and were promised in return their freedom and land.)
The re-settlement in Canada did not go well for the ex-slaves. There was local opposition and there was much discrimination. Land was begrudgingly and very slowly allocated, much of it barren and many died in the harsh winters.
One of the African Americans, Thomas Peters became their main spokesman. He had been brought to America by French slavers and sold in Louisiana around 1760 to a landowner in North Carolina.
During the 1770's his new owner, William Campbell became a supporter of colonial independence.
Thomas Peters was a serial absconder and when Lord Dumore's proclamation came in 1775 offering freedom and land to all runaways Thomas was swift to take advantage of the offer. Once enrolled he showed great leadership qualities and was promoted to the rank of sergeant in the Black Pioneers.
As spokesmen for the newly arrived in Canada he petitioned the governor of New Brunswick, Thomas Carleton for the land as promised. His petition was refused along with many others so Thomas Peters petitioned the British Government for land citing discrimination and maltreatment from the white majority.
In 1790, Peters traveled to Great Britain to continue his crusade for land and equal treatment with whites in their new homeland. While in Britain, he met with the remarkable abolitionist, Granville Sharp where he learned of a project by the Sierra Leone company to resettle emancipated black Africans back on their native continent. The British government provided the funding for this venture and, in early 1792, 1200 Black Loyalists from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, including Peters and his family, moved to Sierra Leone.
Thomas Peters died in the summer of 1792 from malaria barely a few months after his arrival 'home.'
All that strife, all that fighting for freedom, all that 'wanting to go home,' just for a damn mosquito to end a truly remarkable life which, to add insult to injury, seems largely overlooked by historians.
RD Le Coeur2010
please note source if reprinting this article.
Forgotten hero's
By: rd le ceour
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