More than eight years after the battles of Concord and Lexington, the American Revolution finally came to an end in November 1783, with the British reluctantly agreeing to recognize American independence. For those who remained loyal to the king, this was the worst possible conclusion to what had been a long and bitter struggle. Their loyalty cost them dearly: many were estranged from family and friends; their land, homes, and businesses were confiscated and their lives threatened.
As early as 1776, refugees began streaming into New York City, one of the last British strongholds in the American colonies. By 1782, Manhattan was crowded with a desperate multitude seeking a safe British haven where they could begin rebuilding their shattered lives. With its deep harbour and proximity to Halifax and New England, Port Roseway (nowknown as Shelburne) on Nova Scotia’s south shore seemed to be the ideal choice.
In Loyalists and Layabouts, Stephen Kimber tells the fascinating, little-known story of the Loyalists’ dream of building a “new and better New York” on the shores of Port Roseway harbour, and of that dream’s subsequent unravelling.
Contrary to popular belief, the Loyalists were not all aristocrats; nor were they all white. They were, as Kimber explains, “a mixed bag: men, women, children, black, white, British, American, aristocrats and artisans, politicians and preachers, merchants, mariners, soldiers and soldiers of fortune, hustlers and hangers-on, slaves and slave owners, recently freed blacks and not-so-freed ‘servants.’”
Part of what makes Shelburne’s story so compelling is that Kimber tells it with intertwining narratives about a wide cross-section of Loyalist society, including the town’s deputy surveyor Benjamin Marston, former slaves Boston King and David George, as well as better-known figures such as Sir Guy Carleton and Nova Scotia Governor John Parr.
The theme of disappointment and disillusionment runs throughout the book. The Loyalists were plagued by disease and disaster. The land they settled on was infertile and the climate inhospitable. Their requests for compensation were denied. Their rations were cut.
The lot of the black Loyalists was much worse than that of the whites. In addition to being granted the worst land and the fewest rations, the blacks were often beaten, threatened, and run out of town. “And for all the lofty talk of freedom during the revolution,” Kimber writes, “the everyday life of most freed blacks in Shelburne remained anything but free — or equal.” Which explains why when John Clarkson, a member of the anti-slavery movement, arrived in town to recruit for a back-to-Africa expedition, more than 500 people signed up.
Sadly, however, the dream of a better life in Sierra Leone turned out to be as improbable as that of building in Shelburne a thriving community on what “was nothing more than a spit of rocky shoreline bordered by impenetrable forest and icy water.”
Impeccable research, along with Kimber’s eye for detail and engaging style, make Loyalists and Layaboutss a must-read.
— Joyce Glasner (Read bio)
Joyce Glasner is a Halifax-based freelance writer and author.