Provide students with the transcription of the excerpted pages of the Book of Negroes. Ask students to examine the list and share out: what challenges and strengths will these migrants bring with them to Canada? What might they need for survival?
Discuss the natural environment [rocky, swampy; bad farmland; extremely cold winters] and economic situations [last to receive provisions; good land given to others; last hired – first fired] which greeted the Black Loyalists in Nova Scotia.
Give each student a copy of the excerpt from British officer William Dyott’s brief description of Birchtown (Excerpts from William Dyott’s Diary) and the handbill, “Free Settlement on the Coast of Africa,” inviting Black Loyalists to settle in Sierra Leone. Ask the class to read the guiding questions and to answer them as a group. Discuss the significance of each as a whole class.
- Why do you think the Black Loyalists named this community “Birch Town?”
- How many years after the departure from New York did Dyott visit Birch Town?
- Does Birch Town seem like a good place to live? How would you describe it?
- What does the Sierra Leone Company offer to free Black people?
- What does the Company ask for in exchange for what they are offering?
- What is most significant about the proposed way that Black and White settlers will be treated?
- The brochure talks about an Act of Parliament and the Company’s ability to “deal or traffic in the buying or selling of Slaves…” Why do you think they included that paragraph?
As a concluding activity, ask students to research Sierra Leone and the refugee’s arrival in the late 18th century. How were their challenges and successes similar and different to what they faced in Canada?