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| Fredericton Region Museum; Artist: Claire Vautour, 2020 |
Let me tell you ‘bout my long walk to freedom.
Long it has been since those promises were made – Let me tell you.
"We most respectfully sheweth... that your Memorialists with, all deference to your Excellency's wisdom & goodness humble offers themselves to your Excellency's consideration for such proportion of land as may be thought proper to your memorialists individually;
But we made it! You should have heard what Lt John Clarkson had to say when we arrived (he’s one of the people working with Thomas Peters to organise the Sierra Leone expedition). Clarkson was none too happy, I tell you that! I heard him talking to the ship captains at dinner, because we arrived just as they were readying themselves to dine. Clarkson was amazed at our temerity to quit this land – “whose inhabitants treat us with so much barbarity”. Those were his exact words.
We Free Blacks from New Brunswick wait here on the shores of Halifax, ready to begin our return to Africa… to Sierra Leone… to the promised land.
Long it has been since those promises were made – Let me tell you.
My story begins in 1783, when I fled the American colonies with so many. You’ll not find my name in them pages of the Book of Negroes though.
To get in the book you needed to be free for a year and had a certificate of freedom. All the while, slave catchers taking people. Wilmington, Charleston, New York, if you got a chance to get away, you took it. You put your family on a boat and you got away. Sometimes free, sometimes bonded… but you were a slave no more.
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| Certificate for Cato Ramsay to emigrate to Nova Scotia, April 21, 1783; Gideon White family fonds, Nova Scotia Archives, MG 1 vol. 948, no. 196 |
Thomas Peters though has assisted myself and my brothers and sisters greatly these past few years. You see, when I came to Nova Scotia during the Loyalist evacuation, I made my way to Fredericton.
It was there that I first petitioned Governor Carleton for provisions of land. I was not asking for much – I tell you that – but as I soon found out, the promised land of freedom does not rest here in British North America.
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| Declaration of Thomas Peters, representative of The Free Blacks of New Brunswick, 1790; Provincial Archives of New Brunswick, F1037 |
Thomas Peters was the one who first spoke on our behalf to Governor Carleton. There were 15 of us, including Bob Stafford. Thomas Peters asked on our behalf for land in the back of Kingsclear. In 1789 we even signed a declaration to show them how sober we were to better ourselves. It went like this:
We the Free Blacks of the Province of New Brunswick, having received information by a Letter from the Reverend W Joshua Weeks directed to the Free Blacks of Brinley Town in Nova Scotia, that charitable collections have been made in England for the purpose of erecting and supporting free schools, where the children of free Blacks may be instructed without expense in learning and religion;Being filled with gratitude to the said charitable society and sensible of the great blessings and benefits we shall experience, by being brought from a state of ignorance and darkness, to an enlightened understanding and rectified heart;Do hereby solemnly and sacredly, lend ourselves each to the others that we will, to the best of our knowledge and ability, strictly adhere to the rules and regulations of the Episcopal Church of England, as established by law;That as christians we will be quiet and chaste in our demeanor, peaceable and obedient to the ruling process, and submissive to all the dispensations of Providence ~
Back in Fredericton, we waited… But nothing came of it.
So then in 1791, there was me, John Rezel, Moses Simpson, Jack Patterson, Sam Wright, Meney Allen, John Brown, William Taylor, and Jerry Davies. John wrote our petition himself to His Excellency Thomas Carleton, Esquire, Captain General & Commander in Chief in & over the Province of New Brunswick &c: &c: &c:
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| Petition of John Rezel and 8 others, September 2, 1791 Provincial Archives of New Brunswick F1038 |
Again – we tried to show our respect for this new province. John, he wrote an excellent letter to Governor Carleton. It went like this:
"We most respectfully sheweth... that your Memorialists with, all deference to your Excellency's wisdom & goodness humble offers themselves to your Excellency's consideration for such proportion of land as may be thought proper to your memorialists individually;
The land we humbly pray for is in the rear of the lower end or commencement of the Parish of Kingsclear."
We stated our case clearly and politely, because we wanted to let him know just how difficult life really was for us. We explained:
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| Petition of John Rezel and 8 others, September 2, 1791 Provincial Archives of New Brunswick F1038 |
"that in their present mode of life, we are of little use to our families
and less to the community, but if we were so fortunate as to obtain lands, we would immediately settle down and so become useful and industrious settlers.”
and less to the community, but if we were so fortunate as to obtain lands, we would immediately settle down and so become useful and industrious settlers.”
Now you’d think that would have made a difference – our humble request. We were not asking for any fertile land along the river - No! That land had already been taken up by the Whites - like that devil George Ludlow - and Lt. Col Isaac Allen - with their estates of thousands of acres.
No! We was not asking for much. Just a piece of land to call our own… where we could be useful and industrious settlers.
But nothing came of it.
Now, that Thomas Peters is a good man. He was a prince back in Africa and a leader in the Pioneers, right from the start of the war.
When we didn’t get our land, he wrote, and he wrote, and he wrote. Then he hopped on a ship to England to see Captain Martin, the commander of the Pioneers. He passed it on to General Clinton and before long Thomas Peters was speaking to Lord Granville himself.
In London Peters heard of a colony in Sierra Leone, and by now we knew that there would be no freedom for us here in New Brunswick, so Peters agree to get people to go to Sierra Leone, to live like kings.
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| Rev. Jonathan Odell; New Brunswick Museum, www.nbm-mnb.ca, W1294 |
But do you know what they did? Governor Carleton, in all his wisdom, appointed that spider, Jonathan Odell, as the agent in charge of the Sierra Leone expedition in New Brunswick! That’s like asking a fox to guard the henhouse!
Jonathan Odell made it difficult for people like me to leave Fredericton. There was a ship docked in Saint John, ready and waiting to take anyone who wished to depart to Halifax, where we could join the Sierra Leone expedition.
But Odell made it impossible for people like me to board that ship. We had to show our papers as proof of being Free Blacks. A little piece of paper! In the end, the ship sailed without we!
But there were five of us. You know what we did? We walked from Saint John to Halifax. Brother it was cold! Walking all that way in November, it was harsh. We walked 340 miles on foot. Took us 15 days.
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| Lt. John Clarkson, Royal Navy, circa 1791; artist unknown, Wisbech & Fenland Museum |
So, now, here I rest with some 800 other souls, ready to board ship for Sierra Leone.
When we get there, God willing, we’ll finally get the land that was promised to us. We’ll live like the masters and we’ll show the world what free Blacks can do if left alone. Like the Israelites, Sierra Leone is the promised land!
The pathway to freedom leads back to Africa.
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| "Freetown, Sierra Leone, mid-19th century”; University of Virginia Library, Special Collections, MSS 14357, no. 8 |
Read on about a Catalyst for Freedom...