Muster Book of Free Black Settlement of Birchtown, Port Roseway, 1784

This dataset is based on the “Muster Book of Free Black Settlement of Birchtown, Port Roseway” (original title), a register created in the summer of 1784 listing the names of Black Loyalists who established the settlement of Birchtown, in the vicinity of Shelburne, Nova Scotia. The original register is part of the Port Roseway Associates series in the Shelburne historical records collection (R16987; MG9 B9-14) preserved at Library and Archives Canada (LAC). The Port Roseway Associates was a mutual aid group formed by Loyalists who settled in Port Roseway (Shelburne), Nova Scotia, following the American Revolution. The dataset provides the name and the age of 1,498 of Black men, women and children. A digitized copy of the register on microfilm is currently available online through (H-984; images 75 to 129; pp. 107- 207). The register gives more details about the members of the Birchtown Black settlement including professions or trades, military rank and affiliation (where applicable), family ties between individuals listed, and, in some cases, information regarding provisions and temporary accommodation received at the time of their arrival.