Black Loyalists

Black Loyalist
An unnamed Black Loyalist soldier, wearing a dark wool coat and feather cockade on his hat, with the British Army during the American Revolutionary War, fighting in the 1781 Battle of Jersey on the British-held Channel Islands. The French enemy forces, allied to the Patriot military forces of the American Thirteen Colonies, were eventually defeated by the British. From the 1783 painting, "Death of Major Peirson", by artist John Singleton Copley.
Active	1775-1784
Country	Great Britain
Allegiance	Great Britain
Branch	British provincial units, Loyalist militias, associators
Type	infantry, dragoons, (mounted infantry), irregular, labor duty
Size	companies-regiments
Engagements	American Revolutionary War
Commanders
Notable commanders	white, British military officers and white, Loyalist unit officers, with a small number of black, Loyalist officers

A Black Loyalist was an United Empire Loyalist inhabitant of British America, of African descent, who joined the British colonial, military forces, during the American Revolutionary War. Many were slaves held by Patriot rebels who joined the British in exchange for The Crown's promises of freedom.

Some 3,000 Black Loyalists were evacuated from New York to Nova Scotia; they were individually listed in the Book of Negroes as the British gave them certificates of freedom and arranged for transport. The original of the Book of Negroes and an authenticated transcript are now online. Some of the Loyalists who migrated to Nova Scotia brought enslaved African Americans with them, a total of 2,500 people. One historian has argued that the slaves were not regarded as Loyalists, since they had no choice in their fates.

Thousands of black slaves escaped, from plantations, in the British colonies and the new United States, to British lines, especially after its occupation of Charleston, South Carolina. When the British evacuated, they took many former slaves with them. Some Black Loyalists were evacuated to London and were later included in the population of the Black Poor. With government assistance, 4,000 blacks were transported from London for resettlement to the colony of Sierra Leone in 1787. Five years later, another 1,192 Black Loyalists from Nova Scotia chose to migrate to Sierra Leone, as they were tired of the discrimination and climate in Canada. They became known in Sierra Leone as the Nova Scotian settlers and were part of creating a new nation and, ultimately, government. The modern-day Sierra Leone Creole people (Krios) are their descendants. The American leader Thomas Jefferson referred to the Black Loyalists as "the fugitives from these States". Although many Black Loyalists gained freedom, many of them did not. Some black Loyalists escaped to the British northern colonies and states of the US and lived a life of freedom. Others left the US or escaped aboard British ships headed for Britain. The African slave Loyalists who were recaptured by Patriot slave traders were sold back into slavery and treated harshly for having served under the British and for trying to gain freedom in the first place.