The slave in Canada (1899)

“The total number of [black] slaves brought into Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island from the revolted colonies previous to the summer of 1784 may be estimated with some approach to certainty. Under instructions from Sir Guy Carleton, Colonel Morse, commanding Royal Engineer, made a tour of the Provincial settlements in the autumn of 1783 and early part of the summer of 1784, and to his report appended a “return of the disbanded troops and Loyalists settling in Nova Scotia,” for the purpose of ascertaining the number entitled to the “Royal Bounty of Provisions.”

In the column allotted to ”servants” are, Dartmouth, 41 ; Country Harbour, 41 ; Chedabucto, 61 ; Island St. John, now Prince Edward Island, 26; Antigonish, 18; Cumberland, etc., 21 ; Partridge Island, now Parrsboro, 69 ; Cornwallis and Horton, 38 ; Newport and Kennetcook, 22 ; Windsor, 21 ; Annapolis Royal, etc., 230 ; Digby, 152 ; St. Mary’s Bay, 13 ; Shelburne, — ; River St. John, 441 ; a total number, inclusive of some small figures not quoted, of twelve hundred and thirty-two persons, to nearly all of whom must have belonged the appellation of “slave.””

Smith, T. Watson. “The slave in Canada”, N.S. Historical Society, 1899. https://archive.org/details/cihm_38982/page/n7/mode/2up