A Black Wood Cutter At Shelburne, Nova Scotia

A Black Wood Cutter At Shelburne, Nova Scotia

This sketch is the earliest known image of a Black Loyalist, depicting a man cutting wood in the few years following the foundation of Birchtown. Many Black Loyalists had arrived in Nova Scotia expecting fruitful harvests and economic stability as a reward for their support of the British during the American Revolution, but most never received the full land grants they were promised. As such, this left much of the community destitute, having to rely on manual, low-wage, and seasonal labour, like woodcutting, farming, domestic service for white Loyalists, etc...

This image highlights the harsh reality faced by the first free Black communities of colonial Canada: that freedom did not guarantee equality or prosperity. Instead, for many, life in settlements like Birchtown represented yet another struggle for safety and recognition.

William Booth

Booth, W. A Black Wood Cutter at Birchtown, Nova Scotia. Watercolour, 1788. Nova Scotia Archives. https://archives.novascotia.ca/africanns/archives/?ID=39

National Archives of Canada

1788

Public Domain

Watercolour sketch