Birchtown

I can't believe I have no pics of the day we went to Birchtown. The little town a few km from Shelburne. This was the town where the "Black Loyalists" settled. They were promised land in Nova SCotia, if they could escape from their owners, fight for the British crown, and survive... however upon landing in Shelburne,,, they were sent to Birchtown to await the "awarding" of their land... well winter was on it's way, and winter in Nova Scotia is a little harsher than down south. They had no materials, money, shoes, very little food. No time, money or materials to build houses to survive the winter. So they made quick "pit houses." These were holes in the ground, not very deep or wide, with a log tent like covering. They "lived" in these "pits" for many months, with hardly any rations. The conditions were deplorable.
ONly 180 or so families, out of 680 or so were awarded land, and this after years of waiting. Eventually about 1500 people emigrated to Siera Leone. All this occured around 1784.
The history is fascinating, and we were right there! We had just read the "Rachel" books, Our Canadian Girl and we even saw the books in the Black Loyalist Heritage Society museum's gift shop!! That was cool! While there the kids learned and saw a lot more about slavery. We got to see a "pit house" too. I'm sure it made an impression on Luke. Bethany didn't appear to be able to grasp it all, but hopefully she is left with an impression of how horrible slavery was and how poorly these people were treated.