ertisements for auctions, rewards for runaway
slaves, bequests of slaves, &c., are very common and there were some
manumissions. That, however, was not the cause of the great increase
in the Negro population of the Maritime Province. The Island of St.
John, afterwards Prince Edward Island had been set off as a separate
province in 1769 but the Province of Nova Scotia included what became
the Province of New Brunswick until 1786.

During the Revolutionary War, the British commanders, Sir Henry
Clinton in particular, had made it a point to invite the slaves to the
British line and many had accepted the invitation. No few of these
refugees were of material service to the British troops in various
ways both menial and otherwise. At the peace Washington demanded the
return of these quondam slaves.[8] Sir Guy Carleton refused but made
a careful inventory of them with full description, name, former
master, etc., so that Washington might claim compensation from the
British Government, if he saw fit.[9] In addition to these slaves
somewhere about 3,000 freed Negroes accompanied the British troops on
their withdrawal from New York, nearly all coming to Nova Scotia. Many
of these after suffering great hardships were sent to Sierra Leone on
the West Coast of Africa in 1792. Some remained in the province where
their descendants are found until this day; but not in any very great
numbers. The Loyalists, however, retained their property in their own
slaves; and immigration was encouraged by the Act of 1790.[10]

The trade in Negroes was very brisk for some years. For example, on
June 24, 1783, the _Nova Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle_
advertised for sale a Negro woman, "25 years of age, a good house
servant." On December 11, 1783, Captain Alexander Campbell late of the
South Carolina Loyalists sold to Captain Thomas Green late of the
Royal Nova Scotia Foot a Negro woman named Nancy for L40. Nancy two
years later was sold by Green to Abraham Forst of Halifax and a year
later still with her child Tom to Gregory Townsend.

A shipment was made by John Wentworth from Halifax to Surinam, Dutch
Guiana, of nineteen Negro slaves, "all American born or well seasoned
... perfectly stout, healthy, sober, orderly, industrious and
obedient." These, said he, "I have had christened and would rather
have liberated them than send them to any estate that I am not sure of
their being treated with care and humanity which I shall consider as
the on