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|   What would it have been like to live in Rachel's time and place? How were slaves treated by their masters? How did they help the British in the American Revolution? What happened after the British defeat? And why was the winter of 1783 so terribly cold? Slavery in America In the 1770s there were more than 350,000 slaves of African origin in the United States. Their living conditions were terrible. They were treated brutally by the slave-owners and were punished savagely if they tried to escape -- just like Rachel's stepfather, who was punished by having his big toes cut off, which made it impossible for him to run or even walk quickly, or Corey's parents, who were murdered by their owners for trying to escape. A slave could also be sold at any moment and sent far away from his or her family, as was the case with Rachel's father. Slaves weren't allowed to learn how to read or write. In Missouri, one of the southern United States where there were many slaves, a law was enacted in 1819 that made it illegal for slave-owners to teach their slaves to read or write. Most of the other southern states followed suit and enacted similar laws. GO BACK TO THE TOP Freedom of a Sort In 1775, Lord Dunmore, the British Governor of what was then the colony of West Virginia, issued a proclamation calling on all able-bodied men to help defend the colony against the rebels -- and he included slaves of rebels in his proclamation. He also promised to free any slaves who helped him. It's estimated that as many as thirty thousand slaves escaped their owners and then aided the British during the War of Independence. Although many became soldiers in units such as the Royal Ethiopian Regiment and the Black Pioneers, most were put to work as labourers, or sent to work on plantations to grow food for the British forces. GO BACK TO THE TOP Defeat When the war ended in defeat for the British, people who had remained loyal to Britain were forced to leave the United States. Some went to England, others to Florida or the West Indies, but most went north, to the British colonies that later became Canada. Of the many thousands of blacks who had helped the British during the war, fewer than four thousand made it to the comparative safety of Nova Scotia. Many of those who did not come to Canada were abandoned by the British forces, then captured and returned to slavery. (This is why Rachel's mother is so frightened while they are waiting for the boat to take them to Nova Scotia.) Some were enslaved by the Loyalists they had helped. And of those who were evacuated to Florida or the West Indies, a large number were enslaved soon after their arrival. GO BACK TO THE TOP Winter Chill The winter of 1783 was much colder than usual -- at least five degrees Celsius colder than average. This was because of an enormous volcanic eruption in Iceland, which sent enormous clouds of gas and debris into the atmosphere over North America and Europe, blocking out much of the sunlight for several months. GO BACK TO THE TOP Inequality The black loyalists may have been free in Nova Scotia, but they certainly weren't treated as the equals of white people. Black loyalists were paid only one-quarter as much as white loyalists: where a white man would earn thirty-two pence a day, a black man only earned eight pence. And when rations and land were handed out, white people were first in line, often leaving nothing for the black Loyalists. GO BACK TO THE TOP |
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