Loyalist Trails UELAC Newsletter, 2015 Archive

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“Loyalist Trails” 2015-36: September 6, 2015

In this issue:
- The Book of Negroes: More Pieces for the Jigsaw Puzzle, by Stephen Davidson
- Anthony and Andrew Westbrook (Part 15), by Doug Massey
- Domestic Disputes: Public Announcements of Private Affairs
- Resources: Tips for Post-Graduate Theses About Loyalists
- Where in the World are Peter Van Iderstine and Debbie Lowes?
- Region and Branch Bits
- From the Twittersphere and Beyond
- Additions to the Loyalist Directory
- Last Post: Mahlon Russell Cook, UE

Articles

The Book of Negroes: More Pieces for the Jigsaw Puzzle, by Stephen Davidson

Compiled by British officials, the Book of Negroes is a ledger of the names and circumstances of more than 2,000 blacks who left New York City during 1783. Its 156 pages resemble a telephone directory rather than a diary, listing ages, former masters, and years of service to the British crown. However, it is more than just an elaborate list of names of Black Loyalists and enslaved Africans. To the careful reader, the Book of Negroes can contain missing pieces to the jigsaw puzzle of Black Loyalist history.

For example, the newspapers published during the American Revolution, contained hundreds of advertisements for the capture of runaway slaves. One such South Carolina ad offered eight dollars for the arrest of a "mulatto wench" named Dianna. The twenty-something woman had escaped with a ten-month old child who was described as being "very black and had her foreteeth out". Dianna, it was noted, "talks remarkable good English". Usually, it is impossible to discover whether fugitive slaves such as Dianna eventually found freedom or were taken back into slavery.

However, by scouring the Book of Negroes, we learn that this particular runaway ad had a happy ending -- for Dianna rather than the American who enslaved her. Among the entries for black passengers travelling on the William, a transport bound for the island of Abaco, is one for a woman who received her General Birch Certificate. (The British authorities issued this certificate to indicate that a rebel slave had served the crown for at least one year and was now a free person.) Clutching that certificate was Dianna and her ten month-old child. The entry goes on to say that the Black Loyalist had been the property of Mrs. Cross of Charlestown, South Carolina and had left her in 1779. Thanks to the Book of Negroes, we know that Diana escaped the United States and lived as a free woman in the Bahamas.

A patriot named Patrick Wall posted an ad that offered a two guinea reward for the return of Hannah. She was known to have married a man who worked in the British army's wagon-master general's department. In the fall of 1783, the men who worked as wagoneers for the crown were transported to Port Mattoon, Nova Scotia. Their names and the names of their dependents were duly recorded in the Book of Negroes. On board the Nisbet were two women named Hannah, both of whom were married to men in the wagon master general department. The ad that sought Hannah's capture was either referring to a 22 year-old who had escaped her master in Norfolk, Virginia seven years earlier or to a 40 year-old woman who had been enslaved for 31 years in Maryland.

The patriot governor of Virginia, Benjamin Harrison, sought to reclaim four slaves who had been taken from his James River Plantation: Bob Harrison, Phillister the mute, William Cheese and his wife Anney. Again, the Book of Negroes reveals how their stories ended.

On the list of passengers who boarded the L'Abondance for Port Roseway (Shelburne), Nova Scotia is 30 year-old Anna Cheese and 45 year-old William Cheese. Both had escaped from Virginia three years earlier, and both had General Birch Certificates. On the LeHigh, a ship sailing for Nova Scotia's Annapolis Royal, were two members of the Black Pioneers, the largest African military unit established during the American Revolution. The Pioneers served as raiders, scouts and military engineers, digging fortifications, and building accommodations. The two men were 20 year-old Phillister, noted as being "born dumb", and 21 year-old Bob Harrison. Both men escaped their master in 1779 and eventually settled in Nova Scotia.

The Book of Negroes can help flesh out names on documents created after 1783. For example, a 1785 petition for a tract of land in New Brunswick contains a list that includes the names of five men who were recorded in the Book of Negroes. Without the information contained in the ledger of 1783, we would not know the circumstances of the black petitioners. Ismael Conley was 23 years old when he boarded the Grand Dutchess for Saint John. He had been enslaved to Ebenezer Colley in Fairfield, Connecticut until he escaped in 1777. 27 year-old Thomas Hide, the first Black Loyalist to arrive in New Brunswick, had escaped from the same town and also had a Birch Certificate when he sailed on the Union. When John Potter, another man on the land petition, came to New Brunswick on the Montague he did not travel alone. The Book of Negroes reveals that the 25 year-old Rhode Island man escaped his master in 1778 and married 24 year-old Lucy, a woman once enslaved in White Plains, New York.

John Wilkins, another petitioner, arrived in New Brunswick on the Bridgewater. He had run away from the New York home of John Thomas in 1776. Somewhere in his life he he came to have a scar on his chin. (Such are the details that can be found in the Book of Negroes.)

In the years that followed their flight from New York City, many Black Loyalists were upset by the racist attitudes of their colonial governments. When they were given the opportunity to immigrate to Sierra Leone to found a new colony, 1,196 loyal blacks once again boarded evacuation ships and sailed for western Africa in 1792. Many of these men and women would be faceless names on ships' manifests if it were not possible to find them in the Book of Negroes.

Robert Stafford originally arrived in New Brunswick when he was 20 years old. The Royal Navy had liberated him from slavery in Virginia in 1779. In the subsequent nine years as a loyalist settler, Robert gained a wife and family. The same was true for three other bachelors listed in the Book of Negroes who later sailed for Sierra Leone. New York's Jarvis Frost initially settled on the New Brunswick border with Nova Scotia and Virginia's Daniel Carry arrived at the mouth of the St. John River in 1783. Timothy Withers, enslaved in South Carolina, had made Annapolis Royal his home.

Ralph Henry was a married man when he arrived in Nova Scotia in 1783. The Book of Negroes notes that he was 23 when he escaped from his master in Gloucester, Virginia. His wife Miney, five years his junior, had escaped slavery in Philadelphia. The couple met while serving the British army and were married before 1779, the year that their daughter Molly was born "free within the British lines". Molly would have been at least 12 years old when her family left Nova Scotia for Sierra Leone. While the 1792 list of passengers bound for West Africa only describes them as "Ralph Henry, wife and family", the Book of Negroes gives us a much richer understanding of the Henry family.

As these examples have demonstrated, while it is difficult to piece together the jigsaw puzzle of Canada's Black Loyalist history, the careful comparison of various colonial documents with the Book of Negroes can help enrich our understanding of these pioneers and appreciate their struggles to live as free people.

To secure permission to reprint this article, email Stephen Davidson.

Anthony and Andrew Westbrook (Part 15), by Doug Massey

It is very difficult to disagree with Taylor when considering the history of two men -- Anthony and Andrew Westbrook. Both father, in New York State in the 1770s and 1780s, and son, 1790s to 1815, inhabited regions, and were part of a family that were split by political, religious and moral divisions caused by an ongoing civil war. The first phase of that consuming, discontinuous conflict ended with one side prevailing and forging a unity myth that over time created a national identity by disappearing the vanquished others. The civil war aspect of the American Revolution is to be found in those campaigns of extermination fuelled by hatred and revenge perpetrated by both Loyalist and Republican Americans, along with their respective indigenous allies, against each other. When the fighting was brought to an end in 1783, the hatred and need for revenge continued on both sides, ensuring that another generation would take up the complaints in 1812 when it would be empire versus republic, round two. Even while that second phase was in progress, and certainly in the years afterward, another unity myth was crafted that denied that any significant part of Upper Canada had ever stood against empire. Both unification myths sought to end chaos and put in its place the certainty required for nation building. But at the same time, something had to go -- a fascinating narrative of disunity. In this climate of myth building, both Anthony and Andrew Westbrook were labelled "a traitor to his country", Anthony in the United States and Andrew in Canada, and their real story largely forgotten.

It is said that Andrew Westbrook stood 6 foot 2, had broad shoulders, and a crop of "brilliant red hair" that matched his temperament. That Andrew had a short fuse is clear from his ongoing feud with Daniel Springer. When all Andrew Westbrook's land went up for sale in 1823, it was Springer who bought it. No doubt Springer thought he had taken his revenge, got the last laugh. But then, perhaps before he died in 1826, he got word via the Masonic Lodge network of Andrew's new start in Michigan. Perhaps he knew that Andrew, having lost one wife, married another and then another. Perhaps he knew that Andrew and his extensive family became influential, wealthy settlers in China Township, St Clair County, Michigan where in 1822, Westbrook was listed as "the wealthiest man in the county" and "possessed of the largest amount of household furniture - $130". [93] Perhaps Springer would agree with the statement that his old adversary was noted for his "individuality", and believe the story that when "Indians" one day captured his children, Westbrook went out after them, pointed his revolver at the chief, demanded that the children be delivered to him, and got them back. [94] Perhaps. And perhaps word that Springer now was in possession of all his goods back in Delaware, and of Springer's extensive wealth in Upper Canada disturbed the sleep of Andrew, Baron von Steuben ensconced in his big house on the St. Clair River.

We know more of Andrew Westbrook than we do of his father. No doubt Anthony was equally tall and strong. As for Anthony's disposition, we have no first hand accounts of that and can only try to piece together an understanding of his motivation from the scant records that remain to us. The resulting portrait is far from complete. Indeed that of Andrew is just a little clearer. As for Sara Dekker, wife and mother, we know nothing really at all. Perhaps Andrew inherited his colouring and temper from her. Perhaps Anthony was a quiet even-tempered man. But ultimately we will never know. This, though is true: the remains of both father and son now rest far from where they were born, Anthony in Ancaster Ontario, and Andrew in Michigan. Two lives both so very similar, yet also so very divergent.

NOTES:

[93] History of St. Clair County (U.S. Data Repository).

[94] History Of St. Clair County, Michigan, A.T. Andreas and Company, Western Historical Co., 1888, p.728.

...Doug Massey

Thanks so much to Doug for this well documented/sourced research into and history of Anthony and Andrew. A copy of the full article has now been posted to the Loyalist Directory as part of Anthony Westbrook's record there. You can access it here (PDF).

Domestic Disputes: Public Announcements of Private Affairs, by Don N. Hagist

A browse through the eighteenth century newspapers turns up more than just political news, op-eds and want ads. Sometimes there's marital mud-slinging of the sort that we've come to expect only from television and the internet. Although we're tempted to think of our forebears as more refined and moralistic than today, there was no shortage of public assertions of domestic non-tranquility. Marriages that were anything but blissful spurred declarations of indebtedness, abandonment, infidelity and other ill behaviors. The fundamental motivation was legalistic: one partner didn't want to bear responsibility for the actions of another.

Loyalist Trails UELAC Newsletter, 2015 Archive

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