Thomas Peters was an “other” patriot who was originally from Nigeria, one of the “Founding Fathers" of the nation of Sierra Leone in West Africa. Peters was an influential Black Canadian, who recruited African settlers in the Province of Nova Scotia for the colonization of Sierra Leone. Peters was a former African-American slave, who fled the Province of North Carolina with the British during the American Revolutionary War. When the Revolutionary War began in 1775, Peters escaped to a British-occupied territory. In 1776 Peters joined an all-black regiment in the British Army. During his service there, he was promoted to the rank of sergeant. When the Revolutionary War ended, his regiment was among the thousands of Loyalists transported by the British Navy to the north shore of Nova Scotia and then on to New Brunswick. Peters soon became the recognized leader of the New Brunswick and Nova Scotia black communities, representing their concerns to provincial authorities.
2. What did the American Revolution mean for African Americans? …show more content…
Almost every part of the colonies, black American took advantage of wartime disruption to obtain their freedom in any way they could. Sometimes they joined the American army, often serving in place of their masters, who gave them the freedom to risk their life and limb for the cause. Sometimes they helped their masters on the battlefield as orderlies and hoped rewards of freedom at war’s end. Black Americans took up arms for as we can tell in as significant a proportion to their numbers as did white Americans. Their story is extraordinary important part of a tradition of black protest and struggle that did not die with the Peace of Paris in