African Nova Scotians in the Age of Slavery and Abolition

On the motion of Peleg Wiswall, the House set up a committee to prepare an address opposing black refugee immigration. The purpose of the address was to "express the sense of this House respecting the impolicy of encouraging the introduction and settlement of Negroes or Mulattoes into this Province." The House approved the address and set up another committee to present it to the lieutenant governor. The Assembly's views had no effect; African American refugees continued to arrive in large numbers until the spring of 1816.

Wiswall was a lawyer and Loyalist from Annapolis County. In 1816 he was appointed a justice of the Supreme Court.

Date: 1 April 1815

Reference: Nova Scotia Archives  Journal of the House of Assembly 1815 page 107 (microfilm 3528)