Nova Scotia Archives

African Nova Scotians in the Age of Slavery and Abolition

Petition on behalf of the Black Pioneers
view page 1 2

Sergeants Thomas Peters and Murphy Steel were senior non-commissioned officers of the Black Pioneers. They are petitioning the government on behalf of the regiment for equal treatment with other disbanded Loyalist soldiers. In 1785 the Pioneers, the only officially recognized black regiment on the British side during the American War of Independence, received one acre apiece in the town of Digby.

Date: 20 (?) August 1784

Reference: Commissioner of Public Records  Nova Scotia Archives  RG 1 volume 359 number 65 (microfilm 15428)

Nova Scotia Archives — https://archives.novascotia.ca/africanns/archives/

Crown copyright © 2024, Province of Nova Scotia.