Talk:African American settlers (Sierra Leone)
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[edit] African Americans vs Black Loyalists
This article should concern itself with African American settlers, rather than dealing with Black Loyalists, who by self-definition were not Americans. There was a substantial group of African Americans who arrived in 1816, but otherwise they did not arrive in large numbers. Harrypotter (talk) 17:03, 30 March 2008 (UTC)
- I have taken the liberty of giving this discussion a title. I heartily agree that the two subjects deserve different articles, wikilinked of course. The trouble is that this one, as it exists, deals mainly with those Black Loyalists who chose to go to West Africa, and the title is misleading. The article appears to have been renamed or moved (perhaps copied and pasted?), I suspect from an original with a more appropriate title. What would be the best solution? To research and write about the 1816 group, and place that here, and move most of the current content to a new article -- under what title? BrainyBabe (talk) 18:58, 30 March 2008 (UTC)
- I wish the matter were so simple. Some time ago I put [Talk:Slavery_in_the_United_States#Slavery in North America?|this remark] which was completely ignored. I do not see the distinction between colonial America and slavery at that time and the development of the United States as either trivial or inevitable. Having recently read Simon Schama's Rough Crossings and indeed other material, I am struck at how the legal challenges to slavery in Britain fuelled the desire for independence amongst White Americans. Further as regards the Black Loyalists in general and the Sierra Leone settlers in particular, they stated very clearly that they were British - and that this should be accepted by the British government and more particularly the British Navy. We need to recognise the importance of this political identity. I have just checked the reference about African Americans coming to Sierra Leone. There were 38 who arrived on the Elizabeth, a ship captained by Paul Cuffee, a successful African American ship owner (Power Writers andthye Struggle Against Slavery, London, 2005). I don't know what more that can be said about them than that, and while it might make a good and important chapter in a bigger article about teh settlement of Sierra Leone by liberated formerly enslaved Africans, It would be good to have a better title for the page.Harrypotter (talk) 21:24, 31 March 2008 (UTC)
- Thanks for the references. What is the way forward? This is one suggestion:
- 1. Move most of the content of this page: perhaps to Nova Scotian settlers (Sierra Leone)? And develop the new page accordingly.
- 2. Strip this down to just those African Americans you mention above.
- Any opinions? BrainyBabe (talk) 08:45, 1 April 2008 (UTC)
- I wish the matter were so simple. Some time ago I put [Talk:Slavery_in_the_United_States#Slavery in North America?|this remark] which was completely ignored. I do not see the distinction between colonial America and slavery at that time and the development of the United States as either trivial or inevitable. Having recently read Simon Schama's Rough Crossings and indeed other material, I am struck at how the legal challenges to slavery in Britain fuelled the desire for independence amongst White Americans. Further as regards the Black Loyalists in general and the Sierra Leone settlers in particular, they stated very clearly that they were British - and that this should be accepted by the British government and more particularly the British Navy. We need to recognise the importance of this political identity. I have just checked the reference about African Americans coming to Sierra Leone. There were 38 who arrived on the Elizabeth, a ship captained by Paul Cuffee, a successful African American ship owner (Power Writers andthye Struggle Against Slavery, London, 2005). I don't know what more that can be said about them than that, and while it might make a good and important chapter in a bigger article about teh settlement of Sierra Leone by liberated formerly enslaved Africans, It would be good to have a better title for the page.Harrypotter (talk) 21:24, 31 March 2008 (UTC)
