Shelburne Nova Scotia
Home of the Loyalists

Shelburne Nova Scotia lies at the southwest corner of the province, approximately 2 1/2 hours west from Halifax.

Legend has it (actually the info from various kiosks around town) , that the first Europeans to make a settlement on these shores were the French.

After they were expelled by the British in 1755, there were no settlers for several decades.

But in the 1780's, more than 5,000 settlers arrived on the shores of Shelburne Nova Scotia from New York, USA. These settlers were known as Loyalists -- Americans who had opposed the Revolution and remained loyal to Britain.

Lured by the promises of free land, tools, and provisions four hundred families came together to form a town later called Shelburne.

Among the founding group were 936 freed slaves. They were followed by a second larger group of what were to be called, Black Loyalists who arrived in 1783.

The Black Loyalists were runaway slaves who sought protection under the British and who served the Loyalist cause.

Together with the original group, the Black Loyalists formed Canada’s first

Free Black Community which was named Birchtown, located just outside of Shelburne, and it soon became the largest settlement of free blacks outside of Africa.

The Black Loyalists soon faced extreme hardships in their new homeland, oth the day-to-day hardships of being new settlers well as racial and economic discrimination.

They soon realized that a lack of agricultural land, poor inland transportation and lack of some necessary pioneering skills, worked against any hope of establishing economic growth.

So the people began to starve, as their efforts on working with the unsuitable topsoil failed. And the population fell sharply.

In 1792. a group of almost 1200 blacks from Birchtown took advantage of the offer from the British crown for free passage to Sierra Leone and emigrated there.

Subsequently, Birchtown soon dissolved.But the town of Shelburne survived. Although at a much smaller size. But many descendants of the original Loyalists still live in the area today.

Fishing remains a primary industry. Over the centuries, economic activities that included logging, and the manufacture of barrels, institutional furniture, granite monuments, and marine supplies caught on and grew.

Recently, there has been a boost in local tourism to the town, and the local population has stabilized.

There has been an increase interest in preserving the structure of the early settlement and their way of life.

Many of Shelburne's buildings date back to Loyalist times. The Shelburne County Museum itself is a restored home that was originally built in 1787.

The Ross-Thomson House and Store is an authentically-stocked 18th century store. From 1785, two brothers, George and Robert, ran their business from here. The Ross brothers traded Shelburne's products for goods from around the world.

The store was closed in the 1880s with the death of Robert Ross Thomson,

son of the elder Robert Thomson. But in 1931, the store was bought, the taxes were paid, and the store was saved from demolition.

The Muir-Cox Shipyard at the south end of Dock Street in Shelburne is one of the oldest shipyards in Nova Scotia. It turned out everything from square-rigged sailing ships to yachts and workmanlike fishing boats. The Yacht Shed re-opened in the spring of 2001 as a year-round working boat shop, primarily building wooden boats on a made-to-order basis.

It also serves as a home to a seasonal Shipbuilding Interpretive Centre, which describes much of the rich ship building history for which the Shelburne area is noted for.

See for yourself why Shelburne Nova Scotia is perhaps the best undiscovered place in the province, and why your travel vacation plans should include a visit.

On the one hand, it is a typical small fishing village that can be found throughout south eastern Nova Scotia, but, with its efforts on re-building its influential past history, makes it a town to definitely stop and visit.

For more information:

Liverpool

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