Shelburne is a town located in southwestern Nova Scotia, Canada.
History Shelburne lies at the southwest corner of Nova Scotia, at roughly the same latitude as Portland, Maine, in the United States. The Mi'kmaq call the large and well-sheltered harbour Logumkeegan or Sogumkeagum.
The first settlers arrived in the Shelburne region around 13,000 years ago. The Mi'kmaq First Nations travelled by canoe along the Roseway River, setting up encampments along the shores in summer. Mi'kmaq residents referred to Shelburne's sheltered harbour as Logumkeegan or Sogumkeagum. Prior to the arrival of Europeans in the 1500s, the territory of Mi'kma'ki was divided into seven districts, each led by a District Chief.
The displacement of the Nova Scotia's Mi'kmaq communities consists of a long and painful history including the introduction of European diseases in the 1500s, the occupation of unceded land, as well as removal of Indigenous children from their homes in the 20th century through the Sixties Scoop and Residential School program. Nova Scotia eventually set aside 26,000 acres as reserve land owned by the Canadian Government.
Indigenous communities continue to inhabit Shelburne and surrounding communities, and the Acadia First Nation has opened a sub-office office in Shelburne to serve off-reserve members in this region.
When European settlers arrived in Shelburne, they followed Indigenous Mi'kmaq routes to fish, hunt and trap. Initial foreign explorers included fishermen from Spain, Portugal, and France. Following the arrival of Samuel de Champlain, French settlers began to arrive in Nova Scotia between 1632 and 1653, with some forming the fishing settlement of Port Razoir in Shelburne. Ownership of these Acadian colonies moved between French and English rule until the War of Spanish Succession ended in 1713, turning Nova Scotian Acadians over to the British.
Following the Acadians' repeated refusal to fight the French, the British Governor and Nova Scotia council began to deport the Acadians of Grand Pre and Port Royal in 1755. Some families took refuge in the Cape Sable region (comprising Yarmouth and Shelburne) until this community, too, was sent into exile between 1756 and 1759.
During this period, homes and communities were destroyed and burned, and Acadian families were separated and forcibly moved throughout the American colonies or into Europe. Many of Shelburne County's Acadian residents landed in Massachusetts, and throughout the Grand Derangement some were imprisoned, some died at sea, others fled to Quebec, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, or sought shelter with Nova Scotia's Mi'kmaq communities. By 1764, small groups of Acadians were allowed to return-and most reside today within the Maritimes.
In 1783, 10,000 enslaved persons (a fifth of the United States' black population) fought alongside British soldiers in the American Revolution-promised freedom in return. Departing from New York, many Loyalists relocated to Nova Scotia at the end of the war, with 5,000 arriving in Shelburne Harbour in the first wave. About 1,500 Black Loyalists settled in Shelburne County and Birchtown, to the west, became the largest community of free black people anywhere in North America. Upon arrival, Black Loyalists waited for land grants from the British authorities that were delayed, smaller, and in worse locations than their white counterparts. Many Black Loyalists were forced into indentured servitude, little different from the conditions they had escaped; some were kidnapped and sold back into slavery further south.
By 1784, the population of Port Roseway (now the Town of Shelburne) reached 10,000-larger than Halifax or Montreal, and housing some of New York's wealthiest families. With this growth, industries began to develop including cod and whale fishing, and lumber and timber trades. But tensions were soon on the upswing, with Nova Scotian slave owners feeling threatened by the presence of these freed Black Loyalists, and white refugees frustrated at trying to compete for work, unwilling to accept such low compensations.
On July 26, 1784, a mob of white Loyalists settlers stormed the home of a black preacher in Shelburne armed with hooks and chains stolen from harboured ships, inciting North America's first race riot. Only one person was ever charged in connection with these riots, and the event is considered reflective of the broader racist prejudices encountered by Black Loyalists throughout Nova Scotia for the years to come.
In 1786 the first ship was built on Shelburne's harbour. Commissary Island (once holding rations dispensed to Loyalists) and Black's Brook became shipyards, leading the way for many other builders. In the 19th century, the river was repurposed for log driving, with temporary dams constructed along the stream. This wealth didn't last long though, and the Shelburne economy quickly began to decline.
Many Black Loyalists settled elsewhere across the province, and in 1791, at least half of Birchtown's residents agreed to depart for a new colony in Sierra Leone. The agricultural prospects in Shelburne were weak, and transportation links to the rest of the province were limited, leading to an eventual decline. By the 1820s, the population of Shelburne declined to 300.
Another period of immigration began in 1818 when a mass of Welsh immigrants founded the first Welsh settlement in Canada, along the west side of the river in what is now Welshtown.
Shelburne was incorporated as a town in 1907. Shelburne's historic waterfront has attracted film productions, with many remaining buildings dating back to the 18th and 19th centuries, including the Shelburne County Museum, Christ Church, and Ross-Thomson House. Fishing is still a primary industry in the Town of Shelburne, and other local industries include lumber, fish processing, barrel manufacturing, granite monuments, and marine supplies. While ship building is no longer a major employer, visitors can visit the J. C. Williams Dory Shop to witness construction methods of the late 19th century.
Port Razoir, Cape/Port Roseway, Shelburne The first Europeans to make a settlement on these shores were the French Acadians. They set up a small fishing settlement known as Port Razoir in the late 17th century, named after the harbour's resemblance to an open razor. Early European settlers had small subsistence farms, but most of the inhabitants' income from that time to the present has been derived from the sea. The Acadian fishing settlement was abandoned after repeated raids from New England colonists during Queen Anne's War in 1705, in which five Acadians were taken prisoner, and again in 1708.
On May 14, 1715, New England naval commander Cyprian Southack attempted to create a permanent fishing station at a place he named "Cape Roseway" (now known as Shelburne). Shortly after he set up a base, in July 1715 the Mi'kmaq raided the station and burned it to the ground. In response, Southack led a raid on Canso, Nova Scotia (1718) and encouraged Governor Phillips to fortify Canso.Geoffery Plank. An Unsettled Conquest. University of Pennsylvania. 2001. p. 76=77; J.S. McLennan. Louisbourg. The Bookroom Limited. 1979. p. 64
New England fishermen knew Shelburne as "Port Roseway" and frequently used the outer harbour for seasonal shelter and repairs. Pirate Ned Low raided the New England fishing fleet at Shelburne Harbour in 1723, capturing 13 ships and taking Philip Ashton captive.Dan Conlin, Pirates of the Atlantic: Robbery, Murder and Mayhem off the Canadian East Coast (2009) Formac Publishing, p. 35-37. After the forced expulsion of the Acadians in 1755, there were no European settlers for several decades. Alexander McNutt attempted to start a settlement in 1765 but was not successful.
American Revolution In the spring of 1783, more than 5,000 settlers arrived on the shores of Shelburne Harbour from New York and the Middle Colonies of the Thirteen Colonies. These settlers were Loyalists (referred to later in Canada as United Empire Loyalists), Anglo-American colonists who had opposed the Revolution and remained loyal to Britain. The Crown offered them free land, tools, and provisions as compensation to lure them to settle in this relatively undeveloped area. Four hundred families associated to form a town at Port Roseway, which Governor John Parr renamed Shelburne later that year, after Lord Shelburne, the British prime minister. This group was led by the Port Roseway Associates, who had formed while still in New York and petitioned Governor Parr for the land.
The Black Loyalists, a large group of enslaved African Americans who escaped their masters to British lines and were promised freedom, were evacuated and transported by British forces to Shelburne Harbour at the same time. They founded Birchtown to the west of Shelburne. It became North America's largest free black settlement. But the Black Loyalists had to endure long waits before receiving land, were granted less than the whites, and faced discrimination from other colonists, including some who had even taken enslaved people with them to Canada. In July 1784 some of the white Loyalists conducted the Shelburne Riots against the African Americans.
In the fall of 1783, a second wave of settlers arrived in Shelburne. The community was settled by Loyalists soldiers of the Duke of Cumberland's Regiment. By 1784, the population of this new community is estimated to have been 17,000, making it the fourth-largest city in North America.The Americans, novascotia.com. Retrieved March 14, 2011 But, initial hopes were short-lived; the settlement suffered from a lack of viable agricultural land, poor inland transportation links, and too few pioneers who knew how to develop frontier property. These problems curtailed its economic growth. The population fell sharply by the 1790s, leaving many abandoned buildings. However, the remaining residents gradually developed the harbour potential as a fishing and shipbuilding centre.
In 1792 more than 1,000 Black Loyalists from across Nova Scotia accepted a British offer to resettle in Freetown (current Sierra Leone), a newly founded British colony in West Africa. They became the core of an ethnic group that became known as Krios (for Creoles), which included numerous black poor of London (many of them also African Americans resettled after the American Revolution), formerly enslaved persons resettled from Jamaica, and persons liberated from illegal trading ships after Britain and the United States prohibited the Atlantic slave trade.
Shipbuilding
Shipbuilding is a historically significant industry in the area. The first vessel launched at Shelburne was the 181-ton Roseway, built for MacLean and Bogle in 1786. Commissary Island, now a peninsula, was the area from which supplies of flour, pork, and salt were dispensed to the Loyalists by the Commissary General, Mr. Brinley. Later, this area became the shipyard of Joseph McGill. The Cox family also built their own ships and conducted extensive international trade. The former MacKay shipyard was located in Shelburne at Black's Brook. Donald McKay, famous in the United States for the clippers which he built at Boston, began his shipbuilding career in Shelburne. He was born at Jordan Falls in 1810 and left the area at the age of 16 to apprentice in New York. Led by master shipbuilders such as Amos Pentz and James Havelock Harding, Shelburne shipyards built many fishing schooners in the banks fishing era, as well as a notable research yacht inspired by fishing schooners, the schooner Blue Dolphin in 1926.
In May 1945, following Germany's surrender, U-889 surrendered to the Royal Canadian Navy at Shelburne, Nova Scotia.
Buildings