British Empire Loyalists in Canada

In 1776, the thirteen European occupied colonies to the south of Quebec area declared independence from the British Empire and formed the United States of America.

More than 40,000 people loyal to the British Empire, called "Loyalists," fled the American Revolution war to the British colonial settlements in Nova Scotia and Quebec.

The British Loyalists and their supporters came from Dutch, German, British, Scandinavian and other origins.

About 3,000 people of African origin, mostly freed slaves from white masters, also came north.

Some black Nova Scotians, who were widely discriminated against, and were given poor land, moved on to establish Freetown, Sierra Leone (West Africa), which was a British occupied colony in their own African continent.