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A Black Loyalist was an inhabitant of British America of African descent who joined British colonial forces during the American Revolutionary War.〔Cassandra Pybus, ''Epic Journeys of Freedom: Runaway Slaves of the American Revolution and Their Global Quest for Liberty,'' (Beacon Press, Boston, 2006); Graham Russell Hodges, Susan Hawkes Cook, Alan Edward Brown (eds), (''The Black Loyalist Directory: African Americans in Exile After the American Revolution'' ) 〕 Many were slaves held by Patriot rebels, and decided to join the British in exchange for The Crown's promises of freedom. Some 3,000 Black Loyalists were evacuated from New York to Nova Scotia; they were individually listed in the ''Book of Negroes'' as the British gave them certificates of freedom and arranged for transport. The original of the ''Book of Negroes'' and an authenticated transcript are now online.〔(''The Book of Negroes'' ), Black Loyalists.〕 Some of the United Empire Loyalists who migrated to Nova Scotia brought enslaved African Americans with them, a total of 2,500 people. One historian has argued that the slaves were not regarded as Loyalists, since they had no choice in their fates.〔(The Black Loyalist Myth in Atlantic Canada by Barry Cahill )〕 Thousands of slaves escaped from plantations in the Southeastern United States to British lines, especially after its occupation of Charleston, South Carolina. When the British evacuated, they took many former slaves with them. Some Black Loyalists were evacuated to London and were later included in the population of the Black Poor. With government assistance, 4,000 blacks were transported from London for resettlement to the colony of Sierra Leone in 1787. Five years later, another 1,192 Black Loyalists from Nova Scotia chose to migrate to Sierra Leone, as they were tired of the discrimination and climate in Canada. They became known in Sierra Leone as the Nova Scotian settlers and were part of creating a new nation and, ultimately, government. The modern-day Sierra Leone Creole people (Krios) are their descendants. The American leader Thomas Jefferson referred to the Black Loyalists as "the fugitives from these States." Although many Black Loyalists gained freedom, many of them did not. Some Loyalists escaped to the northern states of the US and lived a life of freedom. Others left the US aboard ships headed for Britain. The Loyalists who were not able to escape with the British were sold back into slavery and treated harshly for trying to gain freedom in the first place. ==Background== Slavery in England had never been authorized by statute. Villeinage, a form of semi-serfdom, was legally recognised, although long obsolete. In 1772 a slave threatened with being taken out of England and returned to the Caribbean challenged the authority of his master, in what became known as Somersett's case. Lord Mansfield, Chief Justice of the King's Bench, ruled that, as slavery had no standing under common law, slave owners were unable to transport slaves outside England and Wales against their will. Many observers took this to mean that slavery was ended in England. Lower courts often interpreted the ruling as determining that the status of slavery did not exist in England and Wales, but Mansfield had ruled more narrowly. This decision did not apply to the Thirteen Colonies and Caribbean colonies, where legislatures had passed laws to institutionalize slavery. A number of cases for emancipation of slave residing in England were presented to the English courts. Numerous runaways hoped to reach England where they expected to gain freedom. The slaves' belief that King George III was for them and against their masters rose as tensions increased before the American Revolution; colonial slaveholders feared a British-inspired slave revolt. In early 1775 Lord Dunmore wrote to Lord Dartmouth of his intent to take advantage of this situation. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Black Loyalist」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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