When the Loyalists came to Nova Scotia in 1783, a large number settled at Shelburne, which, it was thought, would soon prove to be a more important centre than Halifax. The blacks formed their own settlement called Birchtown. Most of the men worked as labourers and servants and attempts were made by whites to drive them out because they were working for lower wages than the whites. This watercolour of a black woodcutter by William Booth is one of the earliest representations of a black settler in Nova Scotia.
