Commemorating the landing of the
United Empire Loyalists at
New Richmond Quebec 1784
Erected 1984 by their descendants
En souvenir du débarquement des
Loyalistes de l'Empire Uni
à
New Richmond Québec 1784
Érigé en 1984 par leurs descendants
Additional information about the Loyalists:
"United Empire Loyalists
Who Were They?
The vast majority of Loyalists were neither well-to-do nor particularly high in social rank; most were farmers, labourers, tradespeople and their families. They were of varied cultural backgrounds, and many were recent immigrants. White Loyalists brought large numbers of slaves with them. Until 1834, slavery was legal in all British North American colonies but Upper Canada, where the institution was being phased out.
Free Blacks and escaped slaves who had fought in the Loyalist corps, as well as about 2,000 Aboriginal allies — mainly Six Nations Iroquois from New York State — also settled in Canada.
In 1789, Lord Dorchester (see Guy Carleton), governor-in-chief of British North America, proclaimed that the Loyalists and their children should be allowed to add "UE" to their names, "alluding to their great principle, the Unity of Empire." As a result, the phrase "United Empire Loyalist," or UEL, was applied to Loyalists who migrated to Upper and Lower Canada. (The term was not officially recognized in the Maritimes until the 20th century.)
In determining who among its subjects was eligible for compensation for war losses, Britain used a fairly precise definition: Loyalists were those born or living in the American colonies at the outbreak of the Revolution who rendered substantial service to the royal cause during the war, and who left the United States by the end of the war or soon after.
Those who left substantially later — mainly to gain land and to escape growing racial intolerance — are often called "late" Loyalists.
Settlement
The main waves of Loyalists came to what is now Canada in 1783 and 1784. The territory that became the Maritime provinces became home to more than 30,000. Most of coastal Nova Scotia received Loyalist settlers, as did Cape Breton and Prince Edward Island (then called St. John’s Island). The two principal settlements were in the Saint John River valley in what is now New Brunswick, and temporarily at Shelburne, Nova Scotia. The Loyalists swamped the existing population in the Maritimes, and in 1784 the colonies of New Brunswick and Cape Breton were created to deal with the influx.
Of about 2,000 who moved to present-day Québec, some settled in the Gaspé, on Chaleur Bay, and others in Sorel, at the mouth of the Richelieu River. About 7,500 moved into what would become Ontario, most settling along the St. Lawrence River to the Bay of Quinte. There were also substantial settlements in the Niagara Peninsula and on the Detroit River, with subsidiary and later settlements along the Thames River and at Long Point. The Grand River was the main focus of Loyalist Iroquois settlement."
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