Maritime historical groups earn UNESCO recognition for Black Loyalist archive

HALIFAX — Detailed ledgers, business receipts and church records from Black Loyalists in the 1780s and onward are more than just rich historical texts to Andrea Davis.

“This is a part of my history… it means so much to us as a community,” she said in an interview Saturday.

Davis is an eighth generation descendant of Black people who left the United States for Nova Scotia at the end of the American Revolution, siding with the British. The Black Loyalists were offered land, protection and freedom, but they were not given the rations, assistance or fertile land they were promised.

“My ancestors, they are a group of people that were not meant to survive, but they did. And so to be here to represent the Black Loyalists and my ancestors is extremely rewarding,” she said.

Davis, the executive director of the Black Loyalist Heritage Centre in Shelburne, N.S., was among those recognized Saturday by the Canadian branch of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, otherwise known as UNESCO.

The Nova Scotia Archives, Black Loyalist Heritage Centre, Shelburne County Museum and Provincial Archives of New Brunswick partnered to produce an archival collection called “Black Loyalists in Canada: Autonomy, Advocacy, Community, Legacy.” The collection was added to UNESCO’s Canada Memory of the World Register, which recognizes documentary heritage of national significance.

Davis said the documents, some of which were on display at the Nova Scotia Archives in Halifax on Saturday, provide detail into the rich lives of the Black Loyalists who settled in Shelburne, where she lives today.

The documents “show their intelligence… show me the strength and resilience that was always there… it’s so emotional and so compelling for me as an eighth generation to have these texts on hand and share it with the next generations after me,” she said.

Saturday’s ceremony at the archives included music on the drums and piano, and a prayer from Sheila Hartley-Scott, president of the Black Loyalist Heritage Society’s volunteer board.

“Our ancestors were not given very good odds to survive when they arrived here, they suffered unspeakable hardships … not only were they facing hardships, they were facing racism. All they really wanted was (something) better and to be able to raise their family and contribute to their communities,” Hartley-Scott said.

“Our people are people of strength and courage, tenacity, hope and faith.”

John Macleod, manager of the Nova Scotia Archives, said the land petitions, legal documentation, settlement plans and transaction records and other documents included in the collection “tell the story of Nova Scotia.”

Part of what makes this collection significant is that the documents show the Black Loyalists “speaking for themselves and being agents of their destiny in this time period.”

“They are actually going to courts and pleading cases and making their presence known. And that presence of course has persisted for more than 200 years from the settlement of Shelburne,” Macleod said Saturday.

The Canada Memory of the World Register is administered by the Canadian Commission for UNESCO as part of the organization’s Memory of the World Programme, which seeks to safeguard and promote access to heritage documents of universal value.

“This archival collection provides a rare and valuable account of the Black Loyalists and their descendants in their own voices. In it, we see the perseverance and dedication that the Black Loyalists brought to building communities despite the immense challenges,” David Schimpky, director of secretariat for the Canadian Commission for UNESCO, said in a statement.

“Archival holdings such as these are central to building understanding of the experiences and impacts of the Black Loyalists in Canada, a story that is important to recognize through inscription on the Canada Memory of the World Register,” he said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 22, 2026.

Lyndsay Armstrong, The Canadian Press