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KING'S BOUNTY: A HISTORY OF EARLY SHELBURNE, NOVA SCOTIA

Marion Robertson.

Halifax, Nova Scotia Museum, c1983.
334pp, paper, $25.00 (cloth), $16.00 (paper).
ISBN 0-919680-24-0 (cloth), 0-919680-21-6 (paper).


Grades 10 and up.
Reviewed by Catherine R. Cox

Volume 11 Number 6.
1983 November.


Marion Robertson has been researching the history of Shelburne for over twenty years. She is the author of three other books of local history. The manuscript of King's Bounty won the Nova Scotia Historical Society's Centennial Award in 1978.

It is entirely appropriate that on the anniversary year of the Loyalists' landing in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick that a book be published about one of their most important landing sites, Shelburne, Nova Scotia. Robertson deals briefly with the early days of Shelburne before European settlement but the greater part of the book is about the period from 1783 to 1794. It is a goldmine of information for the local historian and genealogist. Students might find it heavy going, but for research purposes it is well indexed and accessible. Chapter headings are explanatory, and each chapter deals with a different subject, shipbuilding or social life, rather than time periods. Shelburne's story is an interesting one. The Loyalists flocked there, and in one year, 1784, the population rose from almost no one to 6,329 residents. Disappointed, they left as quickly and by 1791 almost two-thirds of the town was uninhabited. Many of the Loyalists were free Blacks who settled around Shelburne. Many of them were re-settled in Sierra Leone in 1791. An important part of Black history in Canada is told in this book.

The black-and-white illustrations are mostly reproductions of watercolours that can be found in the Nova Scotia Museum. This book will be a welcome addition to any library that has a collection of Loyalistiana. It is a must buy for public and school libraries in Nova Scotia and for school libraries where the curriculum applies.


Catherine R. Cox, Moncton H. S., Moncton, NB.
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