United Empire Loyalist

The term United Empire Loyalist was an honorary title given by Lord Dorchester the Governor General of British North America to colonists who remained loyal to and resettled in British North America during and after the American Revolutionary War period. These Loyalists were coming from the thirteen colonies in America and thus their groups were as diverse as the place they had just left. The United Empire Loyalists were made up of a variety of people with different cultures, customs and native languages. While the honorific title "United Empire Loyalist" is not part of the official Canadian honours system, modern-day descendants of Loyalist refugees may employ it, sometimes using "U.E." as a post-nominal letters.

WHICH GROUPS MADE UP MAJORITIES:

Nearly all black Loyalists left for Nova Scotia, Florida or England, where they could remain free. Sir Guy Carleton intended to honour the promise of freedom. The British proposed a compromise that would compensate slave owners, and provide certificates of freedom plus the right to be evacuated to one of the British colonies to any Black person who could prove his service or status. The British transported more than 3,000 Black Loyalists to Nova Scotia, which was the greatest number of people of African descent to arrive there at any one time. One of their settlements, Birchtown, Nova Scotia was the largest free Black Loyalist community in North America for the first few years of its existence. Black Loyalists found the harsh northern climate and conditions in Nova Scotia difficult. They were also subject to discrimination by other Loyalist settlers, many of which used to be slaveowners. In July 1784, Black Loyalists in Shelburne were targeted in the Shelburne Riots. This was the first recorded race riot in Canadian history. In addition to other settlers, crown officials also discriminated against the Black Loyalists and land that was granted to them was often more rocky and harder to cultivate compared to the land given to White Loyalist settlers. In 1792, the British government offered Black Loyalists the chance to resettle in a new colony in Sierra Leone, Africa and the Sierra Leone Company was established to manage its

The 8,000 Loyalists who migrated to Québec did not want to settle in the St. Lawrence Lowlands, because the population was largely French-speaking and occupied almost all the available land. Moreover, these Loyalists refused to be governed by the Napoleonic Code of Law and the province 's seigneurial system, and demanded access to freehold "Crown lands" subject to English common law. The colonial government thus granted new lands further west, so that the Loyalists could move to an area not ruled by French civil law. Only 1,500 Loyalists settled in what was then called the Eastern Townships, southeast of Montréal, a sort of buffer zone between the seigneurial lands of the St. Lawrence and the fledgling United States, formerly the Thirteen Colonies. Three decades later, as of 1820, some 5,000 British, 3,000 Irish, and several hundred Scottish immigrants who settled in Scotstown and Stornoway swelled the ranks of the original Loyalist settlers in the Eastern