Peters, Thomas

  • DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: James W. St G. Walker, “PETERS (Petters), THOMAS,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 4, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/peters_thomas_4E.html
  • DCB profile notes:
    • Black soldier and leader; b. c. 1738; d. 25 June 1792 in Freetown, Sierra Leone.
    • The earliest documentary evidence places him in 1776 as the 38-year-old slave of William Campbell in Wilmington, North Carolina. In that year, encouraged by the proclamation issued by Governor Lord Dunmore of Virginia in 1775 promising freedom to rebel-owned slaves who joined the loyalist forces, Peters fled Campbell’s plantation and enlisted in the Black Pioneers in New York.
    • They were among 3,500 free black loyalists taken to Nova Scotia after the revolution. Peters was placed in charge of the Annapolis County blacks, and he settled with more than 200 former Pioneers in Brindley Town, near Digby. 
    • In 1790, after six years of fruitless waiting and five different petitions to colonial officials, Peters determined to appeal directly to the British government. He was given power of attorney by several hundred blacks in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick to represent their case, and by November, he had made his way to London.
    • Arriving in Sierra Leone early in March, the black loyalists immediately began clearing a site for their settlement, Freetown, but the promised land they expected was not to be realized.
  • Proven Loyalist in Loyalist Directory –https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=10859
  • Find a GRAVE: Cannot locate.