LE3 .A278 2009

2009

Moody, Barry

Acadia University

Bachelor of Arts

Honours

History

History & Classics

The settlement of Loyalists in Nova Scotia in the years after the American War for Independence is an area of study that has received little academic attention. Cumberland County receives even less attention because the relevant documents are harder to find. The Charles Baker Collection contains many of these documents and provides a glimpse at a province in transition and a man who played a small, but key role in that process. The first part of this thesis serves as an introduction to the Charles Baker Collection and describes the organization and cataloguing process. It is followed by a finding aid that briefly describes the content and condition of each document in the collection. "...but not in the manner proposed by Mr. Totten..." examines the events that surrounded the settlement of Cumberland County's only major loyalist group, the Westchester Refugees. The problems of settling the loyalists in Cumberland County were the same issues faced by loyalist groups, surveyors, agents, and the government across the province. It was a microcosm of the loyalist experience in Nova Scotia. Utilizing documents from the Charles Baker Collection and other sources, the paper discusses the transition that occurred in Cumberland County as the former exiles became accepted members of the community.

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https://scholar.acadiau.ca/islandora/object/theses:546