Were the Black Loyalists Loyal?

Discussion Questions

  1. What, according to Cahill, is a historical “myth”?
  2. According to Cahill, how has historical work about “loyalists” and “Black loyalists” cultivated these myths?
  3. Walker disagrees with Cahill, upon what evidence is his argument based?
  4. Where do you fall in this debate, should we consider the people who came to Nova Scotia in the mid-1780s as freed slaves, refugees or loyalists? What are the historiographical implications of each choice?
  5. In what ways might the central point of debate – the identity of the “Black Loyalists” – be mirrored in our thinking about other peoples’ experiences of the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth century (i.e. the Acadians, Haudenosaunee, or immigration).
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