Boston King ( 1760–1802) was a former American slave and

Black Loyalist Black Loyalists were people of African descent who sided with Loyalists during the American Revolutionary War. In particular, the term referred to men enslaved by Patriots who served on the Loyalist side because of the Crown's guarantee of fr ...

, who gained freedom from the British and settled in

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada, located on its east coast. It is one of the three Maritime Canada, Maritime provinces and Population of Canada by province and territory, most populous province in Atlan ...

after the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which Am ...

. He later immigrated to

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone, officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered to the southeast by Liberia and by Guinea to the north. Sierra Leone's land area is . It has a tropical climate and envi ...

, where he helped find

Freetown Freetown () is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Sierra Leone. It is a major port city on the Atlantic Ocean and is located in the Western Area of the country. Freetown is Sierra Leone's major urban, economic, financial, cultural, e ...

and became the first

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christianity, Christian Christian tradition, tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother ...

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group who is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thoma ...

to African indigenous people. He published his autobiography in 1798, which was one of only three by Black Nova Scotians and also notable among slave narratives as a work that was trans-Atlantic. King, who had been born a

slave Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...

South Carolina South Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders North Carolina to the north and northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, and Georgia (U.S. state), Georg ...

, was apprenticed as a carpenter. He joined the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

when they occupied Charleston, as they promised freedom to slaves.

Early life and education

Boston King was born in South Carolina, the son of a literate slave taken from Africa. His mother knew of herbal preparations from the Native Americans. Boston first joined the British near Charleston; after surviving

smallpox Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by Variola virus (often called Smallpox virus), which belongs to the genus '' Orthopoxvirus''. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (W ...

, he made his way to New York during the

American Revolution The American Revolution (1765–1783) was a colonial rebellion and war of independence in which the Thirteen Colonies broke from British America, British rule to form the United States of America. The revolution culminated in the American ...

, twice escaping capture. In New York, he met and married Violet, an enslaved woman from North Carolina who had also joined the British."Boston King"
''Revolution'', Part 2, PBS They had each made their way to New York on the promise of freedom for their contribution to the war effort.Robin W. Winks, ''The Blacks in Canada: A History''
McGill-Queen's Press, 1997, accessed 27 September 2011 The Kings were among the 3,000 black American slaves who were given certificates of freedom, entered into the '' Book of Negroes'', and evacuated with the British; they were resettled in

Migration to Nova Scotia

King, a master carpenter, helped to form a community with his wife in Birchtown, where he worked a number of odd jobs to survive. The Black Loyalists especially struggled through the early years of the colony; there were delays in their land grants and supplies, and it turned out that the soil was too poor to support much farming. Before the Kings decided to leave Nova Scotia, Boston King was appointed as Methodist minister to a congregation at Preston, near Halifax.

Immigration to Sierra Leone

Although conditions were improving for them in Nova Scotia, King and his wife decided to immigrate to the new British colony, the Province of Freedom (now

) in 1792. It was established for blacks from London and Canada. The Black Canadians, numbering nearly 1200 and traveling on several ships, established their own settlement of Freetown, Sierra Leone. Violet King died of fever soon after arrival.Vincent Carretta, ''Unchained Voices: An Anthology of Black Authors in the English-Speaking World of the Eighteenth Century''
University of Kentucky Press, 2003, pp. 394-395 At first Boston was employed by the company to preach to the native Africans in Sierra Leone, despite the fact that he could not understand their language. Soon he opened a school, later traveling to England to be schooled himself as a teacher. In 1794, the Sierra Leone Company sent King to England for education as a teacher and missionary at the Methodist Kingswood School near Bristol. He returned to Sierra Leone in 1796 to teach other settlers and act as a missionary to local native peoples. During that period, he wrote his autobiography, which was published in London.

Marriage and family

King married again in Sierra Leone after Violet died of malaria. While serving as a

to the Sherbro people, who were located in the coastal area about 100 miles south of Freetown, he and his second wife died about 1802. King was survived by two sons and a daughter, according to the 1802 census of Sierra Leone.

Autobiography

While studying in Bristol, England, he wrote an autobiography, ''Memoirs of the Life of Boston King'' (1798), which was published in four installments in the '' Wesleyan Methodist Magazine'' in London. It was one of the genre of African American slave narratives, notable as one of three by Black Nova Scotians and one that spanned the Atlantic, as he wrote about his emigration to Sierra Leone.Joe Lockard, "Memoirs of Boston King: A Black Preacher"
, Anti-slavery Literature Website, Arizona State University, accessed 27 September 2011 A new edition was published as ''The Life of Boston King, Black Loyalist, Minister, and Master Carpenter'' (2003), by Nimbus Publishing Ltd. and the Nova Scotia Museum.

References

External links

"Schama's Revolutionary Tale: 'Rough Crossings
NPR, 4 July 2006
Francis G. Halpenny, ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography''
University of Toronto Press, 1983
Boston King, excerpt from "Memoirs of the Life of Boston King, A Black Preacher"
''The Methodist Magazine'' 21 (March 1798), 106–10, and 21 (April 1798), 15, ''History Matters'', George Washington University
"New Book Features Story of Black Loyalist"
Nova Scotia Museum, March 2003

with author

Simon Schama Sir Simon Michael Schama ( ; born 13 February 1945) is an English historian and television presenter. He specialises in art history, Dutch history, Jewish history, and French history. He is a professor of history and art history at Columbia Uni ...

about '' Rough Crossings'' on ''Book Talk'', Radio National, ABC Australia, 19 November 2005
"Boston King"
''Black Loyalists: Our History, Our People'', Canadian Digital Collections

''Black Loyalists: Our History, Our People'', Canadian Digital Collections
"Boston King"
''Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online''

Shelby County, Nova Scotia {{DEFAULTSORT:King, Boston 1802 deaths African-American Methodist clergy 19th-century African-American clergy American Methodist clergy Black Loyalists Loyalists in the American Revolution from South Carolina Nova Scotian Settlers Sierra Leone Creole people Year of birth uncertain Year of birth unknown Writers of slave narratives American memoirists African-American non-fiction writers American non-fiction writers African-American missionaries American Methodist missionaries Methodist missionaries in Sierra Leone People from colonial South Carolina People educated at Kingswood School, Bath