Henry Beverhout was an

African-Caribbean Afro-Caribbean or African Caribbean people are Caribbean people who trace their full or partial ancestry to Sub-Saharan Africa. The majority of the modern Afro-Caribbean people descend from the Africans (primarily from West and Central Africa) ta ...

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 ...

minister who led a

company A company, abbreviated as co., is a Legal personality, legal entity representing an association of legal people, whether Natural person, natural, Juridical person, juridical or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members ...

Nova Scotian settlers The Nova Scotian Settlers, or Sierra Leone Settlers (also known as the Nova Scotians or more commonly as the Settlers), were Black Britons or Black Canadians who founded the settlement of Freetown, Sierra Leone and the Colony of Sierra Leone, ...

who settled in

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 ...

. Beverhout was an

person born free in St Croix, an island in the

Danish West Indies The Danish West Indies () or Danish Virgin Islands () or Danish Antilles were a Danish colony in the Caribbean, consisting of the islands of Saint Thomas with , Saint John () with , Saint Croix with , and Water Island. The islands of St ...

.Fyfe C. (1991) ''Our Children Free and Happy: Letters from Black Settlers in Africa in the 1790s'', edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press He moved to

Charleston, South Carolina Charleston is the List of municipalities in South Carolina, most populous city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint of South Carolina's coastline on Charleston Harbor, an inlet of the Atla ...

but aligned himself with the

Black Loyalists Black Loyalists were people of African descent who sided with Loyalist (American Revolution), Loyalists during the American Revolutionary War. In particular, the term referred to men enslaved by Patriot (American Revolution), Patriots who served ...

with whom he migrated to

New Brunswick New Brunswick is a Provinces and Territories of Canada, province of Canada, bordering Quebec to the north, Nova Scotia to the east, the Gulf of Saint Lawrence to the northeast, the Bay of Fundy to the southeast, and the U.S. state of Maine to ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

, following the defeat of 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 ...

in the

American War of Independence 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 ...

. Here he organised a methodist congregation which joined the migration to Sierra Leone in

Halifax, Nova Scotia Halifax is the capital and most populous municipality of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Nova Scotia, and the most populous municipality in Atlantic Canada. As of 2024, it is estimated that the population of the H ...

. He became the leader or captain of a "company", a social unit of self-government the Nova Scotian settlers developed and was to become a vociferous critic of the

Sierra Leone Company The Sierra Leone Company was the corporate body involved in founding the Freetown, second British colony in Africa on 11 March 1792 through the resettlement of Black Loyalists who had initially been settled in Nova Scotia (the Nova Scotian Settler ...

after the settlers had arrived in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

. His daughter, Ann, married the

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

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 ...

Gustavus Reinhold Nyländer. A second daughter, Frances, married another Anglican missionary,

Charles Wenzel Charles Frederic Wenzel (1769–18??) was a German Lutheran missionary who worked in Sierra Leone. He worked under the auspices of the Anglican Church Missionary Society (CMS). Wenzel was from Breslau, Silesia and attended a seminary in Berlin. H ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beverhout, Henry Nova Scotian Settlers Year of birth missing Year of death missing