Shelburne, Nova Scotia, Canada - Sandy's Island - postcard 1908 commem stamp

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• Postcard

   

• Picture / Image:  Sandy's Island, Shelbourne [actually Shelburne], Nova Scotia, Canada
• Publisher:  none stated
• Postally used:  yes
• Stamp:  Canada 1908 Quebec anniversary stamp 1c green
• Postmark(s):  not clear
• Sent to:  Miss M. P. Blair, 32 Waifield Avenue, Jersey City, NJ, USA
• Notes / condition: 

The first Europeans to make a settlement on these shores were the French Acadians. They set up a small fishing settlement known as Port Razoir in the late 17th century, named after the harbour's resemblance to an open razor. The Acadian fishing settlement was abandoned after repeated raids from English colonists from New England during Queen Anne's War in 1705, in which five Acadians were taken prisoner, and 1708.^[3] [4]

On May 14, 1715, New England naval commander Cyprian Southack attempted to create a permanent fishing station at a place he named "Cape Roseway" (now known as Shelburne). Shortly after he set up a base, in July 1715 the Mi'kmaq raided the station and burned it to the ground. In response, Southack led a raid on Canso, Nova Scotia (1718) and encouraged Governor Phillips to fortify Canso.^[5] [6]

New England fishermen knew Shelburne as "Port Roseway" and frequently used the outer harbour for seasonal shelter and repairs. Pirate Ned Low raided the New England fishing fleet at Shelburne Harbour in 1723, capturing 13 ships and taking Philip Ashton captive.^[7] After the English conducted the Acadian Expulsion in 1755, there were no settlers for several decades. Alexander McNutt attempted to start a settlement in 1765 but was not successful.

In the spring of 1783, more than 5,000 settlers arrived on the shores of Shelburne Harbour from New York and the Middle Colonies of the Thirteen Colonies. These settlers were Loyalists(referred to later in Canada as United Empire Loyalists), British-American colonists who had opposed the Revolution and remained loyal to Britain. The Crown offered them free land, tools, and provisions as compensation to lure them to settle in this relatively undeveloped area. Four hundred families associated to form a town at Port Roseway, which Governor Parr renamed Shelburne later that year, after Lord Shelburne, the British prime minister. This group was led by the Port Roseway Associates, who had formed while still in New York and petitioned Governor Parr for the land.

The Black Loyalists, a large group of African-American slaves who escaped from rebels to British lines and were promised freedom, were evacuated and transported by British forces to Shelburne Harbour at the same time. They founded Birchtown next to Shelburne. It developed as North America's largest free Black settlement. But, the Black Loyalists had to endure long waits before receiving land, were granted less than the whites, and faced discrimination from other colonists, including some who had taken their slaves with them to Canada. In July 1784 whites conducted the Shelburne Riots against the African Americans.

In the fall of 1783, a second wave of settlers arrived in Shelburne. By 1784, the population of this new community is estimated to have been 17,000, making it the fourth-largest city in North America.^[8] But, initial hopes were short-lived; the settlement suffered from a lack of viable agricultural land, poor inland transportation links, and too few pioneers who knew how to develop frontier property. These problems curtailed its economic growth. The population fell sharply by the 1790s, leaving many abandoned buildings. However, the remaining residents gradually developed the harbour potential as a fishing and shipbuilding centre.

In 1792 more than 1,000 Black Loyalists accepted a British offer to resettle in Freetown (current Sierra Leone), a newly founded British colony in West Africa. They became the core of an ethnic group that became known as Krios (for Creoles), which included numerous Black Poor of London (many of them also African Americans resettled after the American Revolution), former slaves resettled from Jamaica, and slaves liberated from illegal trading ships after Britain and the United States prohibited the Atlantic slave trade.

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Image may be low res for illustrative purposes - if you need a higher definition image then please contact me and I may be able to send one. No cards have been trimmed (unless stated).

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NOTE: All postcards are sent in brand new stiffened envelopes which I have bought for the task. These are specially made to protect postcards and you may be able to re-use them. In addition there are other costs to sending so the above charge is not just for the stamp!

I will give a full refund if you are not fully satisfied with the postcard.

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Text from the free encyclopedia WIKIPEDIA may appear below to give a little background information (internal links may not  work) :

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Shelburne is a town located in southwestern Nova Scotia, Canada. It is the seat of the Municipal District of Shelburne.

Early European settlers had small subsistence farms, but most of the inhabitants' income from that time to the present have been derived from the sea. Shelburne lies at the southwest corner of Nova Scotia, at roughly the same latitude as Portland, Maine in the United States. The Mi'kmaq called the large and well-sheltered harbour Logumkeegan or Sogumkeagum.