The second major migration of people to Nova Scotia happened following the American Revolution, when the British evacuated thousands of slaves who had fled to their lines during the war.

They were given freedom by the Crown if they joined British lines, and some 3,000 African Americans were resettled in Nova Scotia after the war, where they were known as Black Loyalists.

[8][9][10][11][12][13][14] In this period, British missionaries began to develop educational opportunities for Black Nova Scotians through the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (Bray Schools).

[15][16][17] The decline of slavery in Nova Scotia happened in large part by local judicial decisions in keeping with those by the British courts of the late 18th century.

Creation of institutions such as the Royal Acadian School and the African Baptist Church in Halifax, founded in 1832, opened opportunities for Black Canadians.

Prominent Black neighbourhoods exist in most towns and cities in Nova Scotia including Halifax, Truro, New Glasgow, Sydney, Digby, Shelburne and Yarmouth.

[49] Of the 4007 Black people who came to Nova Scotia in 1783 as part of promised resettlement by the Crown, 69% (2775) were free, 35% (1423) were former British soldiers, and 31% (1232) were slaves of white Loyalists.

Approximately three thousand Black Loyalists were evacuated by ship to Nova Scotia between April and November 1783, traveling on Navy vessels or British chartered private transports.

In the years after the riot, Shelbourne county lost population due to economic factors, and at least half of the families in Birchtown abandoned the settlement and emigrated to Sierra Leone in 1792.

Led by Thomas Brownspriggs, Black Nova Scotians who had settled at Chedabucto Bay behind the present-day village of Guysborough migrated to Tracadie (1787).

[76] In 1788, abolitionist James Drummond MacGregor from Pictou published the first anti-slavery literature in Canada and began purchasing slaves' freedom and chastising his colleagues in the Presbyterian church who enslaved people.

"[78] Historian Robin Winks writes "[it is] the sharpest attack to come from a Canadian pen even into the 1840s; he had also brought about a public debate which soon reached the courts.

[80][81] Two chief justices, Thomas Andrew Lumisden Strange (1790–1796) and Sampson Salter Blowers (1797–1832) waged "judicial war" in their efforts to free enslaved people from their owners in Nova Scotia.

[85] During the war, Nova Scotian Sir William Winniett served as a crew on board HMS Tonnant in the effort to free enslaved people from America.

According to historian Richard Cannon, on June 26, 1796, 543 men, women and children, Jamaican Maroons, were deported on board the ships Dover, Mary and Anne, from Jamaica after being defeated in an uprising against the British colonial government.

At this time Halifax was experiencing a major construction boom initiated by Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn's efforts to modernize the city's defenses.

The British Lieutenant Governor Sir John Wentworth, from the monies provided by the Jamaican Government, procured an annual stipend of £240 for the support of a school and religious education.

[91] The Maroon leader, Montague James, petitioned the British government for the right to passage to Sierra Leone, and they were eventually granted that opportunity in the face of opposition from Wentworth.

Black Refugees from the United States settled in many parts of Nova Scotia including Hammonds Plains, Beechville, Lucasville and Africville.

In 1814, Walter Bromley opened the Royal Acadian School which included many Black students – children and adults – whom he taught on the weekends because they were employed during the week.

[100] In 1811 Burton's church had 33 members, the majority of whom were free Black people from Halifax and the neighbouring settlements of Preston and Hammonds Plains.

When the chapel was completed, Black citizens of Halifax were reported to be proud of this accomplishment because it was evidence that former enslaved people could establish their own institutions in Nova Scotia.

[101] Under the direction of Richard Preston, the church laid the foundation for social action to address the plight of Black Nova Scotians.

Three Black Nova Scotians served in the famous 54th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry: Hammel Gilyer, Samuel Hazzard, and Thomas Page.

[105] Black players from Canada's Maritime provinces (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island) participated in competition.

[111] It also pressured the Children's Hospital in Halifax to allow for Black women to become nurses; it advocated for inclusion and challenged racist curriculum in the Department of Education.

[118][119] Reverend William Oliver eventually left the BUF and became instrumental in establishing the Black Cultural Centre for Nova Scotia, which opened in 1983.

Beginning in the 1920s and 1930s, African Nova Scotians began leaving their settlements in order to find work in larger cities and towns such as Halifax, Sydney, Truro and New Glasgow.

Escaping rural communities with little education or skills, young Black Nova Scotians in Toronto faced high poverty and unemployment rates.

[126][127] Dwayne Johnson, Arlene Duncan, Beverly Mascoll, Tommy Kane, and Wayne Simmonds are examples of prominent individuals who have at least one Black Nova Scotian parent that settled outside the province.