Thomas Peters (black leader)

Thomas Peters, or Thomas Potters in the Book of Negroes (c. 1738–June 25, 1792), was one of four black Founding Fathers of Freetown, Sierra Leone. Peters, alongside David George, Moses Wilkinson, Cato Perkins and Joseph Leonard, was among the five most influential blacks who recruited African Americans in Nova Scotia for the Sierra Leone venture. Peters himself was an African American slave who fled North Carolina with the British during the American Revolutionary War and later ended up as a leader in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Thomas Peters has been referred to as the first African American hero. [ [http://www.blacknews.com/pr/freddyshabaka101.html BlackNews.com - Shabaka Reveals The "Black Moses", Thomas Peters, America's First African-American Hero] ] Peters, like Joseph Jenkins Roberts, is considered the African American founding father of a nation. [ [http://www.lastampa.it/_web/CMSTP/tmplrubriche/giornalisti/grubrica.asp?ID_blog=145&ID_articolo=36&ID_sezione=308&sezione= Rough Crossings - LASTAMPA.it] ]

Background

Historians believe Thomas Peters was either born in Nigeria or North Carolina of Egba (Yoruba) or Igbo descent. Most historians believe him to have been born in Nigeria as an Egba Prince. Peters' descendants, and those of other Nova Scotian settlers, make up the 7% Creole of the population of Freetown. Thomas Peters biographers include American historians Gary B. Nash and Leonard Jeffries. Peters has also been among the main subjects in works by Simon Schama and Cassandra Pybus. Krio songwriter, Shabaka Cole, also paid tribute to Thomas Peters in his song "Black Loyalist".

Enslavement in America

In 1760, a twenty-two year old Thomas Peters was captured by African slave traders and sold as a slave to Colonial America on a French slave ship, the "'Henri Quatre". Upon arrival in the America, Peters was sold to a French owner in French Louisiana. Thrice Peters tried to escape; legend has it the first time he was whipped severely, the second time he was branded, and the third time he was cuffed in heavy ankle shackles. Eventually Peter's owner sold him to an Englishman or Scotsman in one of the Southern Colonies and it is most likely their that Peters was given his Scottish last name. By 1770, Peters had once again been sold to William Campbell, an immigrant Scotsman who had settled on the Cape Fear River in Wilmington, Nort Carolina.In 1776, Peters fled his owner's flour mill near Wilmington [ [http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/tt/3a087/ Online Personal Albums by Ekahau - VirtualTourist.com] ] at the start of the American Revolutionary War and joined the Black Pioneers, a Black Loyalist unit made up of runaway African American slaves who had been promised their freedom by the British in exchange for supporting the war effort against the colonies that formed the new United States. Many slaves joined the British after the United States had been established as a nation; therefore many were legally qualified to remain as American slaves. [ [http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/3/6/20512/87035/205/308981 Daily Kos: Black History: Thomas Peters, Founder of Nations (Pt 2)] ] Peters rose to the rank of sergeant in the regiment and he was twice wounded in battle. During this time Thomas was married to Sally Peters, a slave from South Carolina and he had a son called John (born in 1781) and a daughter Clairy (born in 1771). There is a possibility that Sally and Peters were once slaves together in South Carolina and that they reunited during the war.

Aftermath of the war

After the war Peters and other former African American slaves were taken by the British to Nova Scotia with Loyalists, where they stayed from 1783 to 1791. Initially after being evacuated from New York, Thomas Peters' Loyalist ship had been blown off course and the crew temporarily settled in Bermuda. Eventually Thomas Peters and his family settled in Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia. Peters and his fellow Black Pioneer, Murphy Steele petitioned the government for land together. Both Murphy Steele and Thomas Peters had developed a friendship during their service to the Black Pioneers.

Petition to settle in Sierra Leone

Peters became disheartened with what he saw as broken promises of land by the British government and he decided to travel to England to demand the land promised to him and others. Peters gathered the signatures and marks of African American settlers in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick before getting funds to travel to London (with the risk of being re-enslaved) and convince the Government to settle the blacks in Nova Scotia elsewhere. In 1790, Peters went to London, where he helped convince the Royal government (with the help of Granville Sharp) to re-establish the "Province of Freedom" colony that eventually became Freetown, Sierra Leone. Peters was well received during his trip to London, and he was introduced to some notable people in London by his former commander, General Henry Clinton, who was politically out of favor. It was decided in London that Peters and the Naval Officer John Clarkson, the brother of English abolitionist Thomas Clarkson would assist in recruiting blacks to settle in Sierra Leone.

Recruiting blacks for Sierra Leone

Peters returned to Nova Scotia triumphant in the quest he set out to do. Eventually Thomas Peters, David George, Moses Wilkinson, and Joseph Leonard, Cato Perkins, William Ash, John Ball, and Isiah Limerick were able to convince blacks in their various communities of Birchtown, Halifax, Shelbourne, and Annapolis Royal to consider the Sierra Leone offer. Peters and another Annapolis Royal black called David Edmons (Edmonds) petitioned John Clarkson for beef in order to celebrate their last Christmas in America in 1791. David Edmonds would eventually become a successful Nova Scotian settler in Sierra Leone and a friend of Paul Cuffe.

Arrival in Sierra Leone

After convincing about 1,100 of the 3,500 American blacks to return to Africa, in 1792 they arrived at Freetown Harbor. Legend has it that Thomas Peters led the newly named Nova Scotians ashore singing an old christian hymn (though most likely it was other more influential religious leaders). Thomas Peters soon became at odds with the newly established Governor John Clarkson and he called himself the "Speaker General" of the Annapolis Royal Nova Scotia settlers. Eventually the overwhelming majority of Nova Scotians chose John Clarkson as their true leader and Peters became disheartened. Soon after Peters died of malaria in Freetown during the first rainy season in 1792. Peters died leaving a wife and seven children. A number of Krios can claim descent from Thomas Peters and he is considered by most to be ä "George Washington" figure of Freetown, Sierra Leone.

Descendants and legacy

His descendants are members of the Krio ethnic group which lives predominantly in Freetown, Sierra Leone. During 1988 Peters was honored by the Sierra Leone government by being included in a book celebrating the country's national heroes. In 2007 Percival Street (specifically Settler Town, Sierra Leone where Peter's Nova Scotians settled) in Freetown was renamed in his honor. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/6466951.stm BBC NEWS | World | Africa | S Leone honours Africa slave campaigners] ]

References

* , by Simon Schama, BBC Books, ISBN 0-06-053916-X

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