Fodor's Expert Review Black Loyalist Heritage Site

When Shelburne's population exploded after the Revolutionary War, Black Loyalists were relegated to land 7 km (4½ miles) northwest of town. The community they created—Birchtown, named for the British general who oversaw their evacuation from New York—became the biggest free settlement of African Americans in the world. Birchtown's virtually forgotten story was told in Lawrence Hill's award-winning novel The Book of Negroes, adapted for a CBC TV miniseries in 2015 and filmed locally, and its founders are now honored at this site, which includes a national historic monument, a 1½-km (1-mile) interpretive trail, and the modern Heritage Centre that features a multimedia presentation, archaeological relics, and a genealogical research facility (some of the docents there are descendants of the Black Loyalists).