Deborah Squash

United Empire Loyalists. "This monument is dedicated to the lasting memory of The Union Empire Loyalists who, after the Declaration of Independence, came into British North America from the seceded American colonies and who, with faith and fortitude, and under great pioneering difficulties, largely laid the foundations of this Canadian nation as an integral part of the British Empire.

Neither confiscation of their property, the pitiless persecution of their kinsmen in revolt, nor the galling chains of imprisonment could break their spirits, or divorce them from a loyalty almost without parallel.

No country ever had such founders -- No country in the world -- No, not since the days of Abraham." — Lady Tennyson

Deborah Squash (born –?) was a slave on George Washington's Mount Vernon plantation before she escaped in 1781. She went to New Amsterdam, which was the headquarters for the British during the American Revolution. At the end of the war, she was one of the 3,000 blacks in the Book of Negroes that sailed on a British ship for Nova Scotia.

Mount Vernon

Deborah was enslaved on George and Martha Washington's Mount Vernon plantation as a child. The Washingtons held about 300 slaves, who were expected to work hard. Washington's slaves were considered to have "highly developed skills" and were considered "valuable property". During the American Revolutionary War, Washington was interested in selling off his slaves, particularly single people (to avoid separating husbands and wives), because he was "desperately in need of money". Single African-Americans at Mount Vernon were aware that they could be sold at any time. Nine people were sold in 1779 and Washington had asked his cousin and overseer Lund Washington to check the market for good prices for the remaining single slaves. Deborah was listed as having been about 20 years of age, married to Henry, and was believed to have escaped four years ago. She narrowly missed being returned to Mount Vernon when Washington wrote the following day to the commissioner of embarkation at New York to ask him to hold any of his slaves. Although there was promise of land, most people did not receive land, and if they did it was often unsuitable to farm. Those who did not have a trade became indentured servants and were treated like slaves. Slavery was legal in Nova Scotia at the time.

Within about a year after she arrived in Port Rosey, she settled in Birchtown, Nova Scotia, where she appears on the Birchtown Muster of 1784. By that time, she is no longer with Henry Squash, who has presumed to have died. She is listed as Deborah Lynch, living in a house with Mr. Lynch. and 1787. He was identified as one of the slaveholders in the Shelburne County (Birchtown / Port Rosey). He attended a meeting in 1782 of White Loyalists in New York regarding establishing a town at Port Rosey, with arrangements beginning in 1783. In the same house was Neil Robinson, who is believed to have changed his name from Jack Neal.

Of about 1,500 Black Loyalists who settled in Shelburne County, Nova Scotia, most settled in Port Rosey and some settled in the town of Birchtown, which was named after General Samuel Birch. Colonel Stephen Blucke, a Black Loyalist, led the Black Pioneers in the construction of the towns of Port Rosey and Birchtown.