Abstract
The legacy of British colonialism looms large in many places and has played a major role in the management of ethnic diversity right up to the present day. This chapter explores how racist attitudes inhibited the settlement of formerly enslaved people in two colonies of northeastern British North America. It uses a historical case study to consider the extent to which a culture of social and economic exclusion influenced individual responsibility and agency among approximately 2,500 former enslaved migrants of African descent in the early nineteenth century. In the process it considers the applicability of the term ‘refugee’ to historical movements of people across borders.While there is no call to stop using the term refugee, it argues that more care must be taken when applying it and that historians need to engage, in more meaningful and honest ways, with the source material that contains migrant and minority voices.
