Saint John's black community seeks royal apology

Saint John's black community is appealing directly to the Queen Elizabeth for an apology for a 1785 decree that severely restricted where they could live or fish.

Saint John is celebrating the 225th anniversary of the royal charter that created the southern New Brunswick city.

But that same charter made white loyalists the only free citizens of the city and black loyalists, who fought for King George III in the American Revolution, with few exceptions, were denied the right to live or set up businesses within city boundaries.

'The blacks were nothing. They were not fit. They weren't proper citizens. They weren't decent people. The charter said so.' — David Peters

David Peters, a founding member of PRUDE, the city's black cultural organization, said Saint John's black community deserves an apology from the Crown.

"The blacks were nothing. They were not fit. They weren't proper citizens. They weren't decent people. The charter said so," Peters said.

The charter barred black loyalists from living inside the city's boundaries or fishing in the St. John River.

Peters wrote a letter directly to the Queen demanding an apology for the charter.

Buckingham Palace's senior correspondence officer replied that the request has been forwarded to the Governor General for consideration in consultation with federal ministers.

So far, the office of the Governor General has not commented on the status of the file.

Peters, who also teaches black history in Saint John, said the city's black community believes that it's a good time to take a long, hard look at some of what was included in that document.

"If you were a black loyalist or otherwise you could not live within city boundaries unless you were an indentured servant, which was still slavery in that time, or had permission by a very prominent white person that you were fit to live here and they would sanction for you," Peters said.