Prince Slave Soldier King

For diversity, energy, hardship and tenacity Tom Peters’ life was exceptional. Enslaved in 1760, and escaping for a third time in 1775 when the Dunmore Proclamation offered fugitive slaves emancipation in return for military service, he enlisted in the British Army. Promoted to sergeant, he served in the Black Pioneers until 1783. Subsequent settlement of the Africans in Nova Scotia was a failure; it resulted in Tom visiting London in 1791 to meet abolitionist MPs and in 1792 15 ships carried the Africans to a prepared settlement in Sierra Leone where arriving in May that year, Tom Peters died of fever three months later.

Some events have been omitted, but among people who featured were General Sir Henry Clinton; Granville Sharp; William Wilberforce; Tom’s wife, Sally, and his children, Clairie and John; Sir John Parr the Governor of Nova Scotia; Sir Guy Carleton, Governor General of Canada; and John Clarkson and William Dawes, Governors of Sierra Leone. Rumours surround his life, including his audience with Queen Victoria. Part one is fiction: Tom was born in Yorubaland (Nigeria) not in Ashanti (Ghana). But parts two, three and four are historically more accurate. Conversations throughout are imaginary.