Black and British: A Forgotten History, from the acclaimed historian and star of 'Celebrity Traitors'

by David Olusoga

The deeper problem, however, was that most of the black loyalists had been slaves before the revolution. They had not lost items of property but had been items of property. They had gained their liberty through the service they had provided to the nation; that they were now destitute and hungry was regarded as an unfortunate reality, but one that it was felt fell beyond the scope of the commission. With nowhere else to turn for assistance and little chance of finding work, these former soldiers and self-emancipated slaves, who had crossed an ocean to reach the mother country, now swelled the ranks of London’s black poor.