Stephen Blucke Led the Black Brigade, Then Founded Birchtown, Nova Scotia
The origins and eventual demise of black Loyalist Stephen Blucke (circa 1752 – circa 1795) have long been shrouded in mystery. The historical record shows him taking over the command of the Black Brigade after the death of Colonel Tye in 1780, and successfully leading it through the end of the war. After the war, he went on to found Birchtown in Nova Scotia.
The details surrounding the rest of his life are decidedly sparse, other than that he was born in the British island of Barbados to a white father and a black mother sometime around 1752. At some point, exact year unknown, he arrived in Britain’s American Colonies, where he married a woman named Margaret, and the couple eventually adopted a daughter, Isabel.
When the Revolutionary War erupted, Blucke was swayed by British promises to free all negroes who voluntarily joined them, and became a black Loyalist. He joined the Black Brigade in the late 1770s, and distinguished himself while serving in its ranks. In 1782, he took command of the unit after the death of its leader, Colonel Tye, from wounds sustained in a failed attempt to capture bloodthirsty militia leader Joshua Huddy.
Blucke successfully led the Black Brigade for the remainder of the war, even after the British surrender at Yorktown. On March 24th, 1782, Blucke and his men completed Tye’s final (and failed) mission, and took part in the capture of Joshua Huddy. The Loyalists finally avenged themselves on Huddy by hanging him in the Navesink Highlands in Monmouth County, NJ, on April 12th, 1782.
After the war, Blucke joined the exodus of Loyalists, and ended up in Nova Scotia. There, in 1784, the governor commissioned him a lieutenant colonel in the province’s black militia. Blucke was also tasked with scouting for land in which to settle fellow Black Loyalists, and decided on Birchtown. There, he built himself a comfortable and spacious home, and took up a career as a schoolmaster. Then, one night, he simply disappeared. It was speculated at the time that he must have been killed by wild animals, as torn clothes resembling his were found in the town’s outskirts.