 Racial tensions in Shelburne erupted into the 1784 Shelburne riots, when white Loyalist residents drove black residents out of Shelburne and into Birchtown.In the years after the riot, Shelbourne county lost population due to economic factors, and at least half of the families in Birchtown abandoned the settlement and emigrated to Sierra Leone in 1792.To accommodate these British subjects, the British government approved 16,000 pounds for the emigration, three times the total annual budget for Nova Scotia.