Cape Breton (colonial government)

Cape Breton Island was made a separate colony in 1784, due primarily to the lobbying of American Loyalists looking for positions and land. The new colony's first lieutenant-governor was Joseph F.W. Des Barres, who governed with an executive council. The British government did not provide funds for an elected assembly, seeing little value in the island, its only resources being coal and fish, which were plentiful and cheaper elsewhere. Despite serving for only two years, Des Barres was an active governor. He opened coal mines, attracted settlers, and began to build the capital, Sydney. He was dismissed for spending unauthorized money to aid starving settlers. A lack of funds plagued succeeding governors, as the island's post-Loyalist settlers were mainly poor Highland Scots forced off their land by closure. The colony faced a crisis when Richard Gibbons, Jr., a lawyer, began a revolt against the levying of a rum tax, claiming that it was illegal to tax people without representation. However, the British government believed the population was too poor and ill-educated to support an elected assembly and refused to grant one. The inability of the council to raise funds, combined with pressure from the governors of Nova Scotia to have Cape Breton returned to their control, resulted in the colony being re-annexed to Nova Scotia in October 1820.