From the CBC description, « As an adult, she started a successful baggage-carting business along Annapolis Royal’s waterfront, toting goods and luggage in a wheelbarrow. That business was maintained by a grandson-in-law into the 1980s. She also helped keep order along the docks, and is widely considered to be Canada’s first female police officer — a huge feat in a time where major civil rights and feminist movements were still more than a century away. »
The Nova Scotia Archives state that, « Rose’s death is recorded among the burials at St. Luke’s, Church of England, Annapolis Royal on 20 February 1867: « age unknown, supposed about ninety. » Several written accounts of her survive. Long after her death, Rose was remembered as an authoritative person and one of the more notable and interesting characters of early Annapolis Royal. »
Rose Fortune is one of the Black families who remained in Annapolis. Other families would relocate to Digby, then New Brunswick and finally join the exodus to Africa.
Sources:
Nova Scotia Archives: https://archives.novascotia.ca/africanns/archives/?ID=30
CBC:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/black-loyalist-rose-fortune-recognized-for-historical-significance-1.5219561
