On @infomorning today, I shared (in 8 minutes!) some results of the pathbreaking research we've done on the history of Nova Scotia's King's College connections to the enslavement of African people. Here's a taste:
History thread!
#UVADeanKvD @ukings
History thread!
#UVADeanKvD @ukings
First, we made sure the basics were covered: slavery was practiced in Nova Scotia. The trade was abolished by a British statute in 1807, and enslaved people were emancipated by an 1833 British statute. Read HA Whitfield's great book on the subject (North to Bondage).
Then I went on to new facts discovered and new significance established of well-known facts (the historians involved were me, Smardz-Frost, States, and Roper. Here’s a link to the research: ukings.ca/administration…
Key points: Nova Scotia’s roads and public buildings (incl. King’s College, King’s Academy, and Province House) were partly paid for from the avails of slavery. But from taxes linked to slavery, not from enslaved labour. #tax
1789-1802, the newly founded King’s College was supported mostly by a provincial grant. The public funds earmarked for that grant were the duties collected on sugar imported from the West Indies.
That sugar was grown and processed by the brutally exploited labour of enslaved people. Without imports of plantation products, the public revenue would have dropped drastically. @SH_BordenColley
In a sample year from King’s early years, 1793, **half** of the province’s customs revenue came from taxes on sugar, molasses, rum, and coffee. (The other half was from taxes goods imported from Britain/Europe.) #cdnhist
A surprising fact: compared with King’s in New York (predecessor of Columbia), donations and student fees from West Indies merchants made up at their highest only about 10 to 15% of NS King’s revenues. By contrast, King’s New York was a “merchants’ college.” h/t to @history_buff_
But wait, there's more! I'll launch a new thread to tell the rest. Historians and their super long threads, eh. @s_schwinghamer
Here's a link to that second thread.
