Since 2016 I've been part of @projectDOHR, a community-based partnership that, “examines the experience of the Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children as part of the history and legacy of systemic and institutionalized racism” (Province of NS, 2015a: 4)
dohr.ca
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dohr.ca
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The opportunity to work with former residents of the Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children (NSHCC), the NSHCC Restorative Inquiry, Victims of Institutional Child Exploitation Society (VOICES), educators, historians, and legal experts on this project has been transformative.
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Being immersed in African Nova Scotian and African Canadian history has been a tremendous learning experience and opened my eyes to events and issues in #cdnhist that I might not have known about otherwise.
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Given that @Rob_Fleming said he'll consider including #BlackHistory in the #bced curriculum, & many #bced teachers have been asking for information about what to teach about, I thought I'd share some of my findings about significant events in Black Canadian history.
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Historians know little about Mathieu Da Costa, the first person of African descent believed to have arrived in what is now Canada between 1600-1619. He spoke multiple languages and was hired by trader Pierre Dugua de Mons to act as an interpreter on voyages to New France.
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King Louis XIV authorized the enslavement of Black people in New France after receiving complaints about the lack of available workers in NF and specific requests for African slaves.
By 1750, 1400 enslaved Black people were brought to New France from Africa & the Caribbean.
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By 1750, 1400 enslaved Black people were brought to New France from Africa & the Caribbean.
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As part of the first group of settlers to arrive in Nova Scotia, enslaved and free Black people helped build Halifax, a British settlement built on Mi’kmaq land. A 1750 census revealed there were 3000 people living in Halifax including 400 enslaved and 17 free Black people.
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Most Black people who arrived in Nova Scotia from 1749-1782 were enslaved people brought by White English settlers. Shipowner & trader Joshua Mauger sold slaves at auction in Halifax in 1752, and newspapers commonly included advertisements for the return of runaway slaves.
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After the British defeat in the American War of Independence, 30,000 Loyalists fled the United States for the British Colony of Nova Scotia, including more than 3000 free Black Loyalists, and White Loyalists brought an estimated 2500 enslaved Black people.
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Over a ten-day period White Loyalists destroyed the home of free Black Baptist preacher David George and 20 other houses owned by free Black people, beginning ten days of racially motivated attacks on free Black people throughout Shelburne County.
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The racially motivated attacks lasted for ten days, and assaults in Birchtown were reported for one month. Four companies of British soldiers were sent to maintain order. Only one person was charged in connection to the violence (sound familiar?)
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Frustrated by land grant difficulties, infertile land, cold climate, unemployment, poor quality food & lack of supplies, unequal wages, racism, and White settler violence, 1196 Black Loyalists left Nova Scotia to settle in the colony of Sierra Leone on January 15, 1792.
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Jamaican Maroons were descendants of African people who escaped enslavement in Jamaica. After fighting in wars with the British colonial government for more than a century, the British government deported 543 men, women, and children from Jamaica to Halifax July 21-22, 1796
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After arriving in Halifax the Maroons were settled in Preston and Boydville, formed a militia company, and were hired to build the Citadel Hill fortifications, Government House, and roads in Halifax and Dartmouth.
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The Maroons had a difficult time adjusting to the cold Nova Scotia winters & petitioned the British government to relocate them somewhere warmer. The British authorities agreed and 551 Maroon men, women and children left Halifax for Sierra Leone on August 7, 1800.
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4000 enslaved African Americans joined the British during the War of 1812 after being promised freedom from enslavement and land in BNA colonies. Over a three-year period 2000 Black Refugees left the USA for Nova Scotia aboard British ships.
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From 1815-1860 30,000-40,000 African Americans escaped enslavement in the South & came to colonies in BNA. Some African Americans escaped on their own & others came via the Underground Railroad, a secret network of safe houses & routes organized by abolitionists.
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The British gov't passed the Slavery Abolition Act on August 28, 1833. Although it ended enslavement in most British colonies and freed over 800,000 enslaved people in the Caribbean and South Africa, less than 50 enslaved African people in British North America were freed.
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In BNA the Slavery Abolition Act freed children under 6 yrs old & other enslaved people were kept as unpaid "apprentices" for 4-6 years.
The British government borrowed £20 million to compensate slaveholders for their loss of property. The money was not paid back until 2015
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The British government borrowed £20 million to compensate slaveholders for their loss of property. The money was not paid back until 2015
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Although the community of Africville was never "officially" established, and it's unknown when it first became known as Africville, the first African Nova Scotians bought land in what became known as Africville in 1848.
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In 1865 the #NovaScotia Legislature passed two education laws, one that created free and compulsory primary education for all children, and another that legalized school segregation based on race if municipal school commissioners thought they were necessary.
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From 1895-1911 and 1921-1931 (estimated), Black hockey teams from communities in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island organized matches against each other and competed for the Colored Hockey Championship.
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After two years of refusal, the CDN gov't created the No. 2 Construction Battalion on July 5, 1916, the only segregated non-combatant unit of Black soldiers in Canadian military history. More than 600 men enlisted and served overseas.
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After being prevented from joining the Canadian Brotherhood of Railway Employees (CBRE) who only accepted White members, four Black sleeping car porters based in Winnipeg formed the Order of Sleeping Car Porters (OSCP) in April 1917, the first Black railway union in NA.
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In what was said to be one of the proudest moments in African Nova Scotian history, the Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children (NHSCC) was opened on June 6, 1921 to provide education and care for abandoned and orphaned African Nova Scotian children.
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Led by Reverend Dr. William Pearly Oliver, the Nova Scotia Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NSAACP) was created in 1945 to provide a united political voice for African Nova Scotians who were being discriminated against in education, housing, and employment.
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On November 8, 1946 Viola Desmond was arrested, jailed, convicted, and fined for defrauding the provincial government of a one cent tax because she refused to leave a Whites-only section of the Roseland Theatre in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia.
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In 1954 the NS gov't ended legal school segregation when reference to “different races of pupils” in the NS Education Act was removed. Desegregation occurred slowly & 6 years after segregation ended there were still 7 Black school districts and 3 exclusively Black schools.
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In 1960 Premier Robert Stanfield began the process of desegregating Nova Scotia schools by abolishing three segregated school districts in West Hants and closing four Black school districts in Beechville, Hammonds Plains, Lucasville, and Cherry Brook.
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In 1964 the first group of Black students attended an integrated high school.
In 1983 Mary E. Cornish Memorial School in Lincolnville was the last segregated school in Nova Scotia to close.
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In 1983 Mary E. Cornish Memorial School in Lincolnville was the last segregated school in Nova Scotia to close.
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The City of Halifax expropriated land, bulldozed homes, and removed all 400 residents from Africville from 1964-1969
The promise of “urban renewal” was not kept, and residents were moved to run-down housing or rented public housing in the back of dump trucks.
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The promise of “urban renewal” was not kept, and residents were moved to run-down housing or rented public housing in the back of dump trucks.
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After 500 African Nova Scotians attended a “Black Family Meeting” in Halifax to discuss ongoing racism & injustice in Nova Scotia, Rocky Jones and Dr. William Pearly Oliver founded the Black United Front (BUF) to act as an advocate and resource agency on November 30, 1968.
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A racially charged brawl involving Black and White students (and non-students) broke out at Cole Harbour District High School on January 10, 1989.
School administrators suspended four Black students for the rest of the year, but no White students were suspended.
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School administrators suspended four Black students for the rest of the year, but no White students were suspended.
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One night after two African Nova Scotian men were refused entry to a Halifax bar, 150 African Nova Scotian men rioted through the downtown bar district before clashing with 40 police officers in riot gear for over an hour. July 18-19, 1991
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To be continued later..........
Wayne Adams became the first African Nova Scotian elected to the Nova Scotia Legislature on May 25, 1993.
Prior the election Nova Scotia's electoral map was changed & the new riding of Preston was created, where the majority of people were African Nova Scotian.
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Prior the election Nova Scotia's electoral map was changed & the new riding of Preston was created, where the majority of people were African Nova Scotian.
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Previous electoral maps divided the largest African Nova Scotian communities into different ridings where the majority of people were White.
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After the car he was driving was pursued, stopped, and wrongfully seized by Halifax Regional Police (HRP) Kirk Johnson filed a complaint with the Nova Scotia Humans Rights Commission for racial profiling. After five years of investigation the NSHRC found in Johnson’s favour.
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In the three months Johnson was in Halifax between 1993-1998 he was stopped 28 times by HRP while driving.
The NSHCC ruled that the HRP Constable Stanford’s treatment of Johnson was “infected by a racial stereotype of black male criminality.”
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The NSHCC ruled that the HRP Constable Stanford’s treatment of Johnson was “infected by a racial stereotype of black male criminality.”
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The HRP was ordered to complete a public report that outlined its current anti-racism and diversity training policies and practices, and the steps it was taking to prevent future incidents from happening.
Has much changed since 2003?
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Has much changed since 2003?
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2014: NS Premier Stephen McNeil apologized to those who suffered neglect, physical, psychological, & sexual abuse at the NHSCC over 50-yrs & acknowledged that the abuses are part of "a history of systemic racism and inequality that has scarred our province for generations."
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This is just a small sampling of significant events in African Nova Scotian (and Canadian history).
Connect with the Black community in your community/region/province to learn more.
These are not "hidden histories" and are there to be investigated.
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Connect with the Black community in your community/region/province to learn more.
These are not "hidden histories" and are there to be investigated.
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After moving to Edmonton to work at the U of A in 2015, I learned a lot about Alberta's Black history from reading @BashirMohamed's tweets, listening to Chris Chang-Yen Phillips “Let’s Find Out” podcast, and doing my own research.
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Historic Places Research Officer Allan Rowe wrote a blog about African American Immigration to Alberta that highlights the widespread opposition to immigration to Alberta in the early 1900s.
albertashistoricplaces.wordpress.com/2015/02/12/afr…
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albertashistoricplaces.wordpress.com/2015/02/12/afr…
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The blog also discusses the various measures the Canadian government took after 1909 to stop thousands of African Americans fleeing segregation, violence, and legally-sanctioned discrimination in the US from immigrating to Canada.
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In the October 26, 2016 “Let’s Find Out” podcast “The Klan Query” Chang-Yen Phillips and Rebecca Jade asked whether it was possible to get a historic plaque placed on the spot where the KK used to publish their newspaper “The Liberator” in Edmonton. letsfindoutpodcast.com/2016/10/26/epi…
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On November 29, 2016 CBC published an article about Jade and Chang-Yen Phillips’ research and the history of the Ku Klux Klan in Edmonton
cbc.ca/news/canada/ed…
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Well-attended Ku Klux Klan convention in Memorial Hall, Edmonton, 1932. (City of Edmonton Archives)
cbc.ca/news/canada/ed…
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Well-attended Ku Klux Klan convention in Memorial Hall, Edmonton, 1932. (City of Edmonton Archives)
The Shiloh Centre for Multicultural Roots received the
Governor General’s History Award for Excellence in Community Programming for their oral history project that documented stories of African Americans who settled in Alberta from 1905-1912.
canadashistory.ca/awards/governo…
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Governor General’s History Award for Excellence in Community Programming for their oral history project that documented stories of African Americans who settled in Alberta from 1905-1912.
canadashistory.ca/awards/governo…
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Content from the oral history interviews was used to produce a documentary called We Are the Roots, which shared the histories of these families and focused on the discrimination, marginalization, and prejudice African American settlers experienced.
vimeo.com/257364347
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vimeo.com/257364347
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BC also has a rich Black history.
The "Father of BC" Sir James Douglas was born in British Guiana to a free woman of colour and a Scottish Merchant.
In 1858 Douglas invited approx. 800 African Americans to settle on Vancouver Island and Salt Spring Island.
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The "Father of BC" Sir James Douglas was born in British Guiana to a free woman of colour and a Scottish Merchant.
In 1858 Douglas invited approx. 800 African Americans to settle on Vancouver Island and Salt Spring Island.
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In Vancouver "Hogan's Alley" was home to Black families, businesses, and the city's only Black church from 1920s-1960s.
Beginning in 1967, the city of Vancouver destroyed the western half of Hogan’s Alley to construct a freeway using "urban renewal" as justification.
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Beginning in 1967, the city of Vancouver destroyed the western half of Hogan’s Alley to construct a freeway using "urban renewal" as justification.
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Conclusion? Black history is everywhere in Canada and can be embedded in every historical event/topic/theme you teach about.
