JOYFUL STORIES

A baptism takes place on the shore of the Bedford Basin in the Halifaxarea community of Africville, a settlement of African Canadians that existed from 1848 until its destruction by demolition in the 1960s. The photograph appears in the book A Love Letter to Africville (Roseway Publishing, 95 pages, $24) by Amanda Carvery-Taylor, which compiles stories and photos from former residents. Bernice “Pinky” Flint tells how beautiful the baptisms were and of how people “dressed in white from head to toe” would “be baptized in the harbour and come up with the water falling like crystals off of them.”