Blacks continued to face injustices upon their arrival to N.S.
This is Part 3 of a four-part series about the narrative history of African Nova Scotians. Written with the assistance and guidance of Dr. Lynn Jones; Lynn, thank you for challenging my perceptions of the past and encouraging me to think carefully about the importance of words and terminology.
Another wave of migration of approximately 2,000 people of African heritage from the U.S. to Nova Scotia occurred between 1813 and 1815 (during the War of 1812).
These people were known as Black Refugees and their primary reason for moving to Nova Scotia was to escape slavery.
They formed Black communities in areas known as Hammonds Plains, Africville and Beechville. These Black settlers were segregated against their will and assigned land on the rural outskirts of Halifax.
The physical geographic separation of communities due racial discrimination is known as geographic marginalization. Likewise, the land assigned to the refugees was not considered valuable or cultivatable.
Despite the unequal opportunities, Black settlers were innovative and determined. They managed to farm the land and establish close-knit communities. Following the arrival of Black refugees, many of the Black Loyalists and Black refugees merged together in communities which would later become a new Black identity in Nova Scotia—african Nova Scotians.
Unlike the earlier waves of migration where Black settlers were welcomed as laborers during a time of economic expansion, the Black refugees were seen as a burden to society. This was because the region was experiencing economic decline, which resulted in high unemployment and competition for jobs. Due to the economic crash, Black labour began to be refused and a mentality developed amongst white settlers that there were too many people of African descent in Nova Scotia. Perhaps part of this mentality revolved around Settlers feeling threatened due to the increased presence of Blacks.
In 1811, the legislative assembly implemented financial barriers to Black communities, who had been petitioning in an attempt to organize public education for their communities. The Education Act offered subsidies to communities who could build a school and hire a teacher. This, however, became a barrier as Black communities could not afford to do so. This was only the beginning in a series of policies and legislation that created a foundation for prejudice and inequity that would impact subsequent generations
In 1815, an anti-black resolution was passed by the Nova Scotia Legislative Assembly stating that the Nova Scotia would no longer be willing to encourage the migration of people of African descent to the colony. This included withdrawing financial incentives to attract Black newcomers. One petition, currently in the holdings of the Nova Scotia Archives, reveals the level of discrimination that was pervasive: “We observe with concern and alarm the frequent arrival in this Province of bodies of negroes and mulattoes; of whom, many have already become bothersome to the public.” And that “the proportion of Africans already in this Country is productive of many inconveniences, and that, the introduction of more, [must] tend to the discouragement of white labourers and servants, as well as to the establishment of a separate and marked class of people.”
In fact, Lord Dalhousie, Governor of Nova Scotia from 1816 to 1820, and subsequently the Governor General of British North America, lobbied for many of his racist views to become policy. He also advocated to return recently freed Africans to their former owners in the United States and later attempted to encourage people of African heritage to leave Nova Scotia for Trinidad. In Dalhousie’s mind, people of African heritage did not belong in Nova Scotia despite their continued presence. In 1821, approximately 95 Black settlers were sent from Nova Scotia (Hammonds Plains and Beechville) to Trinidad.
Despite the racist rhetoric and slave mentality in Nova Scotia, there were some individuals who spoke out about the injustice of slavery. Rev. James Macgregor (16771729) of Pictou is one of the earliest examples of someone to publish anti-slavery literature in Nova Scotia. Macgregor condemned his church colleagues for being slave owners (since it was common for clergymen to “own” slaves) and he “bought” many slaves from others in order to grant them their freedom.