Black Nova Scotians are people of
BlackThe term black people usually refers to a racial group of humans with skin colors that range from light brown to nearly black. It also has been used to categorize a number of diverse populations into a common group. Some definitions of the term include only people of relatively recent Sub Saharan...
AfricanThe term African people refers to people who live in Africa, or people who trace their ancestry to indigenous inhabitants of Africa. This includes members of the "African diaspora" resulting from the Atlantic Slave Trade such as Black British, Afro-Latin Americans, African Americans,...
descent, whose ancestors fled
Colonial AmericaThe term colonial history of the United States refers to the history of the land that would become the United States from the start of European settlement to the time of independence from Europe, and especially to the history of the thirteen colonies of Britain which declared themselves independent...
as slaves or
freemenFreeman is a term used generally as an English or American Colonial expression in Puritan times, which referred to those persons who were not under legal restraint – usually for the payment of an outstanding debt, because they had recently relocated, or because they were idle and had no way...
, to settle in
Nova ScotiaNova Scotia is a Canadian province located on Canada's southeastern coast. It is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. Its capital, Halifax, is a major economic centre of the region. Nova Scotia is the second-smallest province in Canada with an area of...
,
CanadaCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
during the 18th and 19th centuries. Like
African AmericanAfrican Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have origins in any of the black populations of Africa. In the United States, the terms are generally used for Americans with at least partial Sub-Saharan African ancestry...
s, the average Black Canadian living in Nova Scotia is estimated to be of 17%
European ancestryThe European peoples are the various nations and ethnic groups of Europe. European ethnology is the field of anthropology focusing on Europe....
.
The first recorded instance of a black presence in Canada was that of
Mathieu de CostaMathieu de Costa is the first recorded black person in Canada. He was a member of the exploring party of Pierre Dugua, the Sieur de Monts and Samuel de Champlain in the early 1600s....
. Da Costa arrived in Nova Scotia sometime between 1603 and 1608 as a translator for the
FrenchFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
explorer
Pierre Dugua, Sieur de MontsPierre Dugua de Mons, was a French merchant, explorer and colonizer. A Protestant, he was born in Royan, France and had a great influence over the first two decades of the 17th century...
.
Black Nova Scotians are people of
BlackThe term black people usually refers to a racial group of humans with skin colors that range from light brown to nearly black. It also has been used to categorize a number of diverse populations into a common group. Some definitions of the term include only people of relatively recent Sub Saharan...
AfricanThe term African people refers to people who live in Africa, or people who trace their ancestry to indigenous inhabitants of Africa. This includes members of the "African diaspora" resulting from the Atlantic Slave Trade such as Black British, Afro-Latin Americans, African Americans,...
descent, whose ancestors fled
Colonial AmericaThe term colonial history of the United States refers to the history of the land that would become the United States from the start of European settlement to the time of independence from Europe, and especially to the history of the thirteen colonies of Britain which declared themselves independent...
as slaves or
freemenFreeman is a term used generally as an English or American Colonial expression in Puritan times, which referred to those persons who were not under legal restraint – usually for the payment of an outstanding debt, because they had recently relocated, or because they were idle and had no way...
, to settle in
Nova ScotiaNova Scotia is a Canadian province located on Canada's southeastern coast. It is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. Its capital, Halifax, is a major economic centre of the region. Nova Scotia is the second-smallest province in Canada with an area of...
,
CanadaCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
during the 18th and 19th centuries. Like
African AmericanAfrican Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have origins in any of the black populations of Africa. In the United States, the terms are generally used for Americans with at least partial Sub-Saharan African ancestry...
s, the average Black Canadian living in Nova Scotia is estimated to be of 17%
European ancestryThe European peoples are the various nations and ethnic groups of Europe. European ethnology is the field of anthropology focusing on Europe....
.
First black person in Canada
The first recorded instance of a black presence in Canada was that of
Mathieu de CostaMathieu de Costa is the first recorded black person in Canada. He was a member of the exploring party of Pierre Dugua, the Sieur de Monts and Samuel de Champlain in the early 1600s....
. Da Costa arrived in Nova Scotia sometime between 1603 and 1608 as a translator for the
FrenchFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
explorer
Pierre Dugua, Sieur de MontsPierre Dugua de Mons, was a French merchant, explorer and colonizer. A Protestant, he was born in Royan, France and had a great influence over the first two decades of the 17th century...
. The first known black person to live in Canada was a slave from Madagascar named
Olivier Le JeuneOlivier Le Jeune was the first recorded slave purchased in New France.Olivier was a young boy from Madagascar, believed to have been less than eight years of age when he was brought to New France, in an area later known as Quebec, by British Commander David Kirke in 1628...
(who may also have been of partial Malay ancestry).
Immigrants from Africa
An increasing number of immigrants from Africa have been coming to Canada, as is also the case in the United States and Europe. This includes large numbers of refugees, but also many
skilled workerA skilled worker is any worker who has some special skill, knowledge, or ability in his work. A skilled worker may have attended a college, university or technical school...
s pursuing better economic conditions. Many black Canadians today are of
CaribbeanThe Caribbean is a region consisting of the Caribbean Sea, its islands , and the surrounding coasts...
origin, with some of recent African origin and smaller numbers from
Latin AmericaLatin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish, Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,501 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
n countries. However, a sizable number of Black Canadians who descended from freed American slaves can be found in Nova Scotia and parts of Southwestern
OntarioOntario is a province located in east-central Canada, the largest by population and second largest, after Quebec, in total area. Ontario is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba to the west and Quebec to the east, and 5 U.S...
.
African Colonial American refugees from the American Revolution
The end of the American War of Independence led the Black Loyalists to flee what was becoming the United States of America, many being relocated in the British colony of Nova Scotia, Canada. Following
Dunmore's ProclamationDunmore's Proclamation is a historical document issued on November 7, 1775, by John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore, royal governor of Virginia.The Proclamation declared martial law and promised freedom for slaves of American patriots who would leave their masters and join the royal forces. Dunmore...
, the British authorities in American colonies promiesed freedom to the former slaves of the rebelling Americans, who escaped and made their way into British lines. Large numbers of enslaved African Colonial Americans took advantage of this opportunity to obtain their freedom and they made their way over to the British side, as did a much smaller number of free African Colonial Americans. Many of the Black Loyalists performed military service in the British Army, and others served non-military roles. Approximately three thousand Black Loyalists sailed to Nova Scotia between April and November of 1783, travelling on both
NavyThe Royal Navy of the United Kingdom is the oldest of HM Armed Forces . From the beginning of the 18th century until well into the 20th century, it was the most powerful navy in the world, playing a key part in establishing the British Empire as the dominant world power from 1815 until the early...
vessels and British chartered private transports.
Black people arrived in Canada in several waves. The first of these came with the French as free persons serving in the French
armyAn army An army An army (from Latin armata "armed (things)" via Old French armée, "armed" (feminine), in the broadest sense, is the land-based Military of a nation. It may also include other branches of the military such as the air force via means of aviation corps...
and
navyA navy is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare and amphibious warfare; namely, lake- or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions...
, and some were enslaved. The
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
colonialColonialism is the building and maintaining of colonies in one territory by people from another territory. Sovereignty over the colony is claimed by the metropole...
authorities promised land grants to those who had escaped to the
CrownThe person who heads a monarchy is called a monarch. It was a common form of government in the world during the ancient and medieval times. A Monarchy is a form of government in which supreme power is absolutely or nominally lodged with an individual, who is the head of state, often for life or...
during the
American RevolutionThe American Revolution is the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen of Britain's colonies in North America at first rejected the governance of the Parliament of Great Britain, and later the British monarchy itself, to become the sovereign United States of...
, though more promises were broken than kept.
White AmericanWhite American is an umbrella term officially employed by the United States Census Bureau, Office of Management and Budget and other U.S...
LoyalistsThe name United Empire Loyalists is an honorific name which has been given after the fact to those American Loyalists who resettled in British North America and other British Colonies as an act of fealty to King George III after the British defeat in the American Revolutionary War and prior to the...
fled north, bringing their African American slaves with them, while free
African AmericanAfrican Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have origins in any of the black populations of Africa. In the United States, the terms are generally used for Americans with at least partial Sub-Saharan African ancestry...
s also made their way to the colonies of
British North AmericaBritish North America consisted of the colonies and territories of the British Empire in continental North America after the end of the American Revolutionary War and the recognition of American independence in 1783....
, settling predominantly in Nova Scotia. This latter group was largely made up of
tradeA trade is an occupation that requires some particular kind of skilled work. In historical sense, particularly as pertinent to the Medieval history and earlier, the term is usually applied towards people occupied in most kinds of crafts and small-scale production of goods.The households of the...
speople and
labourerManual labour is physical work done with the hands, especially in an unskilled job such as fruit and vegetable picking, road building, or any other field where the work may be considered physically arduous, and which has as a profitable objective, usually the production of goods.In ancient times...
s, and many set up home in Birchtown near
ShelburneShelburne is a town located in southwestern Nova Scotia, Canada. It is the shire town of Shelburne County.-History:Shelburne lies at the southwest corner of Nova Scotia, at roughly the same latitude as Portland, Maine. The early settlers had small subsistence farms, but most of the inhabitants'...
. Many of these African Americans had roots mainly in American states like,
VirginiaThe Commonwealth of Virginia is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" because it is the birthplace of eight U.S. presidents. The geography and climate of the state are shaped by the Blue...
,
South CarolinaSouth Carolina is a U.S. state that borders Georgia to the south and North Carolina to the north. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence from the British Crown during the American Revolution. The colony was...
,
GeorgiaGeorgia is a state in the United States. One of the original Thirteen Colonies that revolted against British rule in the American Revolution, it had been the last of the Thirteen Colonies to be established, in 1733. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January...
and
MarylandMaryland is a state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia to the south and west, Pennsylvania to the north, and Delaware to the east. It is comparable in size to the European country of Belgium. According to the U.S...
. Some came from
MassachusettsThe Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. Most of its population of...
,
New JerseyNew Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It is bordered on the north by New York, and to the east by the Hudson River, Upper New York Bay, the Kill Van Kull, Newark Bay, the Arthur Kill, Raritan Bay, Sandy Hook Bay, Westchester County, New York City, Long Island, and...
and
New YorkNew York is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous. The state is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
as well.
In 1782, the first
race riotA race riot or racial riot is an outbreak of violent civil disorder in which race is a key factor. A phenomenon frequently confused with the concept of 'race riot' is sectarian violence, which involves public mass violence or conflict over non-racial factors.- United States :The term had entered...
in
North AmericaNorth America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and in the western hemisphere. It is bordered on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the southeast by the Caribbean Sea, and on the west by the North Pacific...
took place there, with white soldiers attacking the black settlers who were getting work that the soldiers thought they should have. Due to the unkept promises of the British government and the discrimination from the white colonists, 1,192 African American men, women and children left
Nova ScotiaNova Scotia is a Canadian province located on Canada's southeastern coast. It is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. Its capital, Halifax, is a major economic centre of the region. Nova Scotia is the second-smallest province in Canada with an area of...
on January 15, 1792 and established Freetown, Sierra Leone.
Arrival of the Maroons and immigration to Sierra Leone
In 1796 approximately 600 Maroons were shipped from Jamaica to Nova Scotia, after their uprising against the British colonial government. They aided the British on the third defence at the Citadel in Halifax and on Government House, and performed other manual labour. The Maroons also attempted to farm by occupying infertile land. Like the former tenants that were poor, they occupied horrible and unproductive land at
PrestonPreston is a city and non-metropolitan district of Lancashire, in North West England. It is located on the north bank of the River Ribble, and was granted city status in 2002, becoming England's 50th city in the 50th year of Queen Elizabeth II's reign...
; as a result they had minor success. A reason the Maroons found farming in Nova Scotia difficult is because the climate would not allow their customary food crops such as bananas, yams, pineapples or
cocoaCocoa is the dried and fully fermented fatty seed of the cacao tree, from which chocolate is made. "Cocoa" can often also refer to the drink commonly known as hot chocolate; to cocoa powder, the dry powder made by grinding cocoa seeds and removing the cocoa butter from the dark, bitter cocoa...
to grow. Small numbers of Maroons relocated from Preston to
BoydvilleBoydville is a late Georgian style mansion in Martinsburg, West Virginia. The house is near the center of the associated Boydville Historic District in...
for better farming land. The British Lieutenant Governor Sir
John WentworthJohn Wentworth may refer to:*John Wentworth , lieutenant governor of New Hampshire from 1717-1730*John Wentworth , jurist and revolutionary leader in New Hampshire...
made an effort to change the Maroons’ culture and beliefs by introducing them to
ChristianityChristianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as presented by the revelations in the New Testament....
. The Maroons were not interested in converting from their own religion to Christianity. They were very strong opinionated people and would not work for less money than an average white person. In 1800 most of the Maroons took advantage of the opportunity to immigrate to Sierra Leone.
African American refugees
The next major migration of blacks into Nova Scotia occurred between 1813 and 1815. Black war
refugeeUnder the United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, a refugee is a person who owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted on account of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion, is outside the country of their nationality,...
s from the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
settled in Hammonds Plains, Beechville,
LucasvilleLucasville can refer to:* Lucasville, Ohio* Lucasville, Ontario* Lucasville, Nova Scotia...
and
AfricvilleAfricville was a small unincorporated community located on the southern shore of Bedford Basin, in the city of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. During the 20th century, the City of Halifax began to encroach on the southern shores of Bedford Basin, and the community was eventually included as part of...
.
Canada was not suited to the large-scale
plantationA plantation is a large farm or estate, usually in a tropical or subtropical country, where crops are grown for sale in distant markets, rather than for local consumption. The term plantation is informal and not precisely defined....
agricultureAgriculture is the production of food and goods through farming and forestry. Agriculture was the key development that led to the rise of human civilization, with the husbandry of domesticated animals and plants creating food surpluses that enabled the development of more densely populated and...
practised in the southern United States, and slavery became increasingly rare. In 1793, in one of the first acts of the new
Upper CanadaThe Province of Upper Canada was a British colony located in what is now the southern portion of the Province of Ontario in Canada. Upper Canada officially existed from 26 December 1791 to 10 February 1841 and generally comprised present-day Southern Ontario...
colonial
parliamentA parliament is a legislature, especially in those countries whose system of government is based on the Westminster system modeled after that of the United Kingdom. The name is derived from the French parlement, the action of parler : a parlement is a discussion. The term came to mean a meeting at...
, slavery was abolished. It was all but abolished throughout the other British North American colonies by 1800, and was illegal throughout the
British EmpireThe British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom, that had originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height it was...
after 1834. This made Canada an attractive destination for those fleeing slavery in the United States, such as
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
minister
Boston KingBoston King, , was an African American missionary and Black Loyalist during the Revolutionary War. King, who had been born a slave in South Carolina, joined the British after the signing of the Declaration of Independence. King was one of the 3,000 black Americans who escaped slavery by being...
.
Underground Railroad for African Americans
From the late 1820s until the
American Civil WarThe American Civil War , also known as the War Between the States and several other names, was a civil war in the United States of America. Eleven Southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America...
began in 1861, the
Underground RailroadThe Underground Railroad was an informal network of secret routes and safe houses used by 19th century Black slaves in the United States to escape to free states and Canada with the aid of abolitionists who were sympathetic to their cause. The term is also applied to the abolitionists who aided the...
brought tens of thousands of fleeing slaves to Canada. While many of these returned to the United States after emancipation, a significant population remained, largely in Southern Ontario, widely scattered in both rural and urban locations, including Chatham,
WindsorWindsor is the southernmost major city in Canada and lies in Southwestern Ontario at the western end of the heavily populated Quebec City-Windsor Corridor. It is within Essex County, although administratively separated from the county government. Windsor is located south of Detroit, is separated...
,
LondonLondon is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada along the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor with a metropolitan area population of 457,720; the city proper had a population of 352,395 in the 2006 Canadian census....
,
HamiltonHamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Conceived by George Hamilton when he purchased the Durand farm shortly after the War of 1812, Hamilton has become the centre of a densely populated and industrialized region at the west end of Lake Ontario known as the Golden Horseshoe...
,
CollingwoodCollingwood is a town in Simcoe County, Ontario. Geographically, it is situated on Nottawasaga Bay at the southern point of Georgian Bay.-History:...
and
TorontoToronto is the most populous city in Canada and the provincial capital of Ontario. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. With over 2.5 million residents, it is the fifth most populous municipality in North America...
.
20th century immigrants from the Caribbean and United States
In the late nineteenth century, there was an unofficial policy of restricting blacks from
immigratingImmigration is the arrival of new individuals into a habitat or population. It is a biological concept and is important in population ecology, differentiated from emigration and migration.-As a political term:...
to Canada, and in the 1920s, formal racially-based immigration standards excluding blacks were developed. The huge influx of immigrants from
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
and the United States in the period before
World War IWorld War I , also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict which involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance...
included only very small numbers of black arrivals.
Another wave of immigration to Nova Scotia occurred in the 1920s, with blacks from the
CaribbeanThe Caribbean is a region consisting of the Caribbean Sea, its islands , and the surrounding coasts...
coming to work in the steel mills of
Cape Breton IslandCape Breton Island is an island on the Atlantic coast of North America. It likely corresponds to the French word "Breton", referring to Brittany.Cape Breton Island is part of the province of Nova Scotia, Canada...
. The restrictions on immigration remained until 1962, when racial rules were eliminated from the immigration laws. This coincided with the dissolution of the British Empire in the Caribbean, and over the next decades several hundred thousand blacks came from that region to Canada.
Notable Black Nova Scotians
- Gary Beals
Gary Beals is a Canadian singer who is best known for being the second-place finisher in the first season of the reality television series Canadian Idol...
, R&B musician
- George Elliott Clarke
George Elliott Clarke, OC is a Canadian poet and playwright. His work largely explores and chronicles the experience and history of the Black Canadian community of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, creating a cultural geography that Clarke refers to as "Africadia".-Life:Born to William and Geraldine...
, poet and playwright
- George Dixon
George Dixon was the first black world boxing champion in any weight class, while also being the first ever Canadian-born boxing champion.George was born in Africville , Halifax, Nova Scotia...
, professional boxer
- Mayann Francis, politician
- William Hall, sailor
- Kirk Johnson, professional boxer
- Rocky Johnson
Rocky Johnson Rocky Johnson Rocky Johnson (born Wayde Bowles on August 24, 1944 in Amherst, Nova Scotia, Rocky Johnson (born Wayde Bowles on August 24, 1944 in [[Amherst, Nova Scotia|Amherst]], [[Nova Scotia]],...
, professional wrestler
- Faith Nolan
Faith Nolan is a Canadian social activist folk and jazz singer-songwriter and guitarist of mixed African, Mi'kmaq and Irish heritage...
, folk and jazz musician
- Donald Oliver
Donald H. Oliver, QC is a Canadian Senator.A lawyer and developer, Oliver is a member of Nova Scotia's Black minority. He is the nephew of Canadian opera singer Portia White, politician Bill White and labour union activist Jack White, and the cousin of political strategist Sheila White...
, politician
- Bill Riley
William James Riley is a retired Canadian ice hockey player, and was the third black player in the National Hockey League....
, professional hockey player
- Bill White
William Andrew White, III, OC was a Canadian composer and social justice activist, who was the first Black Canadian to run for federal office in Canada.-1949 Federal election:...
, politician
- Portia White
Portia May White , was a singer who achieved international fame because of her voice and stage presence. As an African Canadian, her popularity helped to open previously closed doors for talented blacks who followed....
, opera musician
- Tyrone Williams
Tyrone Williams is a retired wide receiver who played in the National Football League as well as the Canadian Football League. He won two Super Bowl rings as a member of the Dallas Cowboys in Super Bowl XXVII and Super Bowl XXVIII, though he did not participate in either game...
, professional football player
External links