THE DESTRUCTION OF AFRICVILLE

 THE DESTRUCTION OF AFRICVILLE

Murphy Browne © November 20-2021

Dominant groups, such as colonizers, have always defined, confined, regulated, and eradicated groups marked as racially inferior through the control of space. Dominant groups express their own identities, and reinforce what they see as their rightful rule, through acts of regulation and destruction of the racial Other – and, simultaneously, through space. There are many discourses that feed and justify these acts of racism.

 

From the 2008 published book Razing Africville: A Geography of Racism by Jennifer J. Nelson

 

Africville was a historic African Canadian community in Halifax, Nova Scotia that was destroyed by the government in the 1960s. There has been an African Presence in Nova Scotia since the 1700s according to information from the Nova Scotia Archives. Many enslaved Africans were taken to Nova Scotia between 1749 and 1782 by English or American colonizers/settlers. On September 22, 1750, a Royal Navy officer, Thomas Bloss, brought 16 enslaved Africans to Halifax, to crew vessels involved in maritime commerce. Joshua Mauger, a prominent shipowner and trader sold enslaved Africans at auctions in Halifax. In the May 30, 1752, edition of the Halifax Gazette Mauger has an auction advertisement for the sale of enslaved Africans. In 1750, included in the nearly 3000 inhabitants of Halifax there were approximately 400 enslaved and 17 free people of African descent.

 

In 1759 the governor of Nova Scotia, Charles Lawrence, offered large tracts of free land to White families from New England, USA if they would move to Nova Scotia. This resulted in approximately 6000 settlers relocating to Nova Scotia between 1759 and 1765. They settled in the Annapolis Valley and elsewhere and formed townships including Cornwallis, Falmouth and Liverpool. The White settlers from the USA brought hundreds of enslaved Africans with them. Nova Scotia's economic resources and climate could not sustain a plantation economy, so enslaved Africans in Nova Scotian worked as domestics, agricultural labourers and sailors. Some were skilled including coopers, carpenters, sail-makers and rope-makers.

 

At the end of the American War of Independence in 1783, White and African refugee United Empire Loyalists arrived in Nova Scotia. A group of approximately 600 African Jamaican Maroons were taken to Nova Scotia against their will in July 1796. Another wave of African American migration followed at the end of the War of 1812, with formerly enslaved Africans who fought loyally for the British against the Americans.

 

Africville was founded by the descendants of the various waves of Africans both enslaved and free who arrived in Nova Scotia beginning in the 16^th century. In Razing Africville: A Geography of Racism, Jennifer J. Nelson writes: “In the 1840s, they purchased properties on the shore of the Bedford Basin from white merchants, several of whom had been slave traders. Here the new residents fished, began keeping livestock, and explored opportunities for waged labour in the nearby city.” Many of the men worked as stevedores in the dockyards, stonemasons, truck drivers and seamen. Many of the women were domestic workers in White households. Africville was a close knit, mostly self-sufficient African Canadian community whose members built a church and a school with no help from the government.

 

The Halifax government did not support Africville and actively harmed the community beginning as early as 1853 with the demolition of several homes to allow the Nova Scotia Railway Company to build rail lines through the community. The City of Halifax collected taxes from the people of Africville but did not provide services such as paved roads, running water, sewers, public transportation and garbage collection. In 1859 the city built a prison on a hill overlooking Africville. In the 1870s the city built an infectious disease hospital on a hill overlooking Africville. In 1947 the city dump was moved onto Africville land. The stage was set for the eradication of Africville almost from the time of its establishment.

 

 

In Razing Africville: A Geography of Racism, Jennifer J. Nelson writes: “It was early in Africville’s life that the provincial and Intercolonial Railway began to infringe on the community. A petition from William Brown of Africville dated dated 21 March 1860, requests compensation for land expropriated by the city six years earlier, and an 1855 report states that several families had been moved but had yet to be compensated.” Not satisfied with expropriating the land of Africville community members, the politicians who ruled the city of Halifax subjected the people of Africville to serious environmental racism. Africville became the place for the city to place anything that was considered too dangerous for other parts of the city. “Besides the noise, pollution, and danger of the railways, Africville had soon to contend with a nearby prison, an infectious diseases hospital, the nearby dump, and the city’s night soil. The municipality built a trachoma hospital in the Africville area after other city residents complained about its proposed proximity to their own homes.”

 

 

The Seaview African United Baptist Church was opened in 1849 and was described as “the beating heart of Africville.” It was the place in the community where weddings, funerals, and baptisms were held. The city of Halifax demolished the Seaview Baptist Church on November 20, 1967, in the middle of the night without notice to the people of Africville. At the time the city claimed that it owned the church. An article published on Wednesday, March 8, 2017, by CTV Atlantic casts doubt on that claim. "Documents obtained exclusively by CTV News have solved a 50-year-old mystery surrounding the church that was once the heart of the community of Africville, N.S. The document confirms the building was indeed demolished by Nov. 20, 1967. However, it also confirms the City of Halifax didn’t formally purchase the church until nine months after the demolition." https://atlantic.ctvnews.ca/exclusive-documents-solve-mystery-surrounding-africville-church-s-demolition-date-1.3316144 In Razing Africville: A Geography of Racism, the author writes “Africville’s establishment and eradication is all about territory. It is about white people’s self-proclaimed right to land that was not theirs.”

 

 

The last building in the historic Africville community was demolished in 1969. In 1970, 24 year old Eddie Carvery, who had lived in Africville before it was demolished, returned to the site of his home, Africville, and remained there, in protest, for 50 years. The 2010 published book The Hermit of Africville: The Life of Eddie Carvery by Jon Tattrie tells the heartbreaking story of Carvery’s one-man protest. The story of Africville is relatively unknown in Canada, unlike the well-known U.S stories of Rosewood, Florida and Black Wall Street, Tulsa, Oklahoma. Canada needs the teaching of Critical Race Theory to educate Canadians about histories like Africville beginning from elementary schools. The Last Days in Africville by Dorothy Perkyns published 2003 and The Children of Africville by Christine Welldon published 2009 can be a start.

 

 

The government of Nova Scotia after evicting the Africville community and razing their homes established “Seaview Park” which is an off-leash dog park in its place. After suffering the horrific abuse of chattel slavery and the complete destruction of their homes by the government the members of the community continue to meet every year. On February 24, 2010, Peter Kelly, the Mayor of Halifax, Nova Scotia apologized to the African Canadian community for the city government’s destruction of the African Canadian community of Africville. The historic community which had been established by African Canadians in the 1800s was bulldozed out of existence by the city of Halifax in the 1960s. The members of the community, forced to relocate were scattered and their land became Seaview Park. The Africville community and their descendants gather at Seaview Park every summer at the end of July to remember the community of Africville.

 

Murphy Browne © November 20-2021

NOVEMBER IS AFRICAN BRAZILIAN MONTH

 NOVEMBER IS BRAZIL BLACK AWARENESS MONTH

 

Three hundred and twenty-six years ago, on November 20-1695 Portuguese colonizers and enslavers beheaded African Brazilian freedom fighter Zumbi. On November 20, 2021, Brazilians celebrate "Dia da Consciência Negra" to commemorate the memory of African Brazilian freedom fighter Zumbi who was beheaded by the Portuguese on November 20-1695. His head was publicly displayed both as a warning to enslaved Africans and proof that Zumbi was not immortal. Zumbi is recognized as a hero, freedom fighter and a symbol of freedom.

 

 

 

Murphy Browne © November 12, 2020

 

BRAZIL BLACK AWARENESS MONTH

 

Throughout the Americas (Central, North, South) and on the Caribbean islands, Africans were enslaved by members of various European tribes, from the 15th century to the 19th century. Wherever these unfortunate Africans were enslaved they resisted their enslavers in various ways, including armed struggle. Most of the Africans who resisted are famous in the communities where they resisted but hardly known elsewhere. Bussa in Barbados, Marie Joseph Angelique in Canada, Solitude in Guadeloupe, Cuffy/Kofi in Guyana, Cudjoe in Montserrat, Gaspar Yanga in Mexico, Nanny in Jamaica and Zumbi in Brazil are some of the countless African freedom fighters. Many of these freedom fighters are honoured in the communities where they waged struggle against their enslavers, but Zumbi is the only African freedom fighter who is celebrated for an entire month. 

 

 

In the Brazilian city Salvador da Bahia, “Black November” is celebrated similar to African Heritage Month in Canada and the USA during February. Salvador da Bahia has the largest number of African Brazilian citizens and art, dance, food, music and religion are influenced by African Brazilian culture. Capoeira is an African Brazilian martial art form that arrived in Brazil on the slave ships from the African continent. Candomblé is an African Brazilian religion derived from Yoruba belief systems developed by enslaved Africans in Brazil. 

Since 1960 Brazilians have celebrated “Black Consciousness Day” (Dia da Consciência Negra) on November 20. November 20 was chosen as Dia da Consciência Negra/Black Consciousness Day in honour of a famous Brazilian Maroon leader Zumbi dos Palmares. Zumbi dos Palmares (1655-1695,) the last leader of the famous Palmares Quilombo was beheaded on November 20, 1695 by the Portuguese and his head publicly displayed both as a warning to enslaved Africans and proof that Zumbi was not immortal. 

 

 

 

On January 6, 1694, Palmares suffered a surprise attack because of a careless sentry who failed to warn Zumbi of an approaching army of Portuguese. Although Zumbi and his followers from Palmares fought valiantly, they were surrounded and outnumbered. The Portuguese destroyed the Palmares Quilombo, captured 510 Africans and sold them in Bahia. 

 

Zumbi and a few others from Palmares escaped and continued the fight. Zumbi was eventually betrayed by one of his trusted men who bargained Zumbi’s life for his own with the Portuguese. Zumbi was killed in the ensuing fight on November 20, 1695, and his body was delivered to the officials of the city council of Porto Calvo. In her 2013 published Zumbi of Palmares: Challenging the Portuguese Colonial Order Mary Karasch, a white American historian writes: “An examination revealed fifteen gunshot wounds and innumerable blows from other weapons; after his death he had been castrated and mutilated. The last degradation by his enemies occurred in a public ceremony in Porto Calvo, in which his head was cut off and taken to Recife, where the governor had it displayed on a pole in a public place. His objective was to destroy the belief that Zumbi was immortal.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Zumbi is a National Hero to many Brazilians, with a Brazilian airport (Zumbi dos Palmares International Airport) named in his honour and a postage stamp (2008) commemorating his memory. He was once the bane of the Portuguese colonizers/enslavers in Brazil. Zumbi was born a free African in the community of Palmares where Africans had established a free Maroon community (quilombo) in 1594. Palmares was the most successful community of quilombos established by Africans who fled enslavement in Brazil and it survived and thrived for 100 years. 

 

 

Although the Quilombo of Palmares was one of several quilombos established by Africans in Brazil, it was the largest with a population of 30,000 and lasted longer than any other (100 years) from 1594 to 1694. Some of Zumbi’s followers who escaped the carnage visited upon them by the Portuguese attack on Palmares escaped to live in other quilombos. Enslaved Africans in Brazil continued to flee until slavery was abolished in Brazil in 1888. Some of the quilombos were so well hidden that they were never discovered by the Portuguese and the inhabitants lived in freedom and seclusion. Since 1988, the quilombos have received protective status under Brazil’s constitution in an attempt to maintain the distinctive culture, history and language developed by these communities. 

 

 

In 2011 Dilma Rousseff then President of Brazil signed into law a bill that makes November 20 a Brazilian National Holiday although many Brazilian states had previously recognized November 20 with a public holiday.

 

 

In spite of the special day to honour Zumbi and the recognition of his place in Brazil’s history, African Brazilians continue to experience oppression in Brazil’s White supremacist culture. African Brazilians continue the fight for equality in education, employment, media, the workplace and the justice system. On November 20, the enslavement of Africans and other injustices since the abolition of slavery are discussed and the contributions of African Brazilians are recognized and celebrated.

 

 

In his 1989 published book Brazil, Mixture Or Massacre?: Essays in the Genocide of a Black People African Brazilian scholar and historian Abdias do Nascimento wrote: “On the whole in this pretentious concept of ‘racial democracy,’ there lies deliberately buried the true face of Brazilian society: only one of the racial elements has any rights or power – whites. They control the means of dissemination of information, educational curriculum and institutions, conceptual definitions, aesthetic norms and all other forms of social/cultural values.” 

 

 

Nascimento who transitioned to the ancestral realm on May 23, 2011 was a Pan-Africanist who played a significant role in raising awareness among African Brazilians and also wrote Racial Democracy in Brazil, Myth or Reality?: A Dossier of Brazilian Racism (1977), Race and ethnicity in Latin America – African culture in Brazilian art (1994), Orixás: os deuses vivos da Africa (Orishas: the living gods of Africa in Brazil) (1995) and Africans in Brazil: a Pan-African perspective (1997.) Recognition of Zumbi would not be complete without recognition of Nascimento as the African Brazilian activist scholar who has been described as a “militant Pan-Africanist” and spent his life raising awareness of the struggle of African Brazilians to navigate a White supremacist culture/system.

 

In 2020, 202 years after the Portuguese abolished slavery (1888) Brazil continues to discriminate against the African Brazilian population. During this Decade for People of African Descent (2015-2024) African Brazilian freedom fighter and hero Zumbi remains a symbol of freedom and struggle for African Brazilians 325 years (November 20-1695) after he was assassinated by the Portuguese colonizers/enslavers. On Friday, November 20, 2020, amidst the Covid19 Pandemic, African Brazilians will celebrate Zumbi’s courage, leadership and heroic resistance to Portuguese colonial rule and enslavement.

 

 

Murphy Browne © November 12, 2020

JOSIAH AND NANCY HENSON OCTOBER 28-1830

 Murphy Browne © October 26, 2021

“I was born June 15th, 1789, in Charles County, Maryland, on a farm belonging to Mr. Francis N, about a mile from Port Tobacco. My mother was the property of Dr. Josiah McP, but was hired by Mr. N to whom my father belonged. The only incident I can remember which occurred while my mother continued on Mr. N's farm, was the appearance one day of my father with his head bloody and his back lacerated.”

From The Life of Josiah Henson, Formerly a Slave, Now an Inhabitant of Canada, as Narrated by Himself by Josiah Henson published 1849.

Josiah Henson was an enslaved African man who fled slavery in the USA and arrived in Canada 191 years ago, on October 28, 1830. Henson with his wife and four children arrived in Canada four years before slavery was abolished in Canada on August 1, 1834. In his 1849 published Narrative about his life, Henson documented the horror of living as an enslaved African man, including his only memory of his father (Henson was 3 or 4 years old) who was maimed as punishment

for defending his wife against a White rapist. “His right ear was cut off close to his head and he had received a hundred lashes on his back. He had beaten the overseer for a brutal assault on my mother and this was his punishment. And though it was all a mystery to me at the age of three or four years, it was explained at a later period, and I understood that he had been suffering the cruel penalty of the Maryland law for beating a white man.” Henson would later describe in grim detail how his father was punished. “The day for the execution of the penalty was appointed. The Negroes from the neighboring plantations were summoned, for their moral improvement, to witness the scene. A powerful blacksmith named Hewes laid on the stripes. Fifty were given, during which the cries of my father might be heard a mile, and then a pause ensued. True, he had struck a white man, but as valuable property he must not be damaged. Judicious men felt his pulse. Oh! he could stand the whole. Again and again the thong fell on his lacerated back. His cries grew fainter and fainter, till a feeble groan was the only response to his final blows. His head was then thrust against the post, and his right ear fastened to it with a tack; a swift pass of a knife, and the bleeding member was left sticking to the place.”

Henson’s father was eventually sold and he never saw his father again. Describing the last time he saw his father, Henson remembered “He was beside himself with mingled rage and suffering.” Henson could not remember much about his father before the horrific maiming, but he later learned that “Previous to this affair my father, from all I can learn, had been a good- humored and light- hearted man, the ringleader in all fun at corn- huskings and Christmas buffoonery. His banjo was the life of the farm, and all night long at a merry- making would he play on it while the other Negroes danced. But from this hour he became utterly changed. Sullen, morose, and dogged, nothing could be done with him. The milk of human kindness in his heart was turned to gall. He brooded over his wrongs. No fear or threats of being sold to the far south- - the greatest of all terrors to the Maryland slave- - would render him tractable. So off he was sent to Alabama. What was his fate neither my mother nor I have ever learned.” Years later Henson detailed the reason his father had been brutally punished, maimed and then sold away from his family. “The explanation I picked up from the conversation of others only partially explained the matter to my mind; but as I grew older I

understood it all. It seemed the overseer had sent my mother away from the other field hands to a retired place, and after trying persuasion in vain, had resorted to force to accomplish a brutal purpose. Her screams aroused my father at his distant work, and running up, he found his wife struggling with the man. Furious at the sight, he sprung upon him like a tiger. In a moment the overseer was down, and, mastered by rage, my father would have killed him but for the entreaties of my mother, and the overseer's own promise that nothing should ever be said of the matter. The promise was kept- - like most promises of the cowardly and debased- - as long as the danger lasted.”

While Henson was still a small child his enslaver Dr. Josiah McPherson, died and Henson, his mother and siblings were sold at auction. “My brothers and sisters were bid off one by one while my mother holding my hand looked on in an agony of grief, the cause of which I but ill understood at first, but which dawned on my mind, with dreadful clearness as the sale proceeded.” Henson as a 5- or 6-year-old became so ill after his mother was sold that he was eventually sold to his mother’s new enslaver Isaac Riley, “at such a trifling

rate that it could not be refused.”

Henson married Nancy, an enslaved African woman when he was 22 years old and the couple eventually had 12 children. When Henson was 36 years old his enslaver Isaac Riley, the man to who Henson and his mother had been sold, found himself in financial difficulties and to hide his “assets,” persuaded Henson to take 18 enslaved Africans (including Henson, his wife and their children) from Maryland to his brother Amos Riley’s plantation in Kentucky. The group of 18 enslaved Africans led by Henson, left Maryland in February 1825. While passing through the free state of Ohio, "colored people gathered round us, and urged us with much importunity to remain with them." Henson refused to remain a free man in Ohio, considering that it was more important to keep the promise made to his enslaver than to free himself, his wife, his children and the other enslaved Africans. Years later, as a free man living in Canada, Henson lamented that decision "I have often had painful doubts as to the propriety of my carrying so many other individuals into slavery again, and my consoling reflection has been, that I acted as I thought at the time was best. In the 1973 published

Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies and Bucks: An Interpretive History of Blacks in American Films African American film historian and author Donald Bogle writes: “Always as toms are chased, harassed, hounded, flogged, enslaved, and insulted, they keep the faith, n'er turn against their white massas, and remain hearty, submissive, stoic, generous, selfless, and oh-so-very kind. Thus they endear themselves to white audiences and emerge as heroes of sorts.”

Josiah Henson eventually made the decision to flee from enslavement on the Isaac Riley plantation in Kentucky and arrived in Canada on October 28, 1830. Henson did not make the journey to freedom alone. He brought his wife and the four children that they had at time, to Canada. The Henson family travelled on foot by night and hid in the woods by day. After a long and dangerous six-week journey, the Hensons arrived in Upper Canada/Ontario on the morning of October 28, 1830. In 1830, (Upper Canada) Ontario had become a refuge for enslaved Africans (beginning in 1793) who had escaped from the United States, even though slavery was practiced in the province and throughout Canada until August 1, 1834.

In 1793, Lieutenant-Governor John Graves Simcoe passed An Act to prevent the further introduction of Slaves, and limit the Term of Contracts for Servitude within this Province. That law was enacted because of the resistance of Chloe Cooley, an enslaved African woman in Upper Canada/Ontario. On March 14, 1793, Chloe Cooley, an enslaved African woman in Queenston, was beaten, bound, thrown in a boat and sold across the river to a new owner in the United States. Her screams and violent resistance was brought to the attention of Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe by Peter Martin, a free African man living in Canada who had been a soldier in Butler's Rangers, and had witnessed the outrage. Simcoe tried to abolish slavery in the province. He was met with opposition in the House of Assembly, some of whose members were enslavers. A compromise was reached and on July 9, 1793, An Act to Prevent the further Introduction of Slaves and to limit the Term of Contracts for Servitude within this Province was passed that prevented the further introduction of slaves into Upper Canada and allowed for the gradual abolition of slavery although no slaves already living in Upper Canada/Ontario were freed. It was the first legislation that limited slavery and  

led to a freedom movement of enslaved Africans from the USA, that became known as the Underground Railroad. The Act did not prevent the buying and selling of enslaved Africans in the province as evidenced by the infamous advertisement on February 10, 1806, where Peter Russell, a member of the House of Assembly was selling Peggy Pompadour and her 15-year-old son Jupiter.

The legislation did not end slavery in Canada or even in Ontario, but it did prevent the importation of enslaved Africans. This meant that any enslaved African who fled slavery in the USA and arrived in Upper Canada/Ontario was free. When the Henson family arrived on October 28, 1830, others had already made Upper Canada/Ontario their home, including Black Loyalists from the American Revolution and many other freedom seekers from the War of 1812. Henson became a leader in the community. In 1841, Henson and a group of abolitionists bought 200 acres of land southwest of the Town of Dresden and established Dawn, an African Canadian community where other enslaved Africans who fled slavery in the USA could settle. At its height, the Dawn settlement had

approximately 500 residents, but many members returned to the USA in the 1860s after slavery was abolished there. Henson chose to remain in Canada and he and his wife supposedly spent the remainder of their lives in the two-storey house which today is on the Uncle Tom's Cabin Historic Site in Dresden, Ontario. The site was acquired by the Ontario Heritage Trust in February 2005, ironically, 180 years after Henson began that ill-fated journey (February 1825) from Maryland to Kentucky. Henson transitioned to the ancestral realm on May 5, 1883, at almost 94 years old.

Murphy Browne © October 26, 2021