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 16th 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
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