Black Nova Scotians.html |
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| Black Nova Scotians |
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| Total population |
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19,230 – 2.1% of Nova Scotia's population1 |
| Regions with significant populations |
 Nova Scotia, predominantly in Halifax |
| Languages |
| Canadian English, Canadian French |
| Religion |
| Christianity, Islam, and others |
| Related ethnic groups |
| African Americans, Black Canadians |
Black Nova Scotians are the descendants of African American slaves and freemen who came to Nova Scotia, Canada during the 18th and 19th century.2 Like their African American cousins, the average Black Canadian living in Nova Scotia is estimated to be of 17% European ancestry.3
Contents |
First black person in Canada
The first recorded instance of a black presence in Canada was that of Mathieu de Costa. Da Costa arrived in Nova Scotia sometime between 1603 and 1608 as a translator for the French explorer Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Monts. The first known black person to live in Canada was a slave from Madagascar named Olivier Le Jeune (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 workers pursuing better economic conditions. Many black Canadians today are of Caribbean origin, with some of recent African origin and smaller numbers from Latin American countries. However, a sizable number of Black Canadians who descended from freed American slaves can be found in Nova Scotia and parts of Southwestern Ontario. As with their counterparts in the U.S., some descendants of the freed American black slaves have mixed into the white community and have mostly lost their ethnic identity.
History
African American refugees from the American Revolution
Black people arrived in Canada in several waves. The first of these came with the French as free persons serving in the French army and navy, and some were enslaved. The British colonial authorities promised land grants to those who had escaped to the Crown during the American Revolution, though more promises were broken than kept. White American Loyalists fled north, bringing their African American slaves with them, while free African Americans also made their way to the colonies of British North America, settling predominantly in Nova Scotia. This latter group was largely made up of tradespeople and labourers, and many set up home in Birchtown near Shelburne. Many of these African Americans had roots mainly in American states like, Virginia, South Carolina, Georgia and Maryland.4 Some came from Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York as well.5
In 1782, the first race riot in North America 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 Scotia on January 15, 1792 and established in Freetown, Sierra Leone.
Arrival of the Maroons and immigration to Sierra Leone
In 1796, the Maroons of Jamaica were re-settled in Nova Scotia, following their long battle against colonization. While in Nova Scotia the Maroons from Jamaica deterred an attack by Napoleon, and were very important to the construction efforts of the Nova Scotia government, constructing the parts of the Halifax Citadel and all of Government House. The Jamaican Maroons were sent to Freetown, Sierra Leone in 1800 by the British Government in order to avoid the cost of maintaining them in Nova Scotia. Upon their arrival in Sierra Leone, the Maroons were used to quell an uprising among the Black settlers unhappy with their treatment by the Sierra Leone Company.
African American refugees
The next major migration of blacks into Nova Scotia occurred between 1813 and 1815. Black war refugees from the United States settled in Hammonds Plains, Beechville, Lucasville and Africville.
Canada was not suited to the large-scale plantation agriculture practised in the southern United States, and slavery became increasingly rare. In 1793, in one of the first acts of the new Upper Canada colonial parliament, slavery was abolished. It was all but abolished throughout the other British North American colonies by 1800, and was illegal throughout the British Empire after 1834. This made Canada an attractive destination for those fleeing slavery in the United States, such as American minister Boston King.
Underground Railroad for African Americans
From the late 1820s until the American Civil War began in 1861, the Underground Railroad 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, Windsor, London, Hamilton, Collingwood and Toronto.
20th century immigrants from the Caribbean and United States
In the late nineteenth century, there was an unofficial policy of restricting blacks from immigrating to Canada, and in the 1920s, formal racially-based immigration standards excluding blacks were developed. The huge influx of immigrants from Europe and the United States in the period before World War I included only very small numbers of black arrivals.
Another wave of immigration to Nova Scotia occurred in the 1920s, with blacks from the Caribbean coming to work in the steel mills of Cape Breton Island. 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, R&B musician
- George Elliott Clarke, poet and playwright
- George Dixon, professional boxer
- Mayann E. Francis, politician
- William Hall, sailor
- Kirk Johnson, professional boxer
- Rocky Johnson, professional wrestler
- Faith Nolan, folk and jazz musician
- Donald Oliver, politician
- Bill Riley, professional hockey player
- Bill White, politician
- Tyrone Williams, professional football player
Sources
- ^ Visible minority groups, 2006 counts, for Canada, provinces and territories
- ^ Cultural Renaissance | Nova Scotia - Come to life
- ^ Halifax's Black Loyalists - Halifax Nova Scotia
- ^ Nova Scotia Archives & Records Management - African Nova Scotians - Black Loyalists, 1783-1792
- ^ Remembering Black Loyalists, Black Communities in Nova Scotia
