Child Welfare Services After the Halifax Explosion by Jessica Bundy

The Problem of the Coloured Child:

Child Welfare Services after the Halifax Explosion

Jessica Bundy

Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the

requirements for the Degree of

Bachelor of Arts with

Honours in Sociology

Acadia University

April, 2015

This thesis by Jessica Bundy

is accepted in its present form by the

Department of Sociology

as satisfying the thesis requirements for the degree of

Bachelor of Arts with Honours

Approved by the Thesis Supervisor

______

Dr. Claudine Bonner Date

Approved by the Acting Head of the Department

______

Dr. Jeff Hennessy Date

Approved by the Honours Committee

______

Dr. Anthony Thomson Date

I, Jessica Bundy, grant permission to the University Librarian at Acadia

University to reproduce, loan or distribute copies of my thesis in microform, paper or electronic formats on a non-profit basis. I, however, retain the copyright in my thesis.

______

Signature of Author

______

Date

iii

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Dr. Claudine Bonner, who was patient when needed, tough when needed, and was crucial in the creation and editing of this thesis; also in the maintenance of this researcher’s sanity. Without her guidance there would be no thesis. Additionally, I wish to thank Dr. Zelda Abramson for her detailed and thorough edits, for her kind words that made the last few steps of this work painless. This research has also been influenced by all of the professors of the Sociology Department and the author thanks you all. Thank you to my family and friends for their support and especially to Nick for his immense emotional support and encouragement.

Table of Contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...... IV

ABSTRACT...... VI

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ...... 1

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ...... 4

CHILD WELFARE ...... 4

HALIFAX EXPLOSION ...... 9

Nova Scotia Home for Coloured Children ...... 13

CHAPTER 3: THEORY AND METHODOLOGY ...... 18

THEORY ...... 18

METHODOLOGY ...... 20

CHAPTER 4: DATA AND ANALYSIS ...... 23

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION ...... 31

REFERENCES ...... 35

Abstract

The focus of this paper will be the treatment and care given to African Nova

Scotian Children in the period immediately after the Halifax Explosion from 1917 to

1921. As well, it will focus on the programs and services developed solely for African

Nova Scotian children. Providing an analysis of how African Nova Scotian children were processed after a disaster such as this is important because it contributes to an understanding of a part of our Canadian history of which we know very little. Through the lens of Critical Race Theory, this research has collected data through historical document analysis. This paper aims to create a landscape of child welfare that has yet to be established by addressing the lack of and gap in data and analyzing why this gap exists.

This research provides a deeper understanding of the social and racial stigma present within the child welfare system at the time of the Halifax Explosion. This paper will prove there is insufficient data on the child welfare of African Nova Scotian children, in primarily government documents. These documents provide no details or follow-ups to the little detail present about African Nova Scotian children. What was present provided evidence of systemic racism present and voiced racist attitudes, in this post-Explosion era.

CHAPTER 1: Introduction

“The city is still shaped by the social policies put in place after the Explosion- and many of them were oppressive, racist, and meant to preserve the prevailing social order.”

- Michelle Hébert-Boyd (2007:2)

The Halifax Explosion was the biggest and most well-known tragedies to take place in Nova Scotia, and is infamous across Canada as well as internationally.

“Buildings fell like matchsticks, trapping citizens in the burning wreckage of their lives.

Streets- or what little remained of streets- were littered with oil, debris, and fragments of human remains” (Hébert-Boyd 2007:2). This man-made explosion flattened the waterfront neighborhoods of Halifax and created an increased need for emergency services, hospitals, and social services (Hébert-Boyd 2007; Lafferty 2013; Government of Nova

Scotia 2014). To address this tragedy, the people of Halifax created the Halifax Relief

Commission, which along with the people of Halifax and volunteers from across the country as well as from the United States, increased and improved the available medical treatment centers and social welfare aspects of Halifax, such as fire departments, child services, and the education department (Maritime Museum of the Atlantic 2014). The reaction to the Explosion was a clear example of the tradition of a Maritime community pulling together; focusing on sacrifice, regeneration, community-wide good will, innovative city planning and efficiency (Hébert-Boyd 2007).

The Halifax Explosion took place on December 6th in 1917, when two ships collided: the IMO, a Norwegian supply ship, and the Mont Blanc, a French supply ship carrying munitions for World War One (Maritime Museum of the Atlantic 2014). As a

result of this collision, a fire broke out which drew people to the waterfront to watch firefighters try to contain the flames, unknowingly coming closer to the disaster

(Maritime Museum of the Atlantic 2014). Shortly after 9:00 am, the Mont Blanc, carrying more than twenty-five hundred tonnes of explosive materials, exploded- shattered windows, throwing debris, and destroyed buildings, killed over two thousand, and injured another nine thousand people (Maritime Museum of the Atlantic 2014). This explosion was the largest man-made explosion to have occurred prior to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War Two (Maritime Museum of the Atlantic 2014). Relevant to this study is the fact that many child welfare institutions were damaged during this explosion, including the original Nova Scotian Home for Coloured Children which had been recently incorporated and at that time was waiting to be opened to children. The

Nova Scotia Home for Coloured Children was completely demolished, and was not re- opened until 1921 (Akoma Family Centre 2014).

The focus of this thesis is a study of the treatment and care given to African Nova

Scotian children in the period after the Halifax Explosion in 1917. It will also examine the programs and services developed solely for African Nova Scotian children. Analyzing how African Nova Scotian children were processed after a disaster such as this is important because it is a part of our Canadian history of which we know very little. What this thesis asks is whether or not this government and community support and aid was shared equally among all Nova Scotian citizens, specifically children. African Nova

Scotians have had a long history of racial stigma, discrimination, and being ignored by the governments, starting from the first Blacks to settle in Nova Scotia in the mid- seventeenth century until the present day. The African Nova Scotian population at the

time of the Halifax Explosion was made up of several migrations including French slaves,

Black Loyalists and Empire Loyalists slaves, Jamaican Maroons, Black refugees of the

War of 1812, and the Caribbean Blacks, groups which have been subject to this treatment

(Calliste 1993; Donovan 2004; Pachai 2007; Walker 2012).

This thesis aims to create a landscape of child welfare that has yet to be established by addressing the lack of and gap in data and analyzing why this gap exists.

This research will also give a deeper understanding of the social and racial stigma present within our child welfare system at the time of the Halifax Explosion. In Chapter 2, I present the Literature Review in order to understand the research that already exists surrounding the Halifax Explosion and African Nova Scotian child welfare. I will explain how my research is framed by Critical Race Theory in Chapter 3 focusing on the social construction of race as central to the way people of color are treated within social and political structures. Also in Chapter 3, I will review my methodology, which is historical document and data analysis. Chapter 4 is dedicated to data presentation and analysis, and in Chapter 5, I present my conclusion that ties together this research and discusses possibilities for future research.

CHAPTER 2: Literature Review

The literature surrounding the Halifax Explosion is vast in depth as well as detail; however, scholars have done a poor job discussing and analyzing the specific issues of child welfare and even more specifically the welfare of African Nova Scotian children following the Halifax Explosion. Few studies have centered on race in their exploration of issues of child welfare in relation to the Halifax Explosion. However, there have been studies which have looked at the definition and provision of child welfare and social work and social services in general, as they related to the Explosion. The following review of the literature provides insight into these studies and serves to shape the research questions as well as data collection for this project.

CHILD WELFARE

Child Welfare is a term that is a central theme of this thesis, and for the purposes of this study, child welfare will be defined as a set of programs and policies created and administered by government and private services aimed at promoting and protecting the well-being of children (Mech 1964; Canadian Child Welfare Research Portal 2011). In contemporary society, the child welfare system typically receives and investigates reports of possible child abuse and neglect, arranging for children to live with kin, foster families, or a licensed group home when they are not safe at home or have lost their home, and arrange permanent adoptive homes for children who need them (Canadian Child Welfare

Research Portal 2011). For my research purposes, I will focus on Nova Scotia’s definition of ‘child’, which is any person who is sixteen years of age or younger (Canadian Child

Welfare Portal 2011). In Canada, each province and territory has laws regarding who

exactly is considered a child; the age varies from province and territory, however all are in agreement that the term ‘child’ not only applies to young children, but also teenagers

(Canadian Child Welfare Research Portal 2011). The concept of childhood was fairly new at the time of the Halifax Explosion, as shown later on in the literature review; child welfare was just beginning to flourish in the early twentieth century.

Children’s Aid Societies within Canada began in Toronto, Ontario in 1891, and they were aimed at rescuing children from undesirable circumstances (Albert and Herbert

2006). Government intervention began in the late 19th and early 20th century, as private or religious organizations such as Children’s Aid Societies; orphanages, training schools, and poor houses began to be opened at a high rate over the next twenty years (Albert and

Herbert 2006). This rapid expansion and interest in children became known as “The

Century of the Child” and this era led to many advances within child welfare and the treatment of children.

The “Century of the Child” came from the ‘discovery’ of childhood: “The long- running 18th century fascination with childhood had become a demanding fixation as the

20th century neared” (Hulbert 1999: 16). This focus on childhood was not the first time there was public and scientific scrutiny on young members of society. As Hulbert (1999) points out, French historians such as Phillip Aries of the 17th century, John Locke at the turn of the 18th century, and Jean Jacque Rousseau in the late 18th century all discussed the new child-centered concept of family life and a focus on child-rearing. The ‘problem of the child’ became more and more professionalized towards the brink of the twentieth century, and with this came the writing of child rearing advice books, aimed primarily at mothers (Hulbert 1999). Hulbert covers her points best when she states:

At the dawning of the modern era, scientific men were saying, and women were evidently avid to believe, that it was the duty of mothers to embark on the even more exacting (and exciting) task of learning- from their children, and from the experts who would show them how to study that subject right under their nose. (Hulbert 1999: 22)

This fascination with children not only affected the mothers of these children, but also began a movement of women who were concerned about children who had no mothers, or had mothers who were not concerned with them; this “Century of the Child” movement in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century is one of the first steps toward child welfare concern and development.

The Nova Scotia Government has a video on their Child, Youth, and Families portion of their website titled The History of Child Welfare in Nova Scotia (Government of Nova Scotia 2014), that aims to shed light on the “Century of the Child” movement in

Nova Scotia. Child welfare in Nova Scotia is continuously built on past experiences its people and government have gone through (Government of Nova Scotia 2014). Nova

Scotia’s early children were treated as property, and often were labourers on their family farms or in local family businesses. However, “according to the emerging scientific wisdom [with the onset of the Century of the Child], children were to be viewed for the first time as children, rather than as little adults” (Hulbert 1999: 17). This change in mentality led to the first legislation aimed at children in Nova Scotia, the 1882 Act to

Prevent and Punish Wrongs to Children, which has been revised and is still used today; this Act was then adapted into the Children’s Protection Act of 1906 (Government of

Nova Scotia 2014). Obsorn and Obsorn (1978) discuss how children born between 1890 and 1910 were unique in that they were born between the industrial revolution and the technological revolution. They claim that these children were the last population of child

labourers who were treated with adult expectations. As such, the “adult-child” (Obsorn and Obsorn 1978:27) became a vanishing breed by the beginning of the twentieth century.

Institutional care is the earliest recorded form of child welfare. A recently published book by Renée N. Lafferty (2013) covers the institutions that took in children in Halifax from the late 19th to the mid-20th century. Lafferty (2013) gives an extensive review of child welfare institutions within Nova Scotia, and within Halifax specifically.

To explain the mentality of the public towards children, in this case poor children specifically, Lafferty states “… the children of the poor, as they were met on the streets of many cities, were both a thing to be pitied and a thing to be feared” (Lafferty 2013:8).

Children in need were a group that required help, but this help may have been limited due to the fact the public was slightly fearful of these children and their unpredictable actions.

Child welfare in this sense did not only help the child, but it also supported the community, by removing this feared group. Lafferty stresses this when she points out:

This emphasis on creating ‘useful’ citizens… and on preventing future crime… runs thick through the culture of child welfare and points to a very different meaning for ‘best interests’ than is immediately visible. The best interests of the child were equal to, and sometimes eclipsed by, the best interests of the community and their particular social and economic goals sought by those who governed. (Lafferty 2013:12)

This captures how the government, community, and individuals felt about the application of child welfare. What was even more important was upholding the status quo and filling positions within our community, such as house maids and labourers, that are mandatory for our society to continue but not popular for those who were well off.

The Government of Nova Scotia had no heavy hand in creating and running these programs. It did however approve the goals set by charities, like the Halifax Children’s

Aid Society, and showed this by approving grants (Lafferty 2013). These charities were

based largely on religious standings, and the institutions included: the Halifax Industrial

School, St. Patrick’s Home for Boys, Halifax Protestant Orphan’s Home, St. Joseph’s

Orphanage, and Home of the Guardian Angel (Lafferty 2013). While there has been extensive research into the services provided by these homes none mention African Nova

Scotian children.

According to Saunders (1994:21), “The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were not the best of times to be a neglected child, especially a black one.” In the book written on the history of the Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children, Saunders

(1994) writes that being a child from a poor family meant you were expected to earn your keep from a very early age, and in some cases the economic pressure on families led to child abandonment. While the children of the poor suffered in this era, at the same time there was a shifting trend to an increase in humanitarian attitudes and social justice was gaining popularity. Similar findings were reported earlier. Saunders (1994) discussed how

Nova Scotia had several denominational orphanages that took care of a certain number of children in need. However, the Nova Scotia government also joined in on the humanitarian train by opening the Halifax Poorhouse in 1867 (Saunders 1994). The

African Nova Scotian population did not have the same resources available to them, according to Saunders (1994). The Protestant and Catholic orphanages, did not accept

African Nova Scotian children, so the African Nova Scotian community relied on each other to help with orphan children (Saunders 1994). In situations where a family could not accept or handle another mouth to feed, an African Nova Scotian child would be forced to stay in either mental institutions or poorhouses; this created a space for the creation of the Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children which was community supported

and vital to African Nova Scotian child welfare, which will be discussed shortly

(Saunders 1994).

HALIFAX EXPLOSION

Samuel Henry Prince (1920) wrote his doctoral dissertation, Catastrophe and

Social Change: Based Upon a Sociological Study of the Halifax Disaster, about the social organization and change that happened directly after the Halifax Explosion. Prince describes the reaction of the people, referencing their shock reaction, primitive instincts, crowd psychology, and the human will (Prince 1920:19). Prince (1920) not only addresses the psychological reaction of Haligonians to this disaster, but he also gives a clear example of lack of analysis of child welfare as well as African Nova Scotian child welfare in this time period. Prince limited his research to the social changes following the

Halifax Explosion, specifically ignoring all that preceded it. Prince (1920) discusses social services post-Explosion including medical services, military services, charity services, and child services; Prince had the following to say about the child services after the Halifax Explosion:

The children’s service was thorough, as it should have been. If the measure of success in disaster relief is the treatment which the children receive, Halifax relief was above reproach. (Prince 1920:89)

This was as analytical as Prince was about the performance of children services. After this he lists the special problems that the Children’s Committee was dealing with, which can also be found in the Nova Scotian Report of the Superintendent of Neglected and

Delinquent Children (1919). This I found puzzling as Prince (1920) does not analyze what was being done, but instead just lays it out, stating the facts that can be found in other sources. Prince (1920) states what was supposedly being done for children, but

gives no further details or interpretation. Although I found a lack of detail as well as interpretation and analytical view of the research he laid out, he did provide a brief summary of the social changes that the Halifax Explosion brought about which was useful for this study. Another important attribute of Prince’s (1920) study is that it was one of the first studies done post-Explosion, and although he calls it a Sociological Study, it appears to be more of an overview or report of the social services in post-Explosion

Halifax.

The experience of the Halifax Explosion not only changed many lives, it reformed many of Halifax’s social programs, including social work, and “Halifax’s social workers were forced to learn their trade and use new skills in a time of urgency and suffering”

(Hébert-Boyd 2007:3). Social work in Halifax grew out of the chaos of the Explosion and was created and enforced by people who were not from Halifax (Hébert-Boyd 2007).

Prior to the Explosion, social work in Halifax consisted primarily of charity workers and the Friendly Visitor model; this model considers all those living in poverty to be morally deficient, and had many religious undertones as well as marginalizing the poor (Hébert-

Boyd 2007). Hébert-Boyd’s (2007) history of social work charts the transition from a charity model of social welfare to a professional one. Social work at that time was not viewed as a true profession as it only supplemented existing professions. Hébert-Boyd argues that the classification of social work as a “semi-profession” (Hébert-Boyd 2007:8) with other professions such as nursing and teaching is done by male scholars who

“viewed occupations concerned with welfare…[as] extensions of women’s natural work”

(Hébert-Boyd 2007 :8). This sexism surrounding social work was something that was almost inevitable, due to the fact that it was one of the first professions accessible to

women, and it was an extension of the charitable work they were already doing. This view of social work at the time of the Halifax Explosion is something that may have factored into the availability and application of social services due to the lack of concern by men in power. Halifax was and is still affected by the changes brought about after the

Halifax Explosion. The racial discrimination evident in society became present in social policies and changes that emerged in response to the Explosion.

Hébert-Boyd’s (2007) work examines structural racism within Nova Scotia, specifically regarding Africville. Although the case of Africville does not directly relate to the conditions of African Nova Scotian children post-Explosion, it however captures the ways in which structured racism operated at that time. Africville was an African-

Canadian community in the north end of Halifax that was settled by the Black refugees of

1812, and “…had a reputation as a slum” (Hébert-Boyd 2007: 36). This African Nova

Scotian community serves as a case study for community neglect, environmental and structural racism. While the intimate details of this case are beyond the scope of this project, as Hébert-Boyd puts it:

Structural racism inherent in Nova Scotia society resulted in Africville being alternatively ignored or harassed for much of it’s existence- ignored when residents demanded their taxes be spent on improving services, and harassed when the city decided it needed some of its land for industrial use. (Hébert-Boyd 2007:36)

Africville residents did not have a water system, lights, paved roads, or sanitation, regardless of the fact that they paid the same amount of taxes as other communities in

Halifax. While not giving them access to all these services, the city took advantage of the community by placing a prison, infectious disease hospital, a sewer, and a dump within

Africville’s boundaries (Hébert-Boyd 2007).

Many of the communities affected by the Halifax Explosion, such as Richmond, which was a newer community that “… represented the rise of the middle class and

Halifax’s working-class roots” (Hébert-Boyd 2007: 34), were rebuilt from the ground up under the orders of the Halifax Relief Commission (Hébert-Boyd 2007). Although the

Explosion had a lesser impact on Africville, mainly windows shattered and already broken down buildings weakened, when “residents of Africville made claims for

Explosion-related losses, they were often accused of inflating their claims and had their requests dismissed altogether” (Hébert-Boyd 2007:100). Even though thousands of people had their claims approved and received a type of pension for their loss, most

Africville residents received nothing to fix damages.

Hébert-Boyd (2007) captures exactly how Africville was treated, and this is telling to the general treatment of African Nova Scotians. The city continued its pattern of ignoring and harassing Africville by not making any improvements that were needed as a result of the explosion. To add insult to injury, the new Richmond sewer line went directly through Africville and leaked frequently (Hébert-Boyd 2007). The importance of

Hébert-Boyd’s analysis of Africville during the time of the Halifax Explosion is that it uncovers structural racism, in a time where the people of Halifax, as well as the rest of

Nova Scotia, were feeling proud about themselves and their neighbours for helping each other through this tragedy. Although there were constant claims of Halifax changing and developing, many would argue that no change took place; there were still paternalistic city leaders that used this event to reinforce the status quo and to reinforce “…class, gender, and racial discrimination through social policy” (Hébert-Boyd 2007:69).

The African Nova Scotian context of child welfare is one example of social policies that are classist and racist. Lafferty’s (2013) coverage of post-Explosion Halifax uncovers the struggles of the child welfare system to meet the demands of placing

African Nova Scotian children-as there was no place for African Nova Scotian orphans

(Government of Nova Scotia 2014).

Nova Scotia Home for Coloured Children

In City Council minutes, issues that had been submitted and read before the

Council, of October 29th, 1917 there was discussion of the building of the Nova Scotian

Home for Coloured Children that was addressed to the mayor of Halifax (Government of

Nova Scotia 1917). These minutes included details of years of work and attempts at dealing with the problem of care for the neglected and coloured children. These minutes claimed there was a solution in sight, involving an old building from the Halifax

Industrial School (another child welfare institution); although the building needed a complete interior renovation and the heating needed repair, the attractive grounds would make for a perfect place for an institution aimed at African Nova Scotian children, which would be named the Nova Scotia Home for Coloured Children (Government of Nova

Scotia 1917). The city council minutes regarding the NSHCC ended with this straightforward statement:

Those of our citizens who have come in touch with the institutional work of our city will appreciate just what the establishment of such a home will mean, as the question of properly caring for these coloured children is one which has given every person interested considerable concern. (Government of Nova Scotia 1917: 1-2)

Prior to the creation of the NSHCC, there were a few child welfare homes that took in African Nova Scotian Children; the Home of the Guardian Angel would accept black infants if there were no other options for the child, and St. Joseph’s Orphanage took in black children only if they were Roman Catholic (Lafferty 2013). What is important about the conditions prior to the Halifax Explosion, and even prior to the NSHCC, is that there were a limited number of places that children of African Nova Scotian descent were able to go. The Superintendent of Neglected and Delinquent Children, Ernest Blois, was granted this appointment of Superintendent in 1912 and held this positions during the

Halifax Explosion, and was also appointed Head of the Children’s Committee branch of the Halifax Relief Commission (Hébert-Boyd 2007). Blois once stated: “It is very rarely that a suitable foster home is found for a colored child” (Lafferty 2013:66). With this recognition, many of those in the child welfare field were very enthusiastic for a home specifically for African Nova Scotian children. With this difficulty of placing orphaned or half-orphaned African Nova Scotian children came the incorporation of the Nova Scotia

Home for Coloured Children (NSHCC) in 1917, which was then destroyed by the Halifax

Explosion, and rebuilt in 1921 and opened (Akoma Family Centre 2014). The creation of the NSHCC was promoted within the African Nova Scotian community as ethnic pride.

Although Lafferty (2013) frames the creation of the NSHCC in a light that is initially positive, what is important to note is that it promoted separation and segregation and as such promoted racism in a community that was already prone to such. Ernest Blois had said that African Nova Scotians and Caucasians living together in any home created sub-par living conditions and according to Lafferty, referred to African Nova Scotian children as:

‘…dirty, ill-clad, under-nourished, cross-eyed, veritable little street Arabs with ‘sub-normal’ written all over them.’ Their heritage was ‘awful,’ with ‘every form of mental and physical defect on the father’s side and tuberculosis and alcoholism on the mother’s’. (Lafferty 2013:74-75)

The above quotation provides insight into the negative ways in which Africa Nova

Scotians were viewed by Nova Scotians. What is even more concerning is that these words were spoken by the Superintendent of Neglected and Delinquent Children at the time, and clearly indicates that only the well-being of white children was important.

Many of the undertones of child welfare within Nova Scotia came from the theory of recapitulation, which Lafferty (2013) describes as the theory that all children start out as savages but with age they learn to be good as adults, the exception being African Nova

Scotians. Under this theory an African Nova Scotian and a Caucasian child have the same intelligence but as they get older, the Caucasian child learns more and becomes civilized.

The African Nova Scotian child grows physically but their intelligence stays the same, meaning the intelligence of an African Nova Scotian adult is the same as that of a

Caucasian child (Lafferty 2013).

Institutions of child welfare were beneficial and unlimited as long as the child was a Nova Scotian Caucasian child. Reasons of moral, sexual, intellectual, and physical impurities were expressed justifying why African Nova Scotian children and Caucasian children were not to be in the same homes. The solution was “… segregation of the black child…[as] a natural and logical part of child saving” (Lafferty 2013:72) and consequently the African Nova Scotian community pushed for the re-creation of an institution for African Nova Scotian children- the Nova Scotia Home for Coloured

Children (NSHCC). The NSHCC was incorporated in 1917 but never opened, and was

demolished in the Explosion; not until 1921 was it rebuilt and opened (Akoma Family

Centre 2014).

With the Halifax Explosion came the demolition of a majority of the North End of

Halifax, where a high concentration of African Nova Scotians lived. Many children became orphaned and there was an increase of African Nova Scotian children needing shelter and care (Saunders 1994). Also destroyed was the little cottage that was about to become the Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children; however the increase in African

Nova Scotia children in need meant that the cottage they initially had planned for would not have accommodated the need (Saunders 1994). To assess how the children of the

Halifax Explosion would be dealt with, the Children’s Committee which was a branch of the Halifax Relief Commission was formed with the Superintendent of Neglected and

Delinquent Children, Ernest H. Blois, at its head (Saunders 1994). This committee stated that, “coloured and feeble-minded orphans constitute a special problem that would have to be dealt with” (Saunders 1994:29), although the committee did not give an outline as to how this ‘special problem’ should be dealt with, or did not provide any further details to actions addressing this ‘special problem’.

While this would have been large step in the development of child welfare for

African Nova Scotians, the Halifax Explosion less than two months later demolished the small building that would have become the NSHCC (Akoma Family Centre 2014,

Saunders 1994). The Government of Nova Scotia made no plans or effort to acknowledge the existence of the NSHCC or that they were going to find a new location for it, when it was needed most. The idea of the NSHCC was kept alive by the African Nova Scotian churches, the African United Baptist Church (AUBA), and the Ladies Auxiliary (Female

branch of the AUBA) who continuously pushed for the re-opening of the NSHCC (Pachai

2007). When the NSHCC was finally re-opened in 1921, it was the only institution of its kind in Nova Scotia, as well as in Canada (Saunders 1994, Akoma Family Centre 2014).

The NSHCC was a sign of African Nova Scotian racial pride, providing care, comfort, shelter, education, and life skills to the children in need of the African Nova Scotian community (Pachai 2007). This is not an attempt to diminish the work done by these organizations or the creation of the Nova Scotia Home for Coloured Children, instead, the emphasis is on the lack of work, concern, and attention given by the Government of Nova

Scotia to the care and treatment of African Nova Scotian children.

In summary, this paper will focus on the little-studied child welfare services provided to African Nova Scotian children, as these institutions did not cater to African

Nova Scotian children. Thus, this research will add to the literature by providing a discussion of the nature of child welfare available to African Nova Scotian children. This research will add to the literature by providing a discussion of the African Nova Scotian aspect of child welfare in this era; this thesis is shaped by the gap in data and the need for research to fill this absence. Before analyzing the data found surrounding the care given to African Nova Scotians and the services created for them, Chapter Three will present the theoretical framework that shapes this thesis and the method in which data was collected. I intend to challenge the illusion of positive ‘change’ amongst all walks of society at the time of the Halifax Explosion through analyzing the services and treatment of African Nova Scotian children. In Chapter Three I present the theoretical framework that shapes this thesis and the methods used for data collections.

CHAPTER 3: Theory and Methodology

THEORY

“I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me.”

-Ralph Ellison (1995:3)

Critical Race Theory provides the framework for this research project. This theoretical framework views race as central to social and political structures and policies

(Delgado and Stefancic 2001; Rocco, Bernier, and Bowman 2014; Trevino, Harris, and

Wallace 2008). Critical Race theorists are committed to treating the social construction of race as central to the way people of ‘color’ are treated and restrained in society, as an

African Nova Scotian myself, this theory is one I found not only applicable but one I found myself applying to my day to day life after researching it (Trevino et al. 2008).

Critical Race Theory (CRT), although a separate theory, stems from and has some similarities with Critical Theory, therefore a brief summary of Critical Theory will aid in the comprehension of CRT.

Critical Theory was developed out of the Frankfurt School and CRT rejects positivism, which is a theory in which one believes they can view the world without making assumptions, that the world and its social conditions are natural, rational, and necessary, therefore there is no need to change anything. (Agger 1991). Critical Theory opposes positivism:

Instead, the critical theorists attempt to develop a mode of consciousness and cognition that breaks the identity of reality and rationality, viewing social factors not as inevitable constraints on human freedom but as pieces of history that can be changed. (Agger 1991: 109)

This quotation provides insight into how CRT is connected to Critical Theory—both theories focus on the critique of society and are concerned with changing existing structures. CRT is specifically focused on the social constraint that is ‘race’.

Critical Race Theory (CRT) was initially developed by legal scholars as a response to the problem of the color line, referring to segregation of African Americans in the United States of America during the majority of the twentieth century (Trevino et al.

2008). This theory is dedicated to advocating justice for those who are viewed as a minority or marginal; it was created to give a voice to those who did not have a critical form of expression (Delgado and Stefancic 2001; Trevino et al. 2008; Rocco et al. 2014).

It also challenges the universality of the white experience, and why that standard is applied to all people, and binds people of ‘color’ and “…measures, directs, controls, and regulates the terms of proper thought, expression, presentation, and behaviour (Tate IV

1997:196-197). CRT is a “…way of countering ‘metanarratives- the images, preconceptions and myths’ that have been propagated by the dominant culture” (Trevino et al. 2008:8). It enables people from minority groups to critically analyze and deconstruct preconceived notions, conceptions, and stereotypes about themselves, as well as begin to break down the way society perceives, creates, and applies ‘race’ to all aspects of culture. Many CRT scholars assert that “…a lack of attention to the persuasive nature of racism results in the implementation of policies and practices that create inequitable situations at work and in society” (Rocco et al. 2014: 458). Thus, CRT is a tool aimed at helping minorities as well as the majorities understand the social structures that oppress some and benefit others; which makes it the exact tool I plan to apply in my thesis.

Criticisms surround every theory within sociology, and Critical Race Theory does not escape criticism. Many argue that CRT is not a theory to begin with (Trevino, Harris, and Wallace 2008). There is an argument that CRT is not a unified theory, but instead a jumble of analytical tools used in different situations (Trevino, Harris, and Wallace 2008).

This argument includes the assertion that not all Critical Race Theorists agree on a fundamental set of beliefs and that Critical Race Theory is less of a theory, but more of a movement (Trevino et al. 2008). Another critique of Critical Race Theory surrounds the legal scholars who first created it. These legal scholars argue about injustices in law using Critical Race Theory, but they do not challenge the law itself (Trevino et al. 2008).

Regardless of these critiques, Critical Race Theory serves as the central framework on which my study and analysis will be based as it is the only theory that allows me to use my experiential knowledge, allows my voice be to present in the research, gives a voice to those African Nova Scotian children who had none, and allows me to wonder if the systems created out of the Halifax Explosion were experienced equally. Through this lens we will explore how the documentary evidence suggests African Nova Scotian children were treated, whether or not there was discrimination or racism present in the decision - making regarding these children, and whether services and care given to African Nova

Scotian children was in any way different due to their race. In the following section, there will be discussion as to the methodology guiding data collection.

METHODOLOGY

The method in which data was collected for this Sociology thesis was a method borrowed from History: historical document analysis. Historical document analysis entails reading, interpreting, and analyzing sources from the era/event you are studying; it

allows you to see the process leading to social products or policies (Loseke 2012). The sources examined in this study were primary as well as secondary sources, a primary source is a document, image, or artifact directly from the era/event whereas a secondary source is a book, article, film, or museum that displays primary sources to interpret the past (Williams 2003). Using a methodology that has a base in history involves a process of discovery and construction of a narrative; “[historical document analysis] uses documents as a basis for putting together a narrative or analysis of past events” (Williams

2003: 61).

This study involves the collection of data and sources from the following: Nova

Scotia Archives, including the initial and annual reports of the Halifax Relief

Commission , Children’s Aid Society adoption letters, Children’s Committee’s reports and individual reports from a majority of the child welfare institutions; Dalhousie Killiam

Library, specifically the Report of the Superintendent of Neglected and Delinquent

Children (1919); and the Vaughan Memorial Library for secondary sources including books on the Halifax Explosion, Child Welfare in Nova Scotia and Social Work relating to the Halifax Explosion. Historical document analysis is most ideal because these sources, both primary and secondary, are more accessible by virtue of repositories. The process of trying to locate and interview subjects who have the necessary information and knowledge would have been beyond the scope of this small, unfunded study.

As already discussed, using a historical methodology involves building a narrative with the sources given, the narrative for this research being guided by a Critical Race

Theory approach; therefore asking about the question of ‘race’ while analyzing these sources will determine and/or give a better understanding of African Nova Scotian history

in this era. Another issue that is often coupled with document analysis is the number of possible sources that you are faced with, something Williams effectively eliminates with the following statement; “…the sheer volume of sources makes it impossible for

Historians to read everything completely. Rather, they approach each source with specific questions or interests in mind that automatically limit the amount of material that will be relevant to them” (Williams 2003:50). I found this to be an issue in my research as there was a vast number of documents, reports, and secondary sources on the Halifax

Explosion and child welfare, it was a matter of sorting through as many of these documents as possible and finding those that were most relevant to this study.

With historical document analysis you are building an account, a narrative, with sources and data that already exists; in the case of this thesis building the narrative of

African Nova Scotian children using the sources relating to the Halifax Explosion, child welfare, and African Nova Scotians (or lack of sources) to pull data that completes their story. Historical document analysis allows this research to analyze the documents from the time of the Halifax Explosion to attempt to discover any social injustices in this era.

The following chapter will present the data collected through historical data analysis as well as an analysis that is based on the framework of Critical Race Theory.

CHAPTER 4: Data and Analysis

This chapter presents findings based on analysis of the following documents: The

Report of the Superintendent of Neglected and Delinquent Children (1919); Children’s

Aid Society letters; and Halifax Relief Commission documents under the heading of the

Children’s Committee. Each of these documents was analyzed by applying and being guided by the following six principles that most Critical Race Theorists agree on:

(a) Racism is endemic and ordinary permeating all aspects of society in such a way as to be unnoticed. (b) Race is a social construction that has no biological significance. (c) Differential racialization, means that different minority groups… are racialized… at different times depending on economic need, geographic location, and current events. (d) Interest convergence and material determinism occur when the dominant group works to advance social justice for people of color or minority groups when both groups’ interests, needs, or expectations converge especially for economic or material gain of the dominant group. (e) Intersectionality and anti-essentialism… [individuals do not have unitary identities]. (f) Voice, is the notion that people of color have a unique voice which exists due to experience with historical and current oppression… (Rocco, Bernier, and Bowman 2014:460-461)

Although these are on occasion disputed by Critical Race Theorists, having six set principles to apply to this study was important, in terms of creating a set framework to view data. Each of these six tenets has been applied to the analysis of documents and records; the one I found most important was the notion that people of color have a unique voice due to the experience with oppression, both past and present. This notion of voice allows Critical Race theorists to integrate their own experiences and knowledge into moral and situational analysis of history, law, and social structure (Tate IV 1991). This was important to my research as it not only allows me to use my voice and perspective to tell this African Nova Scotian story at this point in history, but also highlights the reality

that the voice of the African Nova Scotian community was ignored during the era of the

Halifax Explosion, and the voice of African Nova Scotian children was never even heard.

Critical Race Theory addresses this silence by asking why it exists in the first place, what gives some people a voice and not others, and how this silence subsequently creates a gap in history.

In an exploration of the child services available to and aimed at African Nova

Scotians after the Halifax Explosion it became readily apparent that there were very few documents or reports that are primarily about African Nova Scotian children. This in itself is a statement that gestures towards the lack of attention given to the African Nova

Scotian population, and this lack of documented care is a concern that will be later addressed in the conclusion. The historical document analysis focused primarily on close readings of a small collection of documents. What follows is an overview of the data accumulated and a brief analysis of each piece of evidence, and what importance it has to this thesis.

After conducting the literature review, it seemed obvious to start with the Nova

Scotian Report of the Superintendent of Neglected and Delinquent Children (1919)

(herein now known as the Report), the author of which was the Superintendent of

Neglected and Delinquent Children, Ernest H. Blois. This Report was done annually, recapping the amount of money the Nova Scotia Government spent on child institutions; how much was invested in building and equipment; giving examples of how cases were dealt with; how many children were in each institution; and the issues faced that year

(Blois 1919). This study examines the 1919 Report, which reported on the year ending on

September 30th, 1918; this year would be the one in which a majority of the initial chaos

from the Explosion began to dissipate and the organization of care for children would have become clear (Blois 1919). According to Blois “There was the extra added work resulting from the great disaster of December 6th, 1917 at Halifax, this year will ever stand out as one of extraordinary stress and activity” (Blois 1919:5). In the first part of the Report, Blois (1919) described the typical problems that were faced by Haligonians post-Explosion: widowed mothers, crippled children, and children living in the street. He, however, gave no indication as to how these issues were dealt with; it was also difficult to establish how much work was done, especially because a majority of the work involved advising and assessing individual family matters. Blois believed that this information should not be made public. As such, there are few records available documenting interventions or aid.

Throughout the Report are pictures of the institutions and groups of children that were labeled with what institution they were a part of—throughout the entire Report there was not a single picture of an African Nova Scotian child. Although this may not seem as though it has significance, Blois (1919) only references “coloured children” (Blois

1919:110) once throughout this Report, therefore the clear lack of visual evidence is an indication of the lack of documentation of African Nova Scotian children. It also speaks to the general nature of institutional care given to African Nova Scotian children; this

Report is an official government document of Nova Scotia, and should include all Nova

Scotian children, which it does not. It obviously does not take into account or suggest interest in the treatment and care given to African Nova Scotian children.

As stated before Blois’ (1919) annual report often had a summary of costs and where the costs went; what was also recorded annually was how many children and where they were placed. The Report of 1919 states the following:

Number of Children: Reformatories- 293 Orphanages and Infants Homes-1 408 County Homes- 82 This Department has in Foster Care- 410 On Probation and Under Supervision- 650 Institutions have in Foster Homes- 500 (Blois 1919:7)

There are two noteworthy points. First, this list lacks detail, there are no distinctions between male and female children or ages of the children, and more central to this research, there are no indications of ‘race’. Second, I could not find any indication of allotted funds to the Nova Scotia Home for Coloured Children which was in need of rebuilding, or any mention of African Nova Scotian children. As already shown in the literature review, no child institution at this time took in African Nova Scotian children: which eliminates reformatories, orphanages and infants homes, and the children institutions have in foster homes (Saunders 1994; Hébert-Boyd 2007; Lafferty 2013;

Akoma Family Centre 2014; Government of Nova Scotia 2014). This means that out of the 2,343 of the children recorded by the Superintendent of Neglected and Delinquent

Children, 1,201 were most likely not African Nova Scotian Children. The Report (1919) also listed 410 children in foster care, I at first thought there may be a large percentage of

African Nova Scotian children, but this was not the case. Blois (1919) discussed how many people-including himself- thought African Nova Scotians were not suitable to be foster care parents. Racial barriers and chronic poverty of African Nova Scotians meant

“…it was much harder to find suitable foster parents for coloured children than white”

(Lafferty 2013:126). Even more concerning is that it was well known by Blois and a 26

majority of child welfare workers that no institution took in African Nova Scotian children as:

they believed, containment of behaviours and physical states that were racially conceived: for members of the white community, segregation of the black child was thus a natural and logical part of child saving. (Lafferty 2013:72)

Through this simple list of how many children were placed in these different types of care it is clear already African Nova Scotian children were left out or poorly recorded in most child institutions.

The Report of the Superintendent of Neglected and Delinquent Children (1919) was clear in distinguishing between temporary work that had to be done after the Halifax

Explosion and permanent long-term work. The temporary list of work that needed to be dealt with immediately post-Explosion included but was not limited to: repairing damage to existing children’s institutions; restoring missing and unclaimed children to their parents; responding to the large correspondence of people wanting to adopt orphans; and caring for wounded children as well as supervising children in hospitals and shelter (Blois,

1919: 108). There was a clear plan of action for temporary work; permanent work however seemed to be nothing but a list. The permanent work list was as followed:

The permanent work will consist chiefly of: 1 .The supervision of children in homes other than their parents 2. The arrangement for maintenance, pensions, compensation, etc. 3. Dealing with the problem of; a) coloured orphans b) a few feeble minded 4. The half orphans who may have a step-father, and the half-orphans who may have a step-mother 5. Arranging for proper guardians for certain children 6. The disobedient and incorrigible boy or girl. (Blois 1919:110)

I could not find any records or reports in the Halifax Relief Commission documents or the Children’s Committee documents that specified plans to complete this

work.1 The language used in describing the permanent work gives insight into how

African Nova Scotian children were viewed in this time. The “problem of the coloured orphan [child]” (Blois 1919:110), according to the Report needed dealing with. Nowhere else is there a discussion of dealing with the problem of the white orphan. African Nova

Scotian children were viewed as a burden, as a separate problem than regular orphans.

There was widespread interest in the children of the Halifax Explosion. There were over four hundred letters received inquiring about possible adoptions even though

Ernest H. Blois declared that no orphan child shall be removed from the province to provide consistency in their lives (Nova Scotia Children’s Aid Society 1917-18). Letters were addressed to local reverends, the Red Cross, the Nova Scotia Children’s Aid Society, and others in Nova Scotia and came from almost every province in Canada, New

Hampshire, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Alabama, Oklahoma, and even France (Nova

Scotia Children’s Society 1917-18: #23, #46, #208, #350). These letters capture preferences for Caucasian children over African Nova Scotian children in adoption thus hinting at the prevalence of discrimination within society at the time. This preference for

Caucasian children is a notion present in the creation and implementation of child services post-Explosion.

The Children’s Committee of the Halifax Relief Commission (HRC) was not an original part of the HRC. The Children’s Committee was established December 14th 1917, a week after the Explosion, because there were many complaints of people removing children from Halifax with the intention to adopt them without registering or receiving

1 The next available Report after 1919 was 1927 and I chose not to include it in this thesis as it did not have any information that was connected to the services African Nova Scotian children received. By that time the Nova Scotia Home for Coloured Children had been rebuilt and opened and handled a majority of African Nova Scotian children. 28

the proper authority to do so (Halifax Relief Commission 1917-18). After Ernest H. Blois was appointed head of the Children’s Committee, he was emphatic that no person was to remove a child from Halifax without approval from him. He also declared that the

Children’s Committee was created “for the purpose of assisting those who were endeavoring to deal with the children’s problems arising out of the catastrophe” (Halifax

Relief Commission 1917-1918: 1). The majority of the Children’s Committee’s records include lists of children: where they were placed; what amounts by the way of pensions were to be given to the institution caring for them, ranging from two dollars for younger children and up to twenty-two dollars for teenagers; ages and any wounds the children had (Halifax Relief Commission 1917-18). The list of children boarded by the Children’s

Committee was as follows (Halifax Relief Commission 1917-18:2):

Halifax Detention Home - 11 Home of the Guardian Angel - 7 St. Joseph’s Orphanage - 22 Halifax industrial School - 3 St. Patrick’s Home - 1 Maritime Home for Girls - 1 Monastery of the Good Sheppard - 1 Halifax Infant’s Home - 2 Mrs. F.G. Leader - 2 Mrs. Marriott - 2 Mrs. Turner of Three Mile Plains - 10

As I was reading the list of institutions, I was surprised that there were individual women listed who had had children placed with them. Mrs. Turner’s name is one that stuck out because the children that were listed as in her care were, “Sampson- Reta (14),

Rachel (12), Olive (10), Josephine (8), Lawrence (4); Upshaw- Pearl (9), Randolph (7),

Dorothy (6), Marjorie (3), Lauren (2)” (Halifax Relief Commission 1917-18: 2), Upshaw and Sampson are both well-known African Nova Scotian surnames, but as the lists do not identify race, I can only rely on the common knowledge that these are African Nova 29

Scotian last names; there is also the possibility that there were other African Nova

Scotian children listed, and I just did not recognize their last names as African Nova

Scotian. This mention of Mrs. Turner of Three Mile Plains may be the first trace of child welfare for African Nova Scotian children; nowhere else is Mrs. Turner mentioned in the

Children’s Committee Records, Halifax Relief Commission records, or any government records. This was also the only place these children were mentioned. I attempted to follow-up on Mrs. Turner by looking into the Nova Scotia Archives biographies of

Turners within Three Mile Plains, but there was no clear sign as to who Mrs. Turner was.

I also attempted to follow-up on the children listed to have stayed with Mrs. Turner but again, I could not find biographies on any of them individually nor any clear signs as to their lineage.

In summary, the Children’s Committee records from each institution had well- documented listings of the children by their ages, their pensions, and follow-up visits.

African Nova Scotian children did not appear on any documents and beyond these ten children placed with Mrs. Turner, there are no records of placements. Thus these records raise more questions than offer answers.

The above data analysis reveals although there were supposed permanent goals regarding “the problem of the coloured orphan” (Blois 1919:110), there was no real action taken by the Nova Scotia Government that was independent of the African Nova

Scotian community. The little data available discussing the placement and care of African

Nova Scotian children is brief, fleeting, and weak leading me to question the treatment and care they received compared to other Nova Scotian children in need.

CHAPTER 5: Conclusion

The aim of this research, using Critical Race Theory, was to analyze the treatment and care given to African Nova Scotian children between the years of 1917 and 1921 and to determine if this care was equal to the treatment and care given to other Nova Scotian children, as well as to look into the services and programs developed for African Nova

Scotians.

Through the lens of Critical Race Theory, this research analyzed historical documents through the method of historical document analysis. Using historical document analysis allows this research to make Halifax at the time of the Explosion visible in ways that show social injustice; to make society aware of the discrimination that took place to ensure it never happens again (Denzin 2013).

There is a small amount of current research done by scholars on this topic and my research findings reveals that the data available is meagre at best compared to data on

Caucasian Nova Scotian children. I therefore suggest that the government support, aid, and care that was given to African Nova Scotian children was in no way equal to the support, aid, and care given to other Nova Scotian children. The treatment of African

Nova Scotian children was clearly insufficient and inadequately documented. Such an absence of documenting in combination with reported racist attitudes suggests pervasive and systemic racism.

Post-explosion, Halifax quickly created the Halifax Relief Commission (HRC) and a week later there was the creation of the Children’s Committee of the HRC. The records examined in this study revealed that the Children’s Commission set about to

provide care for the affected children in the region (Halifax Relief Commission 1917-18).

African Nova Scotian children did not appear to have had special provisions made for them or to have been widely included in those created for Halifax’s children. This research demonstrated ways which ‘race’ prevented African Nova Scotian children from being helped in the same way as other children, demonstrating social and racial stigma present in the child welfare system.

No institutions in the post-Explosion era took in African Nova Scotian children

(Blois 1919, Saunders 1994, Lafferty 2013). This was a well-informed choice made by the child welfare system to disregard a population of children. Blois’ Report discussed the permanent goal of dealing with “the problem of the coloured orphan” (Blois 1919:110) and no care, actions, or further documented records mention how this ‘problem’ was dealt with. Even though the Children’s Committee short-term goals included the repairing of damages to existing child welfare institutions, the Nova Scotia Home for Coloured

Children (NSHCC) was not included as an institution that needed to be repaired in the aftermath. There appears to have been no push for the re-opening of the NSHCC at a time when the need for care of African Nova Scotian children was at its highest. I therefore argue that this is an example of racial and social stigma within the child welfare system post-Explosion. A further example that captures racial discrimination at a broader societal level are the hundreds of letters inquiring about adopting orphans of the Halifax

Explosion, children who had blonde hair and blue eyes (Nova Scotia Children’s Aid

Society 1917-18).

Within the Children’s Committee records, there is evidence to indicate that a group of African Nova Scotian children stayed with a Mrs. Turner of Three Miles Plains.

This finding may be the first and only data available that directly shows the provision of child welfare to African Nova Scotian. However there is no way to definitively prove that these were African Nova Scotian children, as the only way they were identified was through well-known African Nova Scotian surnames. Should this be the case, it is then possible that there were other children listed that were African Nova Scotian, but I did not recognize their surname as African Nova Scotian.

My thesis research narrates the ignored history of African Nova Scotian children.

Although the objective of this thesis was to fill a gap in the research of African Nova

Scotian child welfare, what I have managed to do is highlight the existence of a greater absence than I previously realized. More questions are raised than answered. I find myself asking, how did no one - either in government or community- realize the lack of involvement/documentation of African Nova Scotian children? And, if they did notice, were there any actions taken towards this purposeful lack of awareness? Or, how was this invisibility of the African Nova Scotian community justified? The evidence clearly proves there was knowledge by both the government and community that there were few children’s institutions that took in African Nova Scotian children. Thus, the numbers and data relating to child institutions and the number of children present would most likely not include any African Nova Scotian children and the government of Nova Scotia knew this; this in itself is a clear reflection of the racial stigma in Nova Scotian society in this post-Explosion era. The recognition there was “the problem of the coloured orphan”

(Blois 1919:110) that never got addressed provides evidence of racialized social attitudes.

I also have many unanswered questions about Mrs. Turner and the ten African

Nova Scotian children she was caring for (Halifax Relief Commission 1917-18). I only

found one reference for her and the ten children, and that was within the Halifax Relief

Commission records. Who was Mrs. Turner? How did she get involved with the

Children’s Committee? Why was she willing to take in African Nova Scotian children when others were not? Were there follow-up visits as there were in the children’s institutions? How long did these children stay with Mrs. Turner? Were there other people in Three Mile Plains that took in African Nova Scotian children? What were the conditions of Mrs. Turner’s home? And, where did the children go after having stayed with Mrs. Turner or did they stay with her until they reached eighteen? Future research on

Mrs. Turner, the Upshaw, and the Sampson children could answer the questions I have raised here and possibly more, thus opening the doors for more specified and advanced research.

Prince wrote “Big crises bring changes about most easily because they affect all individuals alike at the same time” (Prince 1920: 21). Although the Halifax Explosion affected all Haligonians, changes that came about because of the Explosion were not equally distributed among the population. My thesis demonstrates that race influenced how people were treated. Africville residents were denied claims due to the damage caused by the Explosion for no other reason than they were not Caucasian. And there is no documentation as to the treatment and care given to African Nova Scotian children. In fact, African Nova Scotian children post-Explosion are curiously unaccounted for. They have not been recorded in this part of our history.

References

Agger, Ben. 1991. “Critical Theory, Poststructuralism, Postmodernism: Their Sociological Relevance.” Annual Review of Sociology 17:105–31.

Akoma Family Centre. 2014. “Historical Timeline.” Akoma Family Centre. Retrieved December 2, 2014 (http://www.akoma.ca/history-timeline).

Albert, Jim and Margot Herbert. 2006. “Child Welfare.” The Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved November 6, 2014 (http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/child-welfare/).

Blois, Ernest H. 1919. Nova Scotian Report of the Superintendent of Neglected and Delinquent Children. Halifax, NS: Commissioner of Public Works and Mines; King’s Printer.

Calliste, Agnes. 1993. “Race, Gender and Canadian Immigration Policy: Blacks from the Caribbean, 1900-1932.” Journal of Canadian Studies 38(4):131–48.

Canadian Child Welfare Research Portal. 2011. “What Is Child Welfare?” Retrieved November 5, 2014 (http://cwrp.ca/faqs).

Delgado, Richard and Jean Stefancic. 2001. Critical Race Theory: An Introduction. New York, NY: NYU Press.

Denzin, Norman K. 2013. “Performing Methodologies.” Qualitative Social Work 12(4):389–94.

Donovan, Kenneth. 2004. “Slaves in Ile Royale, 1713-1758.” French Colonial History 5:25–42.

Ellison, Ralph. 1995. The Invisible Man. 2nd Edition. Random House Inc.

Government of Nova Scotia. 1917. Council Meeting: October, 29th, 1917. Halifax, NS.

Government of Nova Scotia. 2014. “The History of Child Welfare in Nova Scotia.” Children, Youth &Families. Retrieved December 18, 2014 (http://novascotia.ca/coms/families/HistoryofChildWelfare.html).

Halifax Relief Commission. 1917. Children’s Committee Records. Halifax, NS: Nova Scotia Archives.

Hébert-Boyd, Michelle. 2007. Enriched by Catastrophe: Social Work and Social Conflict after the Halifax Explosion. Halifax, NS: Fernwood Publishing.

Hulbert, Ann. 1999. “The Century of the Child.” The Wilson Quarterly 23(1):14–29.

Kitz, Janet F. 2008. Shattered City: The Halifax Explosion & the Road to Recovery. Halifax, NS: Nimbus Publishing Ltd.

Lafferty, Renée N. 2013. The Guardianship of Best Interests: Institutional Care for the Children of the Poor in Halifax, 1859-1960. Montreal, QC: McGill-Queen’s University Press.

Loseke, Donileen R. 2012. “Data Generation Techniques.” Pp. 82–96 in Methodological Thinking: Basic Issues in Social Research Design. California, USA: Sage Publications.

Maritime Museum of the Atlantic. 2014. “Halifax Explosion.” Retrieved September 24, 2014 (https://maritimemuseum.novascotia.ca/what-see-do/halifax-explosion).

Mech, Edmund V. 1964. “Child Welfare Research: A Review and Critique.” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 355:20–30.

Nova Scotia’s Children’s Aid Society. 1917. Adoption Letters. Halifax, NS: Nova Scotia Archives.

Osborn, D. Keith and Janie D. Osborn. 1978. “Childhood at the Turn of the Century.” The Family Coordinator 27(1):27.

Pachai, Bridglal. 2007. The Nova Scotia Black Experience Through the Centuries. Halifax, NS: Nimbus Publishing Ltd.

Prince, Samuel H. 1920. Catastrophe and Social Change: Based Upon a Sociological Study of the Halifax Disaster. New York: Colombia University.

Rocco, Tonetter S., Judith D. Bernier, and Lorenzo Bowman. 2014. “Critical Race Theory and HRD: Moving Race Front and Center.” Advances in Developing Human Resources 16(4):457–70.

Saunders, Charles R. 1994. Share &Care: The Story of the Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children. Halifax, NS: Nimbus Publishing Ltd.

Tate IV, Williams F. 1997. “Critical Race Theory and Education: History, Theory, and Implications.” Review of Research in Education 22(1):195–247.

Trevino, A. Javier, Michelle A. Harris, and Derron Wallace. 2008. “What’s so Critical about Critical Race Theory?” Contemporary Justice Review: Issues in Criminal, Social, and Restorative Justice 11(1):7–10.

Walker, Barrington. 2012. The African Canadian Legal Odyssey: Historical Essays. Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press.

Williams, Robert C. 2003. The Historian’s Toolbox: A Student’s Guide to the Theory and Craft of History. Armonk, New York: M.E. Sharpe Inc.