Child Welfare Services After the Halifax Explosion by Jessica Bundy
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The Problem of the Coloured Child: Child Welfare Services after the Halifax Explosion by 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 © Copyright by Jessica Bundy, 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 ii 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. iv 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 v 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. vi 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 water- front 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 1 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 2 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