Our Mothers Grand and Great Black Women of

BY SYLVIA, HAMILTON

As Sylvia Hamiltonpoints out in this article, whichfirst appeared their champions, an initial tendency is to lionize and revere all. in Multiculture (Vol. 4,No. 2,1982),media accounts of racially Since they will be paraded for all to see, faults and shortcomings motivated incidents are not, as the media would have us believe, are minimized and criticism is not often tolerated. The making of new to this country. The history of racism dates back to the be- cultural heroes and heroines is an act of unification and empow- ginnings of Canada. The history of blacks, andparticularly black erment. This process, just beginning among Afro-Nova Scotians, women, in Canada is a long and difficult one. There is still much is integral to the survival of a people. to discover and to recover in what has been erased and ignored. Thisarticle goes a long way towards correcting those gapsin our On Saturday next,at twelve o'clock,will be sold on the Beach, knowledge. two hogshead of rum, three of sugar, and two well-grown negro girls, agedfourteen and twclve, to the highest bidder. ery little of what one reads about Nova Scotia would reveal the existence of an Afro-Nova Scotian* popula- From her first arrival in Nova Scotia, the Black woman has tion that dates back three centuries. Provincial adver- been immersed in a struggle for survival. She has had to battle tising, displays, and brochures reflect people of Euro- slavery, servitude, sexual and racial discrimination,and ridicule. peanv ancestry: the Scots, the Celts, the French, and the Irish, Her tenacious spirit has been her strongest and most constant ally; among others. There is occasional mention of Nova Scotia's first she is surviving with a strong dignity and an admirable lack of people, the Micmac. Yet Afro-Nova Scotians live in forty-three self-pity and bitterness. Sheis surviving, but not without struggle. communities throughout a province which is populated by over During Nova Scotia's period of slavery, Black female slaves seventy-two different ethnic groups. Tourists and official visitors werecalled upon to do more than simple domestic chores for their often express great surprise when they encounter people of masters. Sylvia was a servant of Colonel Creighton of Lunen- African origin who can trace their heritage to the 1700s and burg. On July 1,1782, the town was invaded by soldiers from the 1800s. To understand the lives of Black women in Nova Scotia, strife-ridden American Colonies. Sylvia shuttled cartridges hid- one has first to learn something about their people and their den in her apron from Creighton's house to the fort where he was environment. doing battle. When the house came under fire, Sylvia threw The African presence here began in 1605 when a French herself on top of the Colonel's son to protect him. During the colony was established at Port Royal (). A Black battle she also found time to conceal her master's valuables in a man, Mathieu da Costa, accompanied Pierre Du Gua, Sieur De bag which she lowered into the well for safekeeping. Typically, Monts, and Samuel de Champlain to the new colony. Da Costa it was not Sylvia who was recognized for her efforts, but her was one of Sieur De Monts' most useful men, as he knew the master and a militia private to whom the provincial House of language of the Micmac and therefore served as interpreter for Assembly voted payments of money from the county's land the French. The existence of Blacks in Nova Scotia remained taxes. singular and sporadic until the late 1700s, when three thousand Another tidy arrangement involved slave-holding ministers. Black Loyalists arrived at the close of the American War of These men of the cloth adjusted their beliefs and principles Independence. Though the Black Loyalists were free people, accordingly when they purchased slaves. Lunenburg's Presbyte- I other Blacks who came at the same time with White Loyalists rian minister John Seccornbe kept ajournal in which he noted that bore the euphemistic title "servant for life." Both groups joined "Dinah, my negro woman-servant made a profession and confes- the small population of Black slaves already present in the sion publickly (sic)and was baptized, July 17,1774." Dinah had province. A second major influx of Blacks would occur follow- a son, Solomon, who was brought to the province as a slave and ing the War of 18 12; approximately two thousand former slaves, who died in 1855 at age ninety; no record was found of the date the Black Refugees, arrived in Nova Scotia during the postwar of Dinah's death. In 1788 a mother and daughter were enslaved period between 1813 and 1816. by Truro's Presbyterian pastor, Reverend Daniel Cock. When the African people have a long tradition of oral history; stories mother became "unruly," he sold her but kept the daughter. In the about their heroes and heroines have therefore gone unrecorded. same year, a Black woman named Mary Postill was sold in When a people begins the process of creating a written record of Shelbune; her price was one hundred bushels of potatoes.

VOLUME 11, NUMBER 3 45 Many slaves could hold no hope of bakers, and hat makers? We can in some against the British colonists in Jamaica. being set free upon the death of their measure recreate the society they lived in; Upon their arrival the men were put to owners. Annapolis merchant Joseph Tot- we can even speculate on what they looked work on reconstruction of Citadel Hill. Of ten left his wife Suzannah the use of like. But except for isolated cases, their the Maroon women very little is recorded. "slaves, horses, cattle, stock, etc." and% memories and experiences are their own We do know they were used for the enter- each of three daughters a negro girl slave and will remain with them, fixed in time. tainment of some of the province's es- ... to her executors, administrators and One of those rare, isolated instances is teemed leaders: Governor John Wen- assigns for ever." Amen. Some who were that of Rose Fortune. A descendant of the tworth is believed to have taken a Maroon not given their freedom seized it for Black Loyalists, Rose lived in Annapolis woman as his mistress, while Alexander themselves. Determined owners placed Royal in the mid- 1880s. Shedistinguished Ochterloney, a commissioner placed in newspaper ads offering rewards for their herself by establishing a baggage service charge of the Maroons, "took five or six of return. for travelers arriving by boat at Annapo- the most attractive Maroon girls to his While Black women slaves were being lis from Saint John and Boston. A modest bed, keeping what the surveyor of Ma- sold, left in wills, traded, and otherwise roons, Theophilus Chamberlain, called a used, women, ostensibly 'seraglio for his friends."' The Maroon free, endeavoured to provide a livelihood ...the black woman... is interlude ended in 1800 when they too set for themselves and their families while at sail for Sierra Leone. the same time labouring to establish surviving with a strong Between 1813 and 1816 the Black communities. In 1787 Catherine Aber- dignity and an admir- Refugees made their way to the province. nathy, a BlackLoyalist teacher, instructed It is this group whose memory is strongest children in Preston, near Halifax. She able lack of selfpity in Nova Scotia, for their descendants may taught a class of twenty children in a log be found in communities such as Ham- schoolhouse built by the people of the and bitterness. monds Plains, Preston, Beechville, Con- community. Abernathy established a tra- way, Cobequid Road, and Three Mile dition of Black women teachers which wheelbarrow and her strong arms were Plains. Some of the earliest sketches and would be strongly upheld by her sisters in her two biggest assets. Rose's noteworthy photographs of the Halifax city market years to come. Similarly, her contempo- activities were not only commercial. She show Black women selling baskets over- raries Violet King and Phillis George, the concerned herself with the well-being of flowing with mayflowers. Basketweav- wives of ministers, carved another dis- the young and old alike. Rose Fortune ing for them was not an activity used to fill tinct path: Black women supporting their declared herself policewoman of the town idle time: it was work aimedat bringing in men and at the same time providing a and as such took upon herself the respon- money vital to the survival of the family. stable base for their families. Even though sibility of making sure young children This century-old tradition has endured history has documented the lives of Bos- were safely off the streets at night. Her because there are women who learned the ton King and , it has re- memory is kept alive by her descendants, craft from their mothers, who in turn mained silent on the experiences of Violet the Lewis family of Annapolis Royal. learned it from their mothers. Edith Clay- and Phillis. Daurene Lewis is an accomplished weaver ton of East Preston has been weaving What must it have been like for Phillis whose work is well known in Nova Sco- maple market baskets since she was eight George in Shelburne in the late 1780s? tia. She also holds the distinction of being years old; it is a tradition which reaches Her husband traveled extensively, setting the first Black woman elected to a town back to touch six generations of her fam- up Baptist churches in Nova Scotia and council in the province. ily. Not only does Edith Clayton continue New Brunswick. He preached to and Black Loyalists had been promised land to make and sell baskets, she also teaches baptized Blacks and Whites alike, not a sufficient to start new lives in Nova Sco- classes in basketweaving throughout Nova popular undertaking at that time. The tia. However, when the grants of land Scotia as a means of preserving and pass- Georges had three children; money and were allocated, the Black Loyalists re- ing on a significant and uniquely Afro- food were scarce. On one occasion, a gang ceived much less than their White counter- Nova Scotian aspect of the culture and of fifty former soldiers armed with aship's parts. Dissatisfaction with this inequity heritage of the province. tackle surrounded their household, over- coupled with an unyielding desire to build Many and varied are the roles Black turning it and what contents it had. Some a better future for their families provided women have played and continue to play weeks later, on a Sunday, a mob arrived at the impetus for an exodus to SierraLeone, within their own and the broader com- George's church; they whipped and beat West Africa, where the Black Loyalists munity. It has often been said they are the him, driving the Baptist minister into the hoped life would be different. In 1792 backbone of the Black community: or- swamps of Shelburne. Under the cover of Phillis and David George, along with ganizers, fund-raisers, nurturers, care- darkness, David George made his way twelve hundred Black Loyalists, sailed givers, mourners. When an attempt was back to town, collected Phillis and the from Nova Scotia to Sierra Leone. made in 1836 by the provincial gov- children, and fled to neighbouring Four years later five hundred Jamaican ernment to send the people of Preston to Birchtown. Maroons were sent in exile to Nova Sco- Trinidad, it was the women who objected: What of Phillis George and other Black tia. A proud people, the Maroons were Loyalist women: unnamed women who descendants of runaway slaves who for They all appearfearful of embarking on were weavers, seamstresses, servants, over one hundred fifty years waged war the water -many of them are old and

CANADIAN WOMAN STUDIESLES CAHERS DE LA FEMME have large families, and ifafew of the the Ladies' Auxiliary she had helped to to the promotion of the church and men should be willing to go, the Women organize thirty-nine years before. community welfare. would not. It is objected among them One hundred five delegates were regis- that they have never heard any report of tered for a meeting whose theme was Since 1956 the meeting of the Women's those who were sent away a few years "Building Better Communities." Among Institute has been an annual event. In ago to the same place, and think that if the issues discussed were community October, 198 1, the Institute celebrated its they were doing well some report of it health and educational standards and twenty-fifth anniversary. Its history tells would have reached them. They seem to family relations. Muriel States, who was of the dedicated work of many women: have some attachment to the soil they the Auxiliary's Official Organizer at the Gertrude Smith, Margaret Upshaw, Pear- have cultivated, poor and barren as it time, told her sisters their activities would leen Oliver, Selina David, Catherine IS.... not go unnoticed: Clarke and many others. Today the Insti- tute undoubtedly records the largest gath- Nowhere has their involvement been Today,we women of the African Baptist erings of Black women in the province; more pronounced than in the social, ed- annual conventions draw several hundred Association have taken another step ucational, and religious life of the Black Black women. which will go down in history as the community. In 1917 the women of the In 1937 the Nova Scotia teacher's col- African Baptist churches in the province first Women'sInstitute held this day at lege in Tnuo had a student population of gathered together to establish a Ladies' this church. Wefeel that we as women over one hundred students. My mother Auxiliary, which would take responsi- have accomplished much and are aim- Marie remembers being one of the bility for the "stimulation of the spiritual, ing to do great things in the future. We college's two Black students; her com- moral, social, educational, charitable and are already reaping the reward of un- panion was Ada Symonds. Teaching was financial work of all the local churches of tiring and united effort in all that tends my mother's second choice for a career; the African Baptist nursing, her first Association." These choice, was not women gathered out- open to Blacks. The side around a well in bar remained sol- the community of East idly across this door Preston since the until 1945, when church had no space pressure from the for them to use; this Nova Scotia Asso- gathering became ciation for the Ad- known as the6Women vancement of Col- at the Well." Some of oured People and these same women from Reverend later organized an William and Pear- auxiliary to provide leen Oliver forced support for the Nova its removal. Two Scotia Home for Col- Black women were oured Children. In admitted as trainees 1920, forthe first time in nursing. in Canadian history, a Teaching became Convention of Col- the selected profes- oured Women was sion for many Black held in Halifax. women. Somechose A woman well-re- it because they spected throughout wanted to teach, Nova Scotia's Black others because there communities is were no other op- ninety-four-year-old tions open. These Muriel V. States. She women are espe- was present that day cially remembered the women gathered for their diligent at the well to estab- work and commit- lish the Ladies' Aux- ment in the face of iliary. She was pres- the hardship and ent as well at another adversitv of a soci- historic event: the 'Portia White, an international operastar, was born in TN~in 1910. In 1944 the Portia WhiteT~stFund was ety that has tried set up to help her train. She performed in New York, kiln America and Eumpe and later became a gifted of the teacher. It was her donation that set up hemusk litmy in the Halifax Regional Library: unceaSinglyto deny Women's Instituteof their existence. They

VOLUME l l, NUMBER 3 SmFine Wmn,projection work by Wilma Needham, 1983 (from CWSlcf,Vol. 11, No. 1,1990) 47 had to put up with one-room segregated which began as an eight-by-tenbroadside have begun to enter areas where their schools, few resources and little money. in 1945 soon blossomed into a full-fledged absence has heretofore been conspicu- They stayed late to devote extra time to newspaper. This was The Clarion, edited ous: government, law, journalism, busi- those students who had to stay home to and published by Dr. Carrie Best. Pub- ness, and medicine. This is not to say the help pick blueberries and mayflowers or lished twice monthly, The Clarion called struggle has ended or that we have ar- to help garden. When the school day was itself the voice of "coloured Nova Sco- rived. While the attitude of the Black over, another day began for them: seeing tians." Dr. Best published timely articles woman toward herself has been undergo- to their own children, cooking supper, on civil-rights issues in Nova Scotia and ing changes, the perceptions and attitudes ironing the children's clothes for school, elsewhere; the paper featured a women's of others both within her own community preparing lessons and attending a meeting page and carried sports and social news. and beyond it require continual challenges at the church. In 1949 The Clarion gave birth to The to bring about any significant changes in As they laboured at teaching, nursing, Negro Citizen,which achieved nationwide how she is regarded and treated by others. housekeeping, typing and other jobs, Black circulation. But Dr. Best was not moving As Black women begin paying tribute to women have not led easy lives. Nova Sco- down a totally untraveled path; one cen- themselves and their own work, others tian Black women, like their counterparts tury before, in 1853, Mary Shadd Cary will pay tribute also. This year (1982) the elsewhere, have always known a double launched The Provincial Freeman from family of Joyce Ross, a daycare director day. Some say the Black woman invented Windsor, Ontario. In so doing, she be- and long-standing community worker in it. Work was and continues to bean inte- came the first Black woman in North East Preston, held a recognition dinner in gral part of her life. She has not had the America to found and edit a weekly her honour. Pearleen Oliver, author, his- luxury of deciding to stay home; with the newspaper. Dr. Best has been awarded the torian, and educator, was one of three current state of both our provincial and Order of Canada; in 1977 she published women selected to receive the YWCA national economies, it is unlikely she will her autobiography,That Lonesome Road. Recognition of Women Award initiated be afforded that choice in the near future. Other Black flowers were blossoming in 1981. She was the first woman to serve Public attention in Canada has been as well in the 1940s. When Portia White as moderator of the African United Bap- increasingly riveted upon incidints of was seventeen she was teaching school tist Association and is the author of Brief racially motivated attacks on individuals and taking singing lessons. Winning the History of Colored Baptists of Nova Sco- and groups in some of our major urban Silver Cup at the Nova Scotia Music tia 1782-1953 (1953) and A Root and a centres. The manner in which these cases Festival paved the way for her to receive Name (1977). When the Recognition of have been described would lead one to a scholarship from the Halifax Ladies' Women Award was announced for 1982, believe such occurrences are relatively Musical Club to study at the Halifax Doris Evans, an educator and community new phenomena in this country. Even the Conservatory of Music. By the time she worker, was among the three women most cursory examination of the ex- was thirty-one Portia White had made her honoured. And there are still many others periences of Afro-Nova Scotians will musical debut in Toronto. Four years later, who have experiences that need to be clearly demonstrate that, indeed, such is in 1945, shemadeherdebutatNewYork's examined and stories that need to be told not the case. famed Town Hall and later toured the - women such as Ada Fells of Yarmouth, Edith Cmmwell of Bridgetown, Clotilda In 1946 New Glasgow theatres were United States and Europe. Of the "young Douglas of Sydney, Elsie Elms of segregated, Blacks sat upstairs, Whites Canadian contralto's" debut, one New Guysbomugh, Ruth Johnson of Cobequid occupied the downstairs seats. While in York critic wrote: Road. And there are others ... New Glasgow, ViolaDesmond of Halifax as soon as she stepped on to the stage Writer Mary Helen Washington, in the decided to go to the theatre. She bought a and began to sing it was obvious that introduction to her book Midnight Birds, ticket (balcony seat) but decided to sit here was a young musician of remark- speaks of the process whereby Black downstairs. Though she was ordered to able talents. Miss White has afine, rich women recover and rename their past. move, Viola refused, offering instead to voice which she uses both expressively She talks about the monuments and stat- pay the difference in price. The theatre and intelligently ... The artist has an ues erected by White men to celebrate manager declined the offer and called the excellent stage presence ... she was their achievements, "to remake history, police. Viola Desmond was carried away greeted with enthusiastic applause at and to cast themselves eternally in heroic by the officer and held in jail overnight. each entrance.Miss White is a singer to form." She says, "we have been erased The next day she was fined twenty dollars watch, a singer with a bright future. from history." As research and explora- and costs. She was charged with having tion into the lives of Black women in avoided paying the one-cent entertain- In 1969, Portia White's estate donated Nova Scotia continues, a fuller view, one ment tax. A year later, Selma Burke, a a gift of one thousand dollars to the Hal- with dimension and perspective, will Black woman from theunited States, was ifax City Regional Library to assist in emerge. We will know then where toerect refused service in Halifax. It is not diffi- setting up a music library in the city. The our monument. Now there are only sign- cult to see that this environment had the record collec tion which was subsequently posts pointing the way. power to dampen spirits, damage identi- installed is large and varied; few members of the borrowing public, however, know * While the term Black is most commonly used ties and lessen the desire for change. But to identijj people ofAfrican origin,Afro-Nova there were Black women who felt equal to how the collection they so enjoy was Scotian has come into contemporary use to the challenge. originally established. identif) people of African descent who live in A New Glasgow publishing venture Recently Black women in Nova Scotia Nova Scotia.

CANADIAN WOMAN STUDIES/LES CAHIERS DE LA FEMME