Of Nova Scotia

Our Mothers Grand and Great Black Women of Nova Scotia 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 (Annapolis 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, Black Loyalist 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 David George, 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.

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