Africville

Africville was a historic Black community in Halifax, Nova Scotia, a Maritime province in eastern Canada. The community’s roots go back to the mid-eighteenth century when enslaved Africans helped build the city. Africville itself was founded in the early nineteenth century when freed American slaves relocated to Nova Scotia after the War of 1812. For more than a century and a half, Africville was the heart of the Black community in Halifax, despite the city denying its residents basic amenities like running water and sewers. In the late 1960s, the neglected community was razed by the city as part of an urban renewal project. Africville’s citizens were relocated and their houses demolished. Many residents were upset at the demolition, viewing it as the destruction of their heritage as Black Canadians. In the decades after the community’s relocation, both the city and federal government have attempted to make amends. Canada named the area a National Historic Site in 1996 and Halifax’s mayor formally apologized for the demolition in 2010.

Background

The city of Halifax was founded in 1749 as one of the first major British settlements in what is today Canada. Among the new arrivals were free Black settlers who had escaped slavery elsewhere in North America and a group of enslaved Africans who worked in the construction of the city. Historical records indicate that much of Halifax’s early Black population settled in an area north of the city.

During the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), the British offered freedom and land to enslaved people who agreed to fight for the Crown. Thousands of people accepted the offer, but when it became apparent that England would lose the war, many were left behind as the British began leaving the American colonies. The British did make efforts to resettle some of these so-called Black Loyalists and a group of about three thousand was moved north to Nova Scotia. In the 1790s, hundreds of former enslaved Jamaicans known as Maroons were deported to Nova Scotia after a rebellion on the Caribbean island. Although many soon left to establish a colony in the West African nation of Sierra Leone, a number remained behind and built a legacy in Nova Scotia.

Overview

In the early nineteenth century, people escaping slavery in the southern United States fled north to Canada, which was then exclusively a British colony. After the War of 1812 (1812–1815) between the United States and Britain, another influx of Black refugees moved north on promises of freedom in return for loyalty. A number of these newcomers settled in the Black community in northern Halifax, which by then was populated by a mix of Black Loyalists, Maroons, and other free Black settlers. The area was originally known as the Campbell Road settlement but later acquired the name Africville, possibly as a shortened form of its nickname, “African Village.”

In the 1840s, the community expanded, growing to about eighty residents by 1849. That year, the Seaview Baptist Church was constructed as both a physical and cultural center in the community. Africville later acquired its own post office, and a community school was built there in 1883. By the 1910s, an estimated four hundred people lived in the community, which despite its poverty, was considered a safe haven from the racist attitudes of Halifax itself.

Africville remained a close-knit community among its residents, but the city mainly neglected the area and its needs. In the 1850s, several houses were destroyed to make way for a railway extension through Africville. The railway claimed additional land in the early twentieth century. Halifax treated the community as an industrial center, placing a fertilizer plant, slaughterhouses, a prison, and human waste disposal pits within its borders during the nineteenth century. Even into the mid-twentieth century, Africville residents paid taxes, but the city refused to provide them with running water, sewers, paved roads, garbage disposal, electricity, and other basic services. In 1955, the city moved its garbage dump to Africville, just yards from people’s homes and the historic Seaview Baptist Church. Three years later, Halifax officially categorized Africville as a “slum.”

In the early 1960s, the city council voted to relocate the people of Africville and raze the community as part of an urban renewal project. The residents objected, but the city went ahead with the project and began relocating families in 1964. Residents who had proof that they owned their homes were offered market value, while those without deeds were given a flat fee of five hundred dollars. Residents who refused to move could have their property seized by the city. From 1964 to 1970, all the homes in Africville were demolished and the residents relocated. Several families and their belongings were moved on the back of dump trucks. For many, the symbolic end of their community came in 1967 when the Seaview Baptist Church was bulldozed in the middle of the night.

The former site of the community was repurposed into private housing, ramps for a bridge across Halifax Harbor, a shipping terminal, and a dog park. Angry residents who found the city’s settlements inadequate to pay for comparable housing began seeking financial compensation for their losses in 1969. Although former residents were scattered throughout Nova Scotia and other Canadian provinces, many continued to return to Africville for years afterwards to hold reunions. In 1996, the efforts for recognition began to pay off when the Canadian government named the area a National Historic Site. In 2010, a settlement was reached with Halifax to provide 2.5 acres of land for the rebuilding of the Seaview Baptist Church and three million dollars in construction costs and other compensation. The settlement also included a formal public apology from the mayor of Halifax. The reconstructed church was opened in 2011 as the Africville Museum, which contains exhibits from the former community and hosts reunion events.

Bibliography

“Africville: A Community Destroyed.” CBC/Radio-Canada, 18 Feb. 2016, www.cbc.ca/radio/rewind/africville-a-community-destroyed-1.2919404. Accessed 28 Dec. 2020.

“Africville Church: The Demolition of the Heartbeat of a Community.” CTV Atlantic, 4 Mar. 2017, atlantic.ctvnews.ca/africville-church-the-demolition-of-the-heartbeat-of-a-community-1.3311050. Accessed 28 Dec. 2020.

“African Nova Scotian.” NovaScotia.com, 2020, www.novascotia.com/travel-info/about-us/african-nova-scotia. Accessed 28 Dec. 2020.

Cooper, Celine. “Africville.” Canadian Encyclopedia, 20 Feb. 2020, www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/africville. Accessed 28 Dec. 2020.

McRae, Matthew. “The Story of Africville.” Canadian Museum for Human Rights, 2020, humanrights.ca/story/the-story-of-africville. Accessed 28 Dec. 2020.

Nelson, Jennifer. Razing Africville: A Geography of Racism. U of Toronto P, 2008.

Oyeniran, Channon. “Black Loyalists in British North America.” Canadian Encyclopedia, 25 Mar. 2019, www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/black-loyalists-in-british-north-america. Accessed 28 Dec. 2020.

“The Story.” Africville Museum, 2020, africvillemuseum.org/africville-heritage-trust/the-story/. Accessed 28 Dec. 2020.