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 Africville Museum - Halifax, NS Posted by:  T0SHEA
N 44° 40.421 W 063° 37.161
20T E 450909 N 4946888
One of the darker periods in Canadian history is the story of Halifax's Africville and the treatment of the African Canadians who lived there.
Waymark Code: WMQQTK
Location: Nova Scotia, Canada
Date Posted: 03/20/2016
Views: 6
Many former American slaves who immigrated to Canada gravitated to the city of Halifax, creating a community on the edge of town which became known as Africville. Segregated into what was essentially a ghetto on the north western corner of downtown Halifax, the inhabitants were subjected to terrible living conditions for over a century, until their neighbourhood was bulldozed, leaving them homeless and destitute.
A Canadian National Historic Site plaque has been mounted at the Seaview African United Baptist Church at the south end of Seaview Park, aka Africville Park, along Africville road. The church is a replica of the original Africville Church, built by the residents of Africville in 1849. Within the church is the Africville Museum, a museum which attempts to relate the story of the residents of Africville.
Today, the Africville Museum looks across the land where the people of Africville lived, worked, and raised their families by the water of Bedford Basin. Inside the Museum, exhibits tell the story of a community that met the indignities of racism with grace and faith. Over the years, public facilities that no one else wanted were established in or near Africville: an abattoir, a prison, an infectious diseases hospital, a dump, encroaching rail and industrialization. The community lost its school, its post office, its shops.
The exhibits within the Africville Museum invite visitors to walk through the history of Africville, from thriving village on the banks of the Bedford Basin to the dislocation. It tells of the efforts of the community to maintain the bonds and to gain recognition of the injustice. >
The final indignity, the destruction of the houses and even the Church, and the relocation of the people of Africville should have been the end of the community. But the spirit of Africville lived on in her people. The people who had been forced from their community shared the stories of “out home” with their children.
Part of the land of Africville was used for a new bridge across Halifax Harbour. Some of it became part of a new container pier. And, eventually, some of the property became a seaside park.
From the Africville Museum
Africville, Halifax
Africville was a small settlement that former American slaves established in Nova Scotia after the War of 1812. It was situated on the edge of Halifax, on the Bedford Basin, in the north end of the city. Its occupants never numbered more than about 400. From the time of its founding in the 1840s until well into the twentieth century, they owned their land, worked at various jobs, fished and raised crops to survive. There were a few core families, and community life was tightly knit, centred around the church. While the majority of Halifax's Black population did not live in Africville, it was home to those who wanted to live in privacy, relatively free from the racist attitudes of the predominantly white population.
In a time when people of colour had no human rights or political voice, Africville's residents experienced the direct and severe effects of discrimination. Officials placed no value on their interests and concerns. As a result, essential institutions and facilities that other neighbourhoods rejected were placed on the doorstep of Africville – Rockhead Prison (1853), the city's night soil disposal pits (1858), an Infectious Disease Hospital (during the 1870s), a Trachoma Hospital (1905), and finally, an open city dump and incinerator (in the early 1950s). The city encouraged smelly, dirty industries to locate near Africville, and failed to install water service, sewage or lights. The lack of adequate fire or police protection reflected the city's serious neglect of the residents of Africville. This neglect paved the way for illegal liquor and entertainment enterprises, and a range of squatters.
Africville was destroyed between 1964 and 1969. By the time Halifax began a series of ambitious post-war renewal projects in the early 1960s, the community had come to be regarded as a notorious slum. Guided by social planners, the city announced that it would relocate Africville's residents, promising to give them better housing, and more equitable social and economic opportunities. Ignoring the resistance of the Africville community, Halifax expropriated the townsite, then razed it to the ground.
The residents were dispersed. It was only after they settled elsewhere that they realized they had lost the heart of their community life, their circle of support and the place where they had a sense of belonging. Inspired by the American Black Power movement, community leaders called for action. Community members spoke out against the injustice that had been committed against them, and they took pride in themselves, in Black communities and their traditions. They realized that their very survival was at stake, for Africville's citizens knew all too well that the alternative was destruction. Through their own dedicated efforts, they recovered what was left of their heritage and they spoke out about their loss, as a community.
The site where Africville was located is now a deserted park, but the spirit of Africville lives on. It has become the rallying point for Nova Scotia's Black community, and an impetus for Black people all over North America to fight racism – a symbol of the link between social well being and community heritage.
From Parks Canada
Theme:
The history of African Canadians in Halifax
Street Address:
5795 Africville Rd
Halifax, NS
Food Court: no
Gift Shop: yes
Hours of Operation:
June through August (until Labour day)
Monday – CLOSED
Tuesday to Sunday – 10:00AM to 4:00PM
September through May
Saturday, Sunday, Monday – CLOSED
Tuesday to Friday – 10:00AM to 4:00PM
Cost: 4.00 (listed in local currency)
Museum Size: Small
Relevant Web Site: [Web Link]
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Visit Instructions:
In order to log this waymark in this category, you must be able to provide proof of your visit. Please post a picture of yourself or your GPSr in front some identifiable feature or point of interest either in the museum, or on the museum grounds.
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