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 Seaview African United Baptist Church - 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: WMQQTR
Location: Nova Scotia, Canada
Date Posted: 03/20/2016
Views: 3
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.
In 1982, three women of Africville, Deborah Dixon Jones, Linda Mantley and Brenda Steed-Ross, organized the first Africville reunion weekend in the park that had been their home. Every year since then, the Africville families have come home and brought their children to share in the stories and the fellowship of their community.
The reunion was the beginning of the Africville Genealogy Society (AGS) and the beginning of a new chapter in the history of Africville. Community members worked with writers, film makers and artists to share their story with a larger audience. An exhibit telling the story of Africville was created and toured Canada. On behalf of the people who had been moved from Africville, the AGS initiated legal action for recompense for their loss. They attained a United Nations decision supporting their claim.
In February 2010, Halifax Mayor, Peter Kelly, made history by apologizing to the people of Africville for the destruction of their community nearly 40 years before. The apology was supported by the allocation of land and $3 million for the construction of a replica of the Church that had stood at the geographic and emotional heart of Africville. For more than 20 years, the people of Africville worked to achieve a settlement.
Finally, with the official apology, and construction of the Church underway, they began yet another chapter in the history of Africville. The museum is the first stage of the Africville Project, which will later include an Interpretive Centre.
Today the Africville Museum looks across the land where the people of Africville lived, worked and raised their families on the shores of the Bedford Basin. Inside the Museum, exhibits tell the story of a community that met the indignities of racism with grace and faith. When you visit the Africville Museum, you visit a community. The building is a replica of the Seaview United Baptist Church, destroyed in 1967 when the community was razed for industrial development.
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
Date Built: 01/01/2011
Age of Church building determined by?: Church website
Website: [Web Link]
Church Address:
5795 Africville Rd
Halifax, NS Canada
B3K 5Z5
Service Times: Not listed
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