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Halifax and Nova Scotia
The region now known as Nova Scotia was first settled by the Mi’kmaq, an Algonquian nation indigenous to this part of North America. The first European settlement was by the French at Port Royal (now Annapolis Royal) in 1605. The region was hotly contested by various European powers and changed hands several times before finally being taken by the English in 1710. English sovereignty was formally recognized in 1713 in the Treaty of Utrecht.
The city of Halifax was established by the English as the new capital of Nova Scotia in 1749. The town site was ideal for a military base, situated as it was at the base of a fortifiable hill on the shore of one of the world’s largest natural harbours. Halifax Harbour, protected by batteries at its narrow neck and on islands in the harbour itself, is free of ice year-round and large enough to shelter entire fleets.
The harbour was also an excellent location for dockyards because of its proximity to extensive forests which provided timber for the construction of ships. A permanent Royal Naval dockyard was officially commissioned in 1759. The ‘Yard’ served as the main base for the Royal Navy during the Seven Years’ War, the American Revolution, the Napoleonic wars and the War of 1812.
In 1800, the year in which our story takes place, the Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia was Sir John Wentworth, 1stBaronet (1737-1820). He was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and attended Harvard College where he received an MA in 1758,and where he became good friends with John Adams. He received a Doctorate of Common Law from Oxford University in 1766, and he was appointed Governor of New Hampshire that same year. He served in this capacity until forced to flee by revolutionary forces in 1775. He was appointed Lieutenant Governor of the Province of Nova Scotia in 1792, a position which he held until 1808. He was knighted and received a baronetcy in 1795, but when his son died without issue, the baronetcy became extinct. He was the first civilian Lieutenant Governor of the colony.
Saint Paul’s Church, in which Edward and Lynnie married, was founded in 1749. Construction began the following year, and the building was opened on September second, 1750. With the establishment of the Diocese of Nova Scotia in 1787, St. Paul’s was given a Bishop’s seat, making it the first Anglican cathedral outside of Great Britain. The church is now a National Historic Site of Canada.
King’s College
My hero, Edward Gardiner, is a graduate of King’s College. The first university in English-speaking Canada, the University of King’s College still attracts stellar students from around the world to its exceptional programs. It is now affiliated with Dalhousie University in the city of Halifax.
King’s College began its existence in New York City, where it was founded by King George II in 1754. In 1776, the college was forced to halt operations for eight years due to ongoing revolution, warfare and social strife. During that time the library was looted and the university’s building was commandeered by both the British and American forces for use as a military hospital. When the school was taken over by revolutionary forces, the Loyalist founders fled to Windsor, Nova Scotia, and re-established the college there under the same name. King’s College, Windsor, was established as a permanent institution in 1789, and it was there that Edward Gardiner received his education just a few years later.
And the old King’s in New York? After the revolution it was revived and renamed and is now located at Broadway and 116th Street, New York City. These days, it is known as Columbia University.
Black Nova Scotians
Upon his return to Halifax, Edward noticed the presence of different languages and skin colours on the streets of the town. In truth, this would not have been all that different from what he might have seen before his departure three or four years before, although the rapid growth of the town would have attracted large numbers of people from all social and ethnic groups.
Nova Scotia has been home to a Black community since the 1770s. The first Black person in the region arrived with the French founders of Port Royal in 1605 as a slave, and slavery was not unknown in the province, despite a great sense of distaste for the practice amongst social and political leaders of the time. In 1788 the first anti-slavery literature in Canada was published by James Drummond McGregor, who personally began purchasing the freedom of some slaves, and the province refused to pass legislation legalizing the practice of slavery.
The first major migration of free Blacks occurred during the American Revolution. Lord Dunmore’s Proclamation of 1775 promised that any slaves offering to join British lines would automatically receive their freedom; more than 30 000 people escaped to British lines in response to this proclamation. In 1783, as a British defeat became inevitable, the army evacuated more than 2000 of these Black Loyalists to Nova Scotia. Many of these Loyalists landed near Shelburne and established their own community in nearby Birchtown; others settled around the province and in New Brunswick.
These communities, however, did not receive the supports and funds they had been promised, and the people—many of whom had been born in Africa and had lived in far more temperate climates—suffered in the harsh weather. When, in 1791, a British company offered to resettle former slave communities in Sierra Leone in Africa, half of the population of Birchtown emigrated, leaving about 2500 Black Loyalists in Nova Scotia. Their situation slowly improved as they qualified for skilled trades and wages rose, and they felt enough part of the community to form three Black militia units to fight for the British in the War of 1812.
In Halifax itself, the first Black community settled on Albemarle Street, which, in 1786, became the site of the first school for Black students in the province. The previous year, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign parts was established, offering other educational opportunities for the community.
Diversity
As previously noted, Nova Scotia was home to people of a variety of cultural, national and ethnic backgrounds, even in 1800. The indigenous Mi’kmaq still lived throughout the colony, and the previous colonial governments of France and Scotland left their mark as well, in the form of people who had settled in this new land. The Black Loyalists were not the only people escaping the Revolution to the south and thousands of Loyalists from the American colonies flooded into the area. There were also communities of Protestant Germans who called Nova Scotia home, settling around Lunenburg.
The languages Edward might have heard on the streets of town would have included English, French, German, Gaelic, and Mi’kmaq.