Sharon Robart-Johnson - Africas Children: A History of Blacks in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia

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AFRICAS CHILDREN

AFRICAS CHILDREN

A History of Blacks in
Yarmouth, Nova Scotia

Sharon Robart-Johnson

Copyright 2009 Sharon Robart-Johnson

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanic, photocopying or otherwise (except for brief passages for purposes of review) without the prior permission of Dundurn Press. Permission to photocopy should be requested from Access Copyright.

Published by Natural Heritage Books
A Member of The Dundurn Group

Edited by Jane Gibson
Copy-edited by Shannon Whibbs
Design by Jennifer Scott
Printed and bound in Canada by Transcontinental

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Robart-Johnson, Sharon
Africas children : a history of blacks in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia / by Sharon Robart-Johnson.

Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-55002-862-1

1. Black Canadians--Nova Scotia--Yarmouth-- History. 2. Yarmouth (N.S.)--History. I. Title.

FC2350.B6R63 2009 971.63100496 C2008-905868-2

1 2 3 4 5 13 12 11 10 09

We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council for our publishing program. We also acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program and The Association for the Export of Canadian Books, and the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Book Publishers Tax Credit program, and the Ontario Media Development Corporation.

Care has been taken to trace the ownership of copyright material used in this book. The author and the publisher welcome any information enabling them to rectify any references or credits in subsequent editions.

J. Kirk Howard, President

www.dundurn.com

Front cover photo credits, clockwise from top left: The Missionaires, photo courtesy of Ernest Johnson; Disney Chapel, photo courtesy of Yarmouth County Museum and Archives; Private John Clarence Johnson, photo courtesy of Clarence Bodden; Benjamin Rogers and wife at their homestead, photo courtesy of Yarmouth County Museum and Archives; Jeanette Johnson, photo courtesy of Margery Lawrence.

Dundurn Press 3 Church Street, Suite 500 Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5E 1M2

Gazelle Book Services Limited White Cross Mills High Town, Lancaster, England LA1 4XS

Dundurn Press 2250 Military Road Tonawanda, NY U.S.A. 14150

DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to my parents Lendley Irving Robart, son of John Murray Robart and Alice Augusta (ne Wesley) Robart; and Mary Eileen (Smith) Robart, daughter of James Rudolph Smith and Mary Rose (Muise) Smith.

Mary Eileen (Smith) Robart and Lendley Irving Robart. This photo of my parents was taken in the summer of 1979, several months before my fathers death from cancer in March 1980. They were the proud parents of seven children, five girls and two boys. The two boys, unfortunately, passed away at three months of age. My parents ingenuity and dedication saw my sisters and me through some extremely rough times. Being able to draw from their strength has made us all better people.

This book is also dedicated to my sister, Rose M. Robart, who wrote the poem Jude and went through the manuscript to make sure that each i was dotted, each t was crossed, and punctuation was in the correct places. Without her help, the work may not have come this far. I love you, Rose. You will be deeply missed and always in my heart.

My sister, Rose M. Robart, wrote the poem Jude. Born January 7, 1940, she passed away suddenly at her home in Montreal October 29, 2008. Rose waited patiently and with joyful anticipation for the release of this book, but for her to see the finished product wasnt meant to be.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

by Craig Marshall Smith

Chapter 4 Community of Greenville: Earliest Black
Settlement in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia

Chapter 6 Greenville School: Yarmouth Countys Only
All-Black School

Chapter 9 Murders, Mysterious Disappearances, and
Deaths of the Twentieth Century

Chapter 10 Black Reminiscences: Articles From
Yarmouths Past

Chapter 12 Bridging the Gap: Success Stories of
Yarmouths Blacks

Appendix B Probationers Achieving Full Membership in the
Disney Chapel AME Church, 190405

So Sayeth Tippin

Like the old gal sayeth, aint it peculiar that in a place like this
which had its share of slaves a way back when,
you hardly hear, see, or read anything about that part
of our history, now do ya?
Just the good stuff.

From the Tippin column,
Yarmouth Vanguard, August 20, 2004

I n March 1997, I moved to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. This was not a move that I could have conceived possible prior to my joining the RCMP. I had grown up in Halifax, and had only been in Yarmouth twice in my life. Both times it was a quick trip: come to town, participate in the event, and get back on the road to Halifax. Since taking up residency in 1997, things have changed.

I now look at Yarmouth in an entirely different light than when I first arrived. Now, Yarmouth is like a second home (which isnt entirely strange) because there are several other RCMP members who, upon their retirement, have chosen to call Yarmouth home. It just has that effect on you.

What I was exposed to in Yarmouth was a rural way of thinking, and the confirmation that these communities are often overlooked by metro Halifax and the province at large. In times of crisis and concern, financial commitments by government are often made to funding initiatives that target the city, even though many of the same concerns are being voiced in other rural areas of the province. Drop-out rates among African Nova Scotian learners and unemployment are two issues that mirror that of the larger urban centre. But when funding announcements are made, rural Nova Scotia and in particular, rural Black Nova Scotia, doesnt seem to be on the radar screen. Consequently, there is an us and them mentality that exists and, when one is not at the table, one becomes an afterthought.

If this us and them mentality still exists today, then what about those days gone by, when the miles between point A and point B didnt include the Trans-Canada Highway? At least in those days regional resources were still bountiful, and the sea and soil were the way in which most earned their living. And yet in those times it was still a larger struggle for Black folks to prosper. But survive they did, and their survival spirit still lives on today.

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