DSU Students Follow Black History Trail to Nova Scotia

A group of DSU students spent a week learning Black History that actually extends into Canada through their “Nova Scotia Study Abroad Summer 2016” experience.

Nine DSU students and a faculty member and staff member participated in a July 25-31 educational excursion to Halifax, Nova Scotia. Through this trip, the students learned about the fates of the runaway slaves who successfully escaped the Peculiar Institution to begin new lives in Canada – stories often obscured by the traditional Black History narratives of that period. During the trip the students also learned of the black soldiers who fought on the British side during the Revolutionary War who also settled in the Nova Scotia area.  

Through a guided tour led by Dr. Carolyn Thomas and her team at African Heritage Tours, students visited many historic African communities such as Preston and Africville.  The students also spent a day at Dalhousie University and St. Mary’s University where they toured the campuses, attended lectures and conversed with fellow undergraduates and professors.  

Led by Dr. Kami Fletcher, DSU assistant professor of African-American history, the trip allowed students to learn about the challenges and accomplishments of former American runaway slaves and other African immigrants in Nova Scotia as well as see firsthand the cultural/historical/social significance of these sites to the African Diaspora as a whole.  

“The long struggle to freedom that is emphasized during the years of institutionalized slavery is filled with stories of ‘Canaan.’  Africans/Blacks risked life and limb to get to Canada and many made it while others died trying.  So what happened to our ancestors who made it?” Dr. Fletcher said. “This trip allows students to cross over into the ‘Land of Canaan’ – as our foremothers and forefathers did – and peer through the historical looking glass understanding the life they created and the society in which it was created.”

Africans and Blacks who fought on behalf of the British during the American Revolution were relocated to Nova Scotia after the British lost.  These Africans/Blacks were freed and promised land and a chance to prosper.  However, the same racism followed them there.  In spite of that, many thrived.  Each of them is documented in the Book of Negroes, which the DSU group looked through and learned about the lives of those listed in it. Some students even discovered their last names in the book, indicating that they may possibly have Nova Scotian roots.

Jomana Begum, a DSU sophomore Secondary Education major from Cherry Hill, N.J., said it was a tremendous experience.

“The trip changed my perspective on what happened to the slaves when they went to Canada, because I thought they had escaped to realize freedom and a new and better life,” said Ms. Begum, a native of Bangladesh who has lived in the U.S. since age four. “But we found out that the people in Canada treated them badly, and that their life wasn’t much better than when they were in slavery.”

Tommie Moore, who at age 72 was the oldest graduate in the Class of May 2016, also went on the trip.

“We got a chance to sit in some seminars where we learned about the Black Loyalists, a group of Africans who settled in the Africville area of Nova Scotia. They were disenfranchised and had their land taken from them by the English Settlers of Nova Scotia,” said Ms. Moore, now 73, who earned a Bachelor of Social Work. “Some chose to go back to Africa and some chose to remain. There was so much to history to learn.”

Ms. Moore added that the DSU group was able to interact with descendants of the original African settlers, some from families going back as far as eight generations in Nova Scotia.