The city of Halifax, Nova Scotia is located on a peninsula, the northernmost edge of which overlooks the shores of Bedford Basin. Looking out from here you can see the western shore of the Basin, where Duc D'Anville and his fleet of seventy ships and ten thousand half-starved French soldiers landed in 1746 shortly before the founding of Halifax, at Chebucto Harbour.

This north shore is now an underused city park, called Seaview Park. Before 1970, it was the neighbourhood of Africville, populated by nearly four hundred black Haligonians, descendents of freed slaves, United Empire Loyalists, and settlers from Jamaica.

Somewhat isolated from the rest of Halifax, the town of Africville was established officially in the 1840s, though many of its residents could trace their ancestry in this area back to the 1700s. Nova Scotia had originally been a slave-based society, though not a successful one, as its rocky topography limited the potential for growth of agriculture on a large scale. Therefore, some of the earliest inhabitants of the colony of Nova Scotia had been black slaves and settlers.

Slavery in the Canadas and the Maritimes was not nearly so widespread as it was in the Thirteen Colonies to the south, however. After the American Revolution culminating in the Declaration of Independence in 1776, many former American slaves migrated to British North America with the United Empire Loyalists, freed and encouraged by the British with the promise of equality under a fair government. Sadly, poverty forced them to sell themselves into slavery just to get by.

In 1792, an agent from the Sierra Leone Company persuaded nearly two thousand of these black Nova Scotians to migrate to Africa. Their land was taken over by a number of Maroons, descendants of American slaves and deported from Jamaica, in 1796. By 1800, however, they too were relocated to Sierra Leone, and much of the land again stood empty.

The War of 1812 between British North America and the United States resulted in a number of refugees from the south fleeing into the north, where the British colonial government promised financial aid for those loyal to the Crown. Over three thousand blacks moved north at this time, settling in and around Halifax. Once again, however, the government failed to follow through on its promises. Most of the new settlers were left to fend for themselves.

To help combat economic hardships, many of the settlers moved to north Halifax, leaving their barren and rocky farms behind. The first land purchase in Africville was made in 1848, and it grew quickly into a vibrant and close-knit community, centred around the Baptist church that was built there in 1849.

Though the residents of Africville were hard-working and law-abiding, they were looked down upon by most of the rest of Halifax, particularly the municipal government who from 1850 through to the 1950s relocated many of the city's less pleasant but still necessary utilities and buildings to the area surrounding it: Rockhead Prison in 1853, night soil pits in 1858, a hospital for victims of infectious diseases in the 1870s, the city's trachoma hospital in 1905, an open landfill in the 1950s, and a slaughterhouse.

City council designated Africville and its surrounding area as "a location for city facilities not tolerated in other neighbourhoods". Not only this, but the municipal government failed to install proper water, sewage, and electrical systems. City police and fire crews ignored the area entirely, and by the 1940s it developed into a slum, rife with organised crime and illegal enterprises.

Things came to a head in 1954, when the city manager submitted a suggestion to Halifax city council suggesting that the residents of Africville be moved to city-owned property to the southwest, with steps taken toward racial integration of former residents, better education, re-housing of residents, welfare planning, and employment opportunities. This was in the guise of a humanitarian gesture; the council set up to govern the move, however, belied the intent.

This council was made up of four whites and six blacks, only one of whom was a Nova Scotia resident, and none of whom had any real grasp of the social structure of Africville and the unique problems it faced. The residents themselves were not consulted. No attention was paid to their recommendations and suggestions.

The final deal came out heavily in favour of the city of Halifax. Many of the citizens of Africville were moved off their properties forcefully, their belongings loaded into garbage trucks and hauled off. Wrecking crews were sent in by night to clean up afterward, levelling not only houses but businesses and even the church which had been central to the community since it was built a century earlier.

Property claims were all but ignored, with most being given less than $500 compensation. It cost the city $800 000 in total. In 1968 the expropriation was declared a success, and the last building was torn down in 1970.

Seaview Park stands all but deserted, now. In the centre of it is a monument in the shape of a sundial, with the names of the original families of Africville engraved on it. In early 2004, the United Nations recommended that the Canadian government provide compensation to those displaced by the razing of Africville, but to date there have been no reparations issued. Similar efforts on the part of the Africville Genealogical Society have proven equally fruitless.

Sources:
"CBC News - Indepth Backgrounder: Africville". http://www.cbc.ca/news/features/africville.html
"Africville: Expropriating Nova Scotia's blacks". http://archives.cbc.ca/IDD-1-69-96/life_society/africville/
"Seaview Park". http://www.mikecampbell.net/seaviewpark.htm
"The Dominion: UN Recommends Reparations for Africville Residents". http://dominionpaper.ca/canadian_news/2004/03/16/un_recomme.html
"Africville: Urban Removal in Canada". http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/44/170.html
"Historical Biographies, Nova Scotia: Duc D'Anville (1709-46)". http://www.blupete.com/Hist/BiosNS/1700-63/Danville.htm