Slides 20-24
The Black Pioneers' greatest success was religious organization. The Church was the one institution which Black Pioneers controlled and organized independently. Churches provided leadership, community development and change within the Black Pioneer communities of 1783 and 1812. Churches were vital organizations which provided training to preachers, teachers, politicians and professionals of the community. They were key supports in the community's ability and will to survive difficult circumstances.
Slide 21
The Black Pioneers participated in the Anglican, Methodist, Huntingtonian, Black Baptist, Zion African Methodist Episcopal, and Roman Catholic Churches.
Slide 22
The first religious services of the Black Pioneers in Nova Scotia were often held outdoors in a clearing or field, or in the home of a community member with an itinerant (travelling) minister in attendance. With time, church buildings were erected. The buildings often served as both church and community school.
Slide 23
Baptism was a very important religious ceremony of the Black Pioneers. Baptism was often performed in a lake, stream, or river by the minister. All members of the congregation were on hand to welcome the new member of the Church.
Slide 24
By 1791 it was obvious that Nova Scotia government officials were not going to supply land grants with suitable soil for farming to the Black Pioneers. 1196 people decided to leave Nova Scotia and its broken promises to settle in Sierra Leone. On January 15, 1792, fifteen ships left Halifax for Sierra Leone. They carried some of the Black Pioneers' most vital community members -- its teachers, ministers and skilled crafts people -- to a land of better promise.
Students will:
Religion was a vital part of Black Loyalist life. The minister had many responsibilities and travelled the countryside to be of service. Before meeting houses were built in communities, Black preachers in Loyalists settlements preached in clearings in the woods. Rev. David George of Birchtown can be seen preaching in a clearing in the woods in these slides. The Black Loyalists were members of four religion faiths: Baptist, Anglican, Wesleyan Methodist, Huntingtonian and Roman Catholic.
Many of the Black Loyalists were member of the Anglican Church. They joined the general congregations of existing churches in the urban areas and continued to attend their own meetings in their segregated communities, attended by their own ministers. Black Loyalist Wesleyan Methodists also joined existing Methodist congregations.
Black communities developed through the strong local leadership of the Black Churches located within the communities during the Black Loyalist period.
Reverend David George, the first Black Baptist minister in Nova Scotia in the 1780's, led 1195 Black Loyalists from Nova Scotia to Sierra Leone when it was recognized that famine would result from the broken land grant promises of the British. Leaving Nova Scotia was in the best interests of his congregation.
The Black Baptists became one of the strongest groups, first under the leadership of a white Episcopal minister, John Burton, who had come to Halifax to work among the Black residents. He founded the First Baptist Church in Halifax, at the corner of Barrington and Buckingham Streets in 1795. As the Black Pioneers of 1812 arrived from 1813 onward, communities became more unified and support among communities developed through the leadership of the churches. Many Halifax area Black Pioneers attended First Baptist Church. John Burton extended his mission field to include the communities of Upper Hammond's Plains and Dartmouth.
Richard Preston, an escaped slave from Virginia, came to Halifax in 1816 in search of his mother. He worked closely with Rev. Burton, delivering the Gospel to the Black Pioneers in Halifax and Dartmouth. In 1823, he became an ordained preacher. With the help of Rev. Burton and the Black Baptist elders and leaders, Richard Preston went to England to study. On May 8, 1832, he was ordained. While in England, he gave powerful speeches to the people on the injustices of slavery and urged for its abolition. He lobbied for money to build a Black Church. He received 650 pounds sterling for the project. From this money, Cornwallis Street African Baptist Church was built. He was the first pastor of that church.
Rev. Richard Preston continued to bring communities together through the church. He was instrumental in planning or establishing Black Baptist churches between 1832 and 1845.
Early Black Churches of Nova Scotia
Preston 1842 now known as East Preston Baptist Church
Dartmouth
1844 Dartmouth Church on the Lake
Beechville 1844 now known as
Beechville Baptist Church
Upper Hammond's Plains 1845
Africville Church
1849
North Mountain Baptist Church 1853 also known as Granville Mountain
Salmon River
Church 1853 now known as Greenville Church
On September 1, 1854, under the leadership of Rev. Richard Preston, Black Baptist Churches from across Nova Scotia united to form the African United Baptist Association during a meeting at Granville Mountain, Annapolis Valley. The organization consisted of Rev. Preston and Rev. Henry Jackson as co-moderators, ordained ministers, licenced ministers, deacons and elders from twelve Black Baptist churches.
The African United Baptist Association was the largest organization in the history of the Black population of Nova Scotia as that time. Today, it is one of the oldest of the Black organizations and continues to meet in various Black communities as it did at its beginning.
Additional Black Loyalist and Black Pioneer Ministers
Reverend David
George -- an itinerant Black Baptist minister who served communities in Shelburne, Digby,
Halifax and Saint John.
Moses Wilkinson -- a preacher who was blind and unable to walk served the Wesleyan
Methodists in Birchtown.
Boston Kings -- served in the Shelburne District, Digby, Halifax and Preston areas.
Reverend Joseph Leonard -- led the Church of England (Anglican) congregation in
Brindleytown.
1. Discuss why the Black Loyalists and Black Pioneers found their religious commitments an essential part of their daily life.
2. Some ministers travelled from community to community. What transportation difficulties would they have had which we do not have today?
3. Why did some churches have all white or all Black congregations?
Back to Nova Scotia Black Pioneers Index