Geography
Upper Hammonds Plains is defined by Pockwock Lake which is the primary reservoir for Halifax.
Upper Hammonds Plains in Nova Scotia
Upper Hammonds Plains (2011 population: 1,840) is a Canadian suburban community located in Nova Scotia's Halifax Regional Municipality.
The community is situated along Pockwock Road and is considered one of the most historic communities for Black Nova Scotians. There were 330 residents who identified themselves as having black ancestry in the 2006 census. [1] The community is named after the Governor of Nova Scotia Sir Andrew Hamond, 1st Baronet.
Its border is defined by the Government of Nova Scotia and it is adjacent to Hammonds Plains in the east and south, Upper Tantallon in the south, Head of St. Margarets Bay and Mount Uniacke in the west, and Mount Uniacke and Upper Sackville in the north. [2]
Upper Hammonds Plains was originally established in 1815 as a settlement area for Black Refugees from the War of 1812 when a group of 500 refugees moved to the area immediately north of the then 34-year-old logging and farming community Hammonds Plains. [1]
"As with most Blacks forced to live on the outskirts of more thriving areas, they were faced with great hardships. In 1821, 95 of these Black settlers left for Trinidad. Most, however stayed under horrible living conditions and numerous obstacles, rising above their circumstances to carve out an honest living for themselves." [1] By 1970, Upper Hammonds Plains was an almost exclusively Black community with a population of 500. [3]
"Land and water expropriation has been a major issue in the community since municipal and provincial governments began looking to the Upper Hammonds Plains area for land around 1974. This resulted in the expropriation of Pockwock Lake to supply water for the city of Halifax, the town of Bedford, and Halifax County. The expropriated land would house the Halifax regional water commission’s water treatment plant. The community was offered $100,000 for the land – much less than what it was actually worth. Moreover, although the water main lines passed through the community’s backyards, there was no offer of water service made to the community. In 1987 Rev. Willard Clayton raised the issue of the need for water service and compensation, citing that the community lost use of its sustainable resource of fishing, as well as recreational swimming and Sunday morning baptisms, among other things. Hammonds Plains is now connected the city’s water system." [1]
"Rev. John Burton (or 'Father Burton') was the first to provide pastoral services to the community. He established the Hammonds Plains Second Baptist Church in 1822. In 1832, the legendary Rev. Richard Preston (founder of the African United Baptist Association) established the Hammonds Plains Baptist Church. In 1839, the two churches joined - the unified church was referred to as Emmanuel Baptist Church." [1] The current building housing Emmanuel Baptist Church was built in 1845 and has served the community continuously since that time, having undergone a significant expansion in 2005.
The Pockwock Lake reservoir is the primary water supply for Halifax. A water treatment plant and pipeline in the community are operated by Halifax Water, a commission of the Halifax Regional Municipality.
Madeline Symonds School is named after Upper Hammonds Plains resident Madeline Symonds, the first Black teacher to graduate from the Provincial Normal School in Truro. [1]
Upper Hammonds Plains boasts the first all Black volunteer fire department in Canada. [1]
Upper Hammonds Plains is defined by Pockwock Lake which is the primary reservoir for Halifax.
Schools which service residents of Upper Hammonds Plains include;
Hammonds Plains is a suburban area of the Halifax Regional Municipality in Nova Scotia, Canada, located 20 km northwest of Downtown Halifax.
Africville was a small community of predominantly African Nova Scotians located in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. It developed on the southern shore of Bedford Basin and existed from the early 1800s to the 1960s. From 1970 to the present, a protest has occupied space on the grounds. The government has recognized it as a commemorative site and established a museum here. The community has become an important symbol of Black Canadian identity, as an example of the "urban renewal" trend of the 1960s that razed similarly racialized neighbourhoods across Canada, and the struggle against racism.
The North End of Halifax is a neighbourhood of Halifax, Nova Scotia occupying the northern part of Halifax Peninsula immediately north of Downtown Halifax.
East Preston is an expansive rural Black Nova Scotian community located in eastern Halifax Regional Municipality, Nova Scotia, in Atlantic Canada. The population at the time of the 2016 census was 869.
Timberlea—Prospect is a provincial electoral district in Nova Scotia, Canada, that elects one member of the Nova Scotia House of Assembly. Its Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) since 2013 has been Iain Rankin of the Nova Scotia Liberal Party.
Hammonds Plains—Upper Sackville is a former provincial electoral district in Nova Scotia, Canada, which existed from 2003 to 2013. It elected one member of the Nova Scotia House of Assembly. In its last configuration, the electoral district included those communities comprising the western suburbs of the Halifax Regional Municipality, namely Hammonds Plains, Yankeetown, Pockwock, Upper Sackville and Lucasville.
Goffs is a Canadian rural community in Nova Scotia's Halifax Regional Municipality.
Beechville is a Black Nova Scotian settlement and suburban community within the Halifax Regional Municipality of Nova Scotia, Canada, on St. Margaret's Bay Road. The Beechville Lakeside Timberlea (BLT) trail starts here near Lovett Lake, following the old Halifax and Southwestern Railway line. Ridgecliff Middle School, located in Beechville Estates, serves the communities of Beechville, Lakeside, and Timberlea.
Black Nova Scotians are Black Canadians whose ancestors primarily date back to the Colonial United States as slaves or freemen, later arriving in Nova Scotia, Canada, during the 18th and early 19th centuries. As of the 2021 Census of Canada, 28,220 Black people live in Nova Scotia, most in Halifax. Since the 1950s, numerous Black Nova Scotians have migrated to Toronto for its larger range of opportunities. The first recorded free African person in Nova Scotia, Mathieu da Costa, a Mikmaq interpreter, was recorded among the founders of Port Royal in 1604. West Africans escaped slavery by coming to Nova Scotia in early British and French Colonies in the 17th and 18th centuries. Many came as enslaved people, primarily from the French West Indies to Nova Scotia during the founding of Louisbourg. The second major migration of people to Nova Scotia happened following the American Revolution, when the British evacuated thousands of slaves who had fled to their lines during the war. They were given freedom by the Crown if they joined British lines, and some 3,000 African Americans were resettled in Nova Scotia after the war, where they were known as Black Loyalists. There was also the forced migration of the Jamaican Maroons in 1796, although the British supported the desire of a third of the Loyalists and nearly all of the Maroons to establish Freetown in Sierra Leone four years later, where they formed the Sierra Leone Creole ethnic identity.
Hammonds Plains, Upper Sackville and Beaver Bank is a planning area in the Halifax Regional Municipality, Nova Scotia. The area wraps from Exit 5 on Highway 103 to the west of the urban core of Halifax, and runs north and east, wrapping clockwise around the harbour along the Hammonds Plains Road, Lucasville Road and Sackville Drive, through Upper Sackville to Beaverbank.
Richard John Uniacke was an abolitionist, lawyer, politician, member of the Nova Scotia House of Assembly and Attorney General of Nova Scotia. According to historian Brian Cutherburton, Uniacke was "the most influential Nova Scotian of his day.... His faith in Nova Scotia's destiny as a partner in a great empire was only to be equalled by Joseph Howe." He devoted 49 years to public service in Nova Scotia. He fought in the American Revolution and later sought to emancipate Catholics and Black Nova Scotians who were slaves in Nova Scotia. He is buried in the crypt of St. Paul's Church. His substantial estate is preserved as the Uniacke Estate Museum Park at Mount Uniacke.
The Sackville River is a river in Hants County and Halifax Regional Municipality, Nova Scotia, Canada. It empties into Bedford Basin. The Little Sackville River is a tributary.
Pockwock is one of four Black Nova Scotian settlements in Upper Hammonds Plains. People in this area are mostly descendants of War of 1812 refugees. It is located in the Halifax Regional Municipality in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. The Halifax Regional Water Commission uses Pockwock Lake as a source for water for the communities of Halifax, Bedford and Lower Sackville.
The Old Annapolis Road was a planned direct route between Halifax and Annapolis Royal, the current and former capitals of Nova Scotia, in Eastern Canada. Work began in 1784 and was resumed in 1816 as a military settlement plan for Napoleonic War veterans. Known various times as the Annapolis Military Road, the Dalhousie Road and the Kempt Road, it led to some successful settlements but was never completed and was abandoned in 1829. Some disconnected sections remain in use today.
The Africville Apology was a formal pronouncement delivered on 24 February 2010 by the City of Halifax, Nova Scotia for the eviction and eventual destruction of Africville, a Black Nova Scotian community.
New Horizons Baptist Church is a Baptist church in Halifax, Nova Scotia that was established by Black Refugees in 1832. When the chapel was completed, black citizens of Halifax were reported to be proud because it was evidence that former slaves could establish their own institutions in Nova Scotia. Under the direction of Richard Preston, the church laid the foundation for social action to address the plight of Black Nova Scotians. It is affiliated with the Canadian Baptists of Atlantic Canada.
John Burton (1760–1838) was a Baptist minister in Nova Scotia and was one of the first to integrate black and white Nova Scotians into the same congregation. David George was the first Baptist minister. In 1811, Burton's church had 33 members, the majority of whom were free blacks from Halifax and the neighbouring settlements of Preston and Hammonds Plains.
William Pearly Oliver worked at the Cornwallis Street Baptist Church for twenty-five years (1937–1962) and was instrumental in developing the four leading organizations to support Black Nova Scotians in the 20th century: Nova Scotia Association for the Advancement of Colored People (1945), the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission (1967), the Black United Front (1969) and the Black Cultural Centre for Nova Scotia (1983). He was instrumental in supporting the case of Viola Desmond. Oliver was awarded the Order of Canada in 1984.
The Upper Hammonds Plains Volunteer Fire Department was the local authority fire and rescue service for the historic African Nova Scotian community of Upper Hammonds Plains in Halifax County and its surrounding area. In the 1960s, the UHP Volunteer fire department became the first all-Black volunteer fire department in Canada's history.
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