Weymouth Falls | |
|---|---|
Community | |
  Weymouth Falls  Weymouth Falls | |
| Coordinates: 44°24′13″N65°56′38″W / 44.40361°N 65.94389°W | |
| Country | Canada |
| Province | Nova Scotia |
| Municipality | Digby County |
| Time zone | UTC−4 (AST) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC−3 (ADT) |
| GNBC Code | CBOMG [1] |
Weymouth Falls is a Black Nova Scotian settlement within the District of Clare in Digby County, located in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia.
The community was established by African-Canadians in the 1780s, near the village of Weymouth. Initially established by Black Loyalists, they were later joined by Maroons and other groups of Caribbeans of African descent. The original Baptist church in Weymouth Falls was among the first seven established in the province as part of the African United Baptist Association (AUBA) in 1854. Its replacement, Mount Beulah Baptist Church was erected in 1921. St. Matthew’s Anglican Church was purchased from a Yarmouth congregation in 1902. [2] The building was moved to Weymouth Falls and reassembled by Anglican members of the community. St. Matthew's has a unique designation as the only Anglican Church in Canada to have an all black congregation. [2] The area was once home to a prosperous lumber industry, with the community remaining agriculturally based to this day. [3]
The number of black residents in Weymouth Falls has declined from 295 in 2001, to 115 in 2016. [4]
Weymouth Falls is the birthplace of one of the world's greatest boxers, Sam Langford (1886–1956). Although he was never officially crowned World Champion, he held titles from England, Spain and Mexico. In 1972, Weymouth Falls erected a plaque to his memory at its community centre. In 1996, the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada recognized his contribution to Canadian sports by rating Langford as one of the top ten boxers of the 20th century. [5] [6]
| Climate data for 1981 to 2010 Canadian Climate Normals for Weymouth Falls | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 0.2 (32.4) | 1.2 (34.2) | 4.5 (40.1) | 10.5 (50.9) | 16.3 (61.3) | 21.1 (70.0) | 23.9 (75.0) | 23.7 (74.7) | 19.4 (66.9) | 19.0 (66.2) | 8.5 (47.3) | 3.2 (37.8) | 12.6 (54.7) |
| Source: [11] | |||||||||||||
George Elliott Clarke, is a Canadian poet, playwright and literary critic who served as the Poet Laureate of Toronto from 2012 to 2015, and as the 2016–2017 Canadian Parliamentary Poet Laureate. His work is known largely for its use of a vast range of literary and artistic traditions, its lush physicality and its bold political substance. One of Canada's most illustrious poets, Clarke is also known for chronicling the experience and history of the Black Canadian communities of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, creating a cultural geography that he has coined "Africadia".
Portia May White was a Canadian contralto, known for becoming the first Black Canadian concert singer to achieve international fame. Growing up as part of her father's church choir in Halifax, Nova Scotia, White competed in local singing competitions as a teenager and later trained at the Halifax Conservatory of Music. In 1941 and 1944, she made her national and international debuts as a singer, receiving critical acclaim for her performances of both classical European music and African-American spirituals. White later completed tours throughout Europe, the Caribbean, and Central and South America.
William Andrew White II was a Canadian chaplain and military officer from Nova Scotia who was commissioned as the first black officer in the Canadian Army. He served in World War I as a military chaplain, the only black officer in the Canadian military during the war.
North Preston is a community located in Nova Scotia, Canada within the Halifax Regional Municipality.
Weymouth is a rural village located in Digby County, Nova Scotia on the Sissiboo River near its terminus on Baie Ste. Marie.
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.
Poor Boy's Game is a 2007 Canadian drama film directed by Clement Virgo. Co-written with Nova Scotian writer/director Chaz Thorne, it is the story of class struggle, racial tensions, and boxing, set in the Canadian east coast port city of Halifax, Nova Scotia. The film premiered on February 11, 2007, at the Berlin International Film Festival. The movie stars Danny Glover, Rossif Sutherland, Greg Bryk, Flex Alexander and Laura Regan.
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. Before the immigration reforms of 1967, Black Nova Scotians formed 37% of the total Black Canadian population.
Richard Preston,, was a religious leader and abolitionist. He escaped slavery in Virginia to become an important leader for the African Nova Scotian community and in the international struggle against slavery. He established the Cornwallis Street Baptist Church, the African Abolition Society and the African Baptist Association.
David George was an African-American Baptist preacher and a Black Loyalist from the American South who escaped to British lines in Savannah, Georgia; later he accepted transport to Nova Scotia and land there. He eventually resettled in Freetown, Sierra Leone where he would eventually die. With other enslaved people, George founded the Silver Bluff Baptist Church in South Carolina in 1775, the first black congregation in the present-day United States. He was later affiliated with the First African Baptist Church of Savannah, Georgia. After migration, he founded Baptist congregations in Nova Scotia and Freetown, Sierra Leone. George wrote an account of his life, an important early slave narratives.
Moses "Daddy Moses" Wilkinson or "Old Moses" was an American Wesleyan Methodist preacher and Black Loyalist. His ministry combined Old Testament divination with African religious traditions such as conjuring and sorcery. He gained freedom from slavery in Virginia during the American Revolutionary War and was a Wesleyan Methodist preacher in New York and Nova Scotia. In 1791, he migrated to Sierra Leone, preaching alongside ministers Boston King and Henry Beverhout. There, he established the first Methodist church in Settler Town and survived a rebellion in 1800.
Birchtown is a community and National Historic Site in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, located near Shelburne in the Municipal District of Shelburne County. Founded in 1783, the village was the largest settlement of Black Loyalists and the largest free settlement of ethnic Africans in North America in the eighteenth century. The two other significant Black Loyalist communities established in Nova Scotia were Brindley town and Tracadie. Birchtown was named after British Brigadier General Samuel Birch, an official who helped lead the evacuation of Black Loyalists from New York.
The Nova Scotian Settlers, or Sierra Leone Settlers, were African Americans who founded the settlement of Freetown, Sierra Leone and the Colony of Sierra Leone, on March 11, 1792. The majority of these black American immigrants were among 3,000 African Americans, mostly former slaves, who had sought freedom and refuge with the British during the American Revolutionary War, leaving rebel masters. They became known as the Black Loyalists. The Nova Scotian settlers were jointly led by African American Thomas Peters, a former soldier, and English abolitionist John Clarkson. For most of the 19th century, the Settlers resided in Settler Town and remained a distinct ethnic group within the Freetown territory, tending to marry among themselves and with Europeans in the colony.
Upper Big Tracadie is a small community in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, located in Antigonish County. It is a rural, predominantly African Canadian community. Led by Thomas Brownspriggs, Black Nova Scotians who had settled at Chedabucto Bay behind the present-day village of Guysborough migrated to Tracadie (1787). The community is served by a community center and church, Tracadie United Baptist Church. It has close ties with the nearby community of Tracadie and Guysborough. According to one 19th century observer, this community was the most successful rural Black community in the province.
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.
Pearleen Oliver (1917–2008), sometimes Pearleen Borden Oliver, was a Black Canadian church leader, an anti Black-racism activist, writer, historian and educator.