{"id":323,"date":"2021-02-16T17:52:51","date_gmt":"2021-02-17T00:52:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/buildingempire\/?p=323"},"modified":"2021-02-16T17:54:32","modified_gmt":"2021-02-17T00:54:32","slug":"africvilles-church-a-symbol-of-hope-for-a-marginalized-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/buildingempire\/2021\/02\/16\/africvilles-church-a-symbol-of-hope-for-a-marginalized-community\/","title":{"rendered":"Africville’s Church: A Symbol of Hope for a Marginalized Community"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Introduction<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perched on the North peninsula of Halifax, Nova Scotia is a replica of a vintage church, sitting in solitude, overlooking the bay. The park is deceptively serene, and betrays the violent reality of the landscape\u2019s history. A century before, the site was not a park, but a thriving black community named Africville. Africville, established by previously enslaved black families in 1848, boasted quaint houses, a hockey league, and perhaps most importantly, the beloved Seaview African United Baptist Church1<\/sup>. It has been said that the first settlers were initially drawn to the area as it sat above the Bedford Basin, a beautiful bay perfect for baptisms. Shortly after settling, the residents built the church in 1849, and it became the heart and soul of Africville over the next century2<\/sup>. Unfortunately, as the church thrived, its surrounding community lay victim to a government that strategically withheld and implemented certain infrastructures in order to stigmatize, punish, and dominate Africville\u2019s black residents. These racist actions ultimately came to a head in the 1960s when, after years of degrading the landscape, the government labelled Africville as an industrial site and demolished the buildings. Unfortunately, the church was destroyed on a night in 1967 without any proper permission 3<\/sup>. The church that now stands in the same place is a replica built in 2011, a simple structure left to represent a razed community and its culture. However, in the pinnacle of the original church\u2019s life, it represented much more. This essay will explore how the Seaview African United Baptist Church symbolizes Africville\u2019s resistance to institutionally imposed hardships in terms of its role in the community, its position in Africville, and its context in history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Clairmont, Donald H. The Spirit of Africville<\/em>. Halifax, N.S.: Formac Pub., 2010. <\/li>
  2. Halifax Regional Municipality. \u201cAfricville Map Series.\u201d arcgis.com, 2015. https:\/\/www.arcgis.com\/apps\/MapSeries\/index.html?appid=8821561a4f2c44689bc02b172241883c. <\/li>
  3. Clairmont, Donald H, and Magill, W Dennis. Africville: the Life and Death of a Canadian Black Community<\/em>. Toronto: Canadian Scholars’ Press, 1999.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n
    \"\"
    Figure 1. This black and white image of the original Seaview United Baptist Church shows how despite the simple design and unkempt surroundings, residents flocked to the church as it was the heart of Africville. Nova Scotia Archives, 1960.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    The Church\u2019s Role in the Africville Community<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The image above, taken of Africville\u2019s Seaview United Baptist Church in the 1960s, captures the church in all its glory, despite the intrusive infrastructure and ramshackle buildings surrounding the subject. However, at the heart of this systematically-impoverished town, without financial or structural means to even maintain the homes, sat the church, a relatively pristine building of simple architecture. The church featured a classic red gabled roof with a cream exterior and white trim. A variety of window styles were placed at different heights, and wooden stairs led up to the double front door. Details such as a rectangular bell tower, arched windows, and overall larger size differentiated the otherwise modest building from its neighbors and identified the structure as one designed to attract and accommodate a gathering of people for worship. While humble and perhaps even homely to some, Africville\u2019s residents described the building as one that \u201cgleam[ed] in the sun\u201d 4<\/sup>. Indeed, the architecture was straightforward, but the town\u2019s attentiveness and attachment to the church imbued it with additional layers of charm: it was physically preserved and emotionally prized. Religion was of central significance for the majority of Africville\u2019s residents, and through the creation of the church, a collective sentiment of shared values and interests forged a bond in the community. As an apex of the community, the church was not only a place of worship; it  was the site for community activities such as youth organizations, clubs, ladies\u2019 auxiliaries, missionary societies, even school classes 5<\/sup>. The church provided an ungoverned, untouched space and fostered a collective identity in a systematically deprived town. While architecturally plain, the residents instilled it with meaning. They made it come alive, quite literally. Upon approaching the building, Africville residents reported a sensorial second architecture of space that was tangible before even inside: in those days, the building pulsed and shook with music and dance as churchgoers worshipped 6<\/sup>. It (was) beat and pounded; it was the heart that pulsed and pumped power and resilience into Africville. The church was more than a physical building, it was a space of pride for collective activity, with its noise, spirit and vibrations reverberating beyond the walls and into the community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    4. Clairmont, 16<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    5. Clairmont and Magill, 72<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    6. Clairmont, 17<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"\"
    Figure 2. Africville\u2019s church shines, especially when shown as above with an enlarged view of its rejected context. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    The Church\u2019s Value Amid a Geography of Disenfranchisement<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    As described above, the Seaview African United Baptist Church was fundamental to weaving a sense of community in the fabric of Africville. Revered and preserved by residents, it additionally stood as a gleaming juxtaposition of hope amid a geography of disenfranchisement. The image above illustrates the extended context of the church, placing the comparatively immaculate building in its landscape of deteriorating infrastructure and decaying buildings. This state of destitution was not reflective of Africville\u2019s residents, but was a direct effect of outright racist maltreatment in a society that viewed black people and the space they occupied as inferior. Despite paying taxes, most necessary services were withheld by the government in a blatant act of racism and attempt to subjugate the community. There was no proper sewage, access to clean water, garbage disposal program or maintenance of the public infrastructure 7<\/sup>. As a result, Africville became a landscape of deterioration and disadvantage, strategically designed by the discriminating government. To exacerbate this issue, Halifax constructed all of its necessary but undesirable developments in the Africville community. In 1853, the Nova Scotia Railway Company cut tracks through the Bedford Basin, ripping through homes and subjecting residents to constant interruption by the deafening train8,9<\/sup>. Incidentally, when passing directly by the church, the train\u2019s rumble finally found a competitor with the church\u2019s passionate worship. Additionally, in 1858, the City relocated their sewage pits to the edge of Africville, and in the next 20 years, they would continue on to build Rockhead Prison, slaughterhouses and an Infectious Disease Hospital. Buildings such as these were relegated to Africville due to worry and complaints from Haligonians about the proximity to their homes, a concern not extended to Africville out of superiority9<\/sup>. By compounding the undesirable constructions on the poorly funded geography of Africville, the City was able to construct the narrative that Africville was dirty and dangerous, and even the beloved Seaview African United Baptist Church was simply that \u201clittle brown church\u201d10<\/sup>. However, to Africville\u2019s residents, the church was everything and more. As the incremental addition of undesirable infrastructure inched Africville ever closer to the label of \u2018industrial zone\u2019, the church stood as a symbol of hope and resilience as a true representation of Africville\u2019s own culture and pride. Moreover, the church provided a charming space for residents to take ownership over. It was said that even for those who did not attend the church or use its services, it was still described as \u201cour church\u201d, whereas the dump was never something that was theirs, simply something they were allotted, and association with which they fought 11<\/sup>. Suffice it to say, emphasized by an imposed landscape of subjugated undesirability, Africville\u2019s church was a beacon of comparative beauty, pride, and value.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    7. Matthew McRae. \u201cThe Story of Africville.\u201d CMHR. Canadian Museum for Human Rights. Accessed February 16, 2021. https:\/\/humanrights.ca\/story\/the-story-of-africville. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    8. Clairmont, 10<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    9. Halifax Regional Municipality. \u201cAfricville Map Series.\u201d arcgis.com, 2015. https:\/\/www.arcgis.com\/apps\/MapSeries\/index.html?appid=8821561a4f2c44689bc02b172241883c. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    10. Clairmont and Magill, 73<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    11. Clairmont, 17<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"\"
    Figure 3. This map from 1878 represents Africville\u2019s early layout. Labels indicate the proximity of the City Prison, Hospital and Slaughterhouses. The church is unindicated, but sits near the top of the map along Campbell Road.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    The Black Church\u2019s Resistance Throughout History<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In addition to the church\u2019s unmatched role and contrasted with the significance in Africville, the Seaview African United Baptist Church represented a symbol of resistance at the historical scale. Much like Africville, the cultural significance of Catholicism in the black community is deeply rooted in the North American slave trade. As is still the case today in larger populations, the majority of the black residents in Africville identified as Baptists12<\/sup>. Baptism as a formal religion became popular in England in the early 1600s, and its emergence in African American populations occurred somewhat simultaneously13<\/sup>. Enslaved peoples were introduced and attracted to the evangelical religion of their masters, as it featured a god that viewed all of His followers, even slaves, as equals under Him. However, slave masters insisted their inferiors attend white churches, in order to control independent, \u201cfalse\u201d worship and avoid rebellion 14<\/sup>. Nevertheless, as an act of rebellion, slaves found ways to secretly organize gatherings to celebrate their faith, incorporating singing and dancing to create what was called \u201cNegro spirituals\u201d 15<\/sup>. These meetings, hidden acts of rebellion against the system, were dubbed hush harbours, and were organized with secret signals and passwords in order to retain independence. They were not oppositions of physical violence, but the mere act of establishing a separate form of worship to express hope for the future was a strong resistance against the slave masters. Following freedom, churches were not only places of spirituality for previously enslaved peoples, but organizing elements that contributed to the creation of new lives as \u201ccitizens rather than property.\u201d 14<\/sup> As explained by Clairmont and Magill, for blossoming geographies of black culture like Africville, \u201c[t]he establishment of churches and schools in the segregated black communities laid the basis for possible growth of a genuine black Nova Scotian subculture.\u201d 16<\/sup> Not only do baptist churches help a community grow, but they also allow independence. Each local baptist church is autonomous, meaning there is no governing body that decides the methods of worship, leadership, or financial decisions. In a community uncontrollably on the path to complete decimation at the hands of a racist government, a church that has no human authority, as Jesus is the Lord of the church, is an integral and essential space of freedom 17<\/sup>. In sum, the Seaview African United Baptist Church stands in defiance of the government through the context of history, as historically, black churches represent resistance against the restriction of free thought, and in all relevant eras, they provide a safe space to spur individual and social change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    12. Lincoln,  Eric, and Mamiya, Lawrence. The Black Church in the African American Experience<\/em>. Durham: Duke University Press, 2005. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    13. Lincoln and Mamiya, 21<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    14. Maffly-Kipp, Laurie F. \u201cThe Church in the Southern Black Community.\u201d Documenting the American South, May 2001. https:\/\/wayback.archive-it.org\/3828\/20141028162837\/http:\/\/docsouth.unc.edu\/church\/intro.html. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    15. Cox, Tony. \u201cWhy Did African Slaves Adopt the Bible?\u201d NPR. NPR, January 24, 2007. https:\/\/www.npr.org\/templates\/story\/story.php?storyId=6997059. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    16. Clairmont and Magill, 29<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    17. \u201cBaptists Believe in Church Autonomy.\u201d Baptist Distinctives, January 20, 2015. https:\/\/www.baptistdistinctives.org\/resources\/articles\/church-autonomy\/.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Africville was a community that had its fate successfully predetermined by a  government intent on exploiting the black community for their own benefit. However, the cultural impact of the Seaview African United Baptist Church was a victory unforeseen and lived apart from the government\u2019s control. Even amid the abandoned infrastructure, unwelcome developments, and deep systematic wounds inflicted by a racist society, the sense of pride, collective values, and unity in religion that the church represented cemented the humble building as the heart of a loving community. It may not exist today in its original form, but its impact and symbolism as a site of resistance endures in the memory of anyone who knows the story of Africville.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    _____________________________________________________<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Bibliography<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u201cBaptists Believe in Church Autonomy.\u201d Baptist Distinctives, January 20, 2015. https:\/\/www.baptistdistinctives.org\/resources\/articles\/church-autonomy\/.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Clairmont, Donald H. The Spirit of Africville<\/em>. Halifax, N.S.: Formac Pub., 2010.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Cox, Tony. \u201cWhy Did African Slaves Adopt the Bible?\u201d NPR. NPR, January 24, 2007. https:\/\/www.npr.org\/templates\/story\/story.php?storyId=6997059.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Halifax Regional Municipality. \u201cAfricville Map Series.\u201d arcgis.com, 2015. https:\/\/www.arcgis.com\/apps\/MapSeries\/index.html?appid=8821561a4f2c44689bc02b172241883c.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    J., Clairmont Donald H, and Dennis W. Magill. Africville: the Life and Death of a Canadian Black Community<\/em>. Toronto: Canadian Scholars’ Press, 1999.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Lincoln, Charles Eric, and Lawrence H. Mamiya. The Black Church in the African American Experience<\/em>. Durham: Duke University Press, 2005.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Maffly-Kipp, Laurie F. \u201cThe Church in the Southern Black Community.\u201d Documenting the American South, May 2001. https:\/\/wayback.archive-it.org\/3828\/20141028162837\/http:\/\/docsouth.unc.edu\/church\/intro.html.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Matthew McRae. \u201cThe Story of Africville.\u201d CMHR. Canadian Museum for Human Rights. Accessed February 16, 2021. https:\/\/humanrights.ca\/story\/the-story-of-africville.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    _____________________________________________________<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Images<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Figure 1. Brooks, Bob. Boys crossing railroad tracks towards Seaview African United Baptist Church, Africville, <\/em>Nova Scotia Archives 1989-468 vol. 16 \/ negative sheet 5 image 36. Accessed Feb 16, 2021 from https:\/\/archives.novascotia.ca\/africville\/archives\/?ID=9<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Figure 2. Seaview United Baptist Church, 196? (cropped from original). 102-16N-065.F. Accessed Feb 16, 2021 from https:\/\/www.halifaxpubliclibraries.ca\/blogs\/post\/halifax-municipal-archives-remembering-africville-source-guide\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Figure 3. Map of Halifax, 1878, Nova Scotia Archives. Accessed Feb 16, 2021 from https:\/\/www.arcgis.com\/apps\/MapSeries\/index.html?appid=8821561a4f2c44689bc02b172241883c<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Introduction Perched on the North peninsula of Halifax, Nova Scotia is a replica of a vintage church, sitting in solitude, overlooking the bay. The park is deceptively serene, and betrays the violent reality of the landscape\u2019s history. A century before, the site was not a park, but a thriving black community named Africville. Africville, established […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61927,"featured_media":332,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,27,20,36,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-north-america","category-race","category-settler-colonialism","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/buildingempire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/buildingempire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/buildingempire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/buildingempire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61927"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/buildingempire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/buildingempire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":427,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/buildingempire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323\/revisions\/427"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/buildingempire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/buildingempire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/buildingempire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/buildingempire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}