Africa's Children: A History of Blacks in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia

By Sharon Robart-Johnson

This extensively researched history traces the lives of still enslaved African Americans, who arrived with the influx of Black Loyalists who landed in Shelburne in 1783, as well as those who had come with their masters as early as 1767. Their migration to a new home did little to improve their overall living conditions, a situation that would persist for many years throughout Yarmouth County.

By drawing on a comprehensive range of sources that include census and cemetery records, church and school histories, libraries, museums, oral histories, newspapers, wills, The Black Loyalist Directory, and many others, this is a history that has been overlooked for far too long.

Reviews:

• "Africa’s Children is a testament to one’s heritage, a belief in one’s ancestors, and a record of truth … not told!" – Dr. Henry V. Bishop, chief curator, Black Cultural Centre, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia

About the author:

• Sharon Robart-Johnson’s background is comprised of both African and European ancestry. Her European roots reach beyond the Expulsion of the Acadians in 1755, to the arrival of the Black Loyalists in Shelburne in 1783, and to a slave who was brought to Digby County, Nova Scotia in 1798. Born in Yarmouth, she is a thirteenth generation Nova Scotian. Sharon is a past member at large of the Board of Directors of the Yarmouth County Historical Society which owns and operates the Yarmouth County Museum and Archives and she has five years of archival experience. Sharon is a recipient of the Robbie Robertson Dartmouth Book Award.

Details:

240 Pages
6.5 x 9.25 inches
Softcover (perfect-bound)
ISBN10: 1550028626
Published by Dundurn Press, Toronto, 2009