Prince Edward Island’s darkish previous has largely remained hidden, with remnants of homicide, mayhem, and slavery buried beneath trendy developments in Charlottetown’s west finish, as soon as often called “The Lavatory.” Jim Hornby, who has extensively researched and written about this untold historical past, highlighted the significance of acknowledging the previous. “Reality and acknowledgement is at all times more healthy for society, in addition to people,” mentioned Hornby, whose speak on Island Black Historical past Month captivated an viewers at Summerside’s Eptek Artwork and Tradition Centre.
Hornby, who has been concerned with the Affiliation of Newcomers to P.E.I. for over 12 years, emphasised the rising range on the island and the shift in its cultural panorama. “I hope our legacy of being welcoming to these with totally different ethnic backgrounds has helped relieve among the issues we didn’t do too properly previously,” he mentioned.
Within the early nineteenth century, P.E.I. had actual slaves, principally introduced by Loyalists and French settlers who noticed them as dependable labor sources. Slaves had been pressured to reside in harsh circumstances within the marshy west finish of Charlottetown, an space now unrecognizable. Public punishments, together with hangings and thrashings, had been widespread as a deterrent towards crime. Hornby’s analysis contains an 1867 map of Charlottetown, depicting the place slaves lived, however at this time, no hint stays of this previous.
One notable determine to emerge from this darkish historical past is George Godfrey, born within the Lavatory in 1852. His father, William, was typically in hassle with the regulation, and his mom, Sarah, was concerned in a homicide trial after hitting her stepmother with a brick in 1870. After being acquitted, the household moved to Boston, the place George turned well-known on this planet of prize combating. He gained recognition for his athleticism, with even famend boxer John L. Sullivan refusing to struggle him. Godfrey’s story, in line with Hornby, is a robust image of resilience from the group of The Lavatory.
Debbie Langston, a 2004 immigrant to P.E.I., stumbled upon the story of The Lavatory in 2018 whereas working in an area faculty throughout Black Historical past Month. Realizing the lack of information round this historical past, she got down to change it by creating the Black Ladies’s Historical past Challenge in collaboration with native organizations. The challenge focuses on Black girls’s historical past in P.E.I. and affords a spread of instructional supplies, together with lesson plans, timelines, and movies.
Langston’s challenge additionally contains hands-on sources, corresponding to a trunk of artifacts associated to Black girls in The Lavatory, and a strolling tour discussing the historical past of this group. Jason MacNeil, from the P.E.I. Museum and Heritage Basis, expressed enthusiasm about serving to carry this historical past to mild, noting the significance of telling untold tales to counterpoint college students’ understanding of P.E.I.’s various heritage.
Langston hopes the challenge will assist the following era recognize the total scope of the island’s historical past and its various residents.
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