76 THE CANADIAN HISTORICAL REVIEW The mind reels at coping with these senseless intrusions of majesty and notori- ety, which are like peacocks smuggled into a chicken-roost. We must admit that the book contains one gloriously grotesque footnote, a macabre malapropism, which nearly makes it worth reading. On page twenty- two Mr Belliveau notes that one of the Smith women disposed of her husband's ashes by simply dropping the canister into Shediac Bay. But some years later, her daughter ‘disposed of the widow Cornelia’s ashes more sportily [!!!]. She kept the ashes on her bedroom dresser all that winter and when spring came paddled out alone in a canoe and just dropped them over Let us, then, lay this volume to rest by labelling it a compound of bad journalism and worse history, useful only as a terrible example. ‘A.A, MACKENZIE, St Francis Xavier University McKervow: A Brief History of Blacks in Nova Scotia, 1783 ~1895. Edited by FRANK S. Boyp, JR. Halifax, Afro-Nova Scotian Enterprises, 1976. Pp. 125. $6.95 paper. Of all the factors operating in the development of a black community in Nova Scotia, none has been so significant as the church, and in particular the African Baptist Association. The existence of a separate black religi only influenced the world view of the black Christians through its spiritual teachings, it also helped to create the physical world that was being viewed. In an otherwise indifferent or even hostile white world, the black church offered security, harboured traditions, and lent a sense of dignity and worth to its members. The church was frequently the only all-black institution in Nova Scotia's scattered black settlements, and as such it defined social activities and community relationships, and through it were interpreted the struggles and aspirations of the black population, For two hundred years black Nova Scotians have been exploited economically and denied politically. It has been the blacks’ sense of community that has enabled them to survive these oppressions, and it has been the church's role to stimulate and sustain that sense of community. Peter McKerrow, an Antigua-born migrant to Nova Scotia, was Secretary of theAfrican Baptist Association from 1875 to his death in 106. His book, originally published in 1895, under the title A Brief History of the Coloured Baptists of Nova Scotia, gives brief sketches of the founding and growth of the Baptist, congregations in each of twenty-three black communities, and it outlines the development of the African Baptist Association from 1854 until the date of publication, Included are capsule biographies of the early black preachers, and a list of marriages performed by African Baptist pastors between 1832 and 1895. Thus it provides a valuable source of information on nineteenth-century black Nova Scotian church history, and its value is enchanced by the footnotingREVIEWS 77 of editor Frank Boyd, which draws attention to additional documentation on the period and issues covered by McKerrow. Besides the factual and statistical information provided in this book, the social historian will benefit from McKerrow’s description of the concerns and controversies that existed within the black church in 1895, Inevitably, given the central importance of the church in black community life, the local chapel became the forum for power struggles and ideological competitions as well as for mote strictly religious debate. The blacks’ resistance to the formalization of separate black educational facilities, for example, is clearly revealed in McKer- row’s account and in the Association Minutes of the 1880s. Nova Scotia's version of ‘Jim Crow’ kept young blacks from acquiring economically market- able skills, and when skilled black immigrants arrived they were denied the opportunity to practise their skills. Nova Scotia’s place for its black citizens was defined almost exclusively in terms of unskilled and poorly paid physical labour, As a result many young and ambitious blacks left Nova Scotia in the 1880s and gos to seek the opportunities provided by a much more complete black economic structure in the United States. Though they too suffered from white racism, at least the black Americans had a population large enough to sustain black colleges, businesses and hospitals, doctors and lawyers, and the Northern us industries were prepared, as Nova Scotia's were not, to hire and train black mechanics. McKerrow sought to correct this situation by encouraging industrial educa- tion among the blacks, so that they could earn for themselves a more advan- tageous place in the Nova Scotian economy. He also agitated for the amalgama- tion of the African Baptists with the white Maritime Baptist convention, hoping that integration would help to destroy white prejudice and also that the more wealthy white denomination would subsidize the black chapels suffering finan- cially from the migration to the United States. His educational scheme was pursued, and after his death a black industrial school was established in Halifax, but the programme's success was severely restricted by the attitudes of white society. His plan for church amalgamation was roundly defeated by the black Baptists themselves. Recognizing that the church was their major sup- port, the black Christians were not prepared to jeopardize its existence in the meagre hope that church integration would provide any benefits to compen- sate for the loss of their institutional independence. It is McKerrow’s integrationist policy that gives Frank Boyd the main theme of his introduction and footnotes. Himself a black Nova Scotian from an African Baptist family, Boyd criticizes McKerrow’s short-sighted amalgama- tion proposal, and he charges that McKerrow’s interpretation of African Baptist history was designed to convince his black readers that religious separa- tion was coincidental and not atall necessary for their survival as a community. However much one might agree with Boyd in his dispute with McKerrow, still Copvriaht © 2001 All Riahts Reserved78 THE CANADIAN HISTORICAL REVIEW it is the case that by using the original text as a sounding board for his own ‘separatist’ interpretation, Boyd runs the serious risk of confusing his reader. An expanded introduction, in which his own views were explicitly stated and supported, might have served his ultimate purpose better than the current format which forces the reader to jump continually from text to footnote in order to follow the two strains of argument. Some readers may decide to avoid the footnotes altogether, and thus will miss both Boyd’s arguments and the wealth of further documentation indicated there. This republication is described by its editor as ‘a source book,’ and as such it will be very usefuul. McKerrow’s ofien detailed text and Boyd’s documentation are supplemented with modern photographs of black Baptist churches and their congregations, and with sketches and portraits drawn by Michael Fer- nandes and Henry Boyd, the editor's brother. The product of determined effort, dedication, and even personal sacrifice — for this is a private publication — Boyd's edition of McKerrow is to be received with gratitude. JAMES W. ST. G. WALKER Unversity of Waterloo The Black Loyalists: The Search for a Promised Land in Nova Scotia and Sierra Leone 1783-1870. JaMes wssr.G. watxer. New York, Africana Publishing Co and Dalhousie University Press, 1976. Pp. xvi, 438. Today the arrival of perhaps 80,000 American Loyalists across the globe is celebrated only in parts of Canada. Few scholars probably know that, until 1968, landing ceremonies were held in Freetown, Sierra Leone, and until 1952, ‘culture nights’ took place with female descendants of the 1200 Loyalists wearing mittens instead of gloves in honour of their Nova Scotian heritage! Generally, the blacks must be the least known of all the major Loyalist groups. ‘This accomplished book should change all that - at least for those who fled to Nova Scotia and then to Sierra Leone. Not that Professor Walker has ventured into completely virgin territory. For Canada, Robin Winks's volume on the blacks (1971) should be particularly noted. Sierra Leone has an unusually rich historiography which includes a good general history by Christopher Fyfe (196g), an interesting sociological study, Creoledom (1963) by Arthur Porter, and numerous learned articles. On his chosen topic Walker goes beyond all previous writers both in detail and depth of research (the footnotes are awe- inspiring), and, with the exception of some New Brunswick material, seems to have consulted all the relevant sources in three continents. Although some of the conclusions will be debated, I cannot imagine that this story need ever be repeated. One-third of the book concerns Nova Scotia. Apart from the epilogue, where