The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1891-10-20
NEGROES IN NOVA SCOTIA.
A Settle nen. Of Them So Far North and
Seemingly Content.


Seemingly Content.
A little way out of town, says A. W.
Eaton in Harper's Bazaar, was long
struggling negro settlement known as
Pine Woods consisting of small cabins
and shanties of the poorest kind. The
inhabitants of these miserable dwell
ings were in part descendants Of the
Maroons. who had revOltei in the
island of Jamaica in 1895, and either
fed OF else had been forcibly removed
TO England and to Nova Scotia In
1871, through the agency of Thomas
Clarkson. a colleague of Wilberforce
in his agitation against slavery in the
British Empire, most of these MarOons
were taken to Sierra Leone, where the
British government had founded
free Christian negro colony; but some
still remained, and few of the Pine
Woods negroes were among their de-
scendants. Besides these, there were
some negroes whose ancestors had
been slaves in the United States. and
mad either come with their masters
and mistresses from New England in
early times. or else had escaped on
British war ships from Maryland plan
tations In 1914.
These negroes added much 70 the
picturesqueness of the town. They
were not commonplace dsrkies, but
almost all Of them characters in their
several ways. and their doings fur
nished continual amusement George
Bear-the King of the Pine Woods
Bill Jones' Tommy Higgins. Joe Bell.
Sis, Soph. Amelia, Becky. julie. and
Harriet were all people of marked in
dividuality. As a rule, they were
shiftless. taking absolutely no thought
for the morrow; they earned money but
any surplus they had went inevitably
toward big ball or breakdown. Oc-
casionally tley became religious and
had a revival, when many would be
immersed in some pond or running
stream. usually the 70 Ho Brook. At
these baptizings as sometimes at their
more secular entertainments. jocular
crowds would gather. and the scene as
the sable candidate came splashing
and spluttering out of the water to the
singing of interminable hymns, such as
when John grew q man
Baptizin' began,
Sing hallelu, hallelu, haIlelujahr'
was grotesque indeed. Very likely
some of the baptized would next week
be beating their wives or tearing out
each others wool; and the knowledge
!, xrSth ,.a.,ct4snp f,nr,
grave to gay. from the heights of re-
ligious ecstasy to the valleys OF dark
depravity. was so direct and might be
SO sudden did not lessen the interest
of the Kentvillians in the Pine Woods
revivals. A popular revival melody
with them was:
Il looked at my hands,
And my hands looked new,
I'm almost surrounded
De hebben is dark.
But de Lord sees through,
I'm almost surroundedr'
In their balls and parties they. OF
course initiated as closely as possible
the white peoples entertainments
How they managed to dance on the
rickety floors of their cramped cabins
was a mystery; but they danced with
quite as much zest as they manifested
in their revivals. Here yO, Beck
Jones and Bill Bear look out TO
yo'selfs" the floor-manager would
sometimes say. What yo' want to
60 interruptin' this yere dance fo'?"
Beck and Bill would then give the
floor manager little strong talk, and
not infrequently the evening would
end in a general row.