Conclusions:

After almost five months of research, I feel that the initial groundwork has been laid in tracing the genealogy of the Island’s early Black settlers. Jim Horby’s book, Black Islanders, provided me with the names of individuals and families to begin researching. Having worked in the Archival field for almost five years, I feel as though I have been able to accomplish quite a bit of research in five months.

As indicated in Hornby’s book, the initial settlement of Black families occurred in Charlottetown. Samuel Martin, with his land petition in 1813, was probably the individual responsible for settling the nucleus of became known as the Bog. As indicated to me by members of the present day Black community is that Hornby wrote off the community after the Bog diminished circa 1900. The research I have conducted has revealed to me that the Black community in Charlottetown was strongly visible right up until the 1960s, at which time families began to move from the West end to other parts of the city. The interviews conducted with members of the Black community, as well as long time Charlottetown residents shed a whole new light on the nature of this community, that I feel has not been previously documented.

In addition to Charlottetown, the Island’s Balck settlers and descendants also have a very visible presence within the communities of Cardigan and Vernon River with the Shepard family and in Montage with the Suckles family. The only presence in the western end of the Island was with the Prevost family, who initially settled in Tignish.

There is still, however, a lot of work to be done. The genealogy of the individuals that lived on PEI has been traced, as well as some of the families and individuals that have left. Research needs to be further conducted, however, with archival institutions in the New England States as many families went to the Boston area with the out-migration along with other Islanders in the late 1800s. A few families went to Nova Scotia and New Brunswick as well. One aspect of this research that I would like to see looked into are the slavery records for the southern USA.

Tracing the lives of these individuals has been fascinating. In researching genealogy, you can really paint a picture of families: where they lived, how much land they owned, where they are buried, etc.... I feel this research will give these people a voice and provide documentation on another aspect of these settlers that will contribute to the PEI’s history.

Respectfully submitted,

Juanita Rossiter