历史学会希望恢复盖伊伯勒县以前黑人社区的公墓

伯奇敦（Birchtown）这个名字通常与谢尔本（Shelburne）以外的社区有关，这是北美黑人忠诚主义者最大的定居点。但是，另一个名为Birchtown的社区，这个社区在盖伊伯勒县（Guyborough County），有一个历史社会，探索了过去的故事，并旨在恢复其现已在公墓上种植。

克里斯·库克（Chris Cook）是Guysborough历史学会，在盖伊伯勒（Guysborough）运营着旧法院的博物馆和访客信息。随着史蒂夫·赖特（Steve Wright）以及现任社会成员詹妮弗·戴斯蒙德（Jennifer Desmond）和肖恩·史威尔斯（Shane Sceles）的工作，该协会正在研究曾经位于盖伊伯勒县偏远地区的前社区的历史。

Cook said they are in very early days to say what exactly will happen with the site where the group has been discovering gravesites.

库克说：“我们正在努力将注意力重新引起到该网站，并且在历史社会的情况下，我们将提出我们希望看到的计划的计划。”“显然，我们想与其他社区合作伙伴合作，您有什么。我能看到的各方都有兴趣。”

库克说，距离曼彻斯特不远的伯奇镇鲜为人知。Besides the cemetery, there are some old cellars, wells, and foundations in the area.Cook said Birchtown shows up on an 1876 provincial map as a settled “coloured” community. That map shows a number of buildings. The community shows up again in a geological survey map from 1884. Cook said they know by 1890 the community had a Baptist church. And according to 1890-91 census, there were about 90 to 100 people living in the area.

“I can say with pretty good certainty they were all African Nova Scotians,” Cook said.“我们可以肯定地说，社区在1875年就在那里，在那之前可能有几十年。”

Cook said伯奇敦很可能在1950年至1960年之间被遗弃，因为盖伊伯勒县农村人口下降。

库克说：“盖伊伯勒县的人口最多，大约在1900年左右。”“但是话虽如此，即使在此之前，如果您从人口普查进行了一些研究，您可能会注意到，大型社区的偏远地区的规模正在减少。到1950年，生计农业和劳动工作已经大大减少。我认为这只是一个老龄化，人口下降，工作和时间不断变化的问题。”

库克说，该协会的记录显示，从1900年开始的墓地里，大约有40座葬礼，其中包括许多儿童。墓地的最后一个坟墓的历史可以追溯到1950年。

“You won’t see anything clearly identifiable as a cemetery at this time,” Cook said. “The bush has grown up around after the trees were harvested 20 years ago. It’s gone through a lot of transformations in its physical status.”

哈利法克斯审查员与新斯科舍省的档案馆接触，该档案中发现了一些对伯奇敦的记录，其中包括1884年的地理地图。1967年出版物和新斯科舍省的位置。这是条目：

It’s not the first time people in the community rallied to work on the Birchtown cemetery project. Cook said about 15 years ago, Wright, who was working as a teacher in the high school in Guysborough, teamed up Wendy Campbell and the African Canadian Friendship Centre at the school. The group gathered as much information as they could about Birchtown and discussed what to do about acknowledging the cemetery. Then sadly, Campbell passed away and the project was set aside.

戴斯蒙德（Desmond）是非洲新斯科舍省社区的成员，也是盖伊伯勒（Guysborough）的一名教育家，他最近参与其中，并希望更多地了解伯奇敦（Birchtown）。库克说，他们现在正在努力找出谁拥有该物业以及他们想对该网站做什么。

库克说，戴斯蒙德不想看到社区被遗忘。

“She’s made attempts to take students to Birchtown, Shelburne County to learn about African Nova Scotia Black Loyalist history,” Cook said. “She said to us the other day, ‘Well, we got that right here. We just don’t have much physical evidence about the place.’”

The society has experience restoring cemeteries in the community. A number of years ago, they worked on a project for the Pioneer Cemetery of Christchurch, an Anglican cemetery and the first cemetery in Guysborough after the English settlement of 1784. They identified all the burials in that cemetery and developed information panels, which are on display now.

“We’ve been down this road before, so we’re interested in seeing something come to fruition with this cemetery now,” Cook said.

“We want to do something appropriate. We just have to determine what that will look like. These people were part of our cultural history and part of our community’s history. Regardless of who we are today and who they were then, it doesn’t matter because these folks toiled, lived, prayed, raised families, and nobody, regardless of who they are, should be forgotten. They’re part of our collective community heritage and that’s why [the cemetery] should be preserved.”

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