African Nova Scotian Teaching and Learning Resources

Maps

Archives are a great place to develop and use your skills of investigation. Archives work to preserve materials in their original context. 'Authentic', 'one-of-a-kind', and 'original' are all words used to describe archival materials. This makes them reliable and valid sources of information, or evidence of the past.

The maps and plans in this section feature areas of African Nova Scotian settlement and land use in Nova Scotia.

We invite you to explore these maps and plans, and have provided some 'questions to consider' that may help in your teaching and learning journey.

Preston Letter A and Letter B

Date: 9 December 1786

Reference: Nova Scotia Archives Map Collection: F/230 - 1786 African Nova Scotians

Preston Township

Date: 30 April 1791

Reference: Nova Scotia Archives Map Collection: F/230 - 1791 African Nova Scotians

Dartmouth, Property on Road from Dartmouth to Preston

Date: 29 September 1814

Reference: Nova Scotia Archives Map Collection: F/239 - 1814

Mr. Titus Smith's plan of the tract of 1696 acres surveyed for Black people at Preston

Date: 18 November 1835

Reference: Commissioner of Public Records Nova Scotia Archives RG 1 volume 419 number 20

Surveyor General's plan of several tracts of lands occupied by Black people at Preston, attached to a grant thereof from the Crown or intended to be so attached. Certified by Surveyor General, John Spry Morris

Date: 11 January 1836

Reference: Commissioner of Public Records Nova Scotia Archives RG 1 volume 419 number 21

Unfinished sketch of two or three tracts of land. Coloured plan, no date or names. Hammonds Plains

Reference: Commissioner of Public Records Nova Scotia Archives RG 1 volume 419 number 22

John Chamberlain's sketch of lands in or near to Block Letter E on plan of Black settlement at Preston. Sampson Carter improvements

Date: 21 August 1822

Reference: Commissioner of Public Records Nova Scotia Archives RG 1 volume 419 number 23

Plan by George P. Brehm of lots occupied by Black people at Preston

Date: September and October 1827

Reference: Commissioner of Public Records Nova Scotia Archives RG 1 volume 419 number 24

Plan by George Brehm of lines settled between Butler and Hamilton at Hammonds Plains

Date: November 1823

Reference: Commissioner of Public Records Nova Scotia Archives RG 1 volume 419 number 25

Theophilus Chamberlain's plan. Certain lands in Preston originally laid out to E. Handeside, now owned by W. Lawson

Date: 25 September 1816

Reference: Commissioner of Public Records Nova Scotia Archives RG 1 volume 419 number 26

Theophilus Chamberlain's plan of certain lands at Preston originally laid out to Robert Lemont

Reference: Commissioner of Public Records Nova Scotia Archives RG 1 volume 419 number 27

Surveyor General's plan of lands laid out for the Black Refugees at Beech Hill (Beechville), by order of Sir John Coape Sherbrooke, Lieutenant Governor. Certified by Surveyor General

Date: June 1816

Reference: Commissioner of Public Records Nova Scotia Archives RG 1 volume 419 number 28

A large sketch plan without signature of Black Refugee lands at Preston, 1816

Reference: Commissioner of Public Records Nova Scotia Archives RG 1 volume 419 number 29

Plan of the Black settlement at Hammonds Plains, with names of settlers, but not signed or authenticated and without date

Reference: Commissioner of Public Records Nova Scotia Archives RG 1 volume 419 number 30

George Brehm's plan of the Black settlement at Hammonds Plains

Date: 8 November 1818

Reference: Commissioner of Public Records Nova Scotia Archives RG 1 volume 419 number 31

Mr. Titus Smith's plan of lots for Black people near Eagle Lake, Preston. Surveyed 15 August 1834

Reference: Commissioner of Public Records Nova Scotia Archives RG 1 volume 419 number 32

Plan and description by Thomas Holland, Surveyor, of lots at Hammonds Plains

Date: 12 January 1832

Reference: Commissioner of Public Records Nova Scotia Archives RG 1 volume 419 number 33

A plan of certain lots at Hammonds Plains in the handwriting of Richard Morris, Surveyor General's clerk, but neither signed nor dated

Reference: Commissioner of Public Records Nova Scotia Archives RG 1 volume 419 number 34

Plan of Black settlement at Preston, showing Frog Lake lots and those at Partridge River, but neither signed or dated

Reference: Commissioner of Public Records Nova Scotia Archives RG 1 volume 419 number 35

Licence of occupation from Lieutenant Governor Dalhousie for lots at Refugee Hill, Township of Halifax, to Pompey Cooper and others, with plan attached. Given under hand and seal at arms at Halifax

Date: 27 March 1818

Reference: Commissioner of Public Records Nova Scotia Archives RG 1 volume 419 number 36