Nova Scotia, history

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Nova Scotia was contested territory between the French and British (and the Indians) from 1500 down to 1763. It was ruled as a British colony until it became a founding member of the Dominion of Canada in 1867.

Demographic history

The Micmac, an Algonquian-speaking First Nation, inhabited the island when Europeans first arrived. The first explorers and fishermen brought European diseases (especially smallpox) which killed off most of the Indians.

Following the voyages of the Norsemen around 1000 and the discoveries of John Cabot in 1497, European fishermen and navigators skirted the coast. After several failures at colonization, the French settled at Port Royal in 1605. The first Scottish settlements in Nova Scotia were made in 1629 at Baleine Cove on Cape Breton Island and at Port Royal. British settlement began with the founding of Halifax in 1749; about 2,500 settlers from the continent of Europe migrated to the province in 1750-1752. About 12,000 Acadians were expelled Between 1755 and 1762. Some 8,000 New England Yankees settled in Nova Scotia. Between 1772 and 1774 about 1,000 Yorkshiremen settled at the Isthmus of Chignecto. The shipload of Scots which reached Pictou in 1773 were the first of thousands who came in the 19th century. After 1783, with the loss of the American RevolutionLoyalists, and disbanded British soldiers doubled the population of Nova Scotia, and about 20,000 became permanent settlers there. Some freed blacks came with the Loyalists, but many moved on to Sierra Leone; several hundred remained and another 2,000 came after the War of 1812. The largest influx came in 1815-51, with the arrival of some 55,000 Scottish, Irish, English, and Welsh settlers. Subsequently, with the development of the coal and steel industries, immigrants came not only from the British Isles but also from the Continent and elsewhere.

Labour history

The labour movement in Nova Scotia may be traced back to the late 18th century. As early as 1799 there was a Carpenters' Society at Halifax, and soon there were attempts at organization by other workmen and tradesmen. In 1816 Nova Scotia had an act against trade unions, the preamble of which declared that great numbers of master tradesmen, journeymen, and workmen in the town of Halifax and other parts of the province had, by unlawful meetings and combinations, endeavored to regulate the rate of wages and effectuate other illegal aims.

Unionization has primarily focused on craft rather than industrial lines, except in the coal mines and steel plants. There has been an increase in industrial unionism with the expansion of industry. After the middle of the 19th century international unionism and American influence became important, with international unionism entering the province in 1869, when a branch of the International Typographical Union was chartered in Halifax. The development of federated unions is seen in the organization of the Amalgamated Trade Unions of Halifax in 1889, which was succeeded by the Halifax District Trades and Labour Council in 1898. By the end of the 19th century there were more than 70 local unions in Nova Scotia.

The Provincial Workmen's Association began in 1879 as a miners' union; in 1898, faced by a challenge from the Knights of Labor, it sought to embrace unions in all the industries of the province. The first local union of the United Mine Workers was established in 1908. After a struggle for control of the labour movement among the miners, the Provincial Workmen's Association was dissolved in 1917, and by 1919 the United Mine Workers had triumphed in the coal areas of the province.

After 1940 the labour movement has spread throughout Nova Scotia. Although most Nova Scotia branches affiliated with the Trades and Labour Congress of Canada after it first entered the province in 1902, there were a growing number of Canadian Congress of Labour affiliates in later years. In 1956 these two groups merged to form the Canadian Labour Congress. In 1987 there were about 105,000 union members, almost half of them affiliated with the Canadian Labour Congress.

Labour legislation includes the Canada Trade Union Act of 1872 which made labour organizations more respectable, and the Nova Scotia Trade Union Act of 1937. It established the right of employees to organize and set the procedure for collective bargaining. Laws regulating the conditions and terms of employment are contained in a Labour Standards Code passed in 1972.

Bibliography

Surveys

  • Beck, J. Murray. The Government of Nova Scotia University of Toronto Press, 1957, the standard history
  • Choyce, Lesley. Nova Scotia: Shaped by the Sea. A Living History. Toronto: Penguin Books Canada, 1996. 305 pp.
  • Donovan, Kenneth, ed. Cape Breton at 200: Historical Essays in Honour of the Island's Bicentennial, 1785-1985. Sydney, N.S.: U. Coll. of Cape Breton Pr., 1985. 261 pp.
  • Fingard, Judith; Guildford, Janet; and Sutherland, David. Halifax: The First 250 Years Halifax: Formac, 1999. 192 pp.
  • Girard, Philip; Phillips, Jim; and Cahill, Barry, ed. The Supreme Court of Nova Scotia, 1754-2004: From Imperial Bastion to Provincial Oracle U. of Toronto Press 2004.
  • Johnson, Ralph S. Forests of Nova Scotia: A History. Tantallon: Nova Scotia Dept. of Lands and Forests; Four East Publ., 1986. 407 pp.
  • Loomer, L. S. Windsor, Nova Scotia: A Journey in History. Windsor, N.S.: West Hants Hist. Soc., 1996. 399 pp.
  • Robertson, Allen B. Tide & Timber: Hantsport, Nova Scotia, 1795-1995. Hantsport, N.S.: Lancelot, 1996. 182 pp.
  • Robertson, Barbara R. Sawpower: Making Lumber in the Sawmills of Nova Scotia. Halifax: Nimbus; Nova Scotia Mus., 1986. 244 pp.

Since 1900

  • Beck, J. Murray. Politics of Nova Scotia. vol 2: 1896-1988. Tantallon, N.S.: Four East 1985 438 pp.
  • Bickerton, James P. Nova Scotia, Ottawa and the Politics of Regional Development. U. of Toronto Press 1990. 412 pp.
  • Creighton, Wilfred. Forestkeeping: A History of the Department of Lands and Forests in Nova Scotia, 1926-1969. Halifax: Nova Scotia Dept. of Lands and Forests, 1988. 155 pp.
  • Earle, Michael, ed. Workers and the State in Twentieth Century Nova Scotia. Fredericton: Acadiensis, 1989.
  • Frank, David. J. B. McLachlan: A Biography - the Story of a Legendary Labour Leader and the Cape Breton Coal Miners. Toronto: Lorimer, 1999. 592 pp.
  • Fraser, Dawn. Echoes from Labor's Wars: The Expanded Edition, Industrial Cape Breton in the 1920's, Echoes of World War One, Autobiography and Other Writings. Wreck Cove, N.S.: Breton Books, 1992. 177 pp.
  • McKay, Ian. The Quest of the Folk: Antimodernism and Cultural Selection in Twentieth-Century Nova Scotia. McGill-Queen's U. Pr., 1994. 371 pp.
  • McKay, Ian. The Craft Transformed: An Essay on the Carpenters of Halifax, 1885-1985. Halifax, N.S.: Holdfast, 1985. 148 pp.
  • March, William DesB. Red Line: The Chronicle-Herald and Mail-Star, 1875-1954. Halifax, N.S.: Chebucto Agencies, 1986. 415 pp.
  • Morton, Suzanne. Ideal Surroundings: Domestic Life in a Working-Class Suburb in the 1920s. U. of Toronto Pr., 1995. 201 pp. about Richmond Heights
  • Sandberg, L. Anders and Clancy, Peter. Against the Grain: Foresters and Politics in Nova Scotia. U. of British Columbia Pr., 2000. 352 pp.
  • Sandberg, L. Anders, ed. Trouble in the Woods: Forest Policy and Social Conflict in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Fredericton, N.B.: Acadiensis, 1992. 234 pp.

Pre 1900

  • Beck, J. Murray. Joseph Howe Volumes I & II : Conservative Reformer 1804-1848; The Briton Becomes Canadian 1848-1873 (1984)
  • Beck, J. Murray. Politics of Nova Scotia. vol 1 1710-1896 Tantallon, N.S.: Four East 1985 438 pp.
  • Bell, Winthrop P. The "Foreign Protestants" and the Settlement of Nova Scotia: The History of a Piece of Arrested British Colonial Policy in the Eighteenth Century. (1961). reprint Fredericton, N.B.: Acadiensis for Mount Allison U., Cen. for Can. Studies, 1990. 673 pp.
  • Brebner, John Bartlet. New England's Outpost. Acadia before the Conquest of Canada (1927)
  • Brebner, John Bartlet. The Neutral Yankees of Nova Scotia: A Marginal Colony During the Revolutionary Years (1937)
  • Byers, Mary and McBurney, Margaret. Atlantic Hearth: Early Homes and Families of Nova Scotia. U. of Toronto Press, 1994. 364 pp.
  • Campey, Lucille H. After the Hector: The Scottish Pioneers of Nova Scotia and Cape Breton Toronto: Natural Heritage Books, 2004. 376 pp.
  • J. A. Chisholm, ed. Speeches and Public Letters of Joseph Howe 2 vol Halifax, 1909
  • Conrad, Margaret and Moody, Barry, ed. Planter Links: Community and Culture in Colonial Nova Scotia. Fredericton, : Acadiensis, 2001. 236 pp.
  • Conrad, Margaret, ed. Intimate Relations: Family and Community in Planter Nova Scotia, 1759-1800. Fredericton, : Acadiensis, 1995. 298 pp.
  • Conrad, Margaret, ed. Making Adjustments: Change and Continuity in Planter Nova Scotia, 1759-1800. Fredericton: Acadiensis, 1991. 280 pp.
  • Cuthbertson, Brian. Johnny Bluenose at the Polls: Epic Nova Scotian Election Battles, 1758-1848. Halifax: Formac, 1994. 344 pp.
  • Donald A. Desserud; "Outpost's Response: The Language and Politics of Moderation in Eighteenth-Century Nova Scotia" American Review of Canadian Studies, Vol. 29, 1999 online
  • Faragher, John Mack. A Great and Noble Scheme: The Tragic Story of the Expulsion of the French Acadians from Their American Homeland (2006)
  • Frost, James D. Merchant Princes: Halifax's First Family of Finance, Ships, and Steel Toronto: Lorimer, 2003. 376 pp.
  • Gwyn, Julian. Excessive Expectations: Maritime Commerce and the Economic Development of Nova Scotia, 1740-1870 McGill-Queen's U. Pr., 1998. 291 pp.
  • Hornsby, Stephen J. Nineteenth-Century Cape Breton: A Historical Geography. McGill-Queen's U. Pr., 1992. 274 pp.
  • Johnston, A. J. B. Control and Order in French Colonial Louisbourg, 1713-1758. Michigan State U. Pr., 2001. 346 pp.
  • Krause, Eric; Corbin, Carol; and O'Shea, William, ed. Aspects of Louisbourg: Essays on the History of an Eighteenth-Century French Community in North America. Sydney, N.S.: U. Coll. of Cape Breton Pr., 1995. 312 pp.
  • Lanctôt, Léopold. L'Acadie des Origines, 1603-1771 Montreal: Fleuve, 1988. 234 pp.
  • McKay, Ian. The Craft Transformed: An Essay on the Carpenters of Halifax, 1885-1985. Halifax, N.S.: Holdfast, 1985. 148 pp.
  • MacKinnon, Neil. This Unfriendly Soil: The Loyalist Experience in Nova Scotia, 1783-1791. McGill-Queen's U. Pr., 1986. 231 pp.
  • Mancke, Elizabeth. The Fault Lines of Empire: Political Differentiation in Massachusetts and Nova Scotia, ca. 1760-1830 Routledge, 2005. 214 pp. online
  • Marble, Allan Everett. Surgeons, Smallpox, and the Poor: A History of Medicine and Social Conditions in Nova Scotia, 1749-1799. McGill-Queen's U. Pr., 1993. 356 pp.
  • Pryke, Kenneth G. Nova Scotia and Confederation, 1864-74 (1979)
  • Reid, John G. et al. The "Conquest" of Acadia, 1710: Imperial, Colonial, and Aboriginal Constructions. U. of Toronto Pr., 2004. 297 pp.
  • Waite, P. B. The Lives of Dalhousie University. Vol. 1: 1818-1925, Lord Dalhousie's College. McGill-Queen's U. Pr., 1994. 338 pp.
  • Walker, James W. St. G. The Black Loyalists: The Search for a Promised Land in Nova Scotia and Sierra Leone, 1783-1870. (1976). reprint U. of Toronto Pr., 1992. 438 pp
  • Whitelaw, William Menzies; The Maritimes and Canada before Confederation (1934) online
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