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COMMENTARY: A lost chapter of Black history on Prince Edward Island

Editor’s Note: This is the first of two parts written by Stella Shepard exclusively for The Guardian in recognition of Black History Month. The second part is scheduled for Feb. 21.

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During Black History Month, we must honour the truth about slavery on Prince Edward Island. Too often, these stories have been changed or whitewashed through a European perspective. When made-up stories replace real ones, the suffering of enslaved people is pushed aside. This is an injustice to those who endured bondage and to the descendants who carry their legacy.

In 1781, the legislature of Saint John’s Island, now Prince Edward Island, passed a law, An Act, declaring that Baptism of slaves shall not exempt them from bondage stating outright that Black and mixed-race people, whether already enslaved or still to be trafficked to the island, would remain property, untouched by the protections baptism was supposed to give them. The enslaved were often labelled “servants,” a polite fiction that concealed a violent truth.

The enslaved people typically lived in the homes of wealthy families, military officers, government officials, and on farms owned by colonial elites. Their daily lives were defined by poor housing, limited food, no legal protection from violence, and constant surveillance and control.

In 1786, Edmund Fanning was appointed governor of St. John Island, the place we now call Prince Edward Island. Fanning was a slave owner and among the people he claimed were my grandparents of six generations, David and Kesiah (Wilson) Sheppard, one of the first enslaved couples brought to the Island.

Many enslaved people on P.E.I. were taken from warm regions, the American South, the Caribbean and other heat-bound places, and forced into a climate utterly foreign to them. David and Kesiah were trafficked from a southern........

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