A Caribbean Community in the North Atlantic: DISCO, Labour Migration, and the Creation of Whitney Pier, Nova Scotia, c. 1900–1930

Over the course of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the Dominion Iron and Steel Company in Sydney, Nova Scotia (DISCO) hired thousands of migrant labourers. Many of the workers settled in the nearby Whitney Pier. Among them were hundreds of African American and Caribbean men attrac...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Bonner, Claudine
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Les Publications Histoire sociale - Social History Inc. 2022
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hssh.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/hssh/article/view/41252
Description
Summary:Over the course of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the Dominion Iron and Steel Company in Sydney, Nova Scotia (DISCO) hired thousands of migrant labourers. Many of the workers settled in the nearby Whitney Pier. Among them were hundreds of African American and Caribbean men attracted by the promise of good wages and living conditions. Other people, including women and children, followed afterward. A history of Whitney Pier’s Black community demonstrates not only how industry and urbanization changed in the area at the time but also how the community negotiated those changes and in so doing established a unique subculture around the areas where the Caribbean migrants lived and socialized. À la fin du XIXe siècle et au début du XXe siècle, la Dominion Iron and Steel Company (DISCO) de Sydney, en Nouvelle-Écosse, embaucha des milliers de travailleurs migrants. Plusieurs de ces travailleurs s’installèrent dans le quartier avoisinant de Whitney Pier. Parmi eux figuraient des centaines d’hommes afro-américains et caribéens séduits par la promesse de bons salaires et de bonnes conditions de vie. D’autres personnes, notamment des femmes et des enfants, vinrent les rejoindre par la suite. L’histoire de la communauté Noire de Whitney Pier démontre non seulement comment l’industrie et l’urbanisation ont évolué dans la région à cette époque, mais aussi comment la communauté a transigé avec ces changements et, ce faisant, a établi une sous-culture unique dans les environs où les migrants caribéens vivaient et socialisaient.