Kings Landing to expand Black history presence at settlement

Kings Landing Historical Settlement is set to add another addition to its growing list of living exhibits with the goal of raising more awareness of New Brunswick's Black history.

Next week construction will begin on a pit house, essentially a pit dug into the ground, with a lean-to built over it to help protect it from the elements.

The structure would be similar to many of the dwellings that Black settlers would have first lived in when coming to New Brunswick, and would be in contrast to the other representation of Black history at the site, the Gordon House.

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"So that's going to help compare and contrast what the living conditions were like for the [Black people] when they were first settling here." said Rachael Biggar, the marketing and content specialist for Kings Landing.

"The [Gordon House] is actually quite a nice house, not everybody was so fortunate, certainly not when they first came."

Expansion of Black history at Kings Landing

The Gordon House was the first permanent exhibit about Black history at Kings Landing and remains the only permanent representation of a historical Black house in the province.

Ralph Thomas, the projects coordinator at the New Brunswick Black History Society, said the conversation about integrating Black history at Kings Landing came up when he was a member of the historical settlement's board of directors.

"It was brought up at one of the meetings 'how come there's no Black representation here in Kings Landing,'" said Thomas.

"A year later this house was built."

Since the house's creation in 2009 it has been the focal point of Black history at the settlement.

"The [house] is a place where we can tell the stories the influxes of Black New Brunswickers from the 1700s, 1800s to today," said Biggar.

Promoting Black history

Representatives from two Black history organizations were on hand at the Gordon House Saturday to teach visitors about the Black history of the province.

Biggar said having the society and its affiliated groups involved in curating exhibits and artifacts has been a great resource for the settlement.

"We've been really grateful for their involvement with us and helping us tell the story of blacks in New Brunswick," said Biggar.

Thomas said having the house on site is important not only because it tells the story of one Black family that lived in the province, but because it allows the society to begin telling other stories about Black history.

"[It] gives us now an opportunity to tell the rest of the story about the Black history that was in the province of New Brunswick. Starting in 1783 right up until today," said Thomas.

"It is the finest example that we can use that there were Black folks in the province of New Brunswick who could build homes just like the rest of the Loyalists that came."

The Gordon House

Just like most structures at Kings Landing, the Gordon House is based on a real house built by a real person. In this case James Gordon who built the house on Dunn's Crossing Road in Fredericton.

"This is an exact replica of that house because it was so far gone that it couldn't be removed successfully by the time it would be brought here," said Thomas.

So, who exactly was James Gordon?

"He was a slave to a family and he made a deal with the person that was his owner...on the land that he was given he was able to build a home," said Thomas.

The underground railroad

Runaway slave ads, and quilts containing secret messages for slaves were also on display as part of an exhibit about the underground railroad.

Joe Gee is the organizer of the Tomlinson Lake Hike To Freedom, a yearly hike along the route fugitive slaves used to cross over from Maine to New Brunswick.

He was at Kings Landing to share that part of New Brunswick's history. He said it's difficult to know exactly how many people came through the underground railroad because knowledge of it was passed down mostly orally.

"There was nobody back then that recorded the number of people that came through, but we do know that it did happen," said Gee.