ACHH2: "The Bog" (Charlottetown) Traditional Cache
ACHH2: "The Bog" (Charlottetown)
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Size: 
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Welcome to Atlantic Canada’s Hidden Histories (ACHH) Geotour!
You’ve located another stop in this set of geocaches that are part of the GeoTour (click).
This is one of the first ACHH2 caches to be published in Prince Edward Island & is being published in celebration of Black History Month 2024.
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About this Location
Just Southwest of Rochford Square, the historic Black neighbourhood called “The Bog” once encompassed the area between Rochford and West Streets extending south to Richmond Street. The position of the Bog probably offered the Black community opportunities to serve as domestic labour and in the city’s dockland economy. Founded by former slave and later chimney sweep Samuel Martin, the are would grow and become the largest community of Black and mixed race people on the Island. The Bog was home to about 200 people during the 1800s and early 1900s.
Many of the of the Bog’s dwellers were likely decedents of enslaved Blacks brought to the city with the Loyalists, given that Prince Edward Island has the dubious distinction of being the only Canadian province to have legislation clearly supporting slavery. But by the early nineteenth century Black society would be entirely free and social frameworks were emerging to improve the lot’s of the colonies poorest citizens. For example The Bog School was constructed in 1848 on the Northwest corner of Kent and Rochford Street on land donated by Captain Orlebar. It was replaced with a larger version in 1868. From this early start, the Bog’s Black community grew. But by the early twentieth century, intermarriage and emigration made a distinct Black community difficult to identify. Today the Bog is buried under a complex of government buildings, all but erased.
References: “The 'hidden' history of The Bog — Charlottetown's forgotten Black neighbourhood” by Sam Juric, CBC News, June 20, 2020 and “The Bog” by Marishana Mabusela, The Canadian Encyclopedia, March 30, 2022
Atlantic Canada’s Hidden Histories (ACHH) GeoTour is a collaborative project between the City of Fredericton, National Trust for Canada, the Capital Region Association of Geocachers, the Association of Nova Scotia Geocaching, and Prince Edward Island.. We acknowledge that caches of this tour are placed in Mi’kma’ki, the ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq people. The territory of the Mi’kmaq people are recognized in the Peace and Friendship Treaties to establish an ongoing relationship of peace, friendship and mutual respect between equal nations.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
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