Melville Island (Nova Scotia)
Melville Island is a small
The site was discovered by Europeans in the 17th century, though it was likely earlier explored by Indigenous peoples. The land is rocky, with thin, acidic soil, but supports a limited woodland habitat. It was initially used for storehouses before being purchased by the British, who built a prisoner-of-war camp to hold captives from the Napoleonic Wars and later the War of 1812. The burial ground for prisoners was on the adjacent Deadman's Island.
Later, Melville Island was used as a receiving depot for
The peninsula now houses the clubhouse and marina of the Armdale Yacht Club. Melville Island has been the subject of a number of cultural works, most of which concern its use as a prison.
Geography
Melville Island is part of the
The water surrounding Melville Island is salty and ranges from 15 °C (59 °F) in summer to partially or completely frozen in winter.[2] The water is polluted by sewage discharges from Halifax and is considered heavily contaminated.[5][6][7] Water colour ranges from olive brown to greenish black, with little current.[2][8] The water depth around Melville Island is 4.5 to 10.5 metres (15 to 34 ft).[9]
The peninsula features thin and
There is no
History
Early use
Though the Halifax area was settled by
French Revolutionary Wars
After the 1793 beheading of
In August 1794, a French ship captured in
Napoleonic Wars (1803–1811)
The site was formally leased for prisoner housing in 1803 after fifteen French fishermen, three surgeons, and 188 seamen were brought to Halifax as prisoners during the
The land was officially renamed Melville Island in late 1804 or early 1805 in honour of
Upon their arrival on Melville, prisoners had their name and other details recorded in an entry book.[34] Inmates were given yellow clothing that clearly identified them as prisoners of war, and were supplied with provisions of beef, bread, potatoes and salt from a local contractor "reputed to own most of the livestock in the region".[35][36] Some officers were allowed to send trade goods to Halifax, or even work in the city as domestic servants or handymen.[35] There were also prisoner-run shops and a "small town fair" on Melville Island, frequented by British officers and residents of Halifax.[37] Other prisoner pursuits included prison lotteries, model shipbuilding, beer-brewing, fishing, and making molasses candy.[38] Some prisoners were known to have pets or keep chickens.[12]
In late 1805, a group of officers broke parole and escaped; this led the garrison captain to restrict the purchase of prisoner-made goods as a means of punishment and enforcing discipline. More serious punishments included flogging or being confined to a barred hole in the prison cellar, known as the "Black Hole", with only bread and water.[39] One of the prisoners, Pierre Poulin, stabbed another to death in April 1805, and was tried and hanged for murder in Halifax.[40] The prisoners also maintained their own Grand Council (Grand Conseil) with which to impose discipline, though with a different focus than the British: anyone who disclosed a planned escape attempt to the guards was subject to being stoned to death (though historian Brian Cuthbertson disputes the likelihood of this claim).[41][42] Escapes and attempts were frequent, and attempted escapees were regarded "with high esteem" by the other prisoners.[41] Before 1812, approximately 130 prisoners, including 25 officers, escaped, of whom only 11 were recaptured despite advertised rewards in local newspapers.[41][43] Many others were either sent to prisons in England or the West Indies, or were released after pledging allegiance to the British Crown.[41] Approximately 1535 French prisoners were incarcerated at Melville between 1803 and 1813, and an unknown number were held during Napoleon's Hundred Days.[18][34] Sixty-six Frenchmen are known to have died in the prison, ten of whom were prisoners from the Hundred Days.[44] Nine Spanish prisoners also died during this period.[18]
War of 1812
The War of 1812 brought an influx of American prisoners to Melville Island; up to 1800 at a time were housed in its barracks or on a nearby 350-person prison ship Magnet.[45][46] Most of the French prisoners were released or paroled to make room for the Americans, who were seen as more of a risk.[47] David Stickney was the first recorded American prisoner, arriving on 4 July 1812.[48] Early in the war, many Americans were exchanged for British prisoners in Boston or Salem, Massachusetts, in an arrangement known as a "cartel"; 1981 of the captives taken before October 1812 were thus exchanged, while another seventeen, accused of killing a Canadian farmer and raping his wife, were sent to England and imprisoned.[47] African-American captives were never considered for exchange, and were instead commonly released under the 1807 Abolition Act.[49]
By the end of 1812, maps of the peninsula showed a marked increase in buildings: a two-story common prison, a small hospital, officers' quarters, a gunner's house, a turnkey store, fuel sheds, the agent's office and guard house, a bell house, nine sentry boxes, and four oceanside outhouses.[50][51] Despite this, the facility was severely overcrowded, a problem compounded by attempts at segregating the remaining French prisoners and the few African-Americans from the majority white American population.[52][53] 2078 prisoners were recorded by the end of 1812, including 1412 privateers and 572 merchant seamen.[54] More than 3000 arrived over the next two years, including nearly 1000 soldiers captured in the Niagara area.[55]
Accounts of prison life vary: Cuthbertson says that the prisoners were "reportedly well treated" but prisoner complaints suggested they were "wretched indeed".
In October 1812, John Mitchell was appointed as an "American agent" to oversee the treatment of the American prisoners at Melville and to arrange prisoner exchanges.[62] He gave the Americans coffee, sugar, potatoes, tobacco, newspapers, and soap, and also provided money for other purchases.[63] Mitchell was responsible for buying clothing, but lacked the funds to meet demand: in late 1813, almost 1000 of the prisoners were shoeless, and many more had no jackets.[64] Staff at the prison hospital attributed a tuberculosis outbreak to "want of comfortable clothing".[65] Though Mitchell visited Melville Island regularly, he was primarily concerned with speaking to the officers, not the common prisoners.[66] Mitchell was removed in October 1814 in retaliation for the treatment of the British prisoner agent, Thomas Barclay, by the United States government.[67]
Despite the conditions in the prison, the Americans continued the French tradition of establishing shops within the prison. Goods sold included cigars and smuggled rum.
The 320 American survivors of the
By the decommissioning, over 10,000 French, Spanish and American prisoners had been held at the prison.[74] The majority were Americans: there were 8,148 recorded US prisoners, 3,542 of whom were privateers from the 92 such ships brought to Halifax.[75]
Of the American prisoners held on Melville Island during the war, 195 died, mostly from fevers and pneumonia – a death rate of two per cent.[76] Prisoners at Melville Island had a lower death rate than most British soldiers serving at frontier posts in North American and the prison's conditions were better than many those endured by British prisoners in POW camps in the United States.[76] Most of the French and American dead were buried on nearby Deadman's Island.[77] James Brooke suggests a burial rate of one per week.[78] The war ended in December 1814, but news of this did not reach Melville until March 1815, during which time about fifty prisoners died.[77][79] The prisoners were released to "quit Halifax at their own expense", though some were able to find berths on trade ships. All but 120 had left by mid-April; most of those remaining were hospital patients, who were sent to the Naval Hospital in Halifax in early May.[79] Melville Island was decommissioned in May 1815, and its goods, including 1,170 hammocks, were sold at auction in Halifax.[80]
Receiving depot
After the decommissioning of the military prison, Melville Island was used as a receiving depot for some of the
Beginning in 1818, Melville Island was used as a quarantine hospital for ill immigrants arriving in Nova Scotia.[89] The hospital was operational for short periods in 1818, 1831, and 1846.[86] By 1829, ten buildings were left on Melville Island, all "in a state of neglect and decay".[90] In 1831, three doctors (Matthias Hoffmann, Samuel Head and John Stirling) were contracted to care for smallpox patients on the island; as "enthusiasm for the temporary hospital was not shared by the poor", only sixteen patients were treated there during this period.[91] In 1847, over 1200 Irish immigrants fleeing the Great Famine were ordered quarantined on Melville Island by the Board of Health; of these, 203 were held in the "fever hospital", and 30 died.[92] Typhus victims were also held at Melville, during which time the medical staff were not allowed to leave for fear of spreading the infection.[18]
Diseases encountered among the immigrants included smallpox, typhus, and yellow fever. There were 37 recorded deaths.[93]
British Army
In 1855, Nova Scotia politician Joseph Howe developed a plan to use Melville Island as a recruitment and training centre for American soldiers to fight for the British in the Crimean War. US neutrality laws prevented Americans from participating in overseas wars, so recruiters sent to the US advertised for men to work on the Nova Scotia Railway, and faced arrest if their true purpose was discovered.[94] Upon arrival in Halifax, the men were sent to Melville Island for enlistment and basic training. The first group of 66 men arrived on 6 April 1855, but all refused to join the British Foreign Legion.[93] However, by the end of May there were 71 newly recruited soldiers on the peninsula, and up to 158 total had enlisted.[95][96] American discontent with the project forced its abandonment in June; the Melville Island depot closed, and the recruits were sent first to Halifax and then to England.[95] Overall the recruitment project enlisted between 500 and 700 men, mostly German and Irish nationals.[18][95]
After the recruitment project ended, the Admiralty sold the land to the British army for £2800 (£267,500 as of 2020
British officers from the Halifax garrison conducted inspections of the prison four times per year, and maintenance was carried out either by the prisoners themselves or by soldiers from the Halifax garrison.[99] The prison also housed a schoolroom and chapel, both staffed by army personnel.[98] A new stone prison was built before 1905 next to the older wooden barracks, as well as housing for warders and their families. The new building alleviated reported problems with lack of lighting and ventilation in the previous structure.[100] In December of that year, the Canadian Permanent Force took over wardenship of the prison, at which time there were three remaining prisoners.[101] The land was granted to the Canadian Government as the British left Nova Scotia in 1907. The name was changed in 1909 from "military prison" to "detention barracks", reflecting a shift in attitude towards incarcerated military personnel: inmates were known as detainees, not prisoners, and after their discharge from the military they maintained no permanent criminal record.[100]
First and Second World Wars
When the
Initially there was no system in place to allow prisoners to send letters; censorship arrangements were made through the Dominion Police in Ottawa, and the American Consul was designated a representative for prisoner welfare.[105] As the war progressed, groups of detainees were transferred to and from other prisons according to their behaviour or level of risk and the number of inmates per institution.[104] After the 1917 Halifax Explosion, prisoners were transferred to the 800-man Amherst Internment Camp at Amherst, Nova Scotia.[106] One of the prisoners transferred may have been Leon Trotsky, although this is disputed.[107][108]
On 10 April 1935, a fire completely destroyed the old wooden prison barracks,
1945–present
After the end of the Second World War, military activities on Melville ended; the land was initially awarded to the Naval Sailors Association, a decision that prompted some disagreement among members of Parliament.
Culture
During certain periods, Melville Island was a social destination for Halifax residents. Haligonians visited the "town fair" run by French inmates during the Napoleonic period.
The peninsula has also been the subject of artistic and literary treatments. A number of writings by Melville prisoners have been preserved, including a diary by
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