Up the lane behind the Johnathan Locke Family Homestead is a small family graveyard. In 1762, when New England Planters started arriving in Nova Scotia after the defeat of France and the deportation of the Acadians, many located along Nova Scotia’s South Shore.
The Locke and Churchill families arrived and established the community of Ragged Island. The community developed into a fishing port, shipping fish and lumber to the Caribbean and returning with rum, molasses, and salt.
Apparently, the Lockes arrived here with an enslaved Black person named Luce, who was buried here. The Locke family travelled to Nova Scotia from Chilmark, Massachusetts (Martha’s Vineyard). Luce may have been one of the seven slaves (three men, four women) enumerated in Chilmark in 1745. At this time, we don’t know if Luce arrived alone or if they had descendants in the region. However, the Loyalist arrival resulted in the establishment of several Black communities in Lockeport and the surrounding area.
Photo: Allen Louis Orr
