Melville Island (Nova Scotia)
Later, Melville Island was used as a receiving depot for Black refugees escaping slavery in the United States, then as a quarantine hospital for immigrants arriving from Europe (particularly Ireland).
[9] The peninsula features thin and acidic soil, and hosts plants like witherod, Indian pear, Labrador tea, wintergreen, and blueberry shrubs.
[4] Given the development of the land by the Armdale Yacht Club, plant growth is now largely limited to the hill on which the main clubhouse sits; most of the peninsula was paved in 1971.
[15][16] Though the Halifax area was settled by aboriginals, particularly the Mi'kmaq people, as early as 7000 BC,[17] there is no archaeological evidence of native habitation on Melville Island prior to the arrival of the Europeans.
[18] The first documented use of Melville Island was by Robert Cowie and John Aubony, who obtained a Crown grant in 1752 to allow them to build a storehouse.
[4] Because of overcrowding aboard La Felix, some of its prisoners were allowed to live in Halifax, where some created such a disturbance that they were sent to Kavanagh's Island to be imprisoned.
[26] Melville was purchased for £1000 in 1804 (£89,970 as of 2020[27]) by Robert Murray, appointed by the British Admiralty as prison agent; he was replaced shortly thereafter by John MacKellar.
[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] There were also prisoner-run shops and a "small town fair" on Melville Island, frequented by British officers and residents of Halifax.
[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.
[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.
[66] Mitchell was removed in October 1814 in retaliation for the treatment of the British prisoner agent, Thomas Barclay, by the United States government.
[61] On Sundays, church services were conducted and visitors were allowed, though many visiting Haligonians were United Empire Loyalists who came "to gratify their eyes ... with sight of what they called 'rebels' ".
[80] After the decommissioning of the military prison, Melville Island was used as a receiving depot for some of the black refugees, the estimated 1600–2000 escaped slaves who arrived in Halifax between 1815 and 1818.
[81][82] Rations included pork or beef, potatoes, rice, cornmeal, molasses, spruce beer (to prevent scurvy), and sometimes coffee.
[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.
[93] 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.
[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.
[96] At this time, flogging was gradually being phased out as a punishment for military members, who were instead imprisoned under the Mutiny Act 1844; the purchase of Melville Island allowed these prisoners to be removed from the overcrowded Halifax Citadel.
[98] Punishments included solitary confinement or "shot drill", where an inmate was made to carry 11-kilogram (24 lb) cannonballs from one end of the yard to the other.
Once there, the Germans aboard were taken to Melville Island with a garrison guard, interrogated, and imprisoned under the supervision of the detention barracks staff.
Over the next several months, more German nationals were brought to Melville, detained either by British ships or by Canadian police forces.
[18][110] When VE Day caused riots in downtown Halifax, there were rumours of a plan to break into the depots and deploy hand grenades; a trooper squad was sent to guard against this possibility, but no "invasion" occurred.
[10] Haligonians pushed for the area to be repurposed for recreation, partially due to anxieties about its use as a storage facility for potentially toxic chemicals.
[113][114] The club dredged Melville Cove, added a "marine railway", and created a large marina, at which dozens of boats are now docked.
Though it was re-opened with the arrival of the Armdale Yacht Club, the area's history was largely forgotten until the 2000 establishment of Deadman's Island Park on the adjacent peninsula.
A number of writings by Melville prisoners have been preserved, including a diary by François-Lambert Bourneuf[118] and an account credited to Benjamin Waterhouse (though historians are unsure of its true authorship).
[122] The prison is the subject of a painting held by the UK National Trust and a Nova Scotian folk song, among other cultural works.
