a replica of the community church. History Africville has been claimed as one of "the first free Black communities outside of Africa," along with other settlements in Nova Scotia. Early settlement First known as the "Campbell Road Settlement," Africville began as a small, poor, self-sufficient rural community of about 50 people during the 19th century. The earliest colonial settlement of Africville began with the relocation of Black Loyalists, former slaves from the Thirteen Colonies who escaped from rebel masters and were freed by the British in the course of the American Revolutionary War. The Crown transported them and other Loyalists to Nova Scotia, promising land and supplies for their service. The Crown also promised land and equal rights to refugees of the 1812 War. In 1836, Campbell Road was constructed, creating an access route along the north side of the Halifax Peninsula. After starting with the Cornwallis Street Baptist Church in 1832, clergyman Richard Preston established the Seaview African United Baptist Church in Africville in 1849, as one of five others in Halifax: Preston (1842), Beechville (1844), Hammonds Plains (1845), and Dartmouth. Accordingly, Preston, along with Septimus Clarke, are credited as co-founders of the African United Baptist Association, a network of Black Baptist churches throughout Nova Scotia. While the community was never officially established, the first land transaction documented on paper was dated 1848. The first two landowners in Africville were William Arnold and William Brown. In the late 1850s, the Nova Scotia Railway, later to become the Intercolonial Railway, was built from Richmond to the south, bisecting Africville with the railway's main line along the western shores of Bedford Basin. The community became known as 'Africville' around 1900. Many people believed the name came as result of those who lived there having came from Africa; however, this was not the case. One elderly resident of Africville has been quoted as saying, "It wasn't Africville out there. None of the people came from Africa.… [I]t was part of Richmond (Northern Halifax), just the part where the colour folks lived." Strangers later moved into Africville to take advantage of its unregulated status, selling illicit liquor and sex, largely to the mass of transient soldiers and sailors passing through Halifax. A second railway line appeared in 1906 with the arrival of the Halifax and Southwestern Railway, which connected to the Intercolonial at Africville. The Intercolonial Railway, later Canadian National Railways, constructed Basin