The president of the Hastings County Historical Society says a bid to change the name of Belleville’s Meyers Pier, because John Meyers once owned slaves, is wrong and misguided.
Laura Hatt, who was instrumental in having the local school board drop Meyers’ name from a high school two years ago because he had once owned slaves is asking city council to cut the name from the pier.
President of the Historical Society Richard Hughes says he’s deeply concerned about the attempt to apply standards of conduct today to 200 years ago.
Hughes tells Quinte News Meyers was a great British hero during the United States revolution, and the founder of Belleville.
Hughes adds, “Erasing the achievement of people who have made great contributions to our community because they were acting in the standards of the day, that’s wrong. I really believe that’s the wrong way to go.”
He outlined the Society’s concern: “The Historical Society is deeply concerned that such misguided efforts to interpret 18th and 19th century history in the light of 21st century standards is terribly wrong. The story of Captain Meyers is a very long one, filled with amazing achievements both during the American Revolution and later in creating the settlement here by the Moira. Many upper class households who came here brought their staffs (slaves) with them at that time and as the standards changed, they released them, even before being required to do so. This is mentioned in the histories. I would hope Council will handle this matter with great caution. Few people know, but the person for whom Belleville is named (Lady Bella Gore) grew up in a family with a full staff of slaves and this is well documented. Can we keep the name Belleville in these circumstances? Also, other early Belleville families had slaves, so can we name streets after them? We can expand history but to interpret it with today’s standards is a very serious matter.”
The Historical Society will be meeting soon and Hughes says the issue will be discussed at that time as well.
