HISTORY

In a column I wrote a decade ago, historian L. S. Loomer scolded me for referring to

Nova Scotians as Bluenosers.

“We are Bluenoses,” Loomer said. “We are no more Bluenosers than we are Nover Scotians.”

Mr. Loomer was right. In the column he objected to, I was rehashing the lore on how and why Nova Scotians came to be known as Bluenoses. You’ve probably heard how the term originated – there are several explanations, in fact, and the bottom line is that you can accept whatever explanation that catches your fancy; all or none could be right.

That said, I recently came across another plausible explanation for the origin of Bluenose as it applies to Nova Scotians.

But first, let’s look at what the legends have to say on the expression’s origin, repeating, of course, what has been written over and over by various writers and researchers.

The traditional term is Bluenose, sometimes written with a capital B, sometimes not, depending on its use. I believe, however, that when you refer to Bluenose and Nova Scotians, the word should be capitalized.

Now, without going into too much detail, here are some of the explanations I’ve found on the origin of Bluenose: First, it comes from an old potato variety known as the Bluenose due to its having a blue streak running through it.

This potato was grown in Nova Scotia and when a blight hit Boston in the 1840s, it became a best-seller there due to its size and quality.

Nova Scotia shipped thousands of pounds of the Bluenose to Boston during the blight and its name became associated with us.

This sounds plausible, and maybe our Bluenose potato was popular in Boston at one time. However, when the 1840s blight hit Boston, there was potato blight in Nova Scotia at the same time and potatoes were just as scarce here.

However, in his writing, Thomas Chandler Haliburton affirms that the sobriquet was acquired from a potato Nova Scotia regularly shipped to the American market.

Now, on to other explanations, starting with one that you hear most often – that Nova Scotia fishermen wore handdyed mittens and sweaters that left a blue stain when the nose was wiped with a sleeve or hand. I suppose this is plausible, but you have to ask this question: If a particular dye always stained your face, why would you continue to use it in sweaters and mittens?

Another explanation is that the Bluenose, of international racing fame, explains how we acquired our nickname.

It is also possible that the term was a put-down, of derogatory use, by settlers such as the Loyalists and others that followed the Planters. Various writers have said that the Planters looked down on the Loyalists as refugees or displaced persons. In turn, the Loyalists retaliated by calling the early settlers Bluenoses after the potato.

The Planters as a whole may have looked upon themselves as a cut above refugees such as the Loyalists – if you accept what one F. S. Cozzens inferred when he toured Nova Scotia in 1859.

About his stop in the Annapolis Valley, Cozzens wrote that everywhere he looked, he found himself “in a hundred-year-old colony of genuine Yankees, the real true blues of Connecticut, quilted in amidst the blue noses of Nova Scotia.”

What does this quote tell us? First, that Bluenose as a reference to Nova Scotians, of Planter stock at least, was used by the middle of the 19th century.

Second, and this seems snobbish, that the blueblood stock of Connecticut was alive and well in the Annapolis Valley, and said stock was a cut above everyone else.

This does seem a bit of a stretch, but what else was Cozzens saying?

Readers looking for details on the origin of Bluenose will find several of my columns on this topic by Googling Ed Coleman Wordpress.