A Look

 

HISTORY
IN
BRITISH

 

 
 

 
 

   

 

COLUMBIA

STORIES LOST AND FORGOTTEN

By Katie Czenczek, Staff Writer

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ae 1

AT BLACK

hen it comes to Black history in Canada, oftentimes
We much is taught aside from the stories of Black
slaves seeking refuge within Canada’s borders via
the Underground Railroad. Not only does this fail
to tell Canada’s very own history of discrimination
and racism towards the Black community, but it also
erases their contributions to Canadian society.

Silvia Mangue Alene, President of the BC
Black History Society, explained the history of
the first Black immigrants to move to British
Columbia in an interview with the Other Press.

“The people who came [to Victoria] in 1856 were
invited by James Douglas and were entrepreneurs
ready to start their own businesses.”

The first wave of Black migrants to the British
colony came from California. Upon the invitation
sent out from Sir James Douglas, they moved to
Vancouver Island to build a new life. Many owned
farms, worked in trades, had their own businesses, or
became dentists, teachers, and lawyers on Vancouver
Island. They were responsible for building many
churches and buildings in the emerging settlements.

Sir James Douglas himself was of mixed heritage,
as he was the son of a free woman of colour anda
Scottish Merchant. Born in British Guiana — now known
as Guyana — in 1803, he eventually became “Governor
of the Crown Colony of Vancouver Island, [which]
was established in 1851 under the direction of the
Colonial Office in London,” according to BCBlackHistory.
ca. Douglas formally sent out an invitation to
Black Americans living in California in the hopes
of staving off American Annexation of the British
Colony by increasing his own colony’s population.

With the Gold Rush in full swing, tensions
at the British and American border were
increasing. Douglas tried to stamp out the
growing American threat by inviting Americans to
live on Vancouver Island, and he succeeded.

The fact of the matter is, without the
approximately 800 Black people who immigrated to
Vancouver Island, the British Colony could have
just as easily fallen to the United States. So, did
Canada save Black people from oppression, or did
Black people save Canada by strengthening what was
to eventually become part ,of British Columbia?