About This Timeline

by Fran | Nov 8, 2021

The BC Black History Timeline covers events in British Columbia as well as some significant events in Canada, the United States and globally that affected Black settlement and the experiences of Black people in BC. The first Black settlers arrived in BC in April 1858,...

1834-08-01 Slavery Abolition Act in the British Empire/Canada

by Fran | Nov 7, 2021

The Slavery Abolition Act, passed by the British Parliament in 1833, came into force on August 1, 1834. In fact, the Act liberated less than 50 enslaved Africans in British North America. For most enslaved people in Canada, the Act resulted only in partial liberation,...

1851-1864: James Douglas is Governor of Vancouver Island (1851–64) and British Columbia (1858–64)

by Fran | Oct 26, 2021

James Douglas was born in Guyana in 1803. His father was Scottish and his mother was “free coloured.” Douglas was Chief Factor for the Hudson’s Bay Company operating from Fort Victoria. In 1851 he was appointed Governor of the Crown Colony of Vancouver Island,...

William Allen Jones is the 1st licensed dentist in BC

by blackhistory | Oct 14, 2021

William Alan Jones was the first person to be granted a licence to practice dentistry (June 26,1886) under the British Columbia Dental Act. William received a degree at Oberlin College in 1857. He was the oldest of three brothers who came with the Black pioneers in...

John Giscome and Henry McDame: Northern B.C. Exploration

by blackhistory | Oct 14, 2021

In the fall of 1862 John Robert Giscome and Henry McDame embarked on their one year, 60 km trek to explore northern BC and northern parts of what is today the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan. As early as 1874 one of the creeks they discovered became known as...