Category: Timeline Stories
132 posts
Mifflin Wistar Gibbs, one of the best known of the Black pioneers, was the first Black person to be elected in British Columbia and serve as a municipal councillor. He served as a councillor in Victoria from 1866 to 1869, representing the James Bay Ward. While on council, Gibbs chaired […]
An Act for the Union of the colonies was passed by the Imperial Parliament in August 1866 to become effective at noon on November 19, 1866. On that date, the union was proclaimed simultaneously in the two capitals, New Westminster and Victoria.
Candidates running for election to the Victoria municipal council in 1865 were required to be property owners. While Abner Francis was on the “Real Estate Assessment Roll July 1, 1864 to June 30,1865” as owner of two properties, the 1862-1863 Property Assessment Roll was used to determine eligibility, and Francis […]
According to the U.S. National Archives on Black Soldiers in the U.S. Military, roughly 179,000 Black men (10% of the Union Army) served as soldiers in the U.S. Army and another 19,000 served in the Navy. Nearly 40,000 Black soldiers died over the course of the war—30,000 of infection or […]
In the summer of 1864, four Black men, Samuel Booth, George Munro, John Tyril and William Dyer discovered gold on the Leech River in Sooke, about 40 miles west of Victoria. On August 4, 1864 the local newspaper reported on the high purity of the specimen found. It was worth […]
On May 30, 1864 the Victoria Pioneer Rifle Corps paraded in full strength to pay respects to Governor Kennedy. The governor reviewed the company and stated in his address that he regretted that he was compelled to refuse to give them official recognition, as there was no authority for their […]
The Imperial Government of the Crown Colony of Vancouver Island was created on March 11, 1850. Richard Blanshard, a 32 year-old barrister from a wealthy British family, formally assumed office as Governor of the Colony of Vancouver Island.
The Government Gazette lists “Persons liable to pay taxes under the provision of the ‘Trade Licenses Amendment Act, 1862’ for the half-year commencing July 1, 1863.” 22 Black businesses have been recognized as included in the listing. Thomas Whiting Pierre’s tailoring business was assessed $300. His son John Thomas Pierre […]
The Black soldiers who supported the Union in the American Civil War were known as “the Contrabands.” The Fugitive Slave Act, which deemed people held as slaves as “property” to be returned to their owners, had been the law in effect prior to the commencement of the Civil War. The […]
The Emancipation Proclamation issued by U.S. President Abraham Lincoln the previous September came into effect on January 1,1863. However it did not abolish slavery. The Proclamation declared free all enslaved people in the Confederate States who resided in territory still in rebellion against the United States. As the Union Army […]
Jacob Francis fought discrimination by suing two bar owners for refusing to serve him. While he was not successful against the first barkeeper in April 1860, in July 1862 he achieved a favorable outcome against the second barkeeper. The magistrate ruled that any barkeeper refusing service to Black men would […]
John and Charlotte Dandridge arrived in Victoria in 1858. John was one of the men who applied for citizenship in 1858. In 1860 they were joined by their daughter Sydna, her husband Abner Hunt Francis and their grand-daughter Theodosia, age about 16. The house was built with most of the financing […]
Four candidates contended for two vacant Legislative Assembly seats in Victoria in an 1861 by-election. Joseph Trutch came in second in voting and Jacob Francis was third. There was public debate and support for Francis’s claim to the seat, in that Trutch was absent from the colony when the election […]
While reported incidents of discrimination in Victoria’s theatres date back to 1860, the most noted incident happened on September 25, 1861 when Mifflin and Maria Gibbs, family friend Nathan Pointer and Pointer’s daughter attended a hospital benefit at the Victoria Theatre. Both families were seated in the dress circle. At […]
On April 12, 1861 President Abraham Lincoln declared war between the Union and Confederate states. An estimated four million enslaved people in 15 states and territories were “owned” by 52,128 slaveholders. There were also an estimated 400,000 free African Americans. The war is considered to have ended on April 9, […]
The “First Victoria Directory” was originally published in March 1860. It is “comprised of a general directory of citizens, also, an Officials list, list of voters, postal arrangements and notices of trades and professions; preceded by a preface and synopsis of the commercial progress of the colonies of Vancouver Island and […]
By the spring of 1860, 40 to 50 Black men had enrolled in the Victoria Pioneer Rifle Corps and in July 1861 were officially sworn in. The Royal Navy supplied drill sergeants and the Corps financed and built a drill house. The Victoria Pioneer Rifle Corps is considered the first […]
The Daily Colonist reported on a “difference of opinion” between Rev. W.F. Clarke and Rev. M. MacFie, both missionaries sent to Victoria from England by the Congregational Missionary Society, “Mr. Clark holds that Christianity knows no difference between the white and colored man; and therefore he will not suit the […]
John Craven Jones graduated from Oberlin College in 1856 and taught for two years in a one-room school for Black students in Xenia, Ohio. When he moved to Salt Spring Island in 1859, he pre-empted 100 acres for his home; and with the support of the community, he resumed teaching. […]
Pre-emption was the legal method of acquiring Crown land that had not been fully surveyed by claiming and improving it for settlement and agricultural purposes. The first Black pre-empters on Salt Spring from California arrived in the summer of 1859. They included E.A. Booth, Armstead Buckner, William Isaacs, and Fielding […]
In September 1858, the Victoria Gazette reported on the application of 52 Black men for British citizenship. Their occupations were Baker, Barber, Blacksmith, Carman, Carpenter, Carrier, Contractor, Cook, Cooper, Drayman, Farmer, Fruiterer, Gardener, Grocer, Hairdresser, Laundryman, Merchant, Messenger, Miner, Painter, Plasterer, Porter, Restaurant keeper, Saloon keeper, Ships carpenter, Ships caulker, […]
The Colony of British Columbia, named by Queen Victoria, with New Westminster as its capital, is the area today known as “the mainland”. It was a separate entity from the Colony of Vancouver Island. Accounts relate that James Douglas agreed to sever his ties to the Hudson’s Bay Company to […]
On April 14, 1858, as the Black community were celebrating the release of fugitive slave Archy Lee at the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in San Francisco, Jeremiah Nagle, captain of the steamship Commodore, arrived at the meeting. It is reported that Nagle came well-prepared to the meeting with maps […]
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, 24 years after the Abolition […]
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, only emancipated children under the […]
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, succeeding Richard Blanshard. Meanwhile, the mainland […]
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 1858. After the American […]
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 McDame […]
Charles Mitchell, enslaved since boyhood, was a stowaway aboard the SS Eliza Anderson sailing from Olympia Washington to Victoria. When the steamer arrived in Victoria word soon spread that a slave was being detained on board. The Royal BC Museum and Archives documented that “As many as 700 people gathered […]
On April 25th,1858 the Steamship Commodore sailed into Victoria harbour from San Francisco. In addition to 450 gold seekers, 35 Black people were on board – the Pioneer Committee to consult with Governor Douglas. A delegation of three that met with Douglas: Fortune Richard, Wellington Delaney Moses and Mr. Mercier. […]
Here are the dates and places of important gold finds in BC. The 1858 Fraser River Gold Rush, 1859 Cariboo Gold Rush and the 1864 Leech River Gold Rush are the most significant in BC Black history. 1851 Haida Gwaii Gold Rush 1858 Fraser River Gold Rush* 1859 Cariboo Gold […]