From Sea to Sea: British Columbia, PEI and the Black Pioneers of Victoria

Let's start with a question

Canada's motto is A mari usque ad mare: "From sea to sea." In 1867 Canada reached only one sea, the Atlantic. How did it reach the Pacific? And who was already living on the Pacific coast when it did?

The answer includes First Nations, gold miners, Chinese newcomers, and a group of Black pioneers who chose British territory over the United States.

Black pioneers in Victoria, 1858

In the 1850s, California had a large Black community, but California laws denied Black people political rights, such as voting, and limited their rights in court. In 1858, the Black community of San Francisco decided to look for a new home.

• Governor James Douglas of the colony of Vancouver Island welcomed them. The Fraser River gold rush was bringing thousands of American miners north, and Douglas wanted settlers loyal to Britain to balance them. (Douglas himself was born in British Guiana, in South America, to a Scottish father and a mother described in records as a free woman of colour.)
• Several hundred Black people moved to Victoria and nearby areas in 1858. Some later farmed on Salt Spring Island.
• Mifflin Wistar Gibbs, a businessman from Philadelphia who had lived in San Francisco, opened a store in Victoria that sold supplies to miners, competing with the Hudson's Bay Company. He wrote that British Columbia offered protection and "equality of political privileges".
• In 1866, Gibbs was elected to Victoria City Council, the first Black person elected to public office in what is now British Columbia.
• In 1868, Gibbs was a delegate at the Yale Convention, which set out the terms for BC to join Canada. A Black pioneer helped bring British Columbia into Confederation.

Obstacles in Victoria

The Black pioneers found more rights than in California, but not equality.

• In 1860, the best seats (the dress circle) in a Victoria theatre were reserved for white customers. In 1861, white men threw flour on Gibbs and a Black business partner at a theatre performance; the men were acquitted because witnesses would not testify.
• Some saloons refused to serve Black customers, and Black men were refused as volunteer firefighters in 1859.
• Black men formed their own militia, the Victoria Pioneer Rifle Company (sometimes called the African Rifles), sworn in in 1861. They built their own drill hall. But in 1864, organizers of a parade to welcome a new governor refused to let the company march.

Many of the pioneers, including Gibbs (in 1870), returned to the United States after the Civil War ended slavery there. Others stayed, and their descendants are part of BC today. Parks Canada recognized Gibbs as a Person of National Historic Significance in 2017.

British Columbia joins, 1871

• Vancouver Island and the mainland colony of British Columbia united in 1866. The united colony was in debt after the gold rush.
• Some colonists wanted to join the United States; others wanted to stay a British colony. Many, like Gibbs and Amor De Cosmos, pushed to join Canada.
• The terms: Canada would take over BC's debt, and would start a railway to connect BC to the rest of Canada within two years and finish it within ten years.
• BC joined Canada on July 20, 1871.

First Nations perspective: On Vancouver Island, Douglas had made 14 treaties (1850–1854), but almost all of the rest of British Columbia was never covered by treaties. First Nations were not part of the negotiations. As settlers and miners arrived, many First Nations lost access to land and resources without agreement. Many land claims in BC are still being negotiated today.

Prince Edward Island joins, 1873

• PEI said no in 1867. Islanders feared being a tiny voice in a big country.
• But PEI faced two big problems: a costly railway that put the colony deeply in debt, and the land question: most of the island's land had been owned by absentee landlords in Britain since the 1760s, and many farmers paid rent on land they could never own.
• Canada offered to take over the railway debt and to lend $800,000 to buy out the absentee landlords.
• PEI joined Canada on July 1, 1873.

The rest of the map

• 1870: Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory became Canada's North-West Territories (Manitoba was created the same day).
• 1880: Britain transferred its claims to the Arctic islands to Canada. Inuit were not consulted and, in this period, most Inuit communities had little contact with the Canadian government.
• Newfoundland stayed out. In an 1869 election, anti-Confederates won a big victory. Newfoundland did not join Canada until 1949.