BLACK EXODUS: SF TO VICTORIA, BC
This
guide will help you find books and other materials at the
San Francisco Public Library (SFPL) related to the topic of
the exodus of blacks from San Francisco to Victoria, BC in
1858. If you need further help finding materials, be sure
to ask the librarian staff of your local library for help.
Materials can
be found throughout the San Francisco Public Library’s 27
branches as well as at the Main Library. You will
especially want to check out the African American Center on
the third floor of the Main Library as well as the Bayview
Branch Library.
PRINT RESOURCES:
*sources,
unless noted, are a part of the San Francisco Public
Library’s collection
(books on Blacks in Canada)
Go
Do Some Great Thing: the Black pioneers of British Columbia
Kilian,
Crawford
Crawford Kilian has published the first full-length book on
the subject of black pioneers in British Columbia. “He
begins the story in California in the early 1850s and makes
abundantly clear how racism in that state impelled blacks
to seek a new home.” The title of the book, Go Do Some
Great Thing, is attributed to a statement made by
abolitionist Julia Griffith to Mifflin Wistar Gibbs (a
leader of the 1858 migration of blacks from San Francisco
to Victoria, BC) after his return from an 1849 tour with
Frederick Douglass.
971.1 K553g
The
Blacks in Canada: a history
Winks, Robin W
The Blacks in Canada is a historical survey covering all
aspects of the Black experience in Canada, from 1628
through the 1960s.
325.26 W729b
Early
Negro Settlement in Victoria
Pilton, James
William
Pilton’s M.A. thesis in history, University of British
Columbia, 1951
(Not housed at the San Francisco Public Library)
California
History Series: Monography
San Francisco
Negro Historical and Cultural Society
Vols. 1 and 3 called California History Series, contain
material about African Americans in California and San
Francisco. Vol. 2 concerns African Americans who settled in
British Columbia. Vol. 2 contains excerpts from thesis
Early Negro Settlement in Victoria, by James William
Pilton.
REF 979.4004 C126 v. 1-3 (housed in the SF History Room)
(books on African American History in California/San
Francisco)
Blacks
in Gold Rush California
Lapp, Rudolph
M.
The book looks at Negro life during the 1850s and is a must
for any student of California history and or African
American studies.
Black
California: the history of African-Americans in the Golden
State
Wheeler, B.
Gordon
Black California is a great resource and covers three
centuries of African American history and highlights the
important role they have had on California culture and
development.
325.26 W561B
Pioneer
Urbanites: a social and Cultural History of Black San
Francisco
Daniels,
Douglas Henry
Douglas Daniels has studied photographs from family albums
and interviewed members of old black San Francisco families
in his effort to provide the first nuanced picture of the
lives of black San Franciscans from the 1860s to the 1940s.
979.461
D227p
Pioneers
of Negro origin in California.
Thurman, Sue
Bailey.
"...
first appeared as a series of articles in the San Francisco
Sun-Reporter, in centennial celebration of the California
Gold Rush, 1949. Since that time the material has been
considerably revised and extended to include several
'pioneers' not presented in the original series."
920.079 T425p
1952
Black
West
Katz, William
Loren
A history of the black people who participated in the
development of the Western frontier in the United States,
in such categories as the explorers, fur traders, early
settlers, slaves, cowboys, and soldiers.
325.26 K159b
African Americans in California
Moore, Shirley
Ann, consulting editor
Published as the Fall 1996 issue of: California history,
the magazine of the California Historical Society.
979.4004 Af83
ONLINE RESOURCES:
DATABASES-
Victoria’s
Negro Colonist – 1858-1866
JSTOR ONLINE
SCHOLARLY JOURNAL ARCHIVE
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0885-6818%28194231%293%3A1%3C15%3AVNC-1%3E2.0.CO%3B2-N
By ROBERT W.
O'BRIEN
Victoria's
Negro Colonists- 1858-
1866
(excerpt)
WHEN
the history
of the Pacific Northwest is finally written it will
tell the story of the exploits of individual Negro pioneers
like George
Bush, who organized and led the first colony of American
settlers to the
shores of Puget Sound, or George Washington, founder of the
City of
Centralia, Washington. The most significant contribution of
the Negro
to pioneer life in this region is not, however, the result
of individual
leadership.
In 1858some
eight hundred colored persons migrated from California
to the British Crown Colony of Victoria, Vancouver Island.
The
Black Settlers on Saltspring Island in the Nineteenth
Century
JSTOR ONLINE
SCHOLARLY JOURNAL ARCHIVE
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0031-8906%28197434%2935%3A4%3C368%3ATBSOSI%3E2.0.CO%3B2-1
By
CHARLES
C.
IRBY
The
Black Settlers on Saltspring Island in the
Nineteenth Century*
(excerpt)
SALTSPRING
ISLAND lies off
the southeast coast of Vancouver Island,
B.C.
north of
the Saanich Peninsula, in the Strait of Georgia. On this
island,
according to popular myth, a black colony settled in the
1860's. The
creation and propagation of this myth is a topic of little
academic investigation,
and this discussion avoids a direct confrontation with the
falsifiers of history. Nevertheless, it must be pointed out
that research
on Saltspring Island has been done from white perspectives.
These
white viewpoints are responsible for the mythological
proposition that
"because there were blacks on the Island, they constituted
a black
colony." This myth exists in the face of the facts that the
time of arrival,
location and interests of the black pioneers were quite
different. This
paper is an attempt to portray the sequence of events that
led up to the
settlement and a brief description of the roles and
positions of blacks in
the colonial society.
Riot
in Victoria, 1860
JSTOR ONLINE
SCHOLARLY JOURNAL ARCHIVE
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0022-2992%28197104%2956%3A2%3C141%3ARIV1%3E2.0.CO%3B2-Y
Ralph E. Weber
Ralph E. Weber is Professor of History,
Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
RIOT IN
VICTORIA, 1860
(excerpt)
While the
majority of Canadians welcomed Negroes during the era
before
1 860, it became more evident that resentment against these
immigrants
increased as their numbers grew. Tensions mounted and
anti-Negro feelings
surfaced in the decade after 1850, particularly on
Vancouver 1sland.l
Victoria, the capital of the crown colony, Vancouver
Island, became the
outfitting port and supply center in 1858 for miners on
their way to the newly
discovered gold fields on the British Columbia mainland. It
experienced a rapid
population growth. Soon after Mr. A. De Cosmos began
publishing the weekly
newspaper, British Colonist, in that city on December 11 of
that year, racial
tensions were revealed in its news columns and editorials.
ONLINE RESOURCES:
WEBSITES-
National
Humanities Center
http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/maai/community/text8/text8read.htm
-Many good links to other pertinent and reputable internet
sources dealing with blacks in Canada.
Multiculturalism In B.C.
Immigrants-
http://www.bcarchives.gov.bc.ca/exhibits/timemach/galler05/frames/index.htm
-Brief entry on black immigrants in BC
Encyclopedia of Arkansas History
Gibbs, Mifflin Wistar entry
http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=1657&type=Category&item=Politics+and+Government
Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
Gibbs, Mifflin Wistar entry
http://www.biographi.ca/EN/ShowBio.asp?BioId=41514&query=
The Global African Community: reference notes.
A Selected bibliography of African Canadian History-
By David W. States and Crystal D. Mulder
http://www.cwo.com/~lucumi/canada.html
FINDING WHAT YOU NEED:
•
Using the
library catalog
Subject search
Some subject headings that might be of interest:
•
Blacks --
Canada -- History
•
Blacks --
Canada
•
Blacks -- Race
Identity -- Canada
•
Gibbs, Mifflin
•
African
Americans -- California -- History
•
Slavery
California
•
Blacks --
British Columbia -- History
This
bibliography was put together by the San Francisco Public
Library, African American Center for commemoration of the
150th
anniversary of the exodus of San Francisco blacks to
British Columbia.
sfexodus.com
is sponsored by justicefound.org