MINERS LEFT U.S. FOR CANADA IN 1858Blacks Found Gold Couldn't Buy Freedom |
BY CHARLES HILLINGER And they were successful, making good strikes in the Mother Lode-Placerville, Angels Camp, North Bloomfield, Ione and other gold camps. Then they gathered in San Francisco to organize an emigration society to abandon the United States and move north to Canada, "a land where they would be free." The year was 1858. The miners were Blacks "There were 600 in all in the party - miners, their wives and children," explained Myrtle Holloman, 71, whose great-grandfather, Howard Estes, was a leader of the group. "The women and children sailed to Victoria aboard the passenger liner Brother Jonathan. The men drove cattle from San Francisco through Northern California, Oregon, Washington and on into British Columbia." It's a little known story. Mrs. Holloman's mother, Marie Stark Wallace, spent weeks learning to type when she was 90 - to record the history of the pioneering group before it was lost. "Mother finished her manuscript when she was 92," Mrs. Holloman said. "She died four years later in l966. "She wrote the history of the Black gold miners strictly for family consumption." But Mrs. Holloman, realizing its significance, recently presented the manuscript to the archives of the Province of British Columbia in Victoria. "I know the story by heart. I've heard it all my life,"Mrs. Holloman said. "Mother wanted everything to be absolutely accurate, I helped her check, double - |
and triple- check every record we could get our hands on to verify all the dates and occurrences." Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation was still five years in coming in 1858. What made the Black miners decide to abandon the United States was restrictive legislation enacted in California that year against Blacks. "The legislation was aimed at preventing Negroes from moving to California and taking up residence in that state," Mrs. Holloman said. "It deprived them of the right to own property, disqualified them from giving evidence against a white person. All coloured people in California were to wear distinctive badges that set them apart from other citizens. "The Black miners wanted out. That's why they got together and decided to move to Canada." A delegation representing the group went to Victoria to meet with Sir James Douglas, governor of British Columbia, founder of Victoria. "Governor Douglas guaranteed the miners they would be given all the rights and protection of all other citizens," Mrs. Holloman said. On arrival at Vancouver Island in British Columbia the Black organization was disbanded and Everyone was on his own. Douglas suggested the group not remain intact as a community or colony but scatter throughout the province. "He said for the best interests of everyone it would be better not to have colored churches, colored schools, colored associations, colored public meetings," Mrs. Holloman continued. |
Many of the miners settled in Victoria—at that time a small village—or homesteaded nearby. Victoria's first policemen were a half-dozen Black miners from California. "My great-grandparents, Howard and Hannah Estes, and my grandparents, Sylvia and Louis Stark, homesteaded on Saltspring Island," Mrs. Holloman went on. The Esteses and Starks were among the founding families of Saltspring, an 18-mile long, eightmile wide island 20 miles north of Victoria. Mrs. Holloman's 140-acre farm, was part of the original Howard Estes homestead. "Oh, it was wild, unconquered country when they first came here," said Mrs. Holloman, "alive with bears, cougars, wolves and Indians. "One of the Black miners was murdered by Indians..." Continued difficulties with the Indians-coupled with the other hardships of homesteading- prompted many of the Blacks to return to the United States after the Civil War, Mrs. Holloman said. "They scattered to the four winds within a few years," she said. "Only a few families such as ours stuck it out in the wilderness that was British Columbia." 
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