Salt Spring Island, or (), was initially inhabited by Salishan peoples of various tribes. Other
Saanich placenames on the island include: () for Beaver Point, () for Cape Keppel, () for Fulford Harbour, () for Ganges Harbour, and () for Isabella Point. Other settlers included those from Portugal and the British Isles, including English, Irish, and Scots. Black settlers left California in 1858 after the state passed discriminatory legislation targeting African-Americans. Before the emigration,
Mifflin Wistar Gibbs travelled with two other men up to the colony to interview Governor
James Douglas about what kind of treatment they could expect there. The Governor was a
Guyanese man of multi-ethnic birth, and assured them that people of African descent in Canada would be fairly treated and that the colony had abolished slavery more than 20 years before. Throughout the 1800s,
Vesuvius and
Ganges were predominantly African-American communities. Racial tensions arose between August 1867 and December 1868, when three Black men were murdered in the community of Vesuvius Bay. The murderers were largely blamed on the local coastal Indigenous community. Many of the murders remained unsolved by authorities, leading to a hostile environment for Black residents whose population subsequently dwindled. Salt Spring Island was the first in the Colony of Vancouver Island and British Columbia to allow settlers to acquire land through pre-emption: settlers could occupy and improve the land before purchase, being permitted to buy it at a cost per acre of one dollar after proving they had done so. Before 1871 (when the
merged Colony of British Columbia joined Canada), all property acquired on Salt Spring Island was purchased in this way; between 1871 and 1881, it was still by far the primary method of land acquisition, accounting for 96% of purchases. In 1891, the population of the Salt Spring Island subdistrict was of 436. The method of land purchase helped to ensure that the land was used for agricultural purposes and that the settlers were mostly families. Ruth Wells Sandwell in
Beyond the City Limit indicates that few of the island's early residents were
commercial farmers, with most families maintaining
subsistence plots and supplementing through other activities, including
fishing,
logging, and working for the colony's government. Some families later abandoned their land as a result of lack of civic services on the island or other factors, such as the livestock-killing cold of the winter of 1862. During
World War II, 77
Japanese Canadian families living on Salt Spring Island were forcibly relocated away from the coast due to the
Internment of Japanese Canadians. Gavin C. Mouat was appointed
Custodian of the properties they left behind. Despite evidence of verbal reassurances given to the families in which Mouat said "when you come back, not one chopstick will be missing from your home," Mouat sold the properties below market value using his Custodial rights without the consent of the owners. Salt Spring Lands Ltd., of which Mouat was the president, ended up purchasing some of the properties. Only one of the interned families, the Murakamis, purchased property on the island again and returned. During the 1960s, the island became a political refuge for United States citizens, this time for
draft evaders during the
Vietnam War. ==Etymology==