This is out of my area of interest, but I would like to give some brief information about a small bit of history on the subject.

According to Hudson's Bay Company records in 1840 there were 63 Canadians and 137 Americans living in Oregon. In the fall of 1843 a group of 875 Americans arrived in Oregon. The next year another 1,400 arrived and the following year brought another 3,000 settlers from the eastern states. These people declared Oregon to be a territory of the United States and formed a provisional government.

This government abolished slavery and enacted laws that freed any slaves who had been in bondage there after three years. But the same legislators who outlawed slavery also did not want Negroes living among them. The same government enacted Whip Laws which said that all black men must leave the country within two years of becoming free if a man and three years if a woman. Any person's remaining after their allotted time were to be whipped not less than 20 times and not more than 39 times This whipping was to be repeated every 6 months after until the person left the region. California enacted the same laws but there is doubt as to whether they were enforced.

Vancouver Island was a new colony that began in 1849. When the colonists learned of these laws they sent a delegation to San Francisco to invite the Negroes to move North and settle there. Land was available for homesteading to all who swore allegiance to the British Crown. There were many people who accepted this offer, with some becoming policemen, merchants and settlers. There were black men on the fire brigades as well as an all black fire department. When threat of war between the British Colony and its American neighbors appeared the black settlers formed their own militia with the blessing of and supplied by the colonial government.

While there has been many articles written about the Whip Laws there are few about the black settlers on Vancouver Island.

Hope this helps.