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Biography & Autobiography Adventurers & Explorers

James Douglas

Father of British Columbia

by (author) Julie H. Ferguson

Publisher
Dundurn Press
Initial publish date
Oct 2009
Category
Adventurers & Explorers, Political, Historical
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781554884094
    Publish Date
    Oct 2009
    List Price
    $19.99
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9781770705647
    Publish Date
    Oct 2009
    List Price
    $7.99

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Description

James Douglas’s story is one of high adventure in pre-Confederation Canada. It weaves through the heart of Canadian and Pacific Northwest history when British Columbia was a wild land, Vancouver didn’t exist, and Victoria was a muddy village.

Part black and illegitimate, Douglas was born in British Guiana (now Guyana) in 1803 to a Scottish plantation owner and a mixed-race woman. After schooling in Scotland, the fifteen-year-old Douglas sailed to Canada in 1819 to join the fur trade. With roads non-existent, he travelled thousands of miles each year, using the rivers and lakes as his highways. He paddled canoes, drove dogsleds, and snowshoed to his destinations.

Douglas became a hard-nosed fur trader, married a part-Cree wife, and nearly provoked a war between Britain and the United States over the San Juan Islands on the West Coast. When he was in his prime, he established Victoria and secrured the western region of British North America from the Russian Empire and the expansionist Americans. Eventually, Douglas became the controversial governor of the Colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia and oversaw the frenzied Fraser and Cariboo gold rushes.

About the author

Julie H. Ferguson, a successful author and speaker, has been writing about the Canadian submarine service since 1984. Julie's submarine articles have appeared in Legion magazine, Sea Power, USNI Proceedings, and elsewhere; her second submarine book, Deeply Canadian: New Submarines for a New Millennium, was published in 2000.

Julie H. Ferguson's profile page

Editorial Reviews

"Julie Ferguson has made the life of James Douglas and the fur trade exceedingly readable. I was surprised to find myself treating this book as something of a page-turner. Douglas life was certainly interesting and complex in and of itself, but Ferguson handles the material in a way that makes it even more captivating."

Resource Links

"...a first rate biography and thematic history. Strongly recommended for middle school and up."

CM Magazine

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