THE MISSION: To write an historical analysis based on one of two events: the 1803 kidnapping of John R. Jewitt, an English sailor aboard the American trading ship the "Boston," by the Nuu'chah'nulth of Vancouver Island, or the 1867-68 murders of three black men on Salt Spring Island .

Recommended Length: Approximately 5 pages.

THE PURPOSE: To use British Columbia-based case studies as focal points for the interpretation of primary historical sources.  Thus, instead of just learning what historians have said about the past, you will be provided with the opportunity to become an historian yourself and gain experience in interpreting the past.

THE PROCEDURE: Pick one of the two topics.  Start reading the source material.  Suggestions about each alternative topic are outlined below.

A WORD ABOUT THE SOURCE MATERIAL: This assignment does not assume you have use of a home computer.  I will make the relevant source material available for xeroxing.  Links to the on-line versions of this material are included below.

OPTION 1:  THE 1803-1805 CAPTIVITY OF JOHN R. JEWITT

DESCRIPTION: This option uses the experiences of a young English sailor, John R. Jewitt, as an entry point into analyzing interactions between the Nuu-chah-nulth and newcomers to the Pacific Northwest in the early 1800s.

THE TASK: Use both Jewitt's 1807 Journal Kept at Nootka Sound and his later book, co-written with Richard Alsop, as primary source material (the full title of the 1816 book is A Narrative of the Adventures and Sufferings of John R. Jewitt: Only Survivor of the Ship Boston During A Captivity of Nearly Three Years Among the Indians of Nootka Sound: With An Account of the Manners, Mode of Living, and Religious Opinions of the Natives).

Here are some possible questions to consider:

• What does Jewitt's journal tell us about the politics and society of the Nuu-chah-nulth?

• How would you characterize the relationships between Maquinna and Jewitt and John Thompson?

• How might the "Boston" incident have impacted upon the Nuu-chah-nulth?

• What are Jewitt's opinions of Maquinna and the Nuu-chah-nulth?

• To what extent do Jewitt's ideas seem to change during the course of his captivity?

• Was Jewitt someone who recorded for history ancient traditions or was he present at the birth of a new society?

A NOTE ON THE SOURCES:  The University of British Columbia has digitized Jewitt's 1807 journal.  It is available on-line at .

The later book may be available at a local library and also can be found on-line in a variety of formats.  Probably the most accessible is the full text edition of the U.S. Library of Congress.  It can be found at   .

Scanned, page-by-page images from a UBC copy of the text can be accessed at  .

I will bring in print editions of these sources.  Students will be welcome to borrow these paper copies briefly to make their own xeroxes.

ADDITIONAL SOURCES:

Although there is no expectation that you push beyond the journal and the book, there is no prescription against using other source material as well.

I will add sources to the web page as I find them.  There is, for example, a John Jewitt Page closely based on the relevant Canada: A People's History episode at  .

For a link to a 1993 paper, "Malaspina and Maquinna: Spanish-Indian Diplomacy at Nootka, August 1791," presented by North Vancouver Museum and Archives Director Robin Inglis, click HERE.

I will try to track down some secondary source material that explores the episode from a Nuu-chah-nulth perspective.  Articles here include Jean Braithwaite and W.J. Folan, "The Taking of the Ship Boston: An Ethnohistorical Study of Nootkan-European Conflict," Syesis, 5 (1972): 259-66 and the Peter Webster Oral History in Barbara Effrat and W.J. Langlois, eds., "Contact Period As Recorded By Indian Oral Traditions," Sound Heritage, 12 (1978): 54-61.  If I find these, I will bring them into class for distribution to interested students.

OPTION 2: "WHO KILLED WILLIAM ROBINSON?: RACE, JUSTICE AND SETTLING THE LAND"

DESCRIPTION: This option uses the award-winning web site "Who Killed William Robinson?," designed by historians Ruth Sandwell and John Lutz, as an entry point into nineteenth-century British Columbia.

In 1867-68, three murders were committed on Salt Spring Island.  Each of the victims was black; in each case an accusing finger was pointed at local natives.  Although two of the murders remained unsolved, an all-white jury found Tshuanahusset guilty of the killing of William Robinson.

The web-site   has assembled a significant amount of primary source material, including newspaper articles of the time; court papers; private correspondence; diaries; paintings and photographs.

THE TASK:  Your task is to use the source material provided as a way into exploring nineteenth-century British Columbia.

The guilt or innocence of Tshuanahusset is one question to consider.  But that is not intended to be the thrust of the assignment, and any conclusions here are bound to be tentative in nature.  Rather, the documents and the court case can become a focus for the analysis of the complex social history of Salt Spring Island, and the interactions between blacks, natives, Kanakas (Hawaiians), and whites of diverse backgrounds.

There is no one set path for this assignment.  Part of being an historian is identifying issues of personal interest and struggling to organize an individual response to primary source material.  Some of you may identify one theme or question that seems of particular significance.  Others may want to comment upon different aspects of the case.  The challenge is to use the papers provided as a way to open up the analysis of race relations in mid-nineteenth-century British Columbia.

THE PROCEDURE:  Xerox the package I will provide or navigate your way through the different sections of the web-site ("Home," "The Murder," Historical Contexts," "The Archives").

Take notes and/or highlight documents as you proceed so you will be able to quote directly from the source material when you write your analysis.

Here are some possible questions to consider:

• Was Tshuanahusset guilty?

• Why was he convicted?

• If Tshuanahusset was innocent, who might have killed William Robinson, and why?

• To what degree do there seem to have been links between the killings?

• How did William Robinson live?

• What was life like on Salt Spring in the nineteenth century?

• How, based upon these documents, would you characterize the race relations of the time?

• What did you learn about being an historian from this exercise?