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Deas Island Park is a scenic spot on the Fraser River in Delta, British Columbia. The park is popular with those seeking quiet moments amid the poplar trees, tall grasses, and riparian walking trails. A solitary Queen Anne Revival-style house sits facing the river. Nearby, a plaque is all that remains of the once bustling salmon cannery that existed here 150 years ago, stating that it had been operated by a “free Black tinsmith named John Sullivan Deas.”
John Sullivan Deas was born in Charleston, South Carolina. Trained as a tinsmith in his teens, he found work in San Francisco in the 1860s as the California Gold Rush waned. In spite of his standing as a free Black man, the Fugitive Slave Act made his situation precarious. Enacted to return former slaves to their owners, the legislation often resulted in claims and seizures of free Black people living in free states like California, despite little to no evidence they had been enslaved. In addition, California did not allo