Few people know of North America's forgotten leper colony. Between 1891 and 1924, D'Arcy Island in the Georgia Strait, was prison to a handful of men and one woman who were banished there to die. There were never more than nine people exiled at any given time, and once a single man was left alone for fifteen months. Though the disease is crippling in its later stages, no one was left on the island to provide care. Their only contact with the outside world was a supply ship that came every three months to drop off food, opium and coffins. Medical officers of the time reported that conditions on the island were deplorable, yet for years nothing was done. Why? They had leprosy, they were Chinese and no government would take responsibility.
Island of Shadows takes you on a sorrowful journey to D'Arcy Island in the 1890's. It examines the factors contributing to its creation and to the inhumane treatment of the Chinese people that were abandoned there.
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