Category: Reflections On the Past

In this section you can find some reading logs about anything concerning the society of pre-confederation Canada. Reading all these sources gave me an impression of the different topics of the course material. The reading logs displayed here lead me to chose the topic of my research project, both the document analysis and the research paper, as I personally considered them the most interesting. Nothing tells you more about a country than its society. The readings answered my first questions about how the society looked like – which population groups were there, what issues did they have to deal with?

In addition, you can find a reading log that examines the role of bias when thinking historically. I included this, because when examining sources that were published a long time ago, we have to keep in mind that times have changed, and so has our point of view on certain issues. Having read this in the very first week of this term, it influenced me in the way that I always took a step back and thought about who wrote something and why.

The bibliography to these reading logs can be found here.

The article examines the social status of slaves in early Canada as well as how it was changed by an Act of the Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada, John Simcoe. The author argues that the slaves and their actions were the most important in the fight for emancipation.

The author makes a difference between ‘’individual acts’’ ¹ which had short-term effects and ‘’collective resistance’’ ² that had long-term effects. According to the author, these two different forms of resistance, however, are not be contrasted, as they went hand in hand – the one led to the other.

But what was the first legal step towards the slaves’ emancipation? John Simcoe used the case of Chloe Cooley, a black slave who had been sold across the border to the United States, ‘’as a catalyst for enacting legislation against slavery’’ ³. On 9 July 1793 the prohibition to import slaves in Upper Canada became a law. While it didn’t free all slaves, this was one step closer to freeing all slaves and improved the social status of the next generation of slaves – those ‘’born to slave mothers […] would become free on their 25^th birthday. Their children would, in turn, earn their freedom at birth’’ ⁴.

 

¹ Afua Cooper, Acts of Resistance: Black Men and Women Engage Slavery in Upper Canada, 1793-1803 (Ontario History, 2007), 6

² Cooper, Acts of Resistance, 6

³ Ministry of Government and Consumer Services, ‘’Enslaved Africans in Upper Canada,’’ http://www.archives.gov.on.ca/en/explore/online/slavery/index.aspx

⁴ Cooper, Acts of Resistance, 12

The article and the book extract explain the culture of the so called ‘’charivari’’. What exactly was this and what purpose did it serve?

The charivari originated in France, where it was mainly ‘’used for […] political purposes’’ ¹. It was ‘’directed against all kinds of unpopular figures such as corrupt officials, submissive husbands or promiscuous women’’ ² and was brought to Canada by the settlers, where it was used frequently in Lower Canada. Here, it served (in the beginning) a different purpose than in France: it was an act of rebellion against mismatched (newlywed) couples. They suffered from ‘’both humiliation and monetary exaction’’ ³, ‘’charivari penalized people by making a public spectacle of their faults’’ ⁴. The attacked couple did get a chance to buy their freedom – the participants of the charivari would harass them over and over again until the fee was paid.

However, the charivari could be an act of violence: ‘’[…] Many fatal accidents arise out of an imprudent refusal to satisfy the demands of the assailants’’ ⁵.

It did later take a political role in Lower Canada, where it was used to force ‘’office-holders to resign’’ ⁶ – the reason behind this was that the act of the charivari offered anonymity to the participants during that unstable time, it provided some form of security.

 

¹ Allan Greer, ‘’From Folklore to Revolution: Charivaris and the Lower Canadian Rebellion of 1837,’’ Social History 15:1 (1990): 25

² Greer, ‘’From Folklore to Revolution’’, 27

³ Greer, ‘’From Folklore to Revolution’’, 30

⁴ Greer, ‘’From Folklore to Revolution’’, 30

⁵ Susanna Moodie, Roughing it in the bush, or, life in Canada, ed. Carl Ballstadt (Ottawa: 1988), 222

⁶ Greer, ‘’From Folklore to Revolution’’, 37

These two sources present the two possible and very different lives of women in New France.

One article, ’’ ‘Nagging Wife’ Revisited: Women and the Fur Trade in New France’’, examines the role and tasks of women in business in New France. The author lists several names and briefly tells the women’s stories. The author makes an important point, which summarizes why the women did what they did: ‘’Family interests in fur ventures survived the death of a husband.’’ ¹. Female businesswomen became strong, so it was no surprise that ‘’there were several transatlantic traders’’ ² by the 18^th century. And they did so all while taking care of the households – this is why the author refuses to call them dependents ³.

Adrienne Leduc presents a letter to a girl called Jeanne, who was a so-called ‘’fille du roi’’. She lists what she has found out about her, about how she came to Canada to escape the faith of an orphan, and her life in Canada. Adrienne feels a lot of empathy for her, as she came as a war wife to Canada in the 1940’s: ‘’I can identify with you, Jeanne, because I was one of these young women.’’ ⁴ She tells her about her doubts and fears when she decided to follow her husband to Canada.

 

¹ Noel, Jan. ‘’ ‘Nagging Wife’ Revisited: Women and the Fur Trade in New France’’ French Colonial History 7 (2006): 47-48

² Noel, ‘’ ‘Nagging Wife’ Revisited’’ 49

³ Noel, ‘’ ‘Nagging Wife’ Revisited’’ 45-60

⁴ Leduc, Adrienne. ‘’A Fille du Roi’s Passage’’ Beaver 81, no. 1 (2001): 20

In this first chapter the author, John Douglas Belshaw, gives an introduction to history – what is history, how is it made, what do historians do? Also, he analyses how the way history is written, on what it focuses, changes with each generation.

First, he states that reliability and verifiability are the two most important rules for historians when writing about historical events. Secondly, he notes that withholding any information is untypical for a historian, as this would intervene with the previously mentioned rules. Historians make use of two different kinds of sources, which are called primary and secondary sources.

Belshaw reminds the reader that the way we see historical events change within time, as historians gather more and new information and knowledge, either directly through research in that specific field, or by learning about new discoveries in different fields. Also, ideologies and bias can affect our perception of history. This is why the way historians write about history, on what they focus, is not the same as how the previous generation wrote about it.

Belshaw uses several different forms of evidence. Mostly he uses historical examples to back up his ideas and arguments. Also, he quotes other historians and writers at a few text passages. And finally, he uses pictures and paintings as proof, showing them to the reader and explaining how they are linked to what he just wrote.

To me, this chapter is convincing, as Belshaw not only uses evidence, but also wrote the text cohesive. In addition, he does not only give his own opinion, but reflects on the opinions and ideas of others. Every now and then he challenges the reader by asking questions, making me actually think about what he just wrote. All in all, it is a good introduction to history.

 

Belshaw, John Douglas. ‘’Chapter 1’’ In Canadian History: Pre-Confederation, 2 – 26. Vancouver: BCCampus, 2015