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Emigrant Worlds and Transatlantic Communities gives voice to the Irish, Scottish, English, and Welsh women and men who negotiated the complex and often dangerous world of emigration between 1815 and 1845. Using "information wanted" notices that appeared in colonial newspapers as well as emigrants' own accounts, Errington illustrates that emigration was a family affair. Individuals made their decisions within a matrix of kin and community - their experiences shaped by their identities as husbands and wives, parents and children, siblings and cousins. The Atlantic crossing divided families, but it was also the means of reuniting kin and rebuilding old communities. Emigration created its own unique world - a world whose inhabitants remained well aware of the transatlantic community that provided them with a continuing sense of identity, home, and family.
It has generally been assumed that the political and social ideas of early Upper Canadians rested firmly on veneration of eighteenth-century British conservative values and unequivocal rejection of all things American. Jane Errington's examination of the attitudes and beliefs of the Upper Canadian elite between 1784 and 1828, as seen through their private papers, public records, and the newspapers of the time, suggests that this view is far too simplistic.
Annotation In the fall of 1831, Mrs McIndoe and her children left Scotland to join her husband, William, a labourer on the Rideau Canal. When they arrived they discovered that William had already moved on, forcing Mrs McIndoe to appeal to the public to help reunite her family. As Elizabeth Jane Errington illustrates, the nineteenth-century world of emigration was hazardous.Emigrant Worlds and Transatlantic Communitiesgives voice to the Irish, Scottish, English, and Welsh women and men who negotiated the complex and often dangerous world of emigration between 1815 and 1845. Using "information wanted" notices that appeared in colonial newspapers as well as emigrants' own accounts, Errington il...
Errington explores evidence of a distinctive women's culture and shows that the work women did constituted a common experience shared by Upper Canadian women. Most of them not only experienced the uncertainties of marriage and the potential dangers of childbirth but also took part in making sure that the needs of their families were met. How women actually fulfilled their numerous responsibilities differed, however. Age, location, marital status, class, and society's changing expectations of women all had a direct impact on what was expected of them, what they did, and how they did it. Considering "women's work" within the social and historical context, Errington shows that the complexity of colonial society cannot be understood unless the roles and work of women in Upper Canada are taken into account.
Errington argues that in order to appreciate the evolution of Upper Canadian beliefs, particularly the development of political ideology, it is necessary to understand the various and changing perceptions of the United States and of Great Britain held by different groups of colonial leaders. Colonial ideology inevitably evolved in response to changing domestic circumstances and to the colonists' knowledge of altering world affairs. It is clear, however, that from the arrival of the first loyalists in 1748 to the passage of the Naturalization Bill in 1828, the attitudes and beliefs of the Upper Canadian elite reflect the fact that the colony was a British- American community. Errington reveal...
This selection of writings by 29 Canadian women presents a unique portrait of Canada through time and space, and a range of voices from high-born wives of governors general to a fishermans wife in Labrador. All of which demonstrate how womens experiences helped shape this country.
Between 1815 and 1832, Great Britain settled more than 3,500 individuals, mostly from the Scottish Lowlands, in the Ottawa Valley. These government-assisted emigrations, which began immediately after the Napoleonic Wars, are explored to reveal their impact on Upper Canada. Seeking to transform their lives and their society, early Scots settlers crossed the Atlantic for their own purposes. Although they did not blindly serve the interests of empire builders, their settlement led to the dispossession of the original First Nation inhabitants, thus supporting the British imperial government's strategic military goals. After transferring homeland religious and political conflict to the colony, Scottish settlers led the demand for political reform that emerged in the 1830s. As a consequence, their migration and settlement reveals as much about the depth of social conflict in the homeland and in the colonies as it does about the preoccupations of the British imperial state.
Women and Work provides an analysis of the issue of workplace inequality. Among the topics discussed are women's participation in the workplace, the continuing disparity in wages, the impact of new technologies, free trade and economic restructuring, and the involvement of women in the labour movement. This revised edition amplifies the authors' findings that little has improved in women's working conditions and prospects.
In 1844, Mrs. Frederick Widder held a soirée musicale in her lavish Toronto home. Both the music and program were standard fare for the time but, for the author, it has implications beyond a single drawing-room extravaganza. Through the study of this elaborate domestic concert, the author reveals the way musical life affected and reflected contemporary values, thoughts and beliefs of the distinct categories of class and gender in pre-Confederation Canadian society.
Canada and the British World surveys Canada's national history through a British lens. In a series of essays focusing on the social, cultural, and intellectual aspects of Canadian identity over more than a century, the complex and evolving relationship between Canada and the larger British World is revealed. Examining the transition from the strong belief of nineteenth-century Canadians in the British character of their country to the realities of modern multicultural Canada, this book eschews nostalgia in its endeavour to understand the dynamic and complicated society in which Canadians did and do live.