J. I. Little

Loyalties in conflict : a Canadian borderland in war and rebellion, 1812-1840

Despite their strategic location on the American border, the townships of Lower Canada have been largely ignored in studies of the War of 1812 and the Rebellions of 1837-38. Originally settled by Loyalists from New York, and followed by much larger numbers of land seekers from New England, this was a potentially volatile borderland during British-American conflicts. J.I. Littles Loyalties in Conflict examines how the allegiance to British authority of the American-origin population within the borders of Lower Canada was tested by the War of 1812 and the Rebellions of 1837-1838. Little argues that while loyalties were highly localized, American border raids during the war caused a defensive reaction north of the 45th parallel. The resulting sense of distinction from neighbouring Vermont, with its radical religious and political culture, did not prevent a strong regional reform movement from emerging in the eastern townships during the 1820s and 1830s. This movement undermines the argument of Quebecs nationalist historians that the political contest in Lower Canada was essentially a French-English one, but the dual threat of French-Canadian and American nationalism did ensure the border townshipss loyalty to the government during the rebellions. The following years would witness the development of an increasingly conservative and distinctly Canadian cultural identity in the region. A rigorous study of a pivotal period in North American history, Loyalties in Conflict is a fascinating account of conflicting forces in one region that, like the rest of Canada, has been largely shaped by the interaction of American and British influences, as well as French-language and English-language ones.

“The fostering care of Government”: Lord Dalhousie’s 1821 Survey of the Eastern Townships

For the Eastern Townships of Lower Canada prior to 1829, when the region was finally granted its own electoral constituencies, petitions were virtually the only means of expressing the popular will. Numerous petitions from the largely American settlers of the area, however, met with a deaf ear in the Legislative Assembly, as French-speaking members did not want to facilitate English Protestant settlement in the colony. A survey dispatched in 1821 by order of the recently appointed governor of British North America, Lord Dalhousie, provided one opportunity for selected local spokesmen to articulate grievances, particularly about obstacles to settlement. The survey was never published and the questionnaire was limited in scope and distribution, but it offers additional insight into how and why this borderland between New Englands northern boundary and Lower Canadas seigneurial zone remained a settlement frontier whose social institutions were still largely undeveloped nearly 30 years after it had first been opened to colonization.

Contested land : Squatters and agents in the eastern townships of lower Canada

Although historians have described in detail the process by which arable crown land in the pre-Confederation colonies fell into the hands of influential merchants and government officials, little attention has been paid to the large numbers of settlers who were consequently without title to the land they occupied. One of the reasons may be that British North America had no squatters’ resistance movements on the scale found in the various parts of the United States and Australia. But resistance need not be violent in order to be effective. Based primarily on the manuscript census reports and correspondence of private land agents, this article explores the significant and complex phenomenon of squatting in the Eastern Townships during the colonial era. It argues that the occupation and exploitation of land implied moral rights which could not easily be ignored by non-residents whose claims were sanctioned by official land titles. Landholding therefore became a protracted process of negotiation between speculator and squatter, a process in which locally based agents played a crucial mediating role.

Ethnicity, Family Structure, and Seasonal Labor Strategies on Quebec's Appalachian Frontier, 1852-1881

This study focuses on the economic role of the Highland Scots and French-Canadian family during the first three decades of settlement in a Quebec township. It argues that while families in both groups depended on seasonal wages earned outside the district, there were nevertheless important differences in their survival strategies and these differences were reflected in the composition of their families. The contrasting composition and economic role of the family in each group were in turn a reflection of two disparate cultures. Rather than being abandoned under the pressure of frontier conditions, presettlement values and traditions enabled each group to adapt in its own way to the harsh environment of the upper St. Francis district.

Advancing the Liberal Order in British Columbia: The Role Played by Lieutenant-Governor Sir Hector-Gustave Joly de Lotbinière, 1900–1906

This essay focuses on the role of Lieutenant-Governor Hector-Gustave Joly de Lotbiniere in bringing political stability to British Columbia after the turn of the twentieth century. As well as ensuring that the composition of the executive council was based on federal party lines, he worked to ease federal-provincial tensions and exercised a significant influence on the McBride government’s highly effective economic reform programme. Joly has been largely ignored by historians, aside from his short term as Quebec premier, but his socially conservative liberalism made him an ideal promoter of Canada’s liberal order on the west coast.

The Mental World of Ralph Merry: A Case Study of Popular Religion in the Lower Canadian-New England Borderland, 1798–1863

This article outlines the religious life of Ralph Merry, a farmer/pedlar from the Eastern Townships, as it is reflected in the diary he kept through most of his long life. Themes include Merry’s transcendental experiences, composition of hymns, attitude towards the supernatural, attraction to millenarianism, and political ideology, as well as the hybrid folk-modern nature of his journal and the psychological basis of his spirituality. From the picture of religious belief and practice that emerges, it is clear that the international border remained somewhat pervious to New England’s radical religious culture, despite the dominance of the British-financed Anglican and Methodist churches in the Eastern Townships.

A Canadian in Lowell: Labour, Manhood and Independence in the Early Industrial Era, 1840-1849

So WROTE DANIEL SPENCER GILMAN in Lowell to his younger brother on an Eastern Townships farm near the Vermont border in early July 1847. Gilmans letters provide an interesting view of life in Lowell, Massachusetts during the 1840s, but, more importantly, they reflect the thoughts and experiences of a working man in the early industrial era. This perspective is remarkably rare in published works despite the large amount of historical research on labour history, including working-class culture. The reason is that for males in particular the focus of historians has been on the workplace, especially on the conflict with capital as skilled workers reacted to the threats posed by mechanization and the ruthless competition for markets. Studies of women wage workers, such as that by Thomas Dublin on Lowell itself, often provide a broader understanding of their everyday lives. More recently, gender historians have begun to examine American manhood and masculinity in the Victorian era, but the focus to date has been heavily on the white middle class.

The Short Life of a Local Protest Movement: The Annexation Crisis of 1849-50 in the Eastern Townships

This paper examines the annexationist movement on the border region of the Eastern Townships, where the American-descended majority felt that union with the United States would end their economic isolation and stagnation as well as remove them from the growing threat of French-Canadian political domination. Leading proponents of this genuinely bi-partisan movement were careful not to appear disloyal to Britain, however, and they actively discouraged popular protest at the local level. Fearful of American-style democracy, the local elite also expressed revulsion towards American slavery and militaristic expansionism. Consequently, the movement died as quickly in the Eastern Townships as it did in Montreal after Britain expressed its official disapproval and trade with the United States began to increase.