Unit 1
Development of Canada From 1840-1867
Lesson 5
Focus on Canada East
In the 1800s, a majority of the population of Canada East was made up of French speakers, called Canadiens. The Canadiens were descendants of the early French settlers of New France. Most were Catholic and belonged to the working class.
English businessmen dominated the economies of Montréal and Québec City. The mid-1800s were a time of prosperity for many businesspeople, but the working class earned low wages and did not share in this prosperity.
Seigneurs and Land Ownership
Wealthy landowners who rented out smaller plots of land to Canadien farmers were known as seigneurs. The Papineaus were seigneurs that owned a huge amount of land. The town of Papineauville was named after them, as well as a whole region of Québec called Papineau.
The Papineaus sold and rented land to thousands of other Canadiens. Sawmills were their main business, but they also profited from owning large commercial farms. Many Canadien farmers rented land from the Papineaus or bought it on credit, but could not make their regular payments. As a result, they had to give up their plots of land, or sell them back to the Papineaus for a small part of what they had paid. The story of the Papineaus provides an example of society in Canada East in the mid-1800s.
Abandoning Farm Life
When the parents in a farming family died, the land they farmed was divided among their children. The plots of land became smaller and smaller over the years. After several generations, these small farms could hardly produce enough to support the farming families.
When farming could not support their families, Canadiens turned to other ways to make money. Often the men in the families sought jobs in the lumber industry. As thousands of desperate men competed for the lumbering jobs, business owners found that they could hire them for very low wages. Soon the Canadiens had to borrow money to feed their families. Many could not pay back these debts.
Since many Canadiens could not earn enough money to pay their debts, hundreds of thousands were forced to give up their farms and move to the cities to find work. In 1800, only 5 percent of the population of Canada East lived in cities. By 1867, 20 percent of the population lived in cities. Also, many left Canada East to find work in the United States.
This is an excerpt from a letter that Papineau wrote to his son Amédée in 1852. Analyze: What does this letter tell us about Papineau’s attitude toward the Canadiens who farmed on his land?
The Development of French Nationalism
When the Act of Union joined Upper Canada and Lower Canada into one colony called the Province of Canada in 1840, the new colony’s government was dominated by English politicians. They wanted to assimilate the French people, despite the fact that the majority of the population of Canada East was French. This means that the British wanted the French to adapt to their own English customs, and they wanted to remove the French language from the colony altogether.
Many Canadiens fought back against this attempt to assimilate them into English culture. French nationalism was an effort by Canadien leaders to create a national identity and protect French language, religion, and culture. Nationalism is a belief that people with a common language, land, history, and culture should be an independent nation.
Focus on Canada West
During the first half of the 1800s, tens of thousands of British immigrants arrived every year in Canada West. They occupied fertile land on which First Nations peoples had been living. By the 1850s, Canada West was changing from scattered, isolated settlements to a lively network of farms, towns, and cities.
Introduction of the Railway System
Before the 1850s, ships transported crops and timber for export to Europe and the United States. Transportation by ship benefited the people who lived near ports, rivers, or canals. Land was cheaper farther away from the Great Lakes, but it was difficult for farmers to get their crops to market. All of this changed with the boom in railway construction in the 1850s. The railways brought crops and other products to ports for export.
The darkest lines on the map show the railway routes of Canada West in 1857. Analyze: How would the railway help farmers living near Lake Erie and Lake Ontario?
Rural Communities and Cities
With the development of railways, towns and cities such as Toronto and Brantford became centres of commerce for the more remote. settlements around them. Soon all of the fertile land stretching north from Lake Ontario and Lake Erie was being farmed.
As the railways expanded, more towns were established to offer services to rural populations. People visited towns to bring farming equipment to blacksmiths for repair and to shop in general stores. Small, local industries also developed as a result of nearby resources. For example, farmers sold their grain to mills, which converted it into flour to be sold thousands of kilometres away. Woollen mills turned sheep’s wool into fabric for the clothing industry. This development encouraged other local farmers to expand their farming activities to include both sheep and grain. The economic growth the railways created provided new opportunities for immigrants moving to the towns and cities of Canada West.
The railroad and the demand for agricultural products led to more farming in Canada West. In turn, farming encouraged other industries. Even people with little money could take out loans to buy machinery to make farming easier. Entrepreneurs began manufacturing farm machinery to meet the demand. By 1861, 31 factories were producing farm machinery in Canada West.
This 1845 painting by John Gillespie is entitled King Street, Toronto. It shows a horse-drawn yellow cab belonging to Thornton Blackburn in the main business district of old Toronto. Analyze: How does this painting show the wealth and opportunities in Canada West?
Growth and Changes in Population
Between the 1840s and 1860s, the population of Canada West tripled to almost one and a half million. Among the hundreds of thousands of new arrivals were British immigrants and Black Americans. Irish people arrived in such large numbers that by the 1860s they had become the largest ethnic group in Canada West.
Many Irish immigrants did not have enough money to buy even the cheapest land. Railroad construction and local industries provided employment for many of them. However, the Irish had to compete with Canadians and other immigrants for these jobs. This created social tensions.
The Underground Railroad
Slavery was abolished in British North America in 1833. However, it was still legal in the southern part of the United States. To help enslaved Black people escape to the northern states and British North America, a secret network developed. It became known as the Underground Railroad. It was not an actual railroad, but it was a network of people and safe housing. In 1850, the United States passed the Fugitive Slave Act. This law gave slave owners the right to find and recapture escapees, even where slavery was illegal. This caused even more people to flee to British North America. Between 30 000 and 40 000 people fled to British North America along the Underground Railroad.
Several Black settlements formed in southern Canada West, from Chatham, east of Windsor, to Georgian Bay. Many of these communities established their own schools and churches. One of these schools was started by Mary Ann Shadd, a Black Canadian activist. In the 1850s, she established the first of two abolitionist newspapers that informed the public of Canada West about slavery and about the Underground Railroad.
Impact of Farming on First Nations
By the mid-1800s, some First Nations communities had successfully adopted European styles of agriculture. The Mississauga of the Credit River were one such community. However, new immigrants and land development companies all wanted the last of the fertile land. The government refused to acknowledge that the Mississauga had ownership of their land and would not sell them the land. The Credit River Mississauga left their village and farmland in 1847. The land was then auctioned off to settlers. As the railways pushed farther north from Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, settlers took over more land.
Two Ojibwe leaders at the time were Nahnebahwequay, also known as Catherine Sutton, and Kezhegowinninne, also known as David Sawyer. They travelled through Canada West to help local bands start farms in such places as the Garden River Reserve, Owen Sound, and Rice Lake. The success of these farms attracted the attention of eager immigrant farmers who wanted more fertile land. The government of Canada West forced band after band to sign away their assigned territories. A few First Nations tried to buy their own land back. The Canadian government would not allow them to do so. Catherine Sutton and many other First Nations people spoke out against this unfair treatment. Many people in Britain also protested against this treatment after learning about it.
Read the excerpt from a British magazine. It pleads the case for First Nations living in British North America. Why do you think First Nations were not given the same rights as those given to refugees from slavery and European immigrants?
This excerpt is from an 1860 article published in The British Friend magazine. The term Indian was common at that time. Today, a preferred term is First Nations, or Aboriginal peoples when including Inuit and Métis. The excerpt expresses some of the opinions of the British public during the mid-1800s.
What is the significance of these events for First Nations in Ontario today?