macaRomney Wrote:
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> Another factor I see is that America has always
> been a tough nation full of tough people that have
> gone through a lot of hardship.
> Canada attracted a different sort of pioneer, ones
> loyal to Britain and the Queen. The Cavaliers and
> Royalists, perhaps less manly. It's a different
> sort of person.
Pioneer Life from The Canadian Encyclopedia:
https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/pioneer-lifeExcerpts:
“As each new area of Canada was opened to European settlement, pioneers faced the difficult task of building homes and communities from the ground up. Pioneer life revolved around providing the basic necessities of existence in a northern wilderness — food, shelter, fuel and clothing. Pioneering life was integral to family life and provided social stability for the settlement of a larger population across the country.
“Some pioneer settlers brought personal belongings, including furniture, kitchen utensils, books and ornaments. Some settled on land prepared by Colonization Companies or within reach of villages or towns. For most, however — especially before roads, canals and railways provided communication and transportation of goods — pioneering on all of Canada's frontiers meant isolation, deprivation and hardship. Success was often measured by sheer survival. Yet, usually within a few years, primitive pioneering was followed by relative comfort, and the prospect of security and even prosperity for one's children. Persistence, optimism, thrift, resourcefulness and the acceptance of unremitting hard work became character traits valued by succeeding generations long after pioneer conditions had passed.
“Furniture was often homemade. Consider, for example, the chair made from a barrel, described by Catharine Parr Traill in The Female Emigrant's Guide (1854). Cloth for blankets and clothing, carpets to cover wood floors, pails, and children's toys were also homemade. The mending of boots, harnesses and tinware sometimes had to await the arrival of a travelling tradesman.
“Providing fuel for the huge fireplaces, which were usually the dwelling's only source of heat, was a constant chore. Timber was plentiful in many areas but still had to be felled, trimmed, cut into lengths and carried home.
“Pioneers adapted familiar institutions such as churches, schools, local government, and the web of social manners and customs, to new conditions. The characteristic co-operative principle found expression in community work parties — also known as bees — for house building, barn raising, clearing fields and making quilts. It was also reflected in local organization and relations between the sexes. A church might serve Presbyterians in the morning and Methodists at night. A school district would be speedily formed, with the teacher being paid by local assessment and boarded around the community. Settlers worked together to build roads, to attract tradesmen and small industry, and to promote the prosperity of their district.
“Pioneers on fur-trading, lumbering, mining and ranching frontiers were usually single men. But women joined in the settlement of New France in the 17th and 18th centuries. They also were pioneers in the Maritimes and Upper Canada from 1760 to 1860, and throughout the prairie homesteading era, from 1870-1914. Women's work was essential to the comfort and long-term success of a farm operation.
“Canadian immigration and the Dominion Lands Policy encouraged family life as a guarantee of social stability and a larger population. Pioneer women worked tirelessly for their family's material and cultural betterment. Although they suffered loneliness and hardship, the women’s courage and strength gave them a place of respect in Canadian life.”
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Re the English Civil War, a point of order: Cavaliers and Royalists were the same group of people. The way you've phrased your comment makes it sound like you think it's two different groups. Too, they weren't "loyal to the Queen" as you state, but to the King at the time.
Here's a brief account of the settlement of Canada by people from many different origins (not including, for our purposes here, the history of the Aboriginal peoples who were already here before European immigration):
From the McCord Museum in Quebec:
http://collections.musee-mccord.qc.ca/scripts/explore.php?Lang=1&elementid=15__true&tableid=11&tablename=theme&contentlong“From the founding of the city of Quebec in 1608, to the handing over of Canada to Great Britain in 1763, France controlled three-quarters of the total land mass of North America.
“The first inhabitants in New France were mostly single men. They arrived as indentured labourers, that is, they did not pay their fare to cross the Atlantic but after arriving in New France had to work for 36 months to reimburse their masters for the cost of their passage. Fed and housed for the duration of their contract of service, they could if they wished return to France when it ended.
“In the early 1660s almost half of the inhabitants of New France were recent immigrants. The population grew as more colonists arrived; by1666 it numbered 3,215 persons.
“When the British took political control in 1763, New France had 70,000 inhabitants. The number of English-speaking settlers in Canada rose rapidly after the American Revolution and the arrival here of the Loyalists from the American colonies to the south, as well as the expansion of immigration from Europe (largely from Great Britain).
“According to the 1870-1871 census of Canada, the population of the nation was composed mainly of people of British origin (2.1 million) and French origin (1 million). In addition to the German-speaking immigrants (203,000) and to the Aboriginals (136,000 in 1851), there were small groups of people who had arrived from several other countries.
“The construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway in the early 1880s increased the pace of immigration, in part by attracting a large number of skilled labourers as well as British, American and European engineers to the Canadian West.”
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One of my points in laying out this history is to show the mix of immigrants who contributed to building the nation of Canada - a little more complex than just a bunch of Cavaliers that were mentioned by Maca.
Another is to demonstrate that the early immigrants were hard-working, industrious, skilled people, settling the land, building the railroads, roads, canals, and building homes and communities. According to the first article above, they experienced isolation, deprivation and hardship. They are described as resourceful, optimistic and hard-working.
Of note, women participated in the settlement of Canada (by Europeans) and were equally hard-working. Maca's comments sound like only males settled the land, which is not accurate.
All of this is a long way from stating that Canada was settled by Royalists. That is simplistic, especially in view of the complexities of the English Civil War (Roundheads and Cavaliers).
Too, the settlement of Canada includes the history of the Aboriginal Peoples who were here before the first European settlers. That is an important historical reality unto itself which is still being reckoned with in our own day. Overview (from McCord Museum article linked above):
"The Aboriginal world was radically transformed when Europeans began settling in Canada - the French in the St. Lawrence lowlands and the English along the coasts of James Bay and Hudson Bay. Aboriginal groups, for example, became embroiled in conflicts over the right to trade furs with the Europeans and to control the fur trade routes into the interior of the continent.
"Another legacy: the Europeans introduced to these peoples diseases they had never before encountered such as measles and smallpox, as well as typhus, tuberculosis and syphilis. Over half of the residents of some Aboriginal communities died during the various epidemics, such as the one that struck Huronia in 1639."
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Bottom line is that Canadian settlers were hard-working, resourceful people, women and men, who suffered deprivation, isolation, separation from loved ones and severe challenges of many kinds as indicated above.
As for Maca's description of Canadian settlers being "less manly"? I think not. Especially in view of the fact that women were settlers too. I assume they were fully womanly as they too left homes and families and helped build new lives here.
On a personal note, Canadian men have always seemed pretty manly to me.
(I want to acknowledge the ongoing realities of Truth and Reconciliation with Aboriginal Peoples that are ongoing in Canada as we speak. Our settlement history includes the most unfortunate aspect of the communicable diseases brought by Europeans that decimated First Nations communities as well as our intrusion on their land and interruptions in life as they knew it (understatements) but this is not the main topic of my post or this thread so I'll leave it there).
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/07/2021 01:52PM by Nightingale.