As previously noted on this blog, my research on British North Americans in the Mexican-American War will be appearing in the International Journal of Canadian Studies. I appreciate the opportunity to bring greater attention to cross-border migrations in the 1840s. I recently had the pleasure of speaking with genealogist Sandra Goodwin, host of the Maple […]
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Maska, Mexico, and Pre-Civil War Migrations
It’s a long way from the lowlands of the St. Lawrence to the Valle de México. As someone who once spent eleven hours simply trying to cross Montana, I can vouch for the almost unimaginable size of this continent. So too will anyone who has crossed North America by land. It is all the more […]
Continue readingThe First Franco-Americans Revisited: Revolutionaries and Refugees
Last spring, on this website, I wrote of Clément Gosselin and other French Canadians who participated in the American War of Independence. After three years, a lengthy labor of love now comes to fruition with the publication of my “Promises to Keep: French Canadians as Revolutionaries and Refugees, 1775-1800,” which will appear in the next […]
Continue readingStories of a Sick Country? Emigration from Canada, 1849-1857, Part II
This is the second part of an essay on nineteenth-century emigration reports. Please find the first half here. In retrospect, the great demographic hemorrhage that weakened Canada in the 1840s might come as little surprise. There was a clear disparity between available labor, at a time of tremendous population growth in the St. Lawrence River […]
Continue readingStories of a Sick Country? Emigration from Canada, 1849-1857, Part I
In the United States and much of Europe, immigration and nativism have provided ample fodder for the front page in recent years. So it has often been. When it comes to geographic mobility, politicians and policymakers worry far more about those who cross into their country than about those who leave. In Canada’s case, such […]
Continue readingProsper Bender’s American Dream
I am not without hopes, however, that later some one may assume this task, and cause the social and literary activities of those days, and the participants therein, to live over again. – Prosper Bender, Quebec Daily Telegraph, June 29, 1907 As the son of a prominent attorney in Quebec City, young Prosper Bender could […]
Continue readingHistory and the Intangibles of Canada–U.S. Relations
Today marks the 176th anniversary of the Webster-Ashburton Treaty, a defining yet often overlooked moment in Canada–U.S. relations. In 1842, after years of border disturbances and legal controversies, British and American statesmen renewed their commitment to peaceful intercourse. They understood the necessity of restraining passions on both sides of the border, as it was in […]
Continue readingA Confederate in Canada
Gentlemen: I thank you most kindly for this hearty British reception, which I take as a manifestation of your sympathy and good-will for one in misfortune. It bespeaks the true instincts of your race. I trust you may ever remain as free a people as you now are, and that under the union of your […]
Continue readingAn American General in Quebec (Part II)
See Part I here. Part II: Canada or Mexico? The cordiality of British officers in Canada and Grant’s gestures of good will were not enough to quell larger suspicions. The Journal de Québec noted that three Union generals had preceded Grant in Quebec City—Rosecrans, Thomas, and Dix. The newspaper surmised that these officers were coming […]
Continue readingAn American General in Quebec
Part I: Welcoming the Victor The American conqueror stopped to look up and down the St. Lawrence, then went on to survey the area surrounding Quebec City. The figure was neither a colonial officer accompanying James Wolfe in 1759, nor one of Richard Montgomery’s men at the dawn of the American Revolution. The conqueror was […]
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