"An Introduction to Canadian History"

Category: Reading Logs

Historical Debate

During our last class lecture we did a confederation debate.  Our group was the Maritimes against confederation, it was a very interesting view on confederation.  I personally had never looked into confederation from the views of the maritimes.  We discovered that one of the main reasons for the maritimes to not encourage confederation was they did not see that they would fairly represented in the house of commons.  Another issue was regarding concern about trade with the rest of Canada and England, the people of the Maritimes believed that the trade taxes would go up for their exports.  One of the final concerns was about the trans-Canadian railway, in the Maritimes the railways have only even ran North to South.  The idea of an East to West railway was new and different.   These were some of the main points that were made rom our group.

How Do I Do History?

How does one do history… That seems to be a rather open ended question, there are so many different ways that you can do history.  There is the often traditional approach which is learning for the test.  Which involves reading the textbook and learning the dates of event that occurs.  Another approach to doing history is to learn why an event happened,  we learn this way by critical thinking and looking at primary sources and finding out what the context for the event may have been.  An interesting part about the way Tracy Penny Light teaches history is during lectures she will give us the outline as to what took place at any given historic event, not many details.   We then have to read about the event and make our own interoperation of the event.  We have to be able to synthesize information and perform critical thinking versus reading and memorizing context.  Both ways of teaching have a place but the way TPL teaches, she teaches us a trait that can be used in all courses no matter the faculty.

Reading Log #9

This weeks reading were discussing the use of pistol duels in Upper Canada.  The events of duels were very common in Upper Canada during the early to mid 1800’s.  The main reason for the duels to occur was generally to show the honour of a man regarding, class, religion, politics or another man degrading a related woman honour.  Many of the supports for the duels to continue occurring were white, upperclass, anglo-american or British men.   While these duels had many supporters there were also many opposers a main portion of the people opposing were women, journalists and family men.  When duelling started to become popular, there was a list for rules that were established to ensure that all duels were conveyed in the same order, they were called “Clonmel Code” and it outlines 26 rules that were to be followed during all duels.  During the duelling era it became very clear that the different levels of society held themselves to different standards.  Many of the people who participated in these duels believed that it was the only way to show there honour.  In one of this weeks reading titled “Pistoles at six o’clock” it follows the story of two men who end in a duel due to rumours that had been speed about a certain woman.  The duel was purely started because of jealousy, and it ended in one for the men dying from a musket ball to the chest.  When the man who survived was on trial the judge, expressed to the jury that all of the mediatory guidelines for the duel had been followed.  When the jury returned with a verdict the man was dropped of all charges and was able to go back to his normal life the same day.

Reading Log #7

The readings for this week were based on the effect on the First Nations people when the Gold Rush occurred. The articles talk about the spreading of smallpox amongst First Nations communities. This epidemic also connected to the events that happened in the “Great Canadian Mystery” that was done in class this week. Both of these events occurred in the Cariboo Region of British Columbia.

While the Gold rush was occurring there was a rapidly increase of people in the Cariboo Region. Many of which coming from the California Gold Rush, this meant the most of the people were transient individuals trying to make a quick dollar. During this time in History there were very few people living in Western Canada except for aboriginal people. With the Aboriginals having very little to no interaction to Europeans when the gold rush occurred it was major culture shock. The Europeans brought many things along with them including smallpox. With the introduction of small pox it caused many entire groups of people. Small pox was the reason why as high as 90% of the population was wiped out in parts of BC.

Reading Log #5

This weekend reading logs are based around the Acadian and the issues that they faced.  As a culture the Acadians did not have it easy, they went through many troubles including having made constantly take oaths of allegiance to the crown,  having their native land fought over between the British and the French and finally the expulsion from the land they had settled.

Thought out the years 1604-1763 the Acadians when through many hardships.  The Acadians made it clear to everyone that they wanted to be considered neural.  They had to sign allegiance to Crown, a stipulation was that they would not fight against the French nor the First Nations.  Throughout that time frame the control for Acadia was passed between the British and the French many times.  While they change in power continued they lived closely with the Mi’kmaqs and saw them as a many things; a threat, ally, bargaining tool and a buffer isolating them from the British settlers.  The largest and most unfortunate event that occurred too the Acadians was their expulsion.   When Britain took control of Acadia they forcibly removed close to 10,000 Acadians from there colonies.  The Acadians were put onto boats and shipped throughout the Eastern seaboard to British colonies.

In 1764 the Acadians were allowed to come back to their original colonies.   Very few Acadians came back to live in there initially settled land. Not all the acadians made it to the new lands they were sent to many died on boats, or killed.  This expulsion is considered a form of cultural genocide to the Acadians.

Reading Log #4

This week I was unable to access the “‘Nagging Wife’ Revisited,” but I was able to read the “A Fille du Roi’s Passage” document.  I found this passage very interesting, at the beginning I was very confused by how the piece was written.  As I continued it began to come clear how it was a letter written to Jeanne, from an ancestor.  There were many parts of the article that I found interesting including the way the “daughters” were chosen, what kind of incentives they received when they came to New France and  way the men were treated when the fille du roi came to New France.

When reading about how the kings daughters were chosen, I was slightly surprised.  It had been made apparent that most of the girls from France were orphans and sometimes prostitutes.  An interesting comment that was made in this passage was that not all were orphans some of the girls were women who had already been married and used this expeditions to escape an abusive relationship.  The second interesting thing in this article was the  endowments that the women got for going to New France.  The passage describes wooden chests for every girl filled with clothing, sewing supplies and a small amount of money.  In this time in history having all those materials given to them for no cost would almost have been incentive enough to travel to a new and foreign land.  The final thing that was unusual was how the men were treated in regard to the fille du roi, by how if they did not find a woman to wed within fifteen days they would have the ability to hunt, trade and fish suspended.

This article shed some light on some unknown facts about this time in history.  They way the women used this act as a way to escape poverty and abuse would have been an incentive for many if these girls to leave.  Also how the King treated these girls too all kinds of gifts and presents for all of the girls who turned there lives upside down for him and their country  Finally the way the men were almost in a way victimized.  The way the men were treated in this time period is commonly thought of as good when I think that there were many cases like this where they were in a way victims.

Reading Log #3

Being a student that grew up on the West coast of Canada the story of the Beothuk was virtually unheard of. The only reason for many BC High school students having any knowledge on the topic would be from learning other own time. The thought of an entire culture of people being extinct makes many feel sick to their stomach. This reading brought to light some of the events that lead up to their extinction. This reading portrayed the interactions between the Beothuk and the Europeans in many different situations.

The first situation that was interesting was the way Beothuk retaliated against the Europeans when large fisheries were set up. Salmon fishing being one the Beothuk main food supplies they were not amused by the Europeans coming and setting up large fisheries. As a way of expressing this they would often murder fisherman and steel iron from the fisheries. The Beothuk would also prepare elaborate plans to see what kinds of weapons the Europeans had. Where the Beothuk would make decoy animals and elaborate plans to see if the Europeans would pull there guns or just back away. Acts like these were common practise between these two groups.

For many students (such as myself) always believed that in the situation the Beothuk were harmless and that they had no reasons for the Europeans to be any let alone kill and entire culture. This article shows another side to the story were the Aboriginals were cruel and evil to the Europeans. This article is not justifying that what happened was by any means a proper way of conflict resolution, but it does explain some of the events that lead up to such an awful act in Canadian history.

Reading Log #2

In the article “We Are As We Are” by James P. Rhonda it discusses the many encounters between Christian missionaries and First Nations people in Canada and the northern United States. The article shows the very unique encounters between the two groups.

The First Nations and the Missionaries had very different views on many religious beliefs. Many of the First Nations had no interest in even the thought of joining Christianity. They believed that they, missionaries were the reason for the mass outbreak of smallpox that was killing there families at a rapid rate. While many Natives refused the new religion others were amazed by the ideas and relics that the missionaries revealed and converted to Chritsianity. Another interesting event that occurred during this time was the creation of “revitalization movements,” which where a blend of First Nations and Christian theologies. The difference in opinion did not stop the two groups from asking questions and trying to learn more about the different spiritual outlooks. Father Je Jeune and shaman Carigonan would have secret meeting “Inside dark, smoky bark cabins and would challenge each others theologies”

This article showed an interesting insight into the relationship of two very different groups of individuals, and how there were very interested to learn about one another religious outlooks, even if they had on intention of converting. This kind of open-mindedness and interest is something that should be practised at this day and time.

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