Big Questions this week:

Why didn't all the colonies in British North America join the American Revolution?
What did revolution in the Canadas look like?

Video Introduction



Learning outcomes

• a knowledge of some reactions to the American Revolution in the Maritime Provinces
• Liberty, Self Government, and the wider Atlantic world
• Social Change
• Evangelical Revival

Questions to consider, and learning activity

Background

Primary sources

• "Actions of the People in Maugersville", in Military operations in eastern Maine and Nova Scotia during the revolution : chiefly compiled from the journals and letters of Colonel John Allan, with notes and a memoirs of Col. John Allan, (pp 61-66)
• "Mi'kmaq Decline to go to War", in Military operations in eastern Maine and Nova Scotia during the revolution : chiefly compiled from the journals and letters of Colonel John Allan, with notes and a memoirs of Col. John Allan, (pp 57-59)
• Excerpts from: Ellice, Jane. The Diary of Jane Ellice. Edited by Patricia Godsell. [Toronto]: Oberon Press, 1975.
• Colborne, John, Sir, Report of the state trials before a general court martial held at Montreal in 1838-9 : exhibiting a complete history of the late rebellion in Lower Canada. (Montreal, 1839)
  • Declaration of Independence of Lower Canada, pp. 562-565.
  • Testimony from the Court Martial of Some of the Lower Canada Rebels, pp. 295-301.
• "W.L. MACKENZIE’S APPEAL TO ARMS" in Read, Colin, ; Stagg, Ronald John, eds., The Rebellion of 1837 in Upper Canada : a collection of documents, Toronto, 1985. pp. 110-113.
• still working on a few more of these

Secondary sources

• "The American Obsession with the 1837-38 Rebellions", Witness To Yesterday, Episode 51, Podcast, 2019.

• Buckner, P., ‘The Canadian Civil Wars of 1837–1838’. London Journal of Canadian Studies, 2020, 35(1), pp. 96–118.
• Ducharme, Michel (2006). "Closing the Last Chapter of the Atlantic Revolution: The 1837–38 Rebellions in Upper and Lower Canada" (PDF). Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society. 116 (2): 413–430.
• Cecilia Morgan, "When Bad Men Conspire, Good Men Must Unite!: Gender and Political Discourses in Upper Canada, 1820's-1830's", in McPherson, Kathryn, Morgan, Cecilia, and Forestell, Nancy, eds. Gendered Pasts : Historical Essays in Femininity and Masculinity in Canada. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2003.

Supplementary Materials