Between Two “Consumer Revolutions”: Groceries and Other Foodstuff Purchases at Lower Canadian Country Stores, 1809–67

An analysis of the account books of five different Lower Canadian country general stores between 1809 and 1867 shows that ordinary households had access, and purchased, an increasingly wide range of groceries and other foodstuffs over the period. As in Upper Canada, grocery purchases were “routine – part of many families’ culture,” and some commodities may even have been mass consumed. Foodstuffs supplied by global trade networks coexisted with products of domestic manufactures. Foodstuff consumption also displayed characteristics associated with the “consumer revolution” of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries as well as others usually deemed to have been part of the “mass consumption societies” of the twentieth century.

“As Long As That Fire Burned”: Indigenous Warriors and Political Order in Upper Canada, 1837–42

In response to the crises of rebellion and invasion during the years 1837–42, Indigenous warriors in Upper Canada took up arms on an extensive scale. This mobilization was not the result of reactionary loyalism. Rather, like other actors of the period, First Nations communities participated in the upheavals of the Rebellion in order to further their own vision of what constituted a desirable political order within the province. By 1837, First Nations communities in Upper Canada were beset with settler violence, theft, and squatting, and successive imperial administrators had shown themselves to be unwilling or unable to fulfill their obligations to protect Indigenous property or maintain crucial diplomatic practices. First Nations themselves, however, had a clear vision of the proper Indigenous-Imperial relationship, developed over generations of diplomacy and preserved in numerous treaties, belts, speeches, petitions, and councils. It was in support of this established framework that the warriors took up arms. With their military clout suddenly amplified by the insurrectionary crisis, Indigenous leaders across the province made clear that their assistance against the Patriot threat was contingent upon the maintenance of their recognized rights and privileges in the political order of post-Rebellion Canada. While these efforts initially produced significant results, the growth of the settler state in the period following the Rebellion soon led to the decisive dismantling of this long-standing Indigenous-Imperial framework.

“A Mixed Assemblage of Persons”: Race and Tavern Space in Upper Canada

This tavern story about an 1832 Saturday night on the town in Brantford, Upper Canada, addresses the complexities of racialized relations in “public places” generally and the tavern’s bar room in particular. It juxtaposes tavern-goers who engaged in “heterogenous” sociability with the “‘high pressure’ prejudice” of a “‘Yankee’” barkeeper. It challenges us to understand what such moments of multiracial public life meant in a society permeated by racialized thought and practice. There was a strange contradiction between White settlers’ marginalization of Black and First Nations peoples and the sometimes easy accommodation afforded them in the public houses. Although accommodation to people of colour was also illegally, and sometimes violently, denied, tavern stories complicate historical interpretations focusing on conflict. Without questioning these analyses, or the evidence supporting them, the stories suggest that something more subtle was also going on. They invite serious attention to the colony’s many taverns as sites where people chose to relax racial boundaries as often as they chose to enforce them. Maybe it was just the whiskey and the wine; without comparable work on other public spaces, the typicality of a tavern-based history will remain an open question. But because “Indians” as well as the “blacks and whites” all went there, the taverns show how race, as one socially constructed category, shaped ordinary, everyday human interactions.

Winter Studies And Summer Rambles: Anna Jameson's Representations Of The ‘Other’ And Self In 19th Century Colonial Canada

WinterStudies and Summer Ramblesby Anna Brownell Jameson, a travel autobiography documenting her travels through Upper Canada from December of 1836 to August of 1837 and her contact with Native people. Despite Jameson’s claim of representing events as they are, devoid of subjectivity, it is clear that her writings reflect both the discourse of the time as well as her own position as a white, English speaking woman. Further, the colonial setting and the ‘contact zone’ provided Jameson with a space in which to experience different definitions of femininity and build on her feminist beliefs. In this environment she was able to evaluate the position of both white and Aboriginal women presenting a view which distinguished her from many other women writers of this genre.

Winter Studies And Summer Rambles: Anna Jameson's Representations Of The ‘Other’ And Self In 19th Century Colonial Canada

WinterStudies and Summer Ramblesby Anna Brownell Jameson, a travel autobiography documenting her travels through Upper Canada from December of 1836 to August of 1837 and her contact with Native people. Despite Jameson’s claim of representing events as they are, devoid of subjectivity, it is clear that her writings reflect both the discourse of the time as well as her own position as a white, English speaking woman. Further, the colonial setting and the ‘contact zone’ provided Jameson with a space in which to experience different definitions of femininity and build on her feminist beliefs. In this environment she was able to evaluate the position of both white and Aboriginal women presenting a view which distinguished her from many other women writers of this genre.

Rethinking the post-extraction landscape : an architectural inquiry into post-extraction conditions

A common theme amongst all communities dependent upon the extraction of mineral resources is their dependence upon a finite mineral reserve. Once exhausted or abandoned due to a loss of economy in extraction or in favour of more promising and profitable prospects, communities are frequently left to contend with the residual impacts of mining. The effects of which have only been amplified in recent years due to changing modes of production and consumption. As a consequence of these conditions, former industrial sites, particularly those related to primary resource extraction, have fallen into disuse. Physically altered and transformed by extractive industry, these once active extraction sites now remain as dormant voids, artifacts of industry. In light of these conditions, this thesis advocates for the reclamation of postextraction landscapes using architecture as a tool for highlighting, preserving and repurposing the now dormant industrial void. Having evolved in relation to both natural and cultural conditions, architecture acts to inform and reconnect users with former extraction sites, while fostering a greater understanding and awareness of the intertwined nature of industry, landscape and the history of place as it is linked to former industry (Hough M. , 1990). Marmora, located in southern Ontario and one of the first iron mining communities in Upper Canada, is the context for this investigation. This community, like many others, flourished with the discovery of rich mineral deposits in the region early in the 19th century. Dependent upon a finite mineral reserve Marmora’s economy deteriorated with the collapse of industry in the region late in the 20th century. Despite this condition, this small community continues to thrive due to its strong agricultural, recreation and tourism sectors which continue to drive the community’s economy since the collapse of industry. What remains of the community’s fleeting industrial past however, is a now abandoned open pit mine, the place of intervention for this study.