THIS IS NOT THE SYLLABUS FOR 2012-2013, THIS IS LAST YEAR ...

THIS IS NOT THE SYLLABUS FOR 2012-2013, THIS IS LAST YEAR’S
SYLLABUS FOR USE AS AN EXAMPLE OF THE SYLLABUS FOR 2012-2013

> HISTORY 4211F/G

>THE REBELLIONS IN THE CANADAS, 1837-1838: A weekly two-hour seminar
of thirteen sessions

Roger Hall Lawson Hall 2228
[email protected]

Beginning in the fall of 1837 and continuing through 1838 with implications not only for
Canada’s colonial experience but contributing to the definition of the country’s
nationhood, the Rebellions were a significant social, economic and political upheaval—
and one that was accompanied by extreme violence in both Upper and Lower Canada.
This course examines the background, conduct and implications of these events and
strives to place them in their neglected international context.

>The course will be conducted in the form of a workshop with instructor and students
both participating. The amount of student involvement will, of course, depend on the
number of students who choose to take the course. The following outline is based on ten
to twelve students but can easily be modified.

> Each session will comprise a lecture component given by the instructor followed by one
or two special focus reports presented by students, all to be followed by questions and
discussions. Presenters will undertake a detailed study of their particular topics but
assigned readings for all should make discussions informative.

Reports will be assessed by the instructor and a written essay of a minimum of 2500
words will be due at the end of the course. The topic for this paper may be the same as
one of the student’s reports--needless to say a superior performance will be expected in
written work.

> GRADE BREAKDOWN:

> Class reports—40%

> Final Paper--40%

> Participation--20%

Class reports: Students will hand in weekly reports based on their class reading,
min.250 words

Final paper: A research essay, topic chosen in consultation with instructor, min. 2500
words

Participation: Regular and informed participation in class is expected. Attendance is
not a substitute for engagement.

> TEXTS:

Unfortunately no single book remains in print that would be suitable for this course--at
least in English as opposed to French. There are, however, two Canadian Historical
Association booklets available on the internet which provide rudimentary coverage and
they will be assigned; Jean-Paul Bernard, The Rebellions of 1837 and 1838 in Lower
Canada (CHA booklet #55) and Colin Read, The Rebellion of 1837 in Upper Canada
(CHA booklet #48). Weekly readings are required as per the following outline. Some are
available on the internet, others will be distributed or placed on reserve in the Weldon
Library.

A good bibliographical source for the Rebellions in Lower Canada (mostly in French but
with some English references) can be found in the notes of Allan Greer, The Patriots and
the People: The Rebellion of 1837 in Rural Lower Canada, Toronto, 1993. For Upper
Canada see the extensive list of published works in a special Rebellion issue of Ontario
History, the journal of the Ontario Historical Society, Autumn, 2009.

OUTCOMES:

Students should have an an enhanced understanding of the complexities of Canada’s past
with special focus on the origins of the bifurcation of the country. Students should also
be aware of the notion that Canada, particularly in the nineteenth century, must always be
viewed in and international context—too often historians have studied Canadian history
in isolation.

Students will be able to engage with the material at a sophisticated level both orally and
in writing. For some it will be a preview of possible graduate work since original
research will be encouraged; for others it will be a challenging capstone to their
undergraduate experience in history.

> SESSIONS:

I. Orientation and Introduction

> II. The Constitutional Act of 1791

> a. Imperial Theories: Lessons from the American Revolution
Pierre Tousignant, “The integration of the province of Quebec into the British Empire,
1763-1791” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography (hereafter DCB),vol. IV, pp. xxxii to
xlix
The Constitutional Act, 1791 http://www.uelac.org/PDF/ca1791.pdf
> b. Colonial Realities: French, English and Native issues
Gilles Paquet and Jean-Pierre Wallot, Lower Canada at the turn of the nineteenth
century: Restructuring and Modernization (CHA booklet #45)
> III. The Fog of War
> a. 1812--Imperial or local struggle?
> --the economic effect
> --unifier or divider (Seedbed of Canadian Nationalism?)
C. P. Stacey, The undefended Border: The Myth and the Reality (CHA booklet #1)
> --Remembering the war in different ways
> b. A New Ball Game`
> --the end of the fur trade
> --immigration
> --settlement
> --American exclusion
> --Reservations are for Indians
Government of Canada website: http://www.eighteentwelve.ca/
Wesley B. Turner, The War of 1812: The War that both sides won, Toronto, 1990,
Chapter 5

> IV. Governments and Grievances

> a. The Gourlay affair in Upper Canada
S. F. Wise, Robert Fleming Gourlay, DCB, IX, 330-336
> b. Union or non-union of the Canadas
Peter Burroughs, George Ramsay, 9th Earl of Dalhousie, DCB, VII, 722-733

> V. Imperial Initiatives
> a. Select Committees investigate
-- Who controls the purse in Lower Canada
> --the rise of the Colonial Reformers in UK
Peter Burroughs, The Canadian Crisis and British Colonial Policy, 1828-4, Toronto,
1972, passim.
> b. Private Dreams with government monies?
> --The Canada Company
> --The British American Land Company
Roger Hall and Nick Whistler, John Galt, DCB, VII, 335-340
Roger Hall and Gary Draper, William “Tiger” Dunlop, DCB, VII, 260-264
> VI. The Troubled Thirties: Part One
> a. Upper Canada--The Family Compact and a measured descent?
F. H. Armstrong and Ronald Stagg, William Lyon Mackenzie, DCB, IX, 496-510
G. M. Craig, John Strachan, DCB, IX, 766
> b. Lower Canada--Measuring dissent with Papineau and Co.
Fernand Ouellet, Louis-Joseph Papineau: A Divided Soul (CHA Booklet #11)
> VII. The Troubled Thirties: Part Two
> a. Cholera and Crop failures

Geoffrey Bilson, A Darkened House: Cholera in Nineteenth-Century Canada, Toronto,
1980.
> b. Financial Fiascos--the Panic of 1837
Peter Russell, “Jacksonian Monetary Policy, Specie Flows and the Panic of 1837”, The
Journal of Economic History 62, no. 02 (2002), 457-488

> VIII. A Climate for Insurrections?
> a. The World and the Empire
Phillip Buckner, The Transition to Responsible Government: British Policy in British
North America, 1815-1850, Westport, Conn., 1985.
The Six Counties Address, The Vindicator, Montreal, October 31, 1837
> b. “The Politics of Sword-Rattling” local style--or America comes to Canada
G. M. Craig, “The American Impact on the Upper Canadian Reform Movement Before
1837, Canadian Historical Review, Vol. 29, pp. 333-362
Mackenzie`s Draft Constitution, Toronto, 15 November, 1837 in H.D. Forbes, ed.,
Canadian Political Thought, Toronto, 1985, 38-42

> IX. Rebellion--Upper Canada
> a. Opera Bouffa main event in Toronto
Select Documents from: Colin Read and Ronald Stagg, eds., The Rebellion of 1837 in
Upper Canada, Ottawa, Carleton Univ. Press for the Champlain Society, 1988.
> b. The Duncombe Affair and lesser sparks elsewhere
Michael S. Cross, Charles Duncombe, DCB, IX, 228-232

> X. Rebellion--Lower Canada
> a. A popular uprising--military events
Alan Wilson, John Colborne, 1st Baron Seaton, DCB, IX, 137-144
> b. A predictable reaction--constitutional circumstances

F. M. Greenwood and Barry Wright, eds., Canadian State Trials, Volume 2: Rebellion
and Invasion in the Canadas, 1837-1839, Toronto, 2002

> XI. Aftermath: After the Brawl is Over

> a. Punishment, death and exile

Elinor Senior, Redcoats and Patriots: The Rebellions in Lower Canada 1837-38,
Toronto, 1985, Chapter 15 `The Legacy of Rebellion`.

George Rude, Protest and Punishment: The Story of Social and Political Protestors
Transported to Australia, Oxford, 1978, passim.

> b. A visit from Lord Durham
Fernand Ouellet, John George Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham, DCB, VII, 476-481

> XII. Retrospect and Prospect

> a. The Construction of Memory--Differences in French and English Canadian
historiography and folklore.
Allan Greer, “1837-38 Rebellion Reconsidered”, Canadian Historical Review, LXXVI,
March, 1995, 1-18.

> b. Review