Book description
Between 1815 and 1832, Great Britain settled more than 3,500
individuals, mostly from the Scottish Lowlands, in the Ottawa Valley.
These government-assisted emigrations, which began immediately after
the Napoleonic Wars, are explored to reveal their impact on Upper Canada.
Seeking to transform their lives and their society, early Scots
settlers crossed the Atlantic for their own purposes. Although they
did not blindly serve the interests of empire builders, their
settlement led to the dispossession of the original First Nation
inhabitants, thus supporting the British imperial government's
strategic military goals. After transferring homeland religious and
political conflict to the colony, Scottish settlers led the demand for
political reform that emerged in the 1830s. As a consequence, their
migration and settlement reveals as much about the depth of social
conflict in the homeland and in the colonies as it does about the
preoccupations of the British imperial state.
Michael E. Vance is a professor of history at Saint Mary's University
in Halifax, Nova Scotia. His research focuses on early
nineteenth-century Scottish emigration, and he also has an interest in
the nature of Scottish overseas identity. His previous publication
with Natural Heritage Books, undertaken with co-editor Scott A.
McLean, William Wye Smith: Recollections of a Nineteenth Century
Scottish Canadian, is an annotated edition of the unpublished
memoir of a Scottish-born poet, newspaperman, and Congregational
minister. Michael lives in Halifax.
