7.9 Summary

Key Terms

abolition: Refers to the abolition of the institution of slavery. In Britain a single piece of legislation resulted in the abolition of slavery in 1834. Abolition in Upper Canada was initiated by John Graves Simcoe in 1793.

aboriginal title: Aboriginal ownership of land and/or territory and/or other material resources.

absentee landlords: Also called proprietors, the main landowners on Prince Edward Island whose land was allocated to them in a lottery held in London in 1767. Few of them visited the island and few attended to the responsibilities they were given as landlords. Most, however, attempted to charge significant rents to their tenant farmers in the colony. See also escheat.

Act of Proclamation (1763): Also called the Proclamation Act, the legislation that created the Province of Quebec and recognized Aboriginal title in the west. The Act angered American settlers because it hampered westward movement into the Ohio Valley.

African-American slaves: Chattel slaves, principally from Africa, who worked primarily on plantations. Slavery occurred throughout North America in both European and Aboriginal communities. Some African-American (as opposed to African-Caribbean) slaves were later freed (see freedmen) depending on their role in the American Revolution.

anglicization: British policy of replacing French culture — language, customs, laws, and Catholic religion — with those of Anglican/Protestant Britain.

brewing: The production of beer, like the distilling of whisky, was a means of adding value to surplus grain being grown in Upper and Lower Canada beginning in the 1780s. John Molson of Montreal was an early participant in brewing and, like many Canadians who followed in his footsteps in the liquor production trade, amassed a great fortune.

British North America: Term used intermittently after 1783 to describe the colonies left to Britain after the Revolution. Initially these included Newfoundland, the Province of Quebec, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia. Subsequently the list would increase to include new colonies (Cape Breton Island and New Brunswick), a partitioned colony (Upper and Lower Canada), and in very general terms Rupert’s Land (which was not administered by a Crown delegate). Vancouver Island and British Columbia would also be regarded as part of British North America before Confederation.

Chateau Clique: A highly influential cadre of economic and social leaders who fashioned themselves politically as the British (or Tory) Party in Lower Canada. Their numbers included prominent merchants like James McGill and John Molson. Their agenda included assimilation of the French Catholic population and perpetuating a hierarchical social and political order.

Chesapeake Affair: During the Napoleonic Wars, a British attempt to reduce American shipping to France by capturing U.S. shipping and impressing (forcing) sailors into the British Navy. In 1807 the USS Chesapeake, a warship, was bombarded and captured by the HMS Leopard; four sailors were seized and tried for desertion from the British Navy, one of whom was subsequently hanged. The Americans regarded this as an act of aggression and it fomented war fever in some quarters. See War Hawks.

Clergy Reserves: Created by the Constitutional Act (1791), land parcels set aside (one-seventh of all public lands) in Upper Canada for the use of the Church of England (a.k.a. Anglican Church). There were smaller Clergy Reserves in Lower Canada as well.

common law: British code of laws dealing with property, contracts, and other civil matters.

Constitutional Act (1791): The legislation that created two colonies — Upper and Lower Canada — out of what was left of the Province of Quebec after the Treaty of Paris, 1783. In Upper Canada the British common law was applied while the Coutume de Paris survived in Lower Canada. Both colonies received their own administrative structures.

Coutume de Paris: A code of civil law developed in and for Paris and extended to New France. Addressed land ownership and use, family relations, and inheritance.

decapitation thesis: Historical theory that explains the apparent loss of Canadien leadership in the colony after the Conquest as the result of an exodus of leading commercial, administrative, and social figures to France.

Embargo Act (1807): In an attempt to force British and French respect for American shipping, federal legislation that was passed in Washington that effectively closed off all exports to foreign ports. The objective was to starve the importing nations of American goods and thus oblige them to cease preying on American shipping. It was repealed in 1809.

escheat: A movement to force unimproved lands on Prince Edward Island back into the hands of the Crown. The Escheat Party made the land issue the dominant one in the colony in the 19th century.

Family Compact: An association of leading individuals and families in Upper Canada devoted to the suppression of republican tendencies in the colony and perpetuating an oligarchy in government.

Fort Pitt: Site of modern-day Pittsburgh. Replaced the French establishment, Fort Duquesne.

franchise: The ability and right to vote in a democratic society. It is always arbitrarily determined and is defined as much by who it excludes as by who it includes. “Universal adult male suffrage” was never achieved in British North America before Confederation, far less the extension of the franchise to women or Aboriginal peoples generally.

freedmen: Slaves who, by manumission or by emancipation, were freed from slavery.

Intolerable Acts: A number of taxes and tariffs introduced by the British government during the Seven Years’ War that targeted the American colonies in an effort to recover financial losses. Following on American protests, Parliament passed more laws that gave Britain greater powers in the colonies. It also introduced the Quebec Act, which reattached the Ohio Valley and the Northwest to the Province of Quebec and enhanced the rights of the Catholic Church; both provisions were provocative in the Thirteen Colonies. Together, the Intolerable Acts catalyzed the revolutionary movement in the colonies.

Jay’s Treaty (1794): A treaty that resolved several issues outstanding from the Treaty of Paris (1783). The Americans were keen to address the continuing British presence and role in the Ohio/Northwest. The British wished to secure American neutrality in the French Revolutionary Wars and clarify the boundaries with Canada.

Late Loyalists: American immigrants who arrived in British North America in the years after the Revolution, especially in the 1790s and the first decade of the 19th century. Their “loyalism” was never certain and they were often outspoken critics of Toryism.

Louisiana Purchase: The sale of the Louisiana Territory by Napoleon to the United States. In 1800 France briefly reacquired the territory, which encompassed the western half of the Mississippi drainage (that is, from New Orleans to southern Alberta and Saskatchewan). Less than three years later, France decided to forgo attempts to rebuild New France and sold the territory back to the United States.

marchands: The Canadien merchants of Montreal, as opposed to the post-Conquest British and British-American merchants who arrived to take over the fur trade.

Napoleonic Wars: A series of wars involving France and much of the rest of Europe from 1803 to 1815. The War of 1812 was a chapter in the larger conflict.

Northwest Indian War: (1785-1795) Part of an ongoing attempt to insulate the Ohio Valley and what the Americans now referred to as their Northwest Territory against American invasion. Also known as Little Turtle’s War. Followed on Pontiac’s Rebellion and anticipated Tecumseh’s War.

Pennsylvania Dutch: German settlers in Pennsylvania, many of whom moved to Nova Scotia shortly after the Conquest.

pre-Loyalists: Non-francophone settlers in British North America who arrived before the Loyalist migration in 1783-84. Almost exclusively associated with settlers in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.

proprietors: See absentee landlords.

Province of Quebec: Created by the Act of Proclamation (1763), included lands from Detroit to the Gaspé but removed the Ohio Valley and the west from Quebec’s (Canada’s) control.

Quebec Act (1774): Also called the British North America Act, 1774 (not to be confused with the British North America Act of 1867); the legislation that restored the Ohio Valley and the northwestern Pays d’en Haut to the Province of Quebec, provided official recognition of the rights of Catholics in the colony, and restored the Coutume de Paris and the ability of the Catholic Church to collect tithes. It recognized the rights of seigneurs and irritated the Thirteen Colonies where it was seen as cheating the Appalachian colonies of their prize in the Ohio. It was grouped with the other Intolerable Acts. It is regarded as a partial cause of the American Revolution.

taxation without representation: A principle espoused by American colonists in the 1770s articulating the view that British law forbade the seizing of a citizen’s property by the state without his consent (which could be given by an elected representative in Parliament). As the colonies had no representatives in Parliament, the colonists maintained that they could not be taxed.

Tories: Associated with Loyalists in the American Revolution whose philosophical position was opposed to the Whiggish/republican stance of Thomas Paine and the Patriots.

Treaty of Ghent (1814-1815): Intended to end the War of 1812 between Britain and the United States. The treaty was agreed to in 1814 but not signed into law by the American Senate until February 1815. The treaty restored the status quo ante bellum between British North America and the United States, which meant that Britain was removed from the American Northwest, leaving Aboriginal peoples without an ally to help defend their interests.

Treaty of Paris (1783): Ended the American Revolution (War of Independence). Not to be confused with the Treaty of Paris, 1763. Britain recognized the independence and sovereignty of the United States of America. Boundaries were established (and later disputed) between the United States and British North America. The United States was to compensate Loyalists for lost property, which never occurred.See also Jay’s Treaty.

United Empire Loyalists: An honorific title taken by Loyalists and their descendants to celebrate their migration to British North America at the end of the Revolution. Typically signals a strong Tory bent.

War Hawks: American politicians mainly from the South and West who were angered by British predations on American shipping out of their ports and British-Aboriginal harassment of settlers and American regiments. Their enthusiasm for war finally won out over New England caution in 1812.

Whig: A mutable term associated with the British Whigs (a radical/liberal political party), the American Patriots/Whigs (revolutionaries in 1775-1783), and 19th century Canadian liberals. Common features include a challenge to the prerogatives of the Crown, a suspicion of Catholicism, and belief in individual rights and liberties. In the American colonies it developed into a form of republicanism.