Confederation Part One - Refer to These Notes for your Confederation Project

• The Civil War had broken out in the US.
• There were only 4 million people in all of the Canadian colonies.
• Because the British seemed to be siding with the South, there was fear that the war might spread to Canada.
• the British North Americans signed up to the reserve forces in droves.
• Two important players in Confederation were George Etienne Cartier and John A. Macdonald.

• Cartier had been a rebel in the Rebellions of 1837 and had fled to the US
• He returned to Lower Canada after pledging allegiance to Britain.
• He worked tirelessly as a politician to support French Canada by building schools, hospitals, etc.

•  John A. Macdonald was born in Scotland but came to Canada at age 5 which made him feel far more Canadian than he did Scottish.
• His first wife was very ill and after she died he disappeared from public life only to return to politics later.
• He was an extremely clever man and a genius at political affairs.
• In the 1850s Cartier and Macdonald become political allies because they had similar goals.
• Both wanted a transcontinental railway and both wanted to join the colonies to create a united British North America.

• George Brown came to Canada at age 25 and started the Globe newspaper.
• He printed many letters and articles against Macdonald and Cartier and the idea of the union of the colonies.
• The British government created a voting system in which each of the two colonies, Upper and Lower Canada, had an equal number of seats in the colonial governments.  Initially Lower Canada had a greater population so this was designed to weaken the French vote.
• Later, this backfired as the population of Upper Canada passed that of Lower Canada.
• George Brown started the Grit political party - his platform was to get representation by population.
• Cartier did not want to change to representation by population as it was not in favour of the French who by this time had a smaller population.
• This led to a political crisis in Canada in 1862.
• At the same time that Canadian politics were in crisis, the military situation was also in crisis.

Social Situation in Quebec

• In spite of the crises in the Canadian colonies and in the US, immigrants kept flowing in.
  In the mid 1800s in the Canadian colonies, most people married in their 20s

•  In marriage, men promised to support their families and women promised to honour and obey their husbands.
• Women had no more legal rights than children did.
• In the 1850s escaped slaves flooded over the border from the US (see previous pages).
• Anti-slavery societies sprang up to help, however some people demanded an end to black immigration. 
• In spite of that, black communities began to grow in the Maritimes, in Upper Canada, and in places like Victoria.
• In Victoria, a black military regiment was formed to protect British North America.
• Irish potato famine (see previous pages) brought many Irish poor - malnourished and ill with typhus.

• Many children arrived in Quebec orphaned by typhus.  Lots of these children where adopted into Quebec families which is why there are so many francophones with Irish last names today.
• Winter in Quebec was hardest on poor - there was little work
• The Grey Nuns tried to support the poor, particularly abandoned infants.
• Some years the Nuns had more than 700 infants left on their doorstep with only 33 surviving the year.
• Some of the Irish immigrants formed "Young Ireland" with their purpose being to free Ireland from England - Thomas Darcy McGee was the leader of the movement.

• The British government  suppressed the Young Ireland movement and put out a warrant for McGee.
• McGee fled to New York where the Irish were hated and had few opportunities.
• McGee was given the opportunity to start a newspaper in Montreal so he returned to Canada where he was also elected to government.
• The other newspaper man, George Brown, travelled on holidays to England and met and married his wife - Ann Nelson Brown.
• He also studied British parliament where it becomes clear that the British government is tired of managing Canada.  
• On his return he called for the uniting of Canada (a complete change of opinion).
• Macdonald and Cartier offer an olive branch to Brown and include him in their plans.
• French critics warn Cartier to be careful, however they still form a coalition between the three men.
• Brown calls for all of Canada to be joined from east to west coast.
• All politicians become fired up by the idea including Darcy McGee.

William Notman - photographer

 Photography of Sir John A. Macdonald by William Notman.

• William Notman fled bankruptcy in Scotland and came to Canada.
• Wanting to start all over again, he began to use a new device called a "camera".
• He became famous for his camera techniques and took pictures of many famous people including John A. Macdonald and Cartier.
• He became very successful but not all immigrants enjoyed the same success.
• There were many social problems in the Canadian colonies.
• Rum became cheaper than clean water.
• Sometimes rum was given away free in stores as an incentive to shop there.
• In New Brunswick, Samuel Leonard Tilley, the son of a pharmacist from Gagetown and a complete teetotaller, rode the temperance movement into power.
• In 1855, Tilley introduced a bill to prohibit liquor, upon which he blamed all social evils. To everyone's surprise, it passed the legislature, no one having the courage to oppose it.  This brought the colony of New Brunswick close to civil war!

• As with Britain, factories began to spring up.
• All who applied are hired, both old and young.
• New workers are expected to work unpaid for the first couple of months, after which they are paid very little and are frequently beaten with their pay being docked for indiscretions such as glancing to the side.

Info from: Canada: A People's History