The Irish in Ontario: A Study in Rural HistoryFor most of the nineteenth century, the Irish formed the largest non-French ethnic group in central Canada and their presence was particularly significant in Ontario. This study presents a general discussion of the Irish in Ontario during the nineteenth century and a close analysis of the process of settlement and adaptation by the Irish in Leeds and Lansdowne township. Akenson argues that, despite the popular conception of the Irish as a city people, those who settled in Ontario were primarily rural and small-town dwellers. Though it is often claimed that the experience of the Irish in their homeland precluded their successful settlement on the frontier in North America, Akenson's research proves that the Irish migrants to Ontario not only chose to live chiefly in the hinterlands, but that they did so with marked success. Akenson also suggests that by using Ontario as an "historical laboratory" it is possible to make valid assessments of the real differences between Irish Protestants and Irish Catholics, characteristics which he contends are much more precisely measurable in the neutral environment of central Canada than in the turbulent Irish homeland. While Akenson is careful not to over-generalise his findings, he contends that the case of Ontario seriously calls into question conventional beliefs about the cultural limitations of the Irish Catholics not only in Canada but throughout North America. Donald Harman Akenson is professor of history at Queen's University and the author of numerous books on Irish history, includingIf the Irish Ran the Worldand the acclaimedConor: A Biography of Conor Cruise O'Brien. His most recent book is the groundbreakingSurpassing Wonder: The Invention of the Bible and the Talmuds. |
Contents
The Irish in Ontario | 7 |
Total migration from British Isles | 28 |
Leeds and Lansdowne Township in | 48 |
Neither by Works nor | 116 |
Birthplaces population of Leeds | 140 |
The Local Irish Revolution | 179 |
Religious affiliations | 226 |
Irishborn in Leeds and Lansdowne | 244 |
Chronology of McDonald business | 289 |
Summary of Gananoque industrial | 295 |
Crosstabulation of religion | 314 |
Occupation of employed by ethnicity | 328 |
And What is the Significance? | 332 |
total physical | 340 |
Appendix A | 355 |
Appendix C | 383 |
Other editions - View all
Irish in Ontario, Second Edition: A Study in Rural History Donald Harman Akenson Limited preview - 1999 |
Common terms and phrases
agricultural American Anglican Assessment Bastard behaviour born Brockville Recorder Buell Canada West census Church civic clergy reserves commercial farming council cultural early economic emigration factory faid Famine farmers Females under 16 front of Leeds Gananoque River Gowan grants Grenville county historians hundred acres Index of Deeds indicates individuals industrial Ireland Irish Catholics Irish diaspora Irish ethnicity Irish immigrants Irish migrants Irish-born Joel Stone Johnstown district Jones Kingston labourers Landon Lansdowne and Leeds Lansdowne township Leeds and Grenville Leeds and Lansdowne Leeds county Leeds township livestock loyalist manuscript census March McDonald-Stone papers migration militia native-born Canadians nineteenth century Ontario History Orange percent place of birth political Presbyterians Protestants province Queen's University Queen's University Archives rear of Leeds religious rural schools settlement settlers social South speculators Stone papers sub-infeudation Subtotal tion Toronto Tory Total population town township of Leeds United Upper Canada William Yonge