In the years following the American Revolution, some forty thousand immigrants from the thirteen colonies came to Canada, many settling in what is now Southern Ontario. These newcomers would add significantly to the region's economic growth, as a ready supply of agricultural labour, knowledge of the trades, and wealth. This period saw expansion in education, changes in land usage, and much agricultural output as land was parceled out to the newcomers. The structure of government expanded to a considerable degree, and transportation and communication were also developed. Other institutions grew to meet the needs of the swelling population, including education and religion. These years also saw considerable political upheaval in the way of agitation for reform, conflict among different groups, and the growth of a local culture. Craig's guide to the changes in Upper Canada is still considered one of the best descriptions of this period of rapid change.

Although there were abundant hardships, early life in Upper Canada was romantic and colourful in many ways. However, despite important contributions to the social and economic history of Canada, few good, comprehensive accounts have been generally available. Early Life in Upper Canada, originally published in 1933, is by far the finest history yet compiled, and it is now being reprinted in order to make available to a new generation an important and engrossing description of this area of Canadian history. The author, a distinguished Canadian historian, has drawn on contemporary letters, diaries, newspapers, and periodicals, as well as consulting all the existing histories, and he has supplemented these researches with interviews with persons who had personal contacts with early life in the Province. Mr. Guillet has compiled a thorough, accurate and delightfully readable history, that brings vividly to life the early settlers and their experiences. This is in accordance with the author's profound desire to make the study of Canadian history a delight rather than a chore. He has not concealed the unpleasant aspects of pioneer life, nor does he attempt to glamorize its difficulties. There is a tendency at times to forget that the founders of Upper Canada include hundreds of thousands of men and women of many nationalities, and fur traders, lumbermen, and voyageurs, as well as settlers. Their contributions, too, are acknowledged and recorded here. This book is profusely illustrated, with drawings made, in many cases, by army cartographers, who were skilled creative artists as well. Their paintings, fortunately, have been better preserved than were written accounts of the times, and are accurate depictions of pioneer life. The extensive bibliography and carefully prepared index will make this work invaluable for historians as well as for general readers.

Follow the Robertson family as they prepare for a Thanksgiving dinner to celebrate the harvest in the fall of 1841.

Scots, some of Upper Canadas earliest pioneers, influenced its early development. This book charts the progress of Scottish settlement throughout the province.

Uppermost Canada examines the historical, cultural, and social history of the Canadian portion of the Detroit River community in the first half of the nineteenth century. The phrase "Uppermost Canada," denoting the western frontier of Upper Canada (modern Ontario), was applied to the Canadian shore of the Detroit River during the War of 1812 by a British officer, who attributed it to President James Madison. The Western District was one of the partly-judicial, partly-governmental municipal units combining contradictory arisocratic and democratic traditions into which the province was divided until 1850. With its substantial French-Canadian population and its veneer of British officialdom, in close proximity to a newly American outpost, the Western District was potentially the most unstable. Despite all however, Alan Douglas demonstrates that the Western District endured without apparent change longer than any of the others.

It has generally been assumed that the political and social ideas of early Upper Canadians rested firmly on veneration of eighteenth-century British conservative values and unequivocal rejection of all things American. Jane Errington's examination of the attitudes and beliefs of the Upper Canadian elite between 1784 and 1828, as seen through their private papers, public records, and the newspapers of the time, suggests that this view is far too simplistic.

One of the most fascinating aspects of the history of Canada is the development of trave—from the canoe-routes and woodland trails first followed by the Indians, the fur-traders and explorers, and the pioneers, to the canals, locks, and highways of a later age, and the seaways, railroads, and air routes of today. Equally interesting is the story of the development of the means of transport—canoes, bateaux, sailing-ships, steamships, stage-coaches, railway cars. This volume contains the chapters from Mr. Guillet's large volume, Early Life in Upper Canada, describing early travel and transportation. He draws on contemporary letters, diaries, newspapers, and periodicals, in order to describe vividly the conditions of travel at various periods, and the book is abundantly illustrated with authentic portraits, photographs, and drawings.

Adam Wheeler is a fourteen year-old who arrives in Toronto in the autumn of 1837 after crossing from England on a filthy and crowded immigrant ship. He has emigrated in company with his uncle's family, but, once in Upper Canada, he quarrels with his uncle and sets out on his own. Adam finds work in a paper mill at the village of Todmorden on the banks of the Don River. Adam soon learns that William Lyon Mackenzie is mounting a rebellion. When the uprising begins, he is drawn into the conflict both because his employer sends him to deliver paper to the rebel camp at Montgomery's Tavern, and also because his uncle joins Mackenzie's force. Among those Adam befriends are two teenage girls, Cornelia and Charlotte de Grassi. These historical figures, aged thirteen and fourteen at the time, served as spies and messengers for the government side during Mackenzie's Rebellion. Although this book is a work of fiction, it is solidly based on real history. The events of the 1837 Rebellion have been carefully researched and are presented as accurately as possible. Captain and Mrs de Grassi and their daughters, and several other characters, were real people and, improbable as it may seem, the girls' work as spies and messengers during the rebellion days is fully authenticated. When it comes to presenting human beings however, historical documents are usually uninformative. To bring the characters to life, the author has invented certain scenes and details, all of which she based carefully on what she learned about the de Grassi family, and on the life and circumstances of the time.