The Lives And Times Of The Patriots An Account Of The Rebellion In Upper Canada 1837 1838 And The Patriot Agitation In The United States 1837 1842 Seventy One Illustrations

The Lives and Times of the Patriots was first published in 1938, the centennial of the Upper Canadian Rebellion and the subsequent Patriot raids over the border from the United States. The Canadian part of the agitation for constitutional and social reform, long a subject of controversy and bitterness, is now generally considered to be, as Sir Wilfrid Laurier put it, a fight "for constitutional rights, not against the British Crown"; but very little in the American movement, allegedly in sympathy, can be justified, its aims and conduct being no better than—and often interior to—the Fenian Raids of some thirty years later. The story of the events and their consequences is unfolded from a wide coverage of source materials, and described from both Tory and Reform, Loyalist and Patriot point of view. Exciting trails and escapes from jails and forts follow one another in quick succession, and the lives and experiences of participants are traced around the world to the prison colony of Van Diemen's Land and home again, as diaries, letters, and narratives tell their story, supplemented and verified by official documents, contemporary newspapers, obituary notices, and tombstone inscriptions. Rare illustrations complement this careful account of what must be taken to be, with all its deficiencies, a notable episode in the history of human freedom.

"Upper Canada" is an earlier name for what is now Ontario.

The Lower Canadian Rebellion of 1837 has been called the most important event in pre-Confederation history. Previously, it has been explained as a response to economic distress or as the result of manipulation by middle-class politicians. Lord Durham believed it was an expression of racial conflict. The Patriots and the People is a fundamental reinterpretation of the Rebellion. Allan Greer argues that far being passive victims of events, the habitants were actively responding to democratic appeals because the language of popular sovereignty was in harmony with their experience and outlook. He finds that a certain form of popular republicanism, with roots deep in the French-Canadian past, drove the anti-government campaign. Institutions such as the militia and the parish played an important part in giving shape to the movement, and the customs of the maypole and charivari provided models for the collective actions against local representatives of the colonial regime. In looking closely into the actions, motives, and mentality of the rural plebeians who formed a majority of those involved in the insurrection, Allan Greer brings to light new causes for the revolutionary role of the normally peaceful French-Canadian peasant. By doing so he provides a social history with new dimensions.

This volume presents a broad documentary coverage of the rebellions and material on areas of Upper Canada not directly threatened by them. A judicious reading should provide a sound knowledge of the uprisings.