The New Labrador Papers Of Captain George Cartwright

Captain George Cartwright (1739-1819), an English merchant who spent time in Labrador between 1770 and 1786, is best known for the fascinating account of his experiences provided in his Journal of Transactions and Events during a Residence of nearly Sixteen Years on the Coast of Labrador (1792). In recent years more of his papers have been discovered and stand alongside his journal as important source material for the early colonial period in the Atlantic region. Transcribed from original documents and extensively annotated by Marianne Stopp, the new papers deal with practical matters such as how to build a house in a sub-arctic climate, the best methods of sealing, trapping, and salmon fishing, as well as merchant rivalries and trade with Aboriginal groups. Cartwright's papers are of value for what they tell us about early methods and materials; Stopp's detailed introduction provides a history of Cartwright's Labrador and discusses these new papers with respect to early architecture, ethnohistory, material culture, and Inuit studies.

New manuscripts directly related to Canada’s history rarely come to light. The Labrador Companion, written in 1810 by Captain George Cartwright (1739-1819), and discovered in 2013, is a fascinating and unusual find because of its level of detail, its setting in a hardly studied part of Britain’s fur-trade empire, and because it is a personal account rather than a trade outfit ledger or government document. This annotated edition transcribes The Labrador Companion in full. Cartwright documented the everyday work of Labrador’s particular kind of fur-trade life based on his experiences operating a series of merchant stations in southern Labrador between 1770 and 1786. Although his focus is firmly on instruction in the manifold ways of capturing animals, he also provides rare glimpses of Innu and Inuit life as well as of housekeeping and gardening. The Labrador Companion includes a lengthy description of Labrador’s fauna – of land, sea, and air – that counts among Canada’s earliest natural history writing based on first-hand observation. A revealing account of fur-trade-era technology, methods, and materials, conveyed through one man’s acquired knowledge and skills, The Labrador Companion gives a close-to-the-ground picture of the resource industries that were at the heart of British, and French, colonial presence in the Canadian northeast.

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A newly discovered manuscript that expands our knowledge of the eastern coast of Canada's Labrador peninsula.

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This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.