Three decades of disorder followed the establishment of representative government in Newfoundland in 1832. The pressures and processes during these years have given Newfoundland a political history peculiarly its own. This study examines the structure of the early political parties, the causes of popular tumult, and the effects of constitutional change during this colourful and complex period. First published in 1966, this book is still the most comprehensive investigation of a crucial phase in Newfoundland's political development.
Published to coincide with the sixtieth anniversary of Newfoundland and Labrador joining Canada, Sean T. Cadigan has written the book that will surely become the definitive history of one of North America's most distinct and beautiful regions. The site of the first European settlement by Vikings one thousand years ago, a former colony of England, and known at various times as Terra Nova and Newfoundland until its official name change to Newfoundland and Labrador in 2001, this easternmost point of the continent has had a fascinating history in part because of its long-held position as the gateway between North America and Europe. Examining the region from prehistoric times to the present, Newfoundland and Labrador is not only a comprehensive history of the province, but an illuminating portrait of the Atlantic world and European colonisation of the Americas. Cadigan comprehensively details everything from the first European settlements, the displacement and extinction of the indigenous Beothuk by European settlers, the conflicts between settlers and imperial governance, to the Royal Newfoundland Regiment's near annihilation at the Battle of the Somme, the rise of Newfoundland nationalism, Joey Smallwood's case for confederation, and the modernization and economic disappointments instigated by joining Canada. Paying particular attention to the ways in which Newfoundland and Labrador's history has been shaped by its environment, this study considers how natural resources such as the Grand Banks, the disappearance of cod, and off-shore oil have affected the region and its inhabitants. Richly detailed, compelling, and written in an engaging and accessible style, Newfoundland and Labrador brings the rich and vibrant history of this remarkably interesting region to life.
This dramatic re-appraisal of the background to the suspension of democratic institutions in Newfoundland in the early 1930s argues that the events of this period laid the foundation for Confederation with Canada and represent the central, pivotal point in Newfoundland history.
To discuss the history of the franchise in Canada, Mr. Garner had to go back well before Confederation because 1867 did not mark the beginnings of a new franchise. Until 1885 the federal government employed the provincial franchises at each federal election, and the provinces in turn continued for some years the franchises that had served their colonial predecessors. This then is the story of the development of the franchise in each of those British colonies which came to form the nucleus of the Dominion of Canada from the establishment of their representative assemblies until they joined Confederation.
There are many analyses of Tractarianism – a nineteenth-century form of Anglicanism that emphasized its Catholic origins – but how did people in the colonies react to the High Church movement? Beating against the Wind, a study in nineteenth-century vernacular spirituality, emphasizes the power of faith on a shifting frontier in a transatlantic world. Focusing on people living along the Newfoundland and Labrador coast, Calvin Hollett presents a nuanced perspective on popular resistance to the colonial emissary Bishop Edward Feild and his spiritual regimen of order, silence, and solemnity. Whether by outright opposing Bishop Feild, or by simply ignoring his wishes and views, or by brokering a hybrid style of Gothic architecture, the people of Newfoundland and Labrador demonstrated their independence in the face of an attempt at hierarchical ascendency upon the arrival of Tractarianism in British North America. Instead, they continued to practise evangelical Anglicanism and participate in Methodist revivals, and thereby negotiated a popular Protestantism, one often infused with the spirituality of other seafarers from Nova Scotia and New England. Exploring the interaction between popular spirituality and religious authority, Beating against the Wind challenges the traditional claim of Feild’s success in bringing Tractarianism to the colony while exploring the resistance to Feild’s initiatives and the reasons for his disappointments.
The first comprehensive history of Newfoundland was published in 1793, but a centenary and a half passed before the first university course in the history of the island was offered there. During the past fifteen years there has been growing activity in the subject. This volume is the work of six scholars who have either studied or taught at the Memorial University of Newfoundland. Some have done both. The book has two broad aims. First, to point out the major themes of modern Newfoundland history currently being examined, and to offer a number of new interpretations of economic and political development in the last two centuries. Second, to supplement the standard works that are readily available to students. In some areas it provides additional details; in others, it bridges wide gaps. The themes considered include: an introduction to the writing of Newfoundland history; the transition from the purely maritime economy of the nineteenth century to the mixed oceanic and inland resource economy of the twentieth, and the difficulties this involved; the decline of the traditional cod fishery in the nineteenth century; Newfoundland's rejection of confederation in 1896; the limitations imposed by the fisheries agreements Britain negotiated with France and the United States; the consequences of the decision to reject confederation and diversify the local economy; the growth of the Fisherman's Protective Union; the political atmosphere of the 1920s; the party politics in the post-confederation period; and, finally, the collapse of Newfoundland's oldest industry, the saltfish trade, and the province's integration into the North American economy. This is a book intended for both regional specialists and general students of Canadian history. It provides a valuable resource about a province of rapidly growing importance.
This one-volume distillation provides a comprehensive overview of the main branches of contemporary political science. It will serve as the reference book for political scientists and those following their work for years to come.
Nineteenth-century Newfoundland was an archetypal borderland - a space where changes in the authority of imperial, national, and indigenous territorial claims shaped the opportunities and identities of a socially diverse population. Conflicted Colony elucidates processes of state formation in Newfoundland through a reassessment of key moments in the country's history. Kurt Korneski closely examines five conflicts from the late nineteenth century - the Fortune Bay Dispute of 1878, the St George's Bay Dispute of 1889-92, the 1890s Lobster Controversy, the Battle of Foxtrap, and disputes over salmon grounds in Hamilton Inlet, Labrador - to explain how local regimes received, challenged, and reworked formal and informal diplomatic and commercial arrangements, as well as policies set out by the colonial and imperial government. The chapters examine antagonisms and divisions that grew out of clashes between the distinct commercial and social identities of regions in the borderlands and the sensibilities of merchants, politicians, and working people on the Avalon Peninsula. Providing new insight into the social history of Newfoundland and Labrador, these disputes illuminate contending perspectives driven by informal systems of governance, political movements, and local economic, social, demographic, and ecological circumstances. Conflicted Colony broadens, deepens, and clarifies our understanding of how Newfoundland became an integrated Dominion in the British Empire.
