 A New Home  Government in Canada  Family Compact  The Reformers  Sir Francis Bond Head  Armed Rebellion in Upper Canada  Aftermath of the Rebellions

 Upon arrival land was in its natural state  First Nations were forced inland  Establishing oneself was difficult work

 The first house  Log cabin  One room  Dirt floor  Wooden chimney

 A family would eventually build a more comfortable house  Field stone  Sawn lumber  Upwards of 30 years till a pioneer homestead is comfortable

 Lived on the forest frontier  Were subsistence farmers  Were isolated from neighbors  Received little education  Parents  Neighbors  Attended “bees” to get big projects accomplished and to have some social activity Rd pg 152

 Family Compact  The Reformers  Sir Francis Bond Head

 Was a small powerful group in Upper Canada  Opposed people from the U.S. to be a part of government  Defended tradition—Wanted to keep things the way they had always been  Thought they should hold all the power  Believed the Church of England should be powerful in the colony  Were loyal to Great Britain & to the British system of government

 Opposed the power of the Family Compact  Wanted changes in the government and society of Upper Canada  Did not want to treat the Americans within the colony badly Mackenzie Description

 1835 became lieutenant-governor of Upper Canada  Initially was welcomed by Reformers, but this later changed when he ignored the advice from his advisors (Reformers)  The legislative assembly did not cooperate with him  No incoming money  This halted bridges, roads, and docks  Sir Francis called an election to try and reform a new legislative assembly

 Friends of the Family Compact (Tories) took over the legislative assembly  They won because many voters were worried about the development of roads and bridges as well as the Pro- Americanism of the Reformers

 Mackenzie and his radicals gathered  They wanted Upper Canada to have a government like the U.S.  October 9, 1837, news came that Papineau’s Patriotes were going to take up arms  Mackenzie suggests its time for armed rebellion

 Yet his followers were not ready  They wanted to petition against the government to change the legislative assembly  Mackenzie went north and collected 4000 names and during the process was not to speak of rebellion

 Mackenzie led a group of 800 men down Yonge Street into Toronto  The men brought guns, pitchforks, clubs, and carving knives strapped to poles  Immediately they were fired upon and those that fired fled

 600 of the colony’s militia marched up (Yonge Street)  Rebels were now running away  Mackenzie stood fast till the end and then escaped to the U.S.  While in the U.S. he tried to gather an army to liberate Canada  That led to his arrest for breaking the legal neutrality between the province of Canada and the U.S

 Temporarily things became worse in Lower Canada  The Legislative Assembly was suspended until 1841  People were afraid to speak out because they didn’t want to be branded as rebels  The British response—John George Lambton (Lord Durham) was to become Governor General  Lord Durham was to investigate the causes of the rebellions and suggest solutions

 Some historians say it is a legitimate struggle for democracy  Others say the rebellions were nothing more than a series of armed riots, unplanned, purposeless, and hopeless

 They set in motion a chain of events that would eventually lead to responsible government not just in the Canadas, but throughout the colonies of the British Empire

“The Rebellions were American Revolutions in miniature, and though at the time they seemed to have failed, they cleared the way for self-government; and just beyond self-government stood national life.” -Historians J.W. Chafe & Arthur Lower