Upper Canada Rebellion
Encyclopedia
The Upper Canada Rebellion was, along with the Lower Canada Rebellion
Lower Canada Rebellion
The Lower Canada Rebellion , commonly referred to as the Patriots' War by Quebeckers, is the name given to the armed conflict between the rebels of Lower Canada and the British colonial power of that province...

 in Lower Canada
Lower Canada
The Province of Lower Canada was a British colony on the lower Saint Lawrence River and the shores of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence...

, a rebellion against the British colonial government in 1837 and 1838. Collectively they are also known as the Rebellions of 1837
Rebellions of 1837
The Rebellions of 1837 were a pair of Canadian armed uprisings that occurred in 1837 and 1838 in response to frustrations in political reform. A key shared goal was the allowance of responsible government, which was eventually achieved in the incident's aftermath.-Rebellions:The rebellions started...

.

Issues

Upper Canada
Upper Canada
The Province of Upper Canada was a political division in British Canada established in 1791 by the British Empire to govern the central third of the lands in British North America and to accommodate Loyalist refugees from the United States of America after the American Revolution...

, one of the most controversial issues in the early 19th century was the allocation of land. Much land had been set aside as Clergy Reserves for the support of "Protestant clergy". These reserves of unworked land lowered the value of neighbouring farms because isolated farms were less efficient than farms close together, and people of other religious sects (particularly Methodists
Methodism
Methodism is a movement of Protestant Christianity represented by a number of denominations and organizations, claiming a total of approximately seventy million adherents worldwide. The movement traces its roots to John Wesley's evangelistic revival movement within Anglicanism. His younger brother...

, Presbyterians
Presbyterianism
Presbyterianism refers to a number of Christian churches adhering to the Calvinist theological tradition within Protestantism, which are organized according to a characteristic Presbyterian polity. Presbyterian theology typically emphasizes the sovereignty of God, the authority of the Scriptures,...

 and Roman Catholics) resented the apparent preferential treatment of the Anglican church. The British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 government's system of allocating land was seen by many as excessively bureaucratic when compared with the American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 system. In many respects, the government of Upper Canada was the private preserve of the wealthy owners of most of this reserve land, who were known as the Family Compact
Family Compact
Fully developed after the War of 1812, the Compact lasted until Upper and Lower Canada were united in 1841. In Lower Canada, its equivalent was the Château Clique. The influence of the Family Compact on the government administration at different levels lasted to the 1880s...

.

Both before and after the War of 1812
War of 1812
The War of 1812 was a military conflict fought between the forces of the United States of America and those of the British Empire. The Americans declared war in 1812 for several reasons, including trade restrictions because of Britain's ongoing war with France, impressment of American merchant...

, the government of Upper Canada continued to fear what it suspected might be a growing interest in American-inspired republicanism in the province. Reasons for this can be found in the pattern of settlement across the province over the previous half-century. Although the British had originally hoped that an orderly settlement in Upper Canada would inspire the former American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 colonies to abandon their democratic
Democracy
Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...

 form of government, demographic realities intervened. After an initial group of about 7,000 United Empire Loyalists
United Empire Loyalists
The name United Empire Loyalists is an honorific given after the fact to those American Loyalists who resettled in British North America and other British Colonies as an act of fealty to King George III after the British defeat in the American Revolutionary War and prior to the Treaty of Paris...

 were thinly settled across the province in the mid-1780s, a far larger number of American settlers came after Lieutenant-Governor John Graves Simcoe
John Graves Simcoe
John Graves Simcoe was a British army officer and the first Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada from 1791–1796. Then frontier, this was modern-day southern Ontario and the watersheds of Georgian Bay and Lake Superior...

 offered cheap land grants to promote settlement. Although these settlers, known as "late-Loyalists," were required to take an oath of allegiance to the Crown in order to obtain land, their fundamental political allegiances were always considered dubious. By 1812 this had become acutely problematic since the American settlers outnumbered the original Loyalists by more than ten to one. It was this reality that led American legislators to speculate that bringing Upper Canada into the American fold would be a "mere matter of marching." Following the war, the colonial government took active steps to prevent Americans from swearing allegiance, thereby making them ineligible to obtain land grants. Relations between the appointed Legislative Council
Legislative Council of Upper Canada
The Legislative Council of Upper Canada was the upper house governing the province of Upper Canada. Modelled after the British House of Lords, it was created by the Constitutional Act of 1791. It was specified that the council should consist of at least seven members. Members were appointed for...

 and the elected Legislative Assembly
Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada
The Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada was created by the Constitutional Act of 1791. It was the elected legislature for the province of Upper Canada and functioned as the province's lower house in the Parliament of Upper Canada...

 became increasingly strained in the years after the war, over issues of both immigration and taxation.

Reform movement

William Lyon Mackenzie
William Lyon Mackenzie
William Lyon Mackenzie was a Scottish born American and Canadian journalist, politician, and rebellion leader. He served as the first mayor of Toronto, Upper Canada and was an important leader during the 1837 Upper Canada Rebellion.-Background and early years in Scotland, 1795–1820:Mackenzie was...

, one of the more radical reformers in Upper Canada, made outright calls for republican government. Other reformers, however, such as Robert Baldwin
Robert Baldwin
Robert Baldwin was born at York . He, along with his political partner Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine, led the first responsible ministry in Canada, regarded by some as the first truly Canadian government....

, were less extreme in their views. Mackenzie, a Scottish immigrant, founded a reformist newspaper called The Colonial Advocate in 1824 in the Upper Canada capital of York
York, Upper Canada
York was the name of Old Toronto between 1793 and 1834. It was the second capital of Upper Canada.- History :The town was established in 1793 by Governor John Graves Simcoe, with a new 'Fort York' on the site of the last French 'Fort Toronto'...

 (later Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

). Mackenzie became active in politics, winning a seat in the Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada
Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada
The Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada was created by the Constitutional Act of 1791. It was the elected legislature for the province of Upper Canada and functioned as the province's lower house in the Parliament of Upper Canada...

 and eventually becoming the first mayor of the newly-renamed Toronto in 1834. Neither his radical reform movement nor Baldwin's moderate reform movement were very successful, and Baldwin resigned from the Executive Council of the Lieutenant-Governor, Sir Francis Bond Head
Francis Bond Head
Sir Francis Bond Head, 1st Baronet KCH PC , known as "Galloping Head", was Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada during the rebellion of 1837.-Biography:...

. Conservative opposition to Mackenzie also led to attacks on his newspaper press.

Confrontation

See main article Confrontation at Montgomery's Tavern
Confrontation at Montgomery's Tavern
The Battle of Montgomery's Tavern was an incident in the Upper Canada Rebellion. The abortive revolutionary insurrection inspired by William Lyon Mackenzie was crushed by British authorities and Canadian volunteer units near a tavern on Yonge Street, Toronto.The site of Montgomery's Tavern was...


In 1836 and 1837, Mackenzie gathered support among farmers around Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

, who were sympathetic to his cause after an especially bad harvest in 1835. This had led to a recession, and in the following years, the banks had begun to tighten credit and recall loans. When the Lower Canada Rebellion broke out on October 9, 1837, Bond Head sent all the British troops stationed in Toronto to help suppress it. With the regular troops gone Mackenzie and his followers attempted and failed to seize a Toronto armoury; they nevertheless organized a march, barely armed with pikes and guns for hunting fowl, down Yonge Street
Yonge Street
Yonge Street is a major arterial route connecting the shores of Lake Ontario in Toronto to Lake Simcoe, a gateway to the Upper Great Lakes. It was formerly listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the longest street in the world at , and the construction of Yonge Street is designated an "Event of...

, beginning at Montgomery's Tavern on December 4, 1837. But when the revolt began, Mackenzie hesitated in attacking the city. On December 7, Mackenzie's military leader, Anthony van Egmond
Anthony Van Egmond
Anthony Van Egmond, born Antonij Jacobi Willem Gijben before coming to North America, was purportedly a Dutch Napoleonic War veteran...

, arrived. Van Egmond, a veteran on both sides of the Napoleonic Wars
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...

, advised immediate retreat, but Mackenzie remained hesitant. That same day, Colonel Moodie attempted to ride through a roadblock to warn Bond Head, but the rebels shot him. Mackenzie waited for Bond Head's force of about 1000 men and one cannon, led by Colonel James Fitzgibbon
James FitzGibbon
James FitzGibbon was a British soldier and hero of the War of 1812.Born to Garrett FitzGibbon and Mary Widenham in Glin, County Limerick, Ireland, he enlisted in the Knight of Glin's Yeomanry Corps at age 15...

, which outnumbered Mackenzie's approximately 400 rebels. The fight was very short. This can be attributed mostly to the unfortunate perception among the rebels that when their counterparts in the front ranks fell down to reload, they perceived them to have been hit by enemy fire. In less than half an hour the confrontation was over, and the rebel forces dispersed.

Meanwhile, a group of rebels from the settlement of London
London, Ontario
London is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada, situated along the Quebec City – Windsor Corridor. The city has a population of 352,395, and the metropolitan area has a population of 457,720, according to the 2006 Canadian census; the metro population in 2009 was estimated at 489,274. The city...

 (in the west of Upper Canada), led by Charles Duncombe, marched toward Toronto to support Mackenzie. Colonel Allan MacNab
Allan MacNab
Sir Allan Napier MacNab, 1st Baronet was a Canadian political leader and Premier of the Province of Canada before Canadian Confederation .-Biography:...

 met them near Hamilton, Ontario
Hamilton, Ontario
Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Conceived by George Hamilton when he purchased the Durand farm shortly after the War of 1812, Hamilton has become the centre of a densely populated and industrialized region at the west end of Lake Ontario known as the Golden Horseshoe...

 on December 13, and the rebels fled.

The victorious Tory supporters burned homes and farms of the known rebels and suspected supporters. In the 1860s, some of the former rebels were compensated by the Canadian government for their lost property in the rebellion aftermath.

End of Rebellion

Mackenzie, Duncombe, John Rolph and 200 supporters fled to Navy Island
Navy Island
Navy Island is a small island in the Niagara River in the province of Ontario, managed by Parks Canada as a National Historic Site of Canada. It is located about upstream from Horseshoe Falls, and has an area of roughly...

 in the Niagara River
Niagara River
The Niagara River flows north from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario. It forms part of the border between the Province of Ontario in Canada and New York State in the United States. There are differing theories as to the origin of the name of the river...

, where they declared themselves the Republic of Canada
Republic of Canada
The Republic of Canada was a declared government proclaimed by William Lyon Mackenzie on December 13, 1837. The self proclaimed government was established on Navy Island in the Niagara River in the latter days of the Upper Canada Rebellion after Mackenzie and 200 of his followers retreated from...

 on December 13. They obtained supplies from supporters in the United States resulting in British reprisals (see Caroline Affair
Caroline affair
The Caroline affair was a series of events beginning in 1837 that strained relations between the United States and Britain....

). On January 13, 1838, under attack by British armaments, the rebels fled. Mackenzie went to the United States where he was arrested and charged under the Neutrality Act
Neutrality Act of 1794
The Neutrality Act of 1794 made it illegal for an American to wage war against any country at peace with the United States.The Act declared in part:...

. The other major leaders, Van Egmond, Samuel Lount
Samuel Lount
Samuel Lount was a businessman and political figure in the province of Upper Canada. He participated in the Upper Canada Rebellion of 1837....

, and Peter Matthews
Peter Matthews (rebel)
Peter Matthews was a farmer and soldier who participated in the Upper Canada Rebellion of 1837.He was born in the Bay of Quinte region of Upper Canada around 1789, the son of United Empire Loyalists. In 1799, the family moved to Pickering Township. Peter served with Isaac Brock as a sergeant in...

 were arrested by the British; Van Egmond died in prison, and Lount and Matthews were executed at 8 AM on April 12, 1838 in Toronto. Their last words were: "Mr. Jarvis, do your duty; we are prepared to meet death and our Judge."

The rebels continued their raids into Canada, however, using the U.S. as a base of operations and cooperating with the U.S. Hunters' Lodges
Hunters' Lodges
The Hunter Patriots or Hunters' Lodges were a secret society of filibusters in the United States during the mid-19th century. They appear to have somewhat resembled Freemasons structurally with degrees of rank such as "Snowshoe", "Beaver", "Master Hunter" with the highest rank being "Patriot Hunter"...

, dedicated to the overthrow of British rule in Canada. The raids did not end until the rebels and Hunters were decisively defeated at the Battle of the Windmill
Battle of the Windmill
The Battle of the Windmill was a battle fought in November 1838 in the aftermath of the Upper Canada Rebellion. Loyalist forces of the Upper Canadian government defeated an invasion attempt by Hunter Patriot insurgents based in the United States.-Background:...

, nearly a year after the initial battle at Montgomery's Tavern.

Consequences

Compared to the Lower Canada Rebellion
Lower Canada Rebellion
The Lower Canada Rebellion , commonly referred to as the Patriots' War by Quebeckers, is the name given to the armed conflict between the rebels of Lower Canada and the British colonial power of that province...

, the initial portion of the Upper Canada Rebellion was short and disorganized. However, the British government in London was very concerned about the rebellion, especially in light of the strong popular support for the rebels in the United States and the more serious crisis in Lower Canada. Bond Head was recalled in late 1837 and replaced with Sir George Arthur
George Arthur
Lieutenant-General Sir George Arthur, 1st Baronet KCH PC was Lieutenant Governor of British Honduras , Van Diemen's Land and Upper Canada . He also served as Governor of Bombay .-Early life:George Arthur was born in Plymouth, England...

 who arrived in Toronto in March 1838 and sent Lord Durham, who was assigned to report on the grievances among the colonists and find a way to appease them. His report
Report on the Affairs of British North America (1839)
The Report on the Affairs of British North America, commonly known as The Durham Report, is an important document in the history of Quebec, Ontario, Canada and the British Empire....

 eventually led to greater autonomy in the Canadian colonies, and the union of Upper and Lower Canada into the Province of Canada
Province of Canada
The Province of Canada, United Province of Canada, or the United Canadas was a British colony in North America from 1841 to 1867. Its formation reflected recommendations made by John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham in the Report on the Affairs of British North America following the Rebellions of...

 in 1840.

A few of the rebels were hanged
Hanging
Hanging is the lethal suspension of a person by a ligature. The Oxford English Dictionary states that hanging in this sense is "specifically to put to death by suspension by the neck", though it formerly also referred to crucifixion and death by impalement in which the body would remain...

 or transported
Penal transportation
Transportation or penal transportation is the deporting of convicted criminals to a penal colony. Examples include transportation by France to Devil's Island and by the UK to its colonies in the Americas, from the 1610s through the American Revolution in the 1770s, and then to Australia between...

, but most were pardon
Pardon
Clemency means the forgiveness of a crime or the cancellation of the penalty associated with it. It is a general concept that encompasses several related procedures: pardoning, commutation, remission and reprieves...

ed. A general pardon (for everyone but Mackenzie) was issued in 1845, and Mackenzie himself was pardoned in 1849 and allowed to return to Canada, where he resumed his political career. Mackenzie was strongly disillusioned after his time in the United States, writing to his son that "after what I have seen here, I frankly confess to you that, had I passed nine years in the United States before, instead of after, the outbreak, I am sure I would have been the last man in America to be engaged in it." In later life however, Mackenzie advocated annexation of Canada by the United States

Those transported

In total 93 Americans and 58 French-Canadian prisoners from lower Canada were transported to Australia after being convicted in Montreal in late 1838 or early 1839. Almost all were taken on the HMS Buffalo
HMS Buffalo (1813)
HMS Buffalo was a storeship of the Royal Navy, originally built in India as the merchant vessel Hindostan. She later served as a convict ship and as transport for immigrants to Australia before being wrecked in 1840.-Launch and purchase:...

, leaving Quebec in September 1839 and arriving off Hobart
Hobart
Hobart is the state capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Founded in 1804 as a penal colony,Hobart is Australia's second oldest capital city after Sydney. In 2009, the city had a greater area population of approximately 212,019. A resident of Hobart is known as...

, Van Diemen's Land
Van Diemen's Land
Van Diemen's Land was the original name used by most Europeans for the island of Tasmania, now part of Australia. The Dutch explorer Abel Tasman was the first European to land on the shores of Tasmania...

 in February 1840. The Americans were disembarked at Hobart but the French were taken to Sydney, New South Wales. They were interned near present day suburb of Concord
Concord, New South Wales
Concord is a suburb in the inner west of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located 15 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Canada Bay....

, giving rise to the names Canada Bay, French Bay and Exile Bay. The French were treated better than the Americans, liberated sooner and assisted in getting home. Of the 92 Americans, 14 died as a direct result of transportation and penal servitude. By the end of 1844, half of those in Van Diemen's Land had been granted pardons, nearly all were pardoned by 1848, but five remained in penal servitude until at least 1850. None chose to stay in Van Diemen's Land after being pardoned.

From Upper Canada 150 were sent to penal colony of Van Diemen's Land
Van Diemen's Land
Van Diemen's Land was the original name used by most Europeans for the island of Tasmania, now part of Australia. The Dutch explorer Abel Tasman was the first European to land on the shores of Tasmania...

 and Sydney, Australia.

Atlantic context

Ducharme (2006) puts the rebellion in 1837 in the context of the late-18th- and early-19th-century Atlantic revolutions
Atlantic history
Atlantic history is a specialty field in history that studies of the Atlantic World in the early modern period. It is premised on the idea that, following the rise of sustained European contact with the New World in the 16th century, the continents that bordered the Atlantic Ocean—the...

. He argues that Canadian reformers took their inspiration from the republicanism of the American Revolution
Republicanism in the United States
Republicanism is the political value system that has been a major part of American civic thought since the American Revolution. It stresses liberty and inalienable rights as central values, makes the people as a whole sovereign, supports activist government to promote the common good, rejects...

. The rebels believed that the right of citizens to participate in the political process through the election of representatives as the most important right, and they sought to make the legislative council elective rather than appointed. Rebellion in Upper (and Lower Canada also) broke out when it became clear that the reformers' struggles could only be settled outside the framework of existing colonial institutions. The British military crushed the rebellions, ending any possibility the two Canadas would become republics.

See also

  • History of Canada
    History of Canada
    The history of Canada covers the period from the arrival of Paleo-Indians thousands of years ago to the present day. Canada has been inhabited for millennia by distinctive groups of Aboriginal peoples, among whom evolved trade networks, spiritual beliefs, and social hierarchies...

  • List of conflicts in Canada
  • Jesse Lloyd‎

Further reading

  • Autobiography of William Lyon Mackenzie "Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online" Biographi.ca
  • "Rebellion in Upper Canada, 1837" by J. Edgar Rea "MHS Transactions: Rebellion in Upper Canada, 1837" Mhs.mb.ca
  • Mann, Michael. A Particular Duty: The Canadian Rebellions, 1837-1839 (1986)
  • Read, Colin. The rebellion of 1837 in Upper Canada (The Canadian Historical Association historical booklet) (1988), short pamphlet
  • Tiffany, Orrin Edward. The Relations of the United States to the Canadian Rebellion of 1837-1838 (2010)
  • "The story of the Upper Canadian rebellion". C. Blackett Robinson, Toronto
  • Charles Lindsey, The Life and Times of William Lyon Mackenzie and the Rebellion of 1837–38. 1862; cited by Betsy Dewar Boyce, The Rebels of Hastings, 1992.

Primary sources

  • Colin Read and Ronald J. Stagg, eds. The Rebellion of 1837 in Upper Canada: A collection of documents (The Publications of the Champlain Society, Ontario Series XII, 1985), 471pp

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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