Nineteenth-Century Cape Breton

by Hornsby, Stephen J.

• ISBN13: 9780773508897
• ISBN10: 0773508899
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1992-04-01
• Publisher: McGill Queens Univ

Summary

During the North American colonial period, the expansion of European capital and labour into North America created two broad patterns of regional development: agricultural settlement and the exploitation of raw materials or staples. Hornsby examines the development of nineteenth-century Cape Breton in light of these patterns, focusing on the impact of Scottish immigration on the island's settlement and agricultural development, and on the role of mercantile and industrial capital in developing Cape Breton's two great staple industries, cod fishing and coal mining. Hornsby also outlines the reasons for the massive exodus from Cape Breton during the late nineteenth century. The intersection of these two patterns of development gave rise to a distinctive regional geography. Over the course of a hundred years, a complex mosaic of different settlements, economies, and cultures emerged on the island. While the details and circumstances of these developments were unique to the island, elements of the Cape Breton experience were found in other areas of Maritime Canada. Viewed more generally, Hornsby suggests that the historical geography of this small, peripheral island offers a simple, somewhat stark encapsulation of some of the salient developments in the rest of settled Canada during the nineteenth century.

Table of Contents

Figures
Tables
Preface
Introduction
Cape Breton Island at the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century	p. 3
The Scottish Background of Immigrants to Cape Breton	p. 30
Agricultural Settlement in the Early Nineteenth Century	p. 48
The Staple Industries in the Early Nineteenth Century	p. 85
The Potato Famine, 1845-1849	p. 111
Agricultural Settlement in the Late Nineteenth Century	p. 121
The Staple Industries in the Late Nineteenth Century	p. 152
The Exodus	p. 186
Cape Breton Island at the End of the Nineteenth Century	p. 201
Notes	p. 211
Bibliography	p. 251
Index	p. 269
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.