Upper Canada Rebellion
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The Upper Canada Rebellion was, along with the Lower Canada Rebellion in Lower Canada, a rebellion against the British colonial government in 1837 and 1838. Collectively they are also known as the Rebellions of 1837.
In Upper Canada, one of the most controversial issues in the early 19th century was the allocation of land. Much land had been set aside as "Crown reserves." These reserves of unworked land lowered the value of neighbouring farms because isolated farms were less efficient than farms close together. The British government's system of allocating land was seen by many as excessively bureaucratic when compared with the American system.
After the War of 1812 the government of Upper Canada was run by the wealthy owners of most of this reserve land, known as the Family Compact. Land had also been set aside for the "Protestant Clergy," but the Family Compact interpreted this to mean only the Anglican Church, rather than other Protestant groups or Catholics.
As it had before the War of 1812, the government of Upper Canada continued to fear what it suspected might be a growing interest in American republicanism within the province. Reasons for this must be sought in the patterns of settlement across the province in the last half-century. Although the British had originally hoped that an orderly settlement in Upper Canada would inspire the former American colonies to abandon their democratic form of government, demographic realities intervened. After an initial group of about 7,000 United Empire Loyalists were thinly settled across the province in the mid-1780s, a far larger number of American settlers were attracted by the cheap land grants offered by Lieutenant-Governor John Graves Simcoe. Although these settlers, known as "late-Loyalists," were required to take an oath of allegience to the British Crown in order to obtain land, their fundamental political allegiences 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." After the War of 1812 the government took active steps to prevent Americans from taking an oath of allegiance thereby making them ineligible to obtain land grants. Relations between the appointed Legislative Council and the elected Legislative Assembly, moreover, became increasingly strained in the years after the war over issues of both immigration and taxation.
William Lyon Mackenzie, one of the more radical reformers in Upper Canada, made outright calls for republican government. Other reformers, however, such as Robert Baldwin, 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 (later Toronto). He became active in politics, winning a seat in the Legislative Assembly 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 was dismissed from government by the then Lieutenant-Governor, Sir Francis Bond Head. Conservative opposition to Mackenzie also led to attacks on his newspaper press.
In 1836 and 1837, Mackenzie gathered support among farmers around Toronto, 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 in Autumn of 1837, Bond Head sent the British troops stationed in Toronto to help suppress it. With the regular troops gone Mackenzie and his followers seized a Toronto armoury, and organized an armed march down Yonge Street, 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, arrived. Egmond, a veteran on both sides of the Napoleonic Wars, 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 panicked and killed him. Mackenzie waited for Bond Head's force of about 1000 men, led by Colonel James Fitzgibbon, which outnumbered Mackenzie's approximately 400 rebels and inflicted heavy casualties upon them. In less than half an hour the confrontation was over.
Meanwhile, a group of rebels from London, led by Charles Duncombe, marched toward Toronto to support Mackenzie. Colonel Allan MacNab met them near Hamilton, Ontario on December 13, and the rebels fled.
Mackenzie, Duncombe, John Rolph and 200 supporters fled to Navy Island in the Niagara River, where they declared themselves the Republic of Canada on December 13. They obtained supplies from supporters in the United States resulting in British reprisals (see Caroline Affair). 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#redirect . The other major leaders, van Egmond, Samuel Lount, and Peter Matthews were arrested by the British; van Egmond died in prison, and Lount and Matthews were executed in 1838.
Compared to the Lower Canada Rebellion, the Upper Canada Rebellion was short, disorganized, and almost inconsequential. However, Britain could not ignore the rebellion in light of the more serious crisis in Lower Canada. Bond Head was recalled and replaced with Lord Durham, who was assigned to report on the grievances among the colonists and find a way to appease them. His report eventually led to greater autonomy in the Canadian colonies, and the union of Upper and Lower Canada into the Province of Canada in 1840.
See also: Patriot War
External links
- "Rebellion in Upper Canada, 1837" by J. Edgar Rea [link]
- [Samuel Lount Film] and [Samuel Lount's History]. The feature film is about the injustice of the system under the Family Compact's rule.
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