Canadian history:

Beginnings to 1885
A course offered by the Department of History, McMaster University
History 2T03 Lectures: Tuesdays and Fridays, 2:30 to 3:20 p.m. Fall 2009
Information Technology Building, room AB102

Peter Rindisbacher (1806-1834), The Red Lake Chief Making a Speech to the Governor of Red River at Fort Douglas in 1823.
Watercolour and ink on paper (21.50 X 26.50 cm). Image from the James Ford Bell Library, University of Minnesota.
Rindisbacher, the son of a Swiss farmer, emigrated with his family to the Red River settlement in 1821.

INSTRUCTOR CONTACT INFORMATION

Dr Peter Cook
Office: Chester New Hall, room 607C
Phone: 27411
Email: pcook@mcmaster.ca
Web site: History 2T03 on E-Learn@Mac (ELM)
Office hours: Fridays, 10:30 to 12:30 p.m. or by appointment

COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course explores the history of the peoples living within the present-day borders of Canada, from the
earliest human occupation of the territory to the creation of the Dominion of Canada in 1867 and the
completion of a transcontinental railway in 1885. Major topics include the cultural adaptations of
Aboriginal peoples, the dynamics of European colonization, the nature of colonial societies, and the
process of state formation. Prerequisite: registration in Level II or above.
History 2T03 Canadian history: Beginnings to 1885 2 of 9

COURSE OBJECTIVES
By the end of this course students should be able to:

• define, describe and analyse key events, processes, and themes in early Canadian history;
• demonstrate critical reading skills, particularly in the area of evaluating historical evidence and
interpretations;

• apply research skills introduced in class; and

• demonstrate verbal communication skills through regular discussions.

FORMAT
Each week students attend two one-hour lectures (on Tuesdays and Fridays) as well as a one-hour
tutorial. In the latter, students will have the opportunity to discuss course materials, develop research and
writing skills, and participate in small group work. A key purpose of the tutorial is to allow students to
address a series of broad questions using information and perspectives drawn from the lectures, the
textbook by Bumsted, and—most centrally—the anthology of readings edited by Bumsted and Kuffert.
These questions will in turn form the basis for the final exam. Active participation in the seminars is thus
crucial to success in the course.
The lectures consist of a series of presentations that address a series of central themes and topics in
Canadian history. In conjunction with Bumsted’s The Peoples of Canada: A Pre-Confederation History, which
adopts a narrative approach to Canadian history, the lectures are designed to provide students with a
coherent overview of the major events, peoples, and processes that defined the pre-Confederation era.
Important note: This course uses E-Learn@Mac (ELM) to post additional course information, including
detailed assignment guidelines, internet links, and news. Point your Web browser to elm.mcmaster.ca to
log-in to ELM and to access the History 2T03 web site.

TEXTBOOKS
The course textbooks are available at the bookstore:
• J. M. Bumsted, The Peoples of Canada: A Pre-Confederation History, expanded 2nd ed. (Don Mills,
Ont.: Oxford University Press, 2009) N.B. New or used copies of previous editions of this
textbook are also acceptable.
• J. M. Bumsted and Len Kuffert, eds., Interpreting Canada’s Past: A Pre-Confederation Reader, 3rd ed.
(Don Mills, Ont.: Oxford University Press, 2004)

ASSESSMENT OF GRADES
The following table summarizes the assignments and other criteria entering into the assessment of
grades. Length in pages assumes an average of 250 words per page.
Assignment Length Due date Percentage of total
grade
Participation in tutorials n/a n/a 15
Article review 4-5 pages Oct. 6 10
Midterm map quiz 15 minutes Oct. 12-16 10
Essay 10 pages Nov. 27 32.5
Final examination 3 hours Exam period 32.5
History 2T03 Canadian history: Beginnings to 1885 3 of 9

TEACHING TEAM
In addition to the instructor, six teaching assistants (TAs) are integral members of the 2T03 team. The TAs
are responsible for leading the tutorials, assessing each student’s participation therein, and marking a
number of written assignments.

GENERAL POLICIES

Getting help and advice

If you have questions about anything relating to the course and you can’t find an answer in the syllabus
or on ELM (see below), please contact the instructor or your TA. Drop in during office hours, call by
phone, or send an email. Bear in mind that response times for phone messages and email may be longer
over weekends and holidays.
Library staff can assist you with research methods and tools, and there are a wide range of services
offered by the university community to support student success. (Note that there may be waiting lists for
some of these services, so sign up well in advance if you want help with, for example, a specific
assignment.) Make an appointment with an academic advisor if you need help with program
requirements, general university policies, or any academic matter.

Ongoing communication: ELM and email

The course web site, available via the E-Learn@Mac (ELM) portal, includes important information about
the course and will be updated regularly with news, links to key resources, and suggested readings. The
digital slide shows that accompany most lectures will, for example, be uploaded to ELM on a weekly
basis. The blank outline maps to be used in the midterm map quiz will also appear there, as will detailed
guidelines on each of the written assignments and tests.
The instructor and university reserve the right to modify elements of the course during the term. The
university may change the dates and deadlines for any or all courses in extreme circumstances. If either
type of modification becomes necessary, reasonable notice and communication with the students will be
given with explanation and the opportunity to comment on changes. It is the responsibility of the student
to check their McMaster email and course websites weekly during the term and to note any changes. If
you email me, please include 2T03 in the subject line so that I know the message is a valid one (i.e., not
spam). Please note that it is the policy of the Faculty of Humanities that all email communication between
students and instructors (including TAs) must originate from their official McMaster University email
accounts.

Late assignments and missed midterms

Written assignments should be submitted in class on the date they are due. Please do not submit papers
by email or fax. If for any reason you are unable to submit the assignment on the due date--say, because
of a brief illness--you may submit it on the next class (Tuesday or Friday) without any penalty. Beyond
that point, late assignments will have five percent (5%) deducted from the grade for every day, or fraction
thereof, that passes until they are received by the instructor.
If you are unable to write the midterm map quiz, your final exam will be worth 42.5% instead of 32.5% of
the final grade.

Academic honesty
Read the university's Academic Integrity Policy carefully. Academic dishonesty consists of
misrepresentation by deception or by other fraudulent means and can result in serious consequences, e.g.
the grade of zero on an assignment, loss of credit with a notation on the transcript (notation reads: “Grade
of F assigned for academic dishonesty”), and/or suspension or expulsion from the university.
History 2T03 Canadian history: Beginnings to 1885 4 of 9

It is your responsibility to understand what constitutes academic dishonesty. For information on the
various kinds of academic dishonesty please refer to the Academic Integrity Policy, specifically Appendix
3, located at http://www.mcmaster.ca/univsec/policy/AcademicIntegrity.pdf.
The following illustrates only three forms of academic dishonesty:
1. Plagiarism, e.g. the submission of work that is not one’s own or for which other credit has been
obtained. You may not, for example, submit an essay that has already been submitted as work in another
course at McMaster or any other institution, even if you are the sole author.
2. Improper collaboration in group work.
3. Copying or using unauthorized aids in tests and examinations.
Keep all research notes and rough drafts of your assignments. You may be asked to submit one or more of
these to the instructor.

ASSIGNMENT GUIDELINES

General
General principles in the presentation of typescript assignments are as follows:
• The typescript is submitted on white, 8.5"-by-11" paper printed on one side only, with margins of
1" on all sides.
• The typeface, or font, is plain. Italics, underlining, and boldface are reserved for special purposes.
• The body of the typescript text is double-spaced and the font size is 12 points. Other parts of the
text, such as foot- or endnotes, block quotations, and the list of works cited or bibliography may
be formatted differently, depending on the style guidelines you are observing.
• Page numbers should appear on each page of the text and reference matter, and on every page of
the front matter except the title page.
• The title page should bear the following information:
o the exact title of the paper
o your name
o your student number
o the course name and code
o the name of your TA and the code for your seminar
N.B. This information is extremely important, for it will radically expedite the
return of assignments to you!
o the date on which you submitted the paper
How this information is arranged on the title page is up to you. Additional information, such as
department, program, and name of the instructor, is optional.
• Unless the assignment guidelines indicate otherwise, writers of short essays should eschew the
use of subheadings.
• The final version of the paper must be proofread for typographical errors, spelling, grammar, and
clarity.

Article review (10%)

The goal of this assignment is to produce a critical assessment of a recent scholarly article that deals
centrally with the history of Canada before 1885. Choose one of the following articles:
• Theodore Binnema, “Old Swan, Big Man and the Siksika Bands, 1794-1815,” Canadian Historical
Review, 77, no. 1 (1996): 1-32.
History 2T03 Canadian history: Beginnings to 1885 5 of 9

• Julia Roberts, “‘A Mixed Assemblage of Persons’: Race and Tavern Space in Upper Canada,”
Canadian Historical Review, 83, no. 1 (2002): 1-28.
• Carolyn Podruchny, “Baptizing Novices: Ritual Moments among French Canadian
Voyageurs in the Montreal Fur Trade, 1780-1821,” Canadian Historical Review, 83, no. 2 (2002):
165-195.
In your review, endeavour to:
• Situate the work. Identify theme and topic, context of production, goals or limits of the study,
and distinctive qualities. It may help to learn something of the background and training of the
author and her/his other publications and experience.
• Dissect the work. Define its thesis; expose its reasoning and the direction of the demonstration;
underline the essential arguments. Examine how evidence is marshaled and explained. What
primary sources are used, and how well are they used? Show how the article works.
• Appreciate the work. Critically assess the success of the author in fulfilling his/her objectives.
Does the evidence support the conclusions? What is significant about this work? Be aware of
your own biases; you may not agree with the argument, but you must consider whether the
author’s interpretation is reasonable or not.
Aim to accomplish these objectives in about 1 000 to 1 250 words (4-5 pages). The marking scheme is as
follows: 1/2 analysis, 1/4 writing, 1/4 formatting and citations.

Essay (32.5%)
The goal of this assignment is to produce an original short essay of approximately 10 pages in length that
explores one of three broad themes in early Canadian history by using a “mystery” as a starting point.

Theme Mystery

Race and justice in British North Who Killed William Robinson? Race, Justice, and Settling the
America Land
http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/robinson/
indexen.html

(see also Torture and the Truth: Angelique and the Burning of
(and/or in New France) Montreal, http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/angelique/
indexen.html)

Aboriginal peoples and We Do Not Know His Name: Klatsassin and the Chilcotin War
resistance to colonialism http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/klatsassin/home/
indexen.html

Class, gender, and family in The Redpath Mansion Mystery

nineteenth-century Canada http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/redpath/indexen.html

Each of these “mysteries” refers to a fairly specific event in Canadian history and the links given above
are to pedagogical web sites that seek to promote critical thinking and develop historical research skills
among high school students. As more mature historians, you need not strive to “solve” these mysteries
(as the web site encourages one to do) but to make use of the episode and, in particular, of the excellent
primary sources made available on these sites, as a springboard to develop an essay relating to a much
broader theme in Canadian history. For example, if you choose the second mystery (which revolves
around the Chilcotin War, an episode of Native-newcomer violence in mid-nineteenth-century British
Columbia), you may want to seek out other examples of Aboriginal resistance to colonialism and to build
History 2T03 Canadian history: Beginnings to 1885 6 of 9

an argument around a comparison between two or more of these. Your essay should demonstrate a
familiarity with both the sources available on the relevant web site and the scholarly literature on the
broader theme. Your essay should make use of at least eight scholarly sources, with a balance of journal
articles, monographs, and specialized reference works.
The length of the essay is important, for both pedagogical and practical reasons. The title page is not
included in the page count, but the bibliography (usually no more than one page) is. If you follow the
above guidelines for the presentation of a typescript, 10 pages of double-spaced writing works out to
about 2 500 words. Essays that are substantially shorter or longer than this may be considered to have
departed from these guidelines and assessed accordingly.
There is one special request to keep in mind: in your bibliography or list of works cited, please provide
(in addition to a full bibliographic citation) the provenance of each source. (E.g., if the item comes from a
library, provide the name of the library, collection name, and call number; if obtained through a database
of full-text journals such as JSTOR or Project MUSE, provide the name of the database and its URL. For
example:
Sample book entry:
Davis, Natalie Zemon. Women on the Margins: Three Seventeenth-Century Lives. Cambridge, Mass.:
Harvard University Press, 1995.
McMaster University Library CT3233 .D38 1997
Sample article entry:
White, Bruce M. “Encounters with Spirits: Ojibwa and Dakota Theories about the French and
Their Merchandise.” Ethnohistory 41, no. 3 (1994): 369–405. www.jstor.org (accessed 2
November 2003).
Keep all research notes and rough drafts of your assignments, as well as a copy of the final version. You
may be asked to submit them to the instructor.
The following criteria will be used to evaluate the assignment:
•
is the essay relevant to the topic?
•
is the issue examined in depth?
•
are data and evidence presented accurately?
•
is the argument logically developed?
•
is the text clear and readable?
•
is the research adequate?
•
how well is source material integrated?
•
are the conventions of the documentation style observed?
•
is the provenance of each source given in the bibliography?
•
does the presentation of the essay conform to the guidelines outlined above?
Please do not hesitate to contact the instructor or TA if you have any questions or difficulties.

Key reference works

Cambridge History of the Native Peoples of the Americas (vol. 1 deals with North America)
Dictionary of Canadian Biography (now available online at www.biographi.ca/EN/index.html)
Handbook of North American Indians, vol. 15: Northeast
Historical Atlas of Canada, vols. 1 and 2

Key journals
Acadiensis "......................................................history of Atlantic Canada
History 2T03 Canadian history: Beginnings to 1885 7 of 9

American Indian Quarterly!...........................history and culture of Native Americans

Canadian Historical Review !.........................premier journal of Canadian history!
Ethnohistory !.................................................includes many articles on First Nations
Histoire sociale/Social History!.......................as its name implies, a focus on social history
Journal of Canadian Studies!..........................interdisciplinary approach to things Canadian
Labour/Le travail!............................................labour and working-class history
Ontario History!.............................................self-explanatory!
Revue d’histoire de l’Amérique française!......New France and Lower Canada
Urban History Review!...................................cities and towns in all eras
William and Mary Quarterly!........................early (colonial) America, including New France

Key research resources

M. Brooke Taylor, ed., Canadian History: A Reader’s Guide, vol. 1
International Council for Canadian Studies, Canada: A Reader’s Guide, 2004 www.iccs-ciec.ca/
pages/8-otherpubs/c_biblio.html.
The AHA Guide to Historical Literature, 3rd ed., 2 vols.
Keith Thor Carlson, Melinda Marie Jetté, and Kenichi Matsui, “An Annotated Bibliography of
Major Writings in Aboriginal History, 1990–99,” Canadian Historical Review 26, no. 1
(2001): 122–171.
Shepard Krech III, Native Canadian Anthropology and History: A Selected Bibliography
America: History and Life !.........................periodical and dissertation index
EBSCOhost Academic Search Premier".....periodical database
JSTOR"............................................................
" full text database of 117 superb journals
Theses Canada".............................................full text versions of theses completed from 1998 to 2002
Project MUSE"...............................................full text journals, including current issues of the CHR

Midterm map quiz (10%)

The map quiz will require students to use a variety of symbols to indicate places, areas, and processes on
outline maps of various scales. The outline maps to be used for this purpose will be posted on the course
web site. The places, areas, and processes to be plotted can be found on maps in Bumsted and in the
course slides.

Final examination (32.5%)

The final three-hour examination will be scheduled during the Fall term examination period. The precise
structure of the exam will be discussed in lectures well before the exam date. Note however that some of
the questions appearing on the exam will be based on (but not necessarily identical to) the questions you
will address in the tutorials. For strategies on writing the final exam, be sure to attend the last scheduled
lecture and tutorial and to consult the course web site.

Participation (15%)
Discussion both accelerates and deepens the learning process: not only will we gain new perspectives
from listening to others, but their responses to our own comments may compel us to rethink and
reevaluate our interpretations. The skills fostered in discussion are widely applicable outside the
university. To express one's ideas succinctly and logically; to question rationally and incisively; to criticize
constructively and pertinently--these are of immense value in any forum in the public and private sectors.
In order for its members to acquire and hone these skills, the class must be an environment that fosters
intellectual risk taking and respect for all its members and their ideas. A crucial element in the
environment of mutual respect is the willingness to share ideas and opinions, which means in turn
coming well prepared for discussions. Offering your reflections on something you've read is a kind of
History 2T03 Canadian history: Beginnings to 1885 8 of 9

gift; it obliges those who've received it to reciprocate. Through such exchanges, we may all come away
richer.
The principal focus for discussion in each tutorial meeting will be a chapter from Interpreting Canada’s
Past. Each chapter includes a selection of primary and secondary sources relating to a particular topic. In
addition to leading discussions surrounding these core materials, the teaching assistants may at their
discretion organize any learning activity that fosters engagement with the ideas and materials in the
course or that develops skills that are crucial to success in this or any history course.
Here are some ways that you can make a positive contribution to tutorial discussions:
• Read the primary or secondary source material carefully.
• Reflect on ways to connect the material to previous discussions, or indeed to ideas you've picked
up in other courses, conversations, or experiences. Be ready to explain such connections to the
group.
• If the readings contain terms or concepts with which you are not familiar, consult reference works
to determine their meanings.
• Prepare answers to the previously distributed list of questions relating to that week’s materials.
The teaching assistants will discuss the uniform criteria for assessing participation that will be used in all
tutorials.
History 2T03 Canadian history: Beginnings to 1885 9 of 9

SCHEDULE
Please note that this schedule is subject to change; consult the course web site regularly for updates.

Week: lecture dates Lecture topic(s) and readings Tutorial readings/activities

Introduction to the course (Bumsted, Introduction)
1: Sept. 11 [No tutorials this week]

The human occupation of North America (Bumsted,

2: Sept. 15, 18 chap. 1; Bumsted & Kuffert, “The Origins of North [No tutorials this week]
Americans”)
Bumsted & Kuffert, “The Missionaries and the First
3: Sept. 22, 25 First Nations and first contacts (Bumsted, chaps. 2, 3)
Nations”
Settler societies: Canada and Acadia (Bumsted, chaps. Bumsted & Kuffert, “The Seigneurial System in
4: Sept. 29
4, 5, 6, 7) Canada”

Oct. 2: TBA

5: Oct. 6, 9 Conquest and aftermath (Bumsted, chaps. 8, 9) Bumsted & Kuffert, “The Quebec Act, 1774”

Article review due Oct. 6

6: Oct. 13, 16 A British colony (Bumsted, chap. 10, 11) Midterm map quiz/Writing History Essays
7: Oct. 27, 30 Frontier societies (Bumsted, chap. 20) Bumsted & Kuffert, “The Western Fur Trade”
Economy and society in British North America Bumsted & Kuffert, “Women & Politics in British North
8: Nov. 3, 6
(Bumsted, chap. 14, 15, 16) America”
Bumsted & Kuffert, “Rebellions in Lower Canada,
9: Nov. 10, 13 Rebellions (Bumsted, chap. 12)
1837-1838”
Native peoples in nineteenth-century British North
10: Nov. 17, 20 Bumsted & Kuffert, “The British Columbia Gold Rush”
America
Bumsted & Kuffert, “Confederation & the Anti-
11: Nov. 24, 27 Confederation (Bumsted, chaps. 17, 18, 19, 23, 24) Confederates”

Essay due Nov. 27

12: Dec. 1 Expanding the state (Bumsted, chaps. 25, 26)

Exam review
12: Dec. 4 Exam review