Imagine yourself giving up, for the second time in your life, almost everything you have built up for yourself and your family; the first time, you left your homeland (England) to emigrate to Canada, and the second time, you leave behind a well-established farm in order to settle in the Canadian backwoods.
There, you have to build your dwelling (I hesitate to call it "house") with your own hands from scratch; you need to fell trees to make a clearing big enough to allow for a few meagre acres of soil where you then sow wheat and potatoes, hoping and praying they will grow well and you'll be able to eat from your own produce the next winter.
In the meantime, you have to pay almost all your money for the wages of those helping you with your tasks, and what does not go into wages is needed for food and goods you can not produce yourself.
Your nearest neighbours are at least a mile away through the dense forest, where bears and wolves roam, and you are just glad that the Indians who live in that part of the forest are friendly and helpful.
Severe weather conditions and some very unlucky accidents make sure you only get a very meagre first harvest, and more than once, your family barely manages to survive when hit by disease and averse circumstances.
The political situation means your husband leaves you for many months in order to join the military, and with all this, you give birth to and raise five children.
Who would want this kind of life? Not me, that's for sure!
And yet, Susanna Moodie (whose wikipedia entry can be found here) still finds pleasure and joy in this hard life and considers herself better off than some poor people she learns about. She does her best to maintain a healthy family spirit within her world, and when, some years later, her husband is offered the position of sherriff and the family relocate to a town, she shows to feel very attached to her humble home in the woods and not ready to face "the world" and its shallow pursuits.
Susanna Moodie has a knack for describing people and places in much detail, and rather poetically at times. According to her own words, she wrote about her life in the backwoods in the hope of having others who intended to start afresh in Canada better prepared for what was ahead. She describes
[...] Canada [as] the best country in the world for the industrious and well-principled man, who really comes out to work, and to better his condition by the labour of his hands; but a gulf of ruin to the vain and idle, who only set foot upon these shores to accelerate their ruin.
Sounds an extremely tough life. Thanks for your comments. Much appreciated!
ReplyDeleteYou are welcome, Paul! Thanks for dropping in an leaving a comment, too.
DeleteWell of course I grew up reading Little House on the Prairie and all its sequels -so I agree with you about not envying that lifestyle. I expect people will look back on this century and pity us in some way too - always pluses and minuses to any life style I guess.
ReplyDelete:)
That's true, Fi - what I guess I pity them most for is the lack of central heating and a nice hot shower in the morning!
DeleteBy the way, I absolutely LOVED "Lttle House on the Prairie", the entire series. Maybe I should re-read the books now and see how I feel about them as an adult.
My ancestors were pioneers in Pennsylvania and Ohio in the 17 and 18 hundreds and while I am fascinated by all I can learn about the details of their lives, I am pretty glad that I live now.
ReplyDeleteSame here, Kristi! (Not the ancestors-thing)
DeleteTo learn about such details from a book that was written in that time is different to being told about them from someone who lives now and just has done a lot of research on the matter, I think.
I must get this book. I once read a book of first hand accounts of several emigrants lives in Canada in the 19th century. It was almost unbelievably hard, not just emotionally, but physically. Same with those who emigrated to other inhospitable places like Australia. At least they had the chance to own land, escape the class system and work hard to better themselves. I should think many were incredibly glad of that but they were only human beings after all.
ReplyDeleteOh well, another one to order!
The author of this one was very appreciative of the good things in her life - her husband, who (unlike some others she met) was not given to drinking, and her good and helpful neighbours, to name but two.
DeleteYes, we always say the good old days were better, but at that time we were complaining that it was even better before. I think we are just never satisfied.
ReplyDeleteWell, I am satisfied and happy about my life and that I can lead this life here and now with all the modern comforts and in a society where I, as a woman, do not need to fear leaving the house on my own. Sadly, that is not the case for millions of women in countries such as South Africa, India, Egypt, Afghanistan and way too many other places.
DeleteThat definitely sounds like a book I would love to read. When I first came to the US, I read all of the Little House on the Prairie books and had the same thoughts. Part of that life sounds somewhat romantic to us with our hectic schedules, but the hardships and the uncertainty - that would not be for me! At all!! I'm very grateful for how and when I live!
ReplyDeleteSame here, Silke! This book is very different from the "Little House on the Prairie" books in that it was written with a different goal in mind. It is very clearly non-fiction and gives some insight into how this lady saw herself and her surroundings, and how she struggles to keep her family fed and clothed and in good morals and spirits. I can not always understand the reasoning behind her decisions, but those were different times.
DeleteYou do come across a wide and interesting selection of books Meike.
ReplyDeleteIt's all down to the random choice of free ebooks on Amazon's kindle shop, Graham :-)
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