In Family Life and
Sociability in Upper and Lower Canada, 1780-1870, Françoise
Noël portrays middle class family life in the mid-nineteenth
century. The book is divided into three parts. Part one is entitled
"The Couple" and deals with courtship and marriage. The
second part concerns parents and children and discusses childbirth,
childhood and parent-child relationships. The last section discusses
kinship ties and community life.
The book contains several
generalizations related to Canadian family history in the 1800s.
The author contends that most couples married for love. Companionate
marriage was the norm, and the role of parents in mate selection
was no longer as significant as it had been. As well, Noël
shows that relations within families were affectionate. Parents
showed an extraordinary concern for their children, which continued
even after they married and left home. She also illustrates that
much of family life took place beyond the door of the home. Families
were a part of a large social network which included kin, friends
and neighbours. Sociability was an essential part of family life.
Noël's account
has many strengths. The research, as indicated by the endnotes and
bibliography, is impressive. The author shows a broad knowledge
of her subject. She links her findings to scholarship in the United
States and Britain. She is always aware of the larger picture. Parallels
are drawn between families in the Canadas and what American historians
of the period refer to as the rise of the "Republican Family."
When discussing child rearing, she refers to the Enlightenment and
the influence which thinkers such as Locke and Rousseau were having
on the view that children could be nurtured. Such analysis illustrates
the significance of family history as a field of study. Family history
is not merely human interest stories from the past. Nor is it titillating
tidbits related to love, courtship and marriage. Rather, as Françoise
Noël shows, it is an important part of social history which
helps us to better understand the overall nature of past societies.
I would suggest that
readers begin this book by studying the introduction. Here the author
discusses the sources upon which her work is based. The book's subtitle
is A View from Diaries and Family Correspondence. In the
introduction Noël identifies the diarists and letter writers.
We are told when and where they lived and something about the circumstances
of their lives. These people appear and re-appear in the pages which
follow. It is important to consider who these correspondents are
when assessing the conclusions Noël reaches regarding nineteenth
century Canadian families.
The diaries and letters
which are used do raise some concerns. The sample is not representative
of all segments of society. Noël acknowledges this limitation
but suggests that the sources accurately reflect the middle class,
which in itself, of course, is a valuable historical contribution.
However, some questions can be asked about some of the diarists
and correspondents, particularly those who are used to illustrate
that family values among francophones and anglophones and people
of different religious backgrounds were similar.
There is a general contention
in the book that the attitudes and principles which guided family
life were similar regardless of religion, language and ethnicity.
Several diaries and numerous letters of English Canadians are referred
to but so are those of French Canadians like Amédée
Papineau and Ludger and Reine Duvernay. Considerable emphasis is
also placed on the journal of Abraham Joseph, a merchant and member
of a well-known Jewish family in Lower Canada. The conclusion that
follows is that class, not other factors, was most influential in
shaping family life in the Canadas during the nineteenth century.
Noël does not ignore religious and cultural differences but
in the end suggests that religion was not the deciding influence.
Family life of Protestants, Catholics and Jews was similar.
But can Amédée
Papineau and his extended family be used to prove such a point?
Papineau was the son of patriote leader Louis Joseph Papineau.
After the Rebellion of 1837 he lived in exile with his family in
the United States. There he met and eventually married Mary Westcott,
the daughter of a merchant from Saratoga, New York. Amédée
kept a diary rich in detail about his life before and after his
marriage. After moving to Montreal following her marriage, Mary
exchanged letters with her father in New York for the rest of her
life. Noël uses both the diary and letters extensively throughout
the book.
Amédée
was Catholic, and Mary was Protestant. In 1846 they were married
in Saratoga by a Presbyterian minister in a fifteen minute ceremony
in the Westcott home. After their move to Montreal, Mary usually
attended her own church but sometimes accompanied her husband to
a Catholic mass at Notre-Dame. And occasionally Amédée
went with his wife to a Protestant service. A daughter was baptized
in the Presbyterian church and a son in the Catholic church. Clearly
this was an unusually liberal attitude toward religion and inter-faith
marriage. Or perhaps it was evidence of religious indifference.
This unconventional family has an important place in Noël's
portrait of family life. One can well ask if Amédée
Papineau and Mary Westcott can be used to illustrate French Canadian
Catholic families, particularly in light of the conservative forces
which were growing in the Quebec church after 1850.
Despite this reservation
Family Life and Sociability is a major contribution to nineteenth
century Canadian social history. It will not be easily read by high
school students or by students in introductory university courses.
However, teachers and professors certainly can use it to introduce
their students to family history as a branch of historical studies.
The fascinating information which the book contains about love,
birth, life and death is and always will be of interest to everyone.