1. Objectifs

Intentions :
«This thesis examines a unique document, the journal of a nineteenth-century farm woman, Eliza Calkins White, who with her husband Kneeland and five children moved up from Vermont to Quebec’s Eastern Townships at the end of the 1830s and settled in Potton Township.» (p. 1)

Questions/Hypothèses :
«[W]hat part did women play in the strategies of the farm economy, and to what extent was farm production in this particular time and place geared towards a market economy? An additional question is to what extent local conditions impinged on the strategies of Potton Township’s farmers.» (p. 2)

2. Méthode

Échantillon/Matériau :
L’auteure utilise des sources premières, principalement le journal personnel de Eliza Calkins White.

Type de traitement des données :
Analyse de contenu
Réflexion critique

3. Résumé

«This thesis endeavours to convey a picture of that life as voiced by Eliza through the journal, while addressing its contents in terms of the questions debated in contemporary historical scholarship about the farm economy. After a brief consideration of texts focussed on the Eastern Townships, this thesis first looks at the literatures that discuss the history, content, form and historical value of diaries and journals. The following chapters widen out like concentric circles to examine the content of Eliza’s journal within the context of rural historiography. They evaluate the role of the women members of the family in the strategies of the farm economy, and the extent to which farm production in this particular time and place was geared towards the market. This journal shows women both in the farm economy as producers and in the marketplace as negotiators. Moreover, the products that were largely the result of women’s labour that were sold or traded in the local market were an essential contribution to the stability of the family economy. Without such journals the work of women such as Eliza and her daughters and the intricacies of farm life would remain invisible.» (p. iii)