Upper Canada
|
|
Carlb-uppercanada-morrisburg-03.jpg
Upper Canada is an early name for the land at the upstream end of the Saint Lawrence River in early North America – the territory south of Lake Nipissing and north of the St. Lawrence River and Lakes Ontario and Erie plus the eastern shoreline of Georgian Bay and the northern shoreline of Lake Superior. This area is the ancestor of the southern part of the present day province of Ontario, Canada.
| Contents |
Government
This territory passed into British hands with the Treaty of Paris (1763). It was incorporated into the Province of Quebec by the Quebec Act of 1774. Upper Canada became a political entity in 1791 with the passing of the Constitutional Act by the Parliament of Great Britain, which divided the Province of Quebec into Upper and Lower Canada. The division was effected so that Loyalist American settlers and British immigrants in Upper Canada could have British laws and institutions, and the French-speaking population of Lower Canada could maintain French civil law and the Catholic religion.
The colony was administered by a lieutenant-governor, legislative council, and legislative assembly. The first lieutenant-governor was John Graves Simcoe. On February 1, 1796 the capital of Upper Canada was moved from Newark (now Niagara-on-the-Lake) to York (now Toronto), which was judged to be less vulnerable to attack by the Americans.
Land settlement
Land had been settled since the French regime, notably along the Detroit River and the Saint Lawrence River. However, impetus to land settlement came with the influx of Loyalist refugees and military personnel in 1784 after the American Revolution. As a result, prior to the creation of Upper Canada in 1791 as a separate colony, much land had been ceded by the First Nations to the Crown in accordance with the Royal Proclamation of 1763. This land was surveyed by the government of the Province of Quebec, particularly in eastern Ontario along the Saint Lawrence River, as the Western Townships, while the Eastern Townships were in Lower Canada.
Rudimentary municipal administration began with the creation of districts, notably Western (including present day Brantford), Eastern, Gore (including present day Hamilton, Ontario and Home (including present day Toronto).
The Act Against Slavery passed in Upper Canada on July 9, 1793.
During the War of 1812, following General Isaac Brock's capture of Detroit on August 16, 1812, the Michigan Territory was at least nominally a part of the Province of Upper Canada.
The province ceased to be a political entity with the Act of Union (1840), when, by an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, it was merged with Lower Canada to form the Province of Canada. With Confederation in 1867, the area once again became a separate province, named Ontario, of the Dominion of Canada.
Its name lives on in a few fossilized forms, most notably the staid Law Society of Upper Canada, the elite Upper Canada College and the inebriating Upper Canada Brewing Company (since purchased).
When the capital first moved to Toronto in 1796, the Parliament of Upper Canada was located at the corner of Parliament and Front Streets, in a building that was eventually abandoned. In 2001 the remains of the original Parliament building were found during preparations to build a car dealership on that site.
Population
| Year | Census estimate |
|---|---|
| 1806 | 70,718 |
| 1811 | 77,000 |
| 1814 | 95,000 |
| 1824 | 150,066 |
| 1825 | 157,923 |
| 1826 | 166,379 |
| 1827 | 177,174 |
| 1828 | 186,488 |
| 1829 | 197,815 |
| 1830 | 213,156 |
| 1831 | 236,702 |
| 1832 | 263,554 |
| 1833 | 295,863 |
| 1834 | 321,145 |
| 1835 | 347,359 |
| 1836 | 374,099 |
| 1837 | 397,489 |
| 1838 | 399,422 |
| 1839 | 409,048 |
| 1840 | 432,159 |
(see Province of Canada for population after 1840)
Source: Statistics Canada website Censuses of Canada 1665 to 1871.
Bibliography
- Craig, Gerald M. Upper Canada : the formative years 1784-1841. Toronto : McClelland and Stewart, 1963.
- Dieterman, Frank. Government on fire : the history and archaelogy of Upper Canada's first Parliament Buildings. Toronto : Eastendbooks, 2001.
- Dunham, Eileen. Political unrest in Upper Canada 1815-1836. Toronto : McClelland and Stewart, 1963.
- Errington, Jane. The lion, the eagle, and Upper Canada : a developing colonial ideology. Kingston, Ont. : McGill-Queen's University Press, 1987.
- Johnston, James Keith. Historical essays on Upper Canada. Toronto : McClelland and Stewart, 1975.
- Lewis, Frank and Urquhart, M.C. Growth and standard of living in a pioneer economy : Upper Canada 1826-1851. Kingston, Ont. : Institute for Economic Research, Queen's University, 1997.
- McCalla, Douglas. Planting the province : the economic history of Upper Canada 1784-1870. Toronto : University of Toronto Press, 1993.
- McNairn, Jeffrey L. The capacity to judge : public opinion and deliberative democracy in Upper Canada 1791-1854. Toronto : University of Toronto Press, 2000.
- Winearls, Joan. Mapping Upper Canada 1780-1867 : an annotated bibliography of manuscript and printed maps. Toronto : University of Toronto Press, 1991.
See also
- the Canadas
- Canada West, period after the Act of Union (1840)
- List of Lieutenant Governors of Ontario
- Western Townships of Upper Canadade:Oberkanada
fr:Haut-Canada pl:Górna Kanada pt:Canadá Superior sv:Övre Kanada