• Collecting the World in Newfoundland

    Misha Ewen  Sugar, tobacco, porcelain, and cod. These worldly goods—that came to define early modern empires and networks of global trade—could all be found in the homes of Newfoundland women Sara Kirke and her sister Frances Hopkins. The Pool in Ferryland was their home throughout the middle and later decades of the seventeenth century. Their… Continue Reading

  • Herring, the Moral Economy, and the Liberal Order Framework

    Elizabeth Mancke and Sydney Crain In 1819, New Brunswick’s assembly passed its first legislation regulating just the herring fishery for the “Parishes of West-Isles, Campo-Bello, Pennfield, and Saint George” in Charlotte County; two years later, an amendment added the Island of Grand Manan.[1] Since its first sitting in 1786, the assembly had passed nine statutes… Continue Reading

  • Policing and Public Houses in Newfoundland

    Keith Mercer In the fall of 1807, the Royal Gazette listed the public houses licensed to operate in St. John’s for the coming year. Most of these 33 taverns catered to the business district around the waterfront, attracting patrons with drink, music, and vice, but also colourful signs such as Agincourt, Jolly Fisherman, Red Cow, and Nelson – likely named for Lord Nelson, after he fell at Trafalgar in 1805. The London Tavern, like the Ship… Continue Reading

  • Calling the Police before the Police in Newfoundland

    M. Max Hamon Rough Justice: Policing, Crime, and the Origins of the Newfoundland Constabulary, 1729-1871, by Keith Mercer (St. John’s: Flanker Press, 2021). Drawing out ambiguities of the “police before the police” is an excellent way to explore the past as a different country in the classroom. For instance, a great hook to tell students… Continue Reading

  • Settler colonial violence and the Maritime fisheries

    Angela Tozer Canadian settler colonialism set the stage for the current attacks on Mi’kmaw fishers from Sipekne’katik First Nation. From the end of summer and into the fall of 2020, settler fishers argued that the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) needed to circumscribe Mi’kmaw fishers in favour of commercial Nova Scotia fisheries. The… Continue Reading

  • Teach My Research: Loyalist Women and the Experience of Revolutionary Exile in Nova Scotia

    G. Patrick O’Brien [Teach My Research is a new occasional series at Borealia to help connect research and teaching, putting the latest scholarship on early Canadian history–Indigenous, French, British, or early national, to about 1900–into our classrooms. We are inviting authors of recent historical monographs or research articles to think about how their scholarship could… Continue Reading

  • Settler Science in New Brunswick: The Brydone Jack Observatory and the Invention of European Sovereignty

    Richard Yeomans New Brunswick’s western border with the state of Maine has long been one of the most contested geopolitical terrains in North America. After the end of the American Revolution, and the partition of New Brunswick from the British colony of Nova Scotia, early loyalist settlers and colonial officials laboured to establish concrete claims… Continue Reading

  • The Militia and Civic Community in Colonial New Brunswick: Part I, 1786-1816

    Service militaire, citoyenneté et culture politique : études des milices au Canada atlantique Nous vous présentons le premier texte d’une série de contributions qui seront publiées au cours des prochaines années par des membres d’un nouveau groupe de recherche en histoire des milices au Canada atlantique. Réuni autour d’un projet de recherche subventionné par le Conseil… Continue Reading