{"id":29,"date":"2015-10-31T00:48:02","date_gmt":"2015-10-31T04:48:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/postconfederation2e\/chapter\/1-2-historical-demography-of-canada-1608-1921\/"},"modified":"2020-07-17T12:34:23","modified_gmt":"2020-07-17T16:34:23","slug":"1-2-historical-demography-of-canada-1608-1921","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/postconfederation2e\/chapter\/1-2-historical-demography-of-canada-1608-1921\/","title":{"raw":"1.2 Historical Demography of Canada, 1608\u20131921","rendered":"1.2 Historical Demography of Canada, 1608\u20131921"},"content":{"raw":"Sustained settlement of Canada by Europeans began in the St. Lawrence Valley, where the colony named \u201cle Canada\u201d stretched over 500 km from Quebec City to present-day Montreal.[footnote]Hubert Charbonneau, Bertrand Desjardins, Jacques L\u00e9gar\u00e9 and Hubert Denis, \u201cThe Population of the St. Lawrence Valley, 1608-1760,\u201d in Michael Haines and Richard Steckel, eds., A Population History of North America<\/i> (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000): 99.[\/footnote] From its founding in 1608 by Samuel de Champlain, the colony grew modestly until 1663, when the King of France, Louis XIV, and Jean-Baptiste Colbert, his minister of finance, instituted measures for the colony to grow through [pb_glossary id=\"847\"]natural increase[\/pb_glossary]. Male immigrants dominated the colony in its early years, creating a severe [pb_glossary id=\"848\"]sex ratio[\/pb_glossary] imbalance. However, between 1663 and 1673, the arrival of 716 f<\/i>illes<\/i> du <\/i>roi<\/i> \u2014 French women whose immigration was financed by the King \u2014 allowed marriages and families to form in more significant numbers.[footnote]The Programme de recherche en d\u00e9mographie historique<\/i> (PRDH) list of the \u00abFilles du Roi\u00bb (the King\u2019s Daughters). Montreal: Universit\u00e9 de Montr\u00e9al, http:\/\/www.genealogie.umontreal.ca\/en\/LesFillesDuRoi[\/footnote] By 1760, the population had risen to 70,000.[footnote]Charbonneau et al., \u201cPopulation of the St. Lawrence Valley,\u201d 131.[\/footnote] Considered a [pb_glossary id=\"838\"]founder population[\/pb_glossary], a population deriving from a small initial influx of immigrants, present-day Quebecois who trace their origins to the French colonists are descended from just 8,573 men and women who married, had children, and whose children married in turn.[footnote] Bertrand Desjardins, \u201cLa contribution diff\u00e9rentielle des immigrants fran\u00e7ais \u00e0 la souche canadienne-fran\u00e7aise,\u201d Annales de Normandie, <\/i>no.3\/4 (2008): 74.[\/footnote]\n\nA [pb_glossary id=\"837\"]family reconstitution[\/pb_glossary] database of the Quebec Catholic population, the Registre<\/i> de la Population du Qu\u00e9bec A<\/i>ncien<\/i> (RPQA), allows us to trace the growth of this population throughout the French and British\u00a0colonial period. The Quebec population was long considered exceptional because\u00a0of its very high fertility: Married women bore on average seven\u00a0to eight\u00a0children, while women who lived a complete reproductive period could have 11 children. Since the inception of the RPQA database, scholars have emphasized the exceptionalism of this population in terms of comparatively generous land availability for new farm establishment, concomitantly large proportions of children marrying, and high fertility. More recent research, while confirming these trends, now emphasizes the differentiation of patterns. Such research has shown that while most Quebec youths married, eldest daughters had the highest propensity to marry and married the fastest, and about three-quarters of Quebec children married in birth order.[footnote]Lisa Dillon, \u201cParental and Sibling Influences on the Timing of Marriage, 17th- and 18th-century Quebec,\u201d Annales<\/i> de D<\/i>\u00e9mographie<\/i>\u00a0H<\/i>istorique<\/i>, no.1 (2010): 139-180.[\/footnote] Through high fertility and intermarriage, Quebec families developed dense kinship networks: Nearly a quarter of families married their children in exchange marriages in which brothers and sisters married siblings from the same family.[footnote]Marianne Caron and Lisa Dillon, \u201cExchange marriages between sibsets: A sibling connection beyond marriage, Quebec 1660-1760,\u201d Paper presented to the IUSSP Conference, Busan, Korea, 2013, p.14.[\/footnote] Fertility and mortality were intimately intertwined in this population. Mothers who bore the largest number of children also experienced the highest infant losses;[footnote] Marilyn Amorevieta-Gentil. Les niveaux et les facteurs d\u00e9terminants de la mortalit\u00e9 infantile en Nouvelle-France et au d\u00e9but du R\u00e9gime Anglais (1621-1779)<\/i>.<\/i> <\/i>Doctoral thesis. Montreal: Universit\u00e9 de Montr\u00e9al, 2010.[\/footnote] on the other hand, women gave birth to their last child on average at age 40, and a late age at last birth was associated with an older age at death.[footnote]Alain Gagnon et al., \u201cIs There a Trade-off between Fertility and Longevity? A Comparative Study of Three Large Historical Demographic Databases Accounting for Mortality Selection.\u201d PSC Discussion Papers Series<\/i>, vol. 22, no. 5 (2008).[\/footnote]\n\nOver the course of the 18th and early 19th centuries, the Quebec population experienced increased pressure and risks. While adult mortality remained stable, the growth of the colony and circulation of its inhabitants resulted in rising infant mortality, which increased from 50 to 100 per thousand before 1700 to 250\u00a0to\u00a0300 per thousand in the period 1750-1775.[footnote]Amorevieta-Gentil, Les niveaux et les facteurs d\u00e9terminants<\/i>, 131.[\/footnote] The colony passed from control of the French crown to the British in 1760, joining Nova Scotia. Several thousand immigrants to Nova Scotia and the newly-formed colony of New Brunswick arrived from the New England colonies, both before and after the American Revolution, with an African-American community established in Nova Scotia. Meanwhile, the Quebec population continued to grow exponentially. English-speaking immigrants from the United States also began to settle parts of present-day Quebec and Ontario, while Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island\u2019s populations were boosted by British immigrants, particularly Scottish Highlanders. The new colony at Red River likewise grew from Scottish sources in these years. Following the War of 1812, the colonies of Upper and Lower Canada began to receive more British immigrants in general.[footnote]Marvin McInnis, \u201cThe Population of Canada in the Nineteenth Century,\u201d in Haines and Steckel, eds., A Population History of North America<\/i>: 374-8.[\/footnote]\n\nDespite these important inflows, childbearing was an important source of Canadian population growth during the 19th century. McInnis estimates that between 1811-1861, when Canada grew from 511,000 persons to 3,175,000 persons, 84% of population growth was on account of natural increase \u2014 which makes natural growth more important than immigration.[footnote]Ibid.: 379.[\/footnote] Quebec\u2019s population itself increased thirteen-fold from 1761-1851; at the same time, the mean size of farms declined by a third.[footnote]Serge Courville, Quebec: A Historical Geography<\/em> (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2009).[\/footnote]\u00a0Children who could not launch a farm household instead moved to cities or to the United States. From 1840-1940, Lavoie estimates that one in ten French Canadians emigrated to the U.S., of whom about two-thirds headed to New England.[footnote] Yolande Lavoie, L\u2019\u00e9migration des Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois aux \u00c9tats-Unis de 1840 \u00e0 1930<\/i> (Quebec, 1981): 53; Yves Roby, Les Franco-Am\u00e9ricains de la Nouvelle-Angleterre<\/i>:<\/i> R\u00eaves et r\u00e9alit\u00e9s<\/i> (Sillery, Quebec: Les \u00e9ditions du Septentrion, 2000).[\/footnote]\n\nSources of growth were countered by significant mortality rates. Infant mortality levels across 19th century Canada differed on the basis of urban-rural residence and francophone and anglophone identity. The infant mortality rate for all of Quebec (190 per thousand) was higher than that for Ontario (115) as well as New Brunswick (132, excluding Saint John), Nova Scotia (120, excluding Halifax) and Prince Edward Island (116).[footnote] McInnis, \u201cThe Population of Canada,\u201d 403-4.[\/footnote] Rising population density in Montreal and Quebec City created a sharp urban-rural contrast in death rates within Quebec, with as many as 285 infant deaths per thousand births in Montreal.[footnote]F.Pelletier, J.L\u00e9gar\u00e9, and R.Bourbeau, \u201cMortality in Qu\u00e9bec during the nineteenth century: from the state to the cities,\u201d Population Studies<\/i>, 51(1) (March 1997): 93-103; McInnis, \u201cThe Population of Canada,\u201d 403.[\/footnote]\n\nAlthough fertility was relatively high in mid-19th century Canada compared to European countries, it began to fall during the last third of the 19th century. Married couples began to limit their childbearing; in Ontario, declining marital fertility has been linked to urban development and land availability. More recent research on Quebec demonstrates class and ethnic differentials in childbearing behaviour, with French Canadian married women manifesting higher fertility than their Quebec anglophone counterparts. Yet, among French Canadian women alone, those living in medium-sized and large cities had lower fertility than rural French Canadian women.[footnote]Danielle Gauvreau, Diane Gervais and Peter Gossage, La F\u00e9condit\u00e9 des Qu\u00e9b\u00e9coises 1870-1970:<\/i> <\/i>D\u2019une exception \u00e0 l\u2019autre<\/i> (Quebec: Bor\u00e9al, 2007): 128-30.[\/footnote] Intensive historical demographic research on Montreal has demonstrated further important cultural differences in demographic behaviour. By 1901 in Montreal, the total fertility rate, or the average number of children a woman would bear, with all married or unmarried women included in the measure, was 5.6 for French Catholics, 3.6 for Irish Catholics and 3.9 for Protestants. The earlier age at marriage of French Catholic women accounted for this ethnic differential: the percentage of women aged 20 to 24 who were married in Montreal during the 1890s was 43% for French Catholics, 32% for Irish Catholics, and 27% for Protestants.[footnote]Sherry Olson and Patricia Thornton, Peopling the North American City<\/i>: <\/i>Montreal 1840-1900<\/i> (Montreal: McGill-Queen\u2019s University Press, 2011), 137-9.[\/footnote] These analyses portray a set of distinct ethno-religious demographic regimes within the city which, with further research, could potentially be generalized to the broader Canadian population.\n\n[caption id=\"attachment_3057\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"1648\"]\"A<\/a> Figure 1.2 The principal instrument of demographic history is the census, particularly the enumerators' ledgers, like this one from Winnipeg in 1901.[\/caption]\n\nFollowing Confederation, Canada expanded its territory to the Pacific coast; whereas the 1871 Census of Canada enumerated the populations of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Quebec, and Ontario, the 1881 Census of Canada encompassed provinces from British Columbia to Prince Edward Island (PEI). By 1901, the population numbered 5,371,000 and the country had undergone significant urbanization, with rapid growth in Montreal and Toronto and the emergence of new cities to the west including Vancouver and Winnipeg.[footnote] McInnis, \u201cThe Population of Canada\u201d: 419.[\/footnote] The first decade of the 20th century was marked by a rate of immigration that was 2.8% of the average population; according to McInnis, immigration in this decade was \u201cone of the most pronounced episodes experienced by any nation in recorded world history.\u201d[footnote]Marvin McInnis, \u201cCanada\u2019s Population in the Twentieth Century,\u201d\u00a0in Haines and Steckel, eds., A Population History of North America<\/i>: 534.[\/footnote] These new immigrants helped to populate the new western provinces, and by 1921, when Canada numbered 8,788,000 persons, more than 25% of Canada\u2019s population was living in BC and the Prairie provinces.[footnote]Ibid.: 539.[\/footnote] During these years, marital fertility in Canada continued to decline, but an increase in the proportion of women marrying offset this trend.[footnote]Ibid.: 547.[\/footnote] Canadians suffered some 50,000 deaths from the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918-19, notably in the age group 20\u00a0to\u00a040 years.[footnote]A. Gagnon, M. Miller, S. Hallman, R. Bourbeau, D. A. Herring, D.J.D. Earn and J. Madrenas, \u201cAge-Specific Mortality During the 1918 Influenza Pandemic: Unravelling the Mystery of High Young Adult Mortality,\u201d PLOS-One<\/i>, August 5, 2013.[\/footnote] But more generally, infant mortality in Canada fell after 1910 on account of improved sanitary practices, the creation of pasteurized milk distribution stations, and the promotion of cleanliness in the care of infants.[footnote]Neil Sutherland, Children in English-Canadian Society: Framing the Twentieth-Century Consensus<\/i> (Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1973), 59-61.[\/footnote] Thus, western development, high immigration, rapid urbanization, and declining fertility and mortality set the stage for \u201cCanada\u2019s century.\u201d\n
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Exercise: Think Like a Historian<\/p>\n\n<\/header>\n

\n\nThe Manuscript Census<\/b>\n\nFor anyone interested in demographics, family reconstitution, community histories, occupational mobility, and many other population behaviours, the census-takers\u2019 manuscript record is invaluable. As well, they provide information on people who generally didn\u2019t leave other kinds of records behind; children, prisoners, and immigrant enclaves \u2014 like the Chinese \u2014 are all covered.\n\nThe job of census-taker was a small piece of patronage that was handed off to a party loyalist attached to the local constituency. There were, necessarily, hundreds of census-takers in late 19th century Canada, each one facing particular challenges, applying idiosyncratic methods, and demonstrating varying levels of conscientiousness. In 1891 the census-taker in Kamloops asked his bosses in Ottawa what he should put in the \u2018occupation\u2019 category when it came to sex trade workers (aka: prostitutes, brothel keepers, and a half dozen other euphemisms). The reply he received tells us a lot about late Victorian sensibilities: write them up as \u201cdressmakers.\u201d As a result, one can find in many towns of the far west what looks like a substantial textile industry.\n\nThe manuscripts were transcribed into aggregate data and published as the decennial Canada Census<\/i>. Century-long \u2014 and then 90-year long \u2014 restrictions on access to the manuscripts meant that we are only now able to access 1911 census data<\/a>. (The 1921 records have been farmed out to Ancestry.ca.)\n\nTake a look at these examples from this page from the 1891 census [PDF]<\/a>. The Vipond household in Nanaimo is a big one and includes Jane and George\u2019s son-in-law (although their eldest daughter appears to be missing). What does the record reveal about migration, religion, occupation, fertility, and birth intervals? The second block shows three neighbouring coalmining households headed respectively by Cuthbert, Cornish, and Scales. Tragedy has struck these people. The Elliott children have evidently been adopted by the Cuthberts, as has one of the Cornish children, Mamie, whose mother (born in Mauritius) has apparently died, leaving Thomas a widower and able to manage only three children on his own. One of those children, William Cornish, is 14 and working in the mines \u2013 not as a labourer but as a \u201cminer,\u201d which indicates he\u2019s been doing this for a while. Hannah and David Scales have taken in Mamie\u2019s sister Lily. What we\u2019re seeing here are survival strategies. What else is visible? Religious affiliation (\"C.E.\" denotes Church of England, \"Meth.\" is Methodist, \"Presb.\" is Presbyterian, \"S.A.\" = Salvation Army), birthplace, occupation. Make a list of the ways in which identities congeal, intersect, are transmitted from generation to generation.\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Key Points<\/h2>\n