How emigrants were lured to Ontario's Muskoka in the 1870s in a vain
attempt to farm the Canadian Shield.
When the Free Grants and Homestead Act was first introduced in 1868,
fierce debates erupted in Ontario's Legislature over whether land in the
Muskoka region should be opened to settlement or reserved for the
Aboriginal population. From the beginning, many people vented serious
doubts about the free grant scheme, citing the district's poor
agricultural prospects. In the end, such caution was ignored by
overeager boosters.
The story in Hardscrabble also takes readers to Britain, where
emigration philanthropists urged their government to send the country's
poor to Canada, then follows these emigrants as they left the familiar
behind to make a new life in the Canadian wilderness. The initial
romance of living off the land was soon dispelled as these hapless souls
faced clearing the land, building shelters, and sowing crops in
desolate, remote locations.
Donna Williams's extensive research leads her to conclude that Muskoka's
experience epitomizes the wrongheadedness of placing already poor people
on remote land unsuited for farming.