THE WHIG INTERPRETATION of the HISTORY of RED RIVER By
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THE WHIG INTERPRETATION OF THE HISTORY OF RED RIVER By BRIAN MARTIN GALLAGHER B.A., The University of British Columbia, 1980 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES (Department of History) We accept this thesis as conforming to the required standard THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA September, 1986 ® Brian Martin Gallagher, 1986 In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of British Columbia, I agree that the Library shall make it freely available for reference and study. I further agree that permission for extensive copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the head of my department or by his or her representatives. It is understood that copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Department of The University of British Columbia 1956 Main Mall Vancouver, Canada V6T 1Y3 Date /0 Ot^^Ly E-6 (3/81) ii ABSTRACT The whig interpretation, which can be most simply defined as the idea that past events led in direct and progressive stages to the present, has long been recognized as a basic historiographic fallacy. The fullest expression of the whig interpretation of western Canadian history is to be found in the works of George F.G. Stanley and W.L. Morton. In presenting a narrative reconstruction of the events surrounding Canada's annexation of Red River, these authors primarily attempt to justify Canadian policy as the extension of British civilization. Their interpretation is deeply flawed by a racist view of the aboriginal peoples of the region who are regarded as savages. That the works of these men fully encomT pass the whig interpretation is of less significance than the resurgence of that outlook amongst the present generation of historians. Regressive nationalistic and ethnocentric themes have been at the centre of much that has recently been written about Red River. A characteristic feature of these works is the tendency to emphasize racial and religious divisions within the Metis community rather than to pose more fundamental questions about the social structure. Although the farmers and hunters of Red River were drawn together by a common Cree kinship, John Elgin Foster argues that the offspring of Hudson's Bay Company employees and Cree women, whom he calls the "Country- born," were strongly attached to British institutions and traditions. Foster uses this concept of the separate identity of the "Country-born" to introduce a new version of the whig interpretation, arguing that it was the respect of the "Country-born" for British institutions which created social order. While rejecting Foster's image of social harmony in Red River, Frits Pannekoek introduces another form of the whig interpretation with the argument that society was disintegrating because of racial and religious strife and therefore the Canadian iii incursion was necessary to restore social order to the settlement. Employing the characteristic whig model of social change as a simple progression, Sylvia Van Kirk provides further support for the idea that society in Red River was divided by arguing that the Foss-Pelly scandal added to the growing reluctance on the part of Company officers to marry mixed-blood women. Although these three historians, claim to be concerned with the dynamics of social change in Red River, they fail to consider the lack of social mobility among the lower class and ignore evidence about the polyglot character of the elite. In order to expose the whig bias in the works of Foster, Pannekoek, and Van Kirk it is necessary look at marriage patterns in society as a whole rather than just within the elite. Among the most convincing refutations of whig historio• graphy to date is the quantitative analysis of land tenure in Red River by Douglas Sprague, which confirms that the Metis were not nomadic. Using the data base compiled by Sprague and Ronald Frye, I have analyzed marriage patterns among the population at large and in three representative parishes of Red River. The conclusion derived from this analysis is that the early development of a capitalistic labour market in Red River reduced social mobility for the great majority of the people even as it created a polyglot mercantile oligarchy. iv Table of Contents Page Abstract ii Table of Contents iv List of Tables v List of Figures vi Chapter I Quantitative Tests of the Whig Interpretation 1 II Cree Affinities in Red River 12 III The Invasion of Red River 36 IV The Rise of an Indigenous Oligarchy in Red River 65 V The Formation of a Capitalistic Labour Market in Red River 92 Bibliography 110 List of Tables Title Page Table 1 : Wives of Chief Factors Commissioned Under the Deed Poll of 1821 Identified in Sylvia Van Kirk's "Many Tender Ties" 70 Table 2 : Wives of Chief Traders Commissioned Under the Deed Poll of 1821 Identified in Sylvia Van Kirk's "Many Tender Ties" 71 Table 3 : Wives of Officers Commissioned Under the Deed Poll of 183^ Identified in Sylvia Van Kirk's "Many Tender Ties" 72 Table k : Wives of European Officers In Charge In Red River From 1821 To 18W 81 Table 5 : Wives of European Officers In Charge In Red River From 18^5 To 1870 82 vi . List of Figures - Title Page Figure 1 : Red River Marriages By Birthdate of Female Partner: Percent 102 Figure 2 : Red River Marriages By Birthdate of Female Partner: Count 102 Figure 3 : Kildonan Marriages By Birthdate of Female Partner: Percent 104 Figure 4 : Kildonan Marriages By Birthdate of Female Partner: Count 104 Figure 5 : St. Francois-Xavier Marriages By Birthdate of Female Partner: Percent 105 Figure 6 : St. Francois-Xavier Marriages By Birthdate of Female Partner: Count 105 Figure 7 : St. Andrew Marriages By Birthdate of Female Partner: Percent 106 Figure 8 : St. Andrew Marriages By Birthdate of Female Partner: Count 106 1 CHAPTER ONE QUANTITATIVE TESTS OF THE WHIG INTERPRETATION If history is not merely a narrative art but a social .science whose object is to reveal the structure of past societies and the process of social change, it is necessary for historians to adopt a methodology which will allow the testing of assumptions derived from narrative sources. Since the ability to perform such tests rests upon the availability of quantitative data, historical research is limited by the chance survival of such data. Red River presents a unique opportunity for the historian because it is perhaps "the most thoroughly documented of all proprietary colonies in English colonial experience."1 The aim of this, thesis is to show that a number of recent historical works about Red River ought logically to be regarded as a continuation of an earlier tradition of whig historiography and to present a quantitative analysis of the validity of some of the claims made in these works. In order to introduce a more specific examination of the persistence of whig elements within the recent *D.N. Sprague and Ronald Frye, "Manitoba's Red River Settlement: Manuscript Sources for Economic and Demographic History," Archivaria, 9 (Winter,1979-80), p.179. historiography of Red River it will be necessary to explain what is meant by the whig interpretation of history and to consider some quantitative tests of the whig interpretation already undertaken which will form a model for further research. As an intellectual concept the whig interpretation can be seen as a conser• vative ideology which, in celebrating the existing structure of society, creates anachronism through an attempt, to understand the past in terms of the present. This anachronism is produced by denigrating those aspects of the past which seem unlike the present or by idealizing those events in the past which superficially appear to have led to present conditions. Thus Herbert Butterfield defines the whig interpretation of history as "the tendency in many historians to write on the side of Protestants and Whigs, to praise revolutions provided they have been successful, to emphasize certain principles of progress in the past and to produce a story which is the ratification if not the glorification of the present."2 In the context of English historiography the Glorious Revolution, English constitutional development, and the rise of Parliament are subjects which the whigs emphasize as leading to the existing social order^ while the Catholic Church and its adherents are seen as absolutist and repressive forces. It should be emphasized that whig ideology is not fundamentally a problem of bigotry, although a racist outlook often accompanies it, but a problem of faulty historical methodology. ^Herbert Butterfield, The Whig Interpretation of History (1931; rpt. Har- mondsworth: Penguin Books, 1973), p.9. ^For a comprehensive analysis of the main trends in English whig historio• graphy see P.B.M. Blaas, Continuity and Anachronism: Parliamentary and Constitutional Development in Whig Historiography and in the Anti-Whig Reaction Between 1890 and 1930, International Archives of the History of Ideas 91 (The Hague, Netherlands: Martinus Nijhoff, 1978). Lord Actorij one of the few whigs named by Butterfield, was a Roman Catholic. In spite of much evidence to the contrary recorded in his notebooks, Acton's feeling that his own time represented a new era of liberty led him to become a purveyor of the 'Black Legend.'^ The annexation of Rupert's Land by Canada in 1870 was primarily effected by volunteers from Ontario, many of whom were members of the Orange Order, recruited through an appeal to seek revenge for the execution of the Orangeman, Thomas Scott. Following annexation, western Canada Was reshaped in the image of Protestant immigrants from Ontario.