North of America

Unlike today, there was an era when Americans “spent a great deal of time thinking, reading, and talking about” their northern neighbours — and not always in a good way, writes Jeffers Lennox. Lennox, a Canadian who teaches history at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, notes that this fixation on the region we now call Canada lasted from the outbreak of the American War of Independence to the end of the War of 1812.

The period Lennox writes about begins with the passage of the Quebec Act of 1774. The British act enraged New England colonists chiefly because it preserved lands for Indigenous nations, thus stalling westward expansion by settlers.

As the American Revolution unfolded, U.S. statesmen such as Benjamin Franklin believed that there would be no lasting peace until everyone on the continent was free of British rule. The trouble was that it was difficult to convince Quebec’s French-speaking Catholics, never mind the Loyalists in the northern colonies — all of whom lived under a relatively stable British regime — that they would be better off governed by an untested revolutionary administration.

The freedom-loving American patriots tried to force the issue, which led to two unsuccessful invasions of Quebec in 1775, followed in 1776 by a failed diplomatic attempt by Franklin to convince Montrealers to join the independence movement. Another invasion attempt in 1778 also came to nothing.

Even after making peace with Britain in 1783, U.S. Founding Fathers like Thomas Paine believed that Canada would inevitably become part of the United States. History has proven them wrong — so far.

North of America is illustrated with black-and-white pictures and maps. The writing is detailed and descriptive, with evocative quotations and droll observations — but a general reader in Canada who’s not already somewhat familiar with American revolutionary history might find it hard to follow.