Contesting rural space : land policy and practices of resettlement on Saltspring Island, 1859-1891 / R.W. Sandwell.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Sandwell, R. W. (Ruth Wells), 1955-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Land settlement--British Columbia--Saltspring Island--History--19th century.

Land settlement.

Land use--British Columbia--Saltspring Island--History--19th century.

Land use.

Saltspring Island (B.C.)--Rural conditions.

Saltspring Island (B.C.).

Saltspring Island (B.C.)--History--19th century.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (347 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Montreal : McGill-Queen's University Press, c2005.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

An intriguing mix of African-American, First Nation, Hawaiian, and European, the early residents of Saltspring Island were neither successful farmers nor full-time waged workers, neither squatters nor bona-fide landowners. Contesting Rural Space explores how these early settlers created and sustained a distinctive society, culture, and economy. In the late nineteenth century, residents claiming land on Saltspring Island walked a careful line between following mandatory homestead policies and manipulating these policies for their own purposes. The residents favoured security over risk and modest sufficiency over accumulation of wealth. Government land policies, however, were based on an idea of rural settlement as commercially successful family farms run by sober and respectable men. Settlers on Saltspring Island, deterred by the poor quality of farmland but encouraged by the variety of part-time, off-farm remunerative occupations, the temperate climate, First Nations cultural and economic practices, and the natural abundance of the Gulf Island environment, made their own choices about the appropriate uses of rural lands. R.W. Sandwell shows how the emerging culture differed from both urban society and ideals of rural society.

Contents:

Front Matter

Contents

Tables

Figures and Maps

Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Preface

Introduction: Reading the Rural With a Microhistorical Eye

Land Policies and the Agricultural Vision in British Columbia

Settling Up the Wild Lands

The Main Support of the Colony: How Pre-emptors Met Policy-Makers’ Goals

Commercial Farmers?

Appropriating the Land System: Pre-emption Behaviour as Rural Culture

Political Economy and Household Structure on Saltspring Island

The African–American Murders: Violence, Racism, and Community on Saltspring Island, 1859–1871

Cohesion and Fracture in Saltspring Island Society

Conclusion

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Limited edition (hardcover) of 300 copies.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-282-86329-0

9786612863295

0-7735-7263-5

OCLC:

213304572