How The American Civil War Made Canada
The Canadian story of the American Civil War, told in two parts. Through the eyes of the Canadians who helped start the war, to those who fought it, to the leaders influenced by it, we unravel one of the most pivotal events in the continent’s history. From the pubs of Saint John to the docks of Halifax, from Southern Ontario battlefields to the battlements of Quebec City, find out which Canadians were on the right and wrong sides of history. This is the story of two nations facing each other down over a tenuous border for a century, and the war that changed everything.
Part Two:
Clearly, there is an enormous amount missing from Part 1—a whole episode-worth! Expect Part 2 to dive into the figures who represented the darker side of Canada’s Civil War story: Confederate sympathizers, spies, and soldiers.
However, this two-parter is the most ambitious project we’ve worked on so far, and we can’t afford to have another delayed release. So there may be a few shorter episodes released before we get to Part 2. It’s unfortunate, and we apologize for this, but it was either ‘edit Part 1 or don’t make these episodes at all.’ It’s the reality of having such a small team in post-production with episodes that are packed with animations.
In the meantime, stay tuned for some incredible ‘shorter’ stories from some of the most unique locations we’ve been for Season 3!
The first-known photograph of Niagara Falls:
The daguerreotype that Hugh Lee Pattinson took of the falls is actually also the oldest-surviving photograph of what is now Canada! The invention of photography crossed the Atlantic in the spring of 1839, and it was popularized in Canada before the USA. The first known photo taken in N.A. was a calotype of a sample of flora in Halifax. Once news of the technology made it into the local newspaper, a reader tried it for himself. Less than a year later, in April 1840, Pattinson took a handful of daguerreotypes of Niagara Falls—the photo we highlighted is labeled by archives as the first of the batch. The silhouette of a man in the image is probably Pattinson himself, since it took a while to expose. The photos were found relatively recently, too. By late 1840, full-fledged portrait studios began opening in Montreal and Quebec City.
‘Chatham’ Anderson:
Thousands of Black Americans immigrated to Canada prior to the Civil War. It’s a rich history we would like to return to in the future, specifically in regards to the Maritimes. Osborne Perry Anderson did so at the age of 20. So it may seem a little strange for us to call him a ‘Canadian.’ But the fact is that he spent the vast majority of his remaining 21 years in Canada, much of it in Chatham. He’s often referred to as both American and Canadian. He did eventually go back to the U.S. when Black supporters in Philadelphia took up a collection for him, but he died weeks later of tuberculosis. At times, he’s been somewhat forgotten, he doesn’t even have a gravesite. Here’s his own description of the raid on Harpers Ferry: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/A_voice_from_Harper%27s_Ferry
The Great Eastern:
Some of the images we show of the ship aren’t from the QC voyage. Those that are happen to be the lowest quality images of the bunch. We wanted to show-off the ship, so we pulled engravings and photos from other travels. Some depict the ship leaving Liverpool, some are from its earlier voyage to New York, and others come from the ship’s time as a cable-laying vessel—when the first Transatlantic cables were laid from the UK to Newfoundland.
The American Revolution:
A topic we’d like to come back to. The Revolution began due to the Quebec Act, which angered Americans for giving rights to the Canadien. Americans burned Montreal first and then laid siege on Quebec City from the Plains of Abraham, barely 20 years after the British did the same thing. They attacked during a blizzard on New Years Eve, which didn’t go so well.
Research:
We combed over countless books, maps, and newspapers to put this episode together, including Robin W. Winks’: ‘The Civil War Years.’
The Assassination of D’Arcy McGee:
Less than a year after Confederation, one of the country’s founding fathers was shot dead on Sparks Street, in Ottawa, and to this day the question remains: who killed D’Arcy McGee?
#canadianhistory #canadausa #civilwar
00:00 Intro
02:10 Chatham
03:52 John Brown
05:14 Harpers Ferry
07:52 Civil War Begins
08:53 Sarah Emma Edmonds
12:07 US vs CAN
14:28 Manifest Destiny
16:31 Great Eastern
18:03 Prepare for Invasion
19:14 Preview Part 2
19:44 Bonus Story
Credit to : Canadiana
