Child Letters: Public and Private Life in a Canadian Merchant-Politician's Family, 1841-1845

The Child Letters yields an intimate look at the daily life of an ordinary Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) of the recently unified province of Canada. A collection of the almost daily correspondence between Marcus Child and his family while he was attending legislative sessions in Kingston, the capital, the letters yield important insights into both political and family matters. The letters provide the first detailed history of Eastern Township politics during the 1830s and 1840s. They are also an excellent source of information for the social historian, reflecting the concerns of one nineteenth-century Canadian family outside the small British-born elite. Issues discussed in the letters include religion and moral reform, daughter Elizabeth's search for a husband, local life in Stanstead village, and vignettes of social life among MLAs in Kingston. Furthermore, the letters support recent findings that gender identities were not as strictly defined during this era as earlier historians have suggested. The Child letters present the first detailed history of Eastern Township politics during the 1830s and 1840s, providing increased insight into the important constitutional crises of the early 1840s and giving readers a glimpse at the thoughts of a nineteenth-century Canadian family outside the small British-born elite.