"Reduced to ashes"

On a cold night in December of 1813, Elizabeth Campbell and her four children stood in the snow as flames consumed their family home in Newark, Upper Canada and all their possessions within. In a letter accompanying her claim for compensation for these losses, Campbell’s agent described her dire situation:

She was driven from her house with her Infants without the propriety of saving even her own or their Clothes, and was with Mrs. William Dickson exposed for three days & nights upon the snow with the Canopy of Heaven for a covering. Her house, once the seat of hospitality and plenty, with every thing in it was set on fire, reduced to ashes before her face.¹

On every street in Newark, hundreds of women and children watched as American soldiers and the traitorous Canadian Volunteers put their torches to over eighty houses, barns, and stables. As the army prepared to retreat across the Niagara River, they set fire to anything in the area that could provide shelter for the approaching British troops and blew up the powder magazine at Fort George. The American commander was convinced that burning Newark was necessary to prevent the British from successfully re-establishing their force at Fort George in the middle of winter. Yet the soldiers abandoned the fort without dismantling its defenses, threw at least seven cannons into a ditch rather than remove or destroy them, and even left their tents standing.

The dramatic contrast between abandoning a military fort left intact while burning the nearby town prompted military and civilian outrage in both the United States and Britain. Days after finding the town in ashes, British Lieutenant-Colonel John Harvey wrote to American General George McClure demanding that he “state whether this atrocious act has been committed by the authority of the American Government or is the unauthorized act of any individual.”² While some Americans showed loyalty to McClure and defended him in correspondence and the press, many of the soldiers and officers recognized the folly of his actions. Brigadier-General Timothy Hopkins described to New York Governor Daniel D. Tompkins that McClure’s decisions had “disgusted the greater part of the men under his command and they have no confidence in him.”³ American newspapers, especially those with Federalist anti-war editors, denounced the act and printed first-hand accounts of the tragic night. An anonymous letter from Lewiston, New York on the Niagara River reprinted under the title “Newark Burnt!” in the New York Evening Post lamented, “The destruction and misery which this dastardly conduct has occasioned is scarcely to be described. […] Not a person of any feeling but was thunderstruck at the awful picture.”⁴

The vivid scene of Elizabeth Campbell’s experience during the burning of Newark is perhaps the most stirring example of the suffering that inhabitants of Upper Canada experienced during the War of 1812. Details of women’s harrowing experiences and losses appear in other accounts of the tragic night but few are so eloquent or compelling. Most histories of the War of 1812—both contemporary and modern—discuss the destruction of Newark as an event that changed the tenor of the war and began a series of vengeful conflagrations of both sides of the Niagara River culminating in the British decision to burn public property including the Capitol and President’s House in Washington D.C. Despite the relative importance of Newark in the broader action of the war, however, few scholars have dwelled on the people who fought to survive sudden destruction and displacement, instead focusing on the military men who had caused the “untold suffering.”⁵ The experiences of female inhabitants, which included suffering and loss but also resiliency and perseverance, have only been “untold” because few historians have attempted to compile these stories or understand how they fit into the history of the war. In a longstanding tradition within the history of the War of 1812, historians in their depictions have focused on women’s victimhood, overlooking the broad and powerful agency they seized in responding to traumatic events.⁶

This study of women’s experiences during the War of 1812 challenges existing limited portrayals of women as passive objects of “untold suffering” by expanding the historical lens to include a broader range of women’s activities made visible in official records compiled because of the war, particularly war loss claims. Focusing on the Niagara District as a case study, evidence found through this expanded view demonstrates that women’s lives were much more dynamic and complex than a single moment of trauma can represent. Before the outbreak of war, women were involved in the settlement and growth of the Niagara District through their acquisition of capital by land petitions and through their integral role in frontier life. Throughout the conflict, women supported the war effort by providing information, resources, and aid to the army. They ensured the safety and survival of their families by merging households, providing mutual support, applying for aid from private organizations, and even cooperating with the enemy to procure food. Women participated in local and provincial economies by taking on additional work in farms and business when male kin were absent or deceased, applying for compensation for their wartime losses, and then using their awards to rebuild homes and purchase land. In all these activities, women were aware of and acted in accordance with their positions within the patriarchal social structures of frontier provincial life but also worked to shape those positions according to their needs and circumstances. Through an examination of the lives of women in the Niagara District, this dissertation argues that women’s unique situation in Upper Canada positioned and empowered them to shape the settlement of the province, the survival of families and communities during the war, and the reconstruction of the province in the postwar years.

Each of the modules in this dissertation begins with a moment from the life of Elizabeth Campbell, whose story is so remarkable that it could easily be mistaken for a historian’s invention. Although Campbell is not meant to represent all women, surviving evidence of her life includes experiences that were shared by many other women in similar circumstances. In the first module, Campbell’s arrival in the Niagara District with her husband provides a point of entry into a discussion of how the region went from an unsettled frontier to the center of provincial society and economy in fewer than twenty years. During the period of initial settlement, women played an important role in acquiring land through petitions based on their position as Loyalists or as daughters, wives, and nieces of Loyalists. The rapid expansion of settlement in Niagara resulted in population and wealth density that made it an appealing target for invasions, which in turn led to more severe wartime losses and destruction than experienced in any other district. Another result of the population density and the death or injury of many male inhabitants in the militia meant that women’s experiences were suddenly made more visible in official records when widowed women became heads of households and owners of land. The first module argues that these factors combine to make the Niagara District a suitable case study for understanding how women in Upper Canada experienced and responded to the War of 1812.

The second module begins with a description of Elizabeth Campbell’s losses during the war, some of which were typical of women’s experiences in the Niagara District. An examination of claims for compensation of losses incurred during the war and other evidence (discussed in detail in Module 4) suggests that inhabitants of Niagara were more likely to suffer losses than those of any other district. These records also indicate that women in Niagara experienced greater losses but were also more likely to become widowed heads of households and apply for compensation. This module argues that three primary factors contributed to these differences: first, Niagara became a focal point in the war because other American campaigns faltered, putting immense pressure on the officers in Niagara to successfully invade and capture territory in Upper Canada even if they lacked a long-term strategy. Second, the heavy use of militia in the provincial British forces meant that more men were enrolled, captured, or killed in service, leaving women to take on additional work, become responsible for their families, and step into roles previously held by men. Finally, the inhabitants of Niagara suffered from a combination of military appropriations by the British, looting by soldiers and native allies on both sides, and an unprecedented series of vengeful conflagrations.

Module Three revisits Elizabeth Campbell’s story to identify the ways in which she coped with the various situations caused by the war, including her time under American occupation of Newark and her long refugee journey to find shelter with her family in Nova Scotia. Women throughout the district responded to such circumstances in different ways according to their resources and connections. Some women took on additional work on farms and in commerce when male relatives were absent, imprisoned, or killed. Most women worked closely with other community members to share resources and labor, even combining their households to reduce consumption and provide mutual support. They also supported the British army in physical altercations and by passing information. To survive in the face of loss and destruction, significant numbers of women applied for financial aid from charitable organizations. This module argues that women played an integral role in preserving human life and property during the war, balancing the competing demands of loyalty and survival, and demonstrated that they were willing to do whatever was necessary to protect their families and communities, even if it required them to take on additional work or put their own lives at risk.

The fourth module examines the process of submitting a claim for compensation of wartime losses. Despite the strict procedural and evidentiary requirements, women overcame these restrictions to seek restitution for the losses they had incurred during the war. Women produced detailed lists of property and articles that were taken or destroyed, assigned values to each item, and worked with local magistrates to prepare the documents. To support their claims, they turned to neighbors, acquaintances, experts, and respected members of society to provide statements testifying to their losses and situations. This module argues that the claims process created a unique opportunity for women to occupy a position equal with male claimants, to demonstrate their capacity to operate within the strict bounds defined by the commissioners, and successfully acquire financial restitution for their losses. The module also explores whether social prejudices based on gender and race shaped the claims process, arguing that despite defining a process that prevented some inhabitants from making claims, the Board of Claims for Losses reviewed submitted cases and made awards without discrimination.

The fifth module argues that women’s wartime activities had lasting effects on their communities and made a significant contribution to the economic and social recovery of the Niagara District after the war. The death of male inhabitants gave many widows more control of their family’s finances and property, which also increased their participation in larger social and economic networks. Evidence from the war loss claims, township papers, and family histories indicates that women who lived through the war later contributed to economic growth as consumers, builders, business proprietors, and land speculators. They also used their financial resources to provide long-term stability for their families and shaped their children’s marital and profession opportunities and decisions.

The epilogue provides a summary of the previous modules and suggests areas for future research that may provide more insight into the long-term effects of women’s wartime and postwar actions in the growth of the province throughout the nineteenth century. Because so few histories of the War of 1812 and Upper Canada have considered women’s experiences and contributions, the arguments and conclusions set out in this dissertation are preliminary. The work of returning women’s voices and lives to their rightful place in these histories is only beginning.