Grade by Grade
B. Canada, 1800–1850: Conflict and Challenges · Canada, 1800–1850: Conflict and Challenges

The Great Migration: Newcomers, Canals and Settlement

B1 B3About 50 minutes
Learning goals
  • I can explain push and pull factors that brought people from Britain and Ireland to British North America between 1815 and 1850.
  • I can describe the hardships of the voyage and of settling, including disease.
  • I can describe how the Canada Company, canals and new towns changed Upper Canada.
  • I can explain how settlement affected First Nations.

Words to know

Great Migration
The large wave of people who moved from Britain and Ireland to British North America between about 1815 and 1850.
emigrant
A person who leaves their country to live elsewhere. (They are an immigrant when they arrive.)
quarantine
Keeping sick or possibly sick people apart so a disease does not spread.
cholera
A dangerous disease spread by dirty water. It struck the colonies in 1832.
typhus
A disease spread by lice in crowded, dirty conditions. It killed many Irish migrants in 1847.
canal
A human-made waterway, often with locks, built for boats.
lock
A chamber with gates in a canal that raises or lowers boats from one water level to another.

Let's start with a question

In 1815, much of what is now southern Ontario was still forest. By the 1851 census, Canada West (as Upper Canada was then called) had about 950,000 people.

Where did all these people come from? And what happened to the people who already lived there?

Remember from Grade 6

In Grade 6 you learned that push factors push people away from their old home (war, hunger, no jobs) and pull factors pull them toward a new one (land, jobs, safety). You saw that the Irish Famine brought many people to Canada in the 1840s. Now you will look closely at the whole Great Migration and its effects.

Push factors (in Britain and Ireland)Pull factors (in British North America)
After the Napoleonic Wars ended in 1815, many soldiers and workers had no jobsCheap or free land to farm
Poor harvests and high food pricesJobs building canals and roads, and in the timber trade
Farmers forced off their land in Scotland and IrelandLetters from relatives already there
The Irish Famine (1845–1852), when potato crops failedBritish government and companies encouraging settlement
Crowded, unhealthy citiesLiving under British law and the British Crown
Most people moved because of both pushes and pulls.
Britain and IrelandPUSHno jobs after 1815poor harvestsforced off farmsIrish Faminecrowded citiesBritish North AmericaPULLcheap landcanal and timber jobsletters from familyBritish lawAtlantic Ocean: several weeksmore than 800,000 people,1815 to 1850
The Great Migration: pushes from Britain and Ireland and pulls from British North America moved more than 800,000 people across the Atlantic between 1815 and 1850.

The voyage

Historians estimate that more than 800,000 people came from Britain and Ireland between 1815 and 1850.

  • Many crossed on timber ships returning empty to British North America. Passage was cheap, but these ships were not built for people.
  • The voyage took several weeks. Passengers were crowded below deck with little fresh air, poor food and dirty water.
  • In 1832, cholera arrived with immigrant ships. A quarantine station opened on Grosse Île, an island in the St. Lawrence River below Quebec City, to check and care for sick arrivals.
  • 1847 was the worst year. About 100,000 people or more, most of them fleeing the Irish Famine, sailed for British North America. Many were sick with typhus. Some estimates say about one in five died, on ships, in quarantine sheds, or in cities like Montreal and Toronto. In Toronto alone, more than 1,100 died. Doctors, nurses, priests and ordinary people who cared for the sick also died.

Settling the land

  • Assisted settlement: In 1823 and 1825, the British government paid for groups of poor Irish families to settle in Upper Canada under Peter Robinson. The town of Peterborough is named after him.
  • The Canada Company (formed in 1826) bought large areas of land, including the Huron Tract, about a million acres near Lake Huron, to sell to settlers. Its leader John Galt founded Guelph in 1827; Goderich was also founded that year.
  • Canals: The first Welland Canal (opened 1829) let ships go around Niagara Falls. The Rideau Canal (1826–1832), built under Colonel John By, ran about 202 km from Bytown (now Ottawa) to Kingston. It was built partly for defence, as a supply route away from the American border after the War of 1812. Most workers were Irish and French-Canadian labourers. No one knows exactly how many workers died; a common estimate is about 1,000, mostly from malaria and other diseases, along with accidents. Today the Rideau Canal is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
  • Towns grew around mills, canals and harbours: Bytown, Kingston, Hamilton, London and York (renamed Toronto in 1834).
Lake OntarioSt. Lawrence Riverright along the American borderUS border (rough)Ottawa RiverRideau Canalabout 202 km,built 1826–1832KingstonBytown (Ottawa)MontrealSketch, not to scale
Why build the Rideau Canal? The St. Lawrence route ran right along the American border. The canal (dashed) gave a safer inland route from Kingston to Bytown and the Ottawa River. Sketch, not to scale.

What about the people already there?

Every new farm, road and town was on First Nations land. As settlers arrived:

  • The colonial government made land surrender treaties with First Nations, often under heavy pressure (next lesson).
  • Forests were cleared and rivers dammed, so hunting, fishing and gathering places disappeared.
  • Diseases brought by newcomers also harmed First Nations communities.

The same years that meant opportunity for many newcomers meant loss for many First Nations.

Worked example

Modelled example: Cause and consequence of the Rideau Canal

Why was the Rideau Canal built, and what were its consequences?

  1. Cause: After the War of 1812, the British worried that the St. Lawrence River, right along the American border, could be cut off in another war. They wanted a safer route from Montreal to Kingston and Lake Ontario.
  2. Short-term consequences: thousands of jobs; many workers died (a common estimate is about 1,000); the town of Bytown grew.
  3. Long-term consequences: Bytown became Ottawa, later Canada's capital. The canal carried goods and settlers. Lands and waters used by Algonquin (Anishinaabe) people were flooded and changed. Today it is a heritage site and, in winter, part of it becomes a famous skating rink.
  4. Was it ever used in a war? No. There was never another war with the US.

The Rideau Canal was caused by fear of war but its biggest consequences were peaceful: trade, settlement and the growth of Ottawa, along with costs for workers and Indigenous peoples.

A small boat waits in a canal lock with stone walls, wooden gates and black hand-turned cranks, beside a stone lockkeeper's house.
A lock on the Rideau Canal today. The gates are still opened by hand with these cranks, much as they were when the canal opened in 1832. AI-generated image

Opportunity for whom?

When a textbook calls something "progress", ask: progress for whom? A new canal could mean jobs for an Irish labourer, profit for a merchant, danger for the workers who got sick, and lost fishing grounds for a First Nations family, all at once.

Just for fun

Funny but true: the Rideau Canal was built in case of war, and it never saw a single battle. Today, in winter, part of it turns into a giant skating rink in Ottawa. From military supply route to the world's longest commute on skates!

Hands-on activity

Build a canal lock

You need: a clean empty milk carton or two plastic food containers, a small plastic lid or cork for a "boat", water, a sink or tub, and tape. A grown-up should cut the containers.

  1. With a grown-up, make two "chambers" side by side, one higher than the other (set one container on a book).
  2. Fill the high chamber with water. Float the boat in the low chamber.
  3. Pour water into the low chamber until it reaches the same level as the high one. Slide the boat across.
  4. To go back down, scoop water out until it is at the lower level.
  5. Explain to a grown-up how a lock lifts a boat without lifting it: the water does the lifting.

Look for: understanding that locks let boats climb rapids and waterfalls, which is why the Rideau needed dozens of locks.

Your turn

1

Give two push factors that sent people from Britain and Ireland to British North America after 1815.

2

Give two pull factors.

3

What was Grosse Île used for?

4

Why was 1847 such a terrible year for Irish migrants?

5

What did the Canada Company do?

6

Between which two places did the Rideau Canal run?

7

How did the Great Migration affect First Nations?

More practice: warm-up

1

In what years was the Rideau Canal built?

2

Who led the building of the Rideau Canal?

3

What town is named after Peter Robinson?

4

Which disease came with immigrant ships in 1832?

5

What does a canal lock do?

More practice: on your own

1

Why did many emigrants travel on timber ships, and what problems did this cause?

2

Explain why the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 was a push factor.

3

Why did the government want a canal route away from the St. Lawrence?

4

Why do we say the Great Migration meant opportunity for some and loss for others?

5

By 1851 Canada West had about 950,000 people. What changes would this growth cause in the landscape?

Challenge

1

Write a short paragraph from the perspective of an Irish teenager arriving at Grosse Île in 1847. Include two accurate facts.

2

Was the Rideau Canal significant? Use two criteria to judge.

3

Compare the experience of a Canada Company settler near Guelph with that of an Anishinaabe family in the Huron Tract in the 1830s.

Check your understanding

Quiz

1.

Which was a pull factor for British emigrants?

2.

What was the purpose of Grosse Île?

3.

About how many people came to British North America in 1847?

4.

Why was the Rideau Canal built?

5.

Who founded Guelph in 1827?

6.

How did large-scale settlement affect First Nations?

For parents and teachers

Big idea: Students analyse the lives of newcomers and of First Nations during the Great Migration (B1) and describe significant developments like canals and the Canada Company (B3).

Sensitivity: The 1847 famine migration involved great suffering. Mention deaths honestly without graphic detail. If your family has an immigration story, share it; it makes push and pull factors real.

Safety: The canal lock activity uses water; a grown-up should do the cutting and watch for spills.

How to help: Look at a road map of Ontario together and find towns founded in this period (Guelph, Goderich, Peterborough, Ottawa/Bytown).

Common difficulties: Thinking settlers arrived on empty land; forgetting the costs of "progress" for workers and First Nations.