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Imagine that you are a Scots crofter, living in the 19th century. Your ancestors have lived, loved and died on the same land for hundreds of years. What would make you uproot your family to make the dangerous journey across the ocean to carve a living out of a vast and hostile wilderness?
Thousands of Jacobites fled Scotland for the New World before and after defeat at the Battle of Culloden. Scots soldiers and transported convicts made a new life in Canada after the American Wars of Independence. Many Scots lost their homes during the Highland Clearances. Some left because there seemed to be no other option. Some faced persecution or arrest in Scotland for their political and religious views.
But, for many Scots, the wilderness of Canada simply offered them the promise of a better life.
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Many Scots faced homelessness and unemployment at home. Scotland's cities were already packed with people and most lived in cramped, unhealthy conditions. Tales of a wilderness so vast that no man had travelled to its farthest edge must have sounded like paradise.
Scots were well educated with a high literacy rate. Many decided to make the most of the opportunities that Canada could offer.
Canada gave Highland and Lowland Scots the chance to reinvent themselves in a society that valued common sense and a solid work ethic over class and family connections. Farmers, traders and adventurers saw the New World as a land of opportunity; a chance to start over.
Scots families that emigrated to Canada had to make sacrifices. The ocean voyage was dangerous, with ships lost at sea and some voyagers succumbing to illness during the crossing. It was also expensive to buy passage; many people had to go into debt in order to afford the cost of the voyage.
Finally, when Scots emigrants arrived in Canada, many faced untold hardships, discovering just how hard the frontier life could be.
The images used above are licensed under Creative Commons on Flickr by the following photographers: jurek d, mike138, Musée McCord Museum and No One Nels.
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