Date of Award
Fall 12-10-2021
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
History
First Advisor
Dr. Kirstin Lawson
Second Advisor
Dr. Christopher Childers
Third Advisor
Dr. Brian Moots
Keywords
Cod fishery, economics, health, gender, law, Beothuk indigenous peoples.
Abstract
The island of Newfoundland is conspicuous in colonial British and North American histories, most particularly and paradoxically, in its absence, a state of affairs which this study aims to help address. Multiple factors, including a paucity of documentary sources and various historiographic trends, have traditionally contributed to Newfoundland’s marginalization within colonial historical narratives. However, developments in recent years have made Newfoundland’s potential integration into the broader colonial dialogue more feasible including the advent of the Atlantic perspective, the expansion of available sources, and the work of multiple regional historians who have challenged enduring historiographic trends characterizing Newfoundland colonial settlements as marginal, failed, or backward. This study seeks to affirm the island’s historical importance within the Atlantic basin between the sixteenth century and the nineteenth century by highlighting that colonial Newfoundland settlements actually had far more in common with those of their European settler counterparts in North America than the traditional historiography suggests. The surprising similarities and unique differences between the island’s settlements and continental or Caribbean ones, largely unexplored by any but regional scholars, help make the case for Newfoundland’s fuller integration into colonial histories. Among these unique differences, the social and economic advantages available to working-class immigrants to Newfoundland are particular areas of interest, as such advantages were uncommon to many of their counterparts elsewhere in the colonial Atlantic basin.
Recommended Citation
Hynes, Elena, "A Workers' Paradise: Re-integrating Newfoundland into Colonial American History" (2021). Electronic Theses & Dissertations. 385.
https://digitalcommons.pittstate.edu/etd/385
Included in
African American Studies Commons, Canadian History Commons, Economic History Commons, European History Commons, History of Gender Commons, Indigenous Studies Commons, Labor History Commons, Legal History Commons, Social History Commons
