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Susanna Moodie<\/b>\u00a0(born\u00a0Strickland<\/b>; 6 December 1803 \u2013 8 April 1885) was an English-born Canadian author who wrote about her experiences as a settler in Canada, which was a British colony at the time.<\/p>\nSusanna Moodie<\/b>\u00a0(born\u00a0Strickland<\/b>; 6 December 1803 \u2013 8 April 1885) was an English-born Canadian author who wrote about her experiences as a settler in Canada, which was a British colony at the time.<\/p>\n
Susanna Moodie was born in\u00a0Bungay<\/a>, on the\u00a0River Waveney<\/a>\u00a0in\u00a0Suffolk<\/a>. She was the youngest sister of a family of writers, including\u00a0Agnes Strickland<\/a>,\u00a0Jane Margaret Strickland<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Catharine Parr Traill<\/a>.<\/sup>\u00a0 She wrote her first children’s book in 1822, and published other children’s stories in London, including books about\u00a0Spartacus<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Jugurtha<\/a>. In London she was also involved in the\u00a0Anti-Slavery Society<\/a>, transcribing the narrative of the former Caribbean slave\u00a0Mary Prince<\/a>.<\/sup>\u00a0On 4 April 1831, she married\u00a0John Moodie<\/a>, a retired officer who had served in the\u00a0Napoleonic Wars<\/a>. In 1832, with her husband and daughter, Moodie immigrated to\u00a0Upper Canada<\/a>. The family settled on a farm in Douro township, near Lakefield, north of\u00a0Peterborough<\/a>, where her brother\u00a0Samuel<\/a>\u00a0worked as a surveyor, and where artifacts are housed in a museum. Founded by Samuel, the museum was formerly an Anglican church and overlooks the\u00a0Otonabee River<\/a>\u00a0where Susanna once canoed. It also displays artifacts concerning both Samuel and\u00a0Catharine Parr Traill<\/a>.<\/p>\n As a middle-class Englishwoman, Moodie did not particularly enjoy “the bush”, as she called it. In 1840 she and her husband moved to\u00a0Belleville<\/a>, which she referred to as “the clearings”. She studied the\u00a0Family Compact<\/a>\u00a0and became sympathetic to the moderate reformers led by\u00a0Robert Baldwin<\/a>, while remaining critical of radical reformers such as William Lyon Mackenzie. This caused problems for her husband, who shared her views, but, as sheriff of Belleville, had to work with members and supporters of the Family Compact.<\/p>\n In 1852, she published\u00a0Roughing it in the Bush<\/a><\/i>, detailing her experiences on the farm in the 1830s. In 1853, she published\u00a0Life in the Clearings Versus the Bush<\/i>, about her time in Belleville. She remained in Belleville, living with various family members (particularly her son Robert) after her husband’s death, and lived to see\u00a0Canadian Confederation<\/a>. She died in\u00a0Toronto<\/a>, Ontario on 8 April 1885 and is buried in\u00a0Belleville Cemetery<\/a>.<\/p>\n Her greatest success was\u00a0Roughing it in the Bush<\/i>. The inspiration for the memoir came from a suggestion by her editor that she write an “emigrant’s guide” for British people looking to move to Canada. Moodie wrote of the trials and tribulations she found as a “New Canadian”, rather than the advantages to be had in the colony. She claimed that her intention was not to discourage immigrants but to prepare people like herself, raised in relative wealth and with no prior experience as farmers, for what life in Canada would be like.<\/p>\n Moodie taught her daughter\u00a0Agnes<\/a>\u00a0how to paint flowers and Agnes later illustrated\u00a0Canadian Wild Flowers<\/i>, published in 1868.<\/p>\n Moodie’s books and poetry inspired\u00a0Margaret Atwood<\/a>‘s collection of poetry,\u00a0The Journals of Susanna Moodie<\/a><\/i>, published in 1970. It was also an important influence on one of Atwood’s later novels,\u00a0Alias Grace<\/a><\/i>, based on an account of murder convict\u00a0Grace Marks<\/a>\u00a0which appeared in\u00a0Life in the Clearings Versus the Bush<\/i>. She has also been a source of inspiration for\u00a0Carol Shields<\/a>, who published a critical analysis of Susanna Moodie’s work,\u00a0Susanna Moodie: Voice and Vision<\/a><\/i>. Additionally, the central character of Shield’s novel,\u00a0Small Ceremonies<\/a><\/i>, is working on a biography of Moodie.<\/p>\n On 8 September 2003, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the\u00a0National Library of Canada<\/a>,\u00a0Canada Post<\/a>\u00a0released a special commemorative series, “The Writers of Canada”, with a design by Katalina Kovats, featuring two English-Canadian and two French-Canadian stamps. Three million stamps were issued. Moodie and her sister\u00a0Catherine Parr Traill<\/a>\u00a0were featured on one of the English-Canadian stamps.<\/p>\n Novels<\/strong> Poetry<\/strong> Children’s books<\/strong> Memoirs<\/strong> Letters<\/strong> en.wikipedia.org<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Susanna Moodie\u00a0(born\u00a0Strickland; 6 December 1803 \u2013 8 April 1885) was an English-born Canadian author who wrote about her experiences as a settler in Canada, which was a British colony at the time. Susanna Moodie was born in\u00a0Bungay, on the\u00a0River Waveney\u00a0in\u00a0Suffolk. She was the youngest sister of a family of writers,… Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-persone"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stellapadelli.eu\/sp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stellapadelli.eu\/sp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stellapadelli.eu\/sp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stellapadelli.eu\/sp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stellapadelli.eu\/sp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.stellapadelli.eu\/sp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32,"href":"https:\/\/www.stellapadelli.eu\/sp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28\/revisions\/32"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stellapadelli.eu\/sp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stellapadelli.eu\/sp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stellapadelli.eu\/sp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stellapadelli.eu\/sp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.stellapadelli.eu\/sp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/SusannahMoodie.jpg\")
Moodie continued to write in Canada and her letters and journals contain valuable information about life in the colony. She observed life in what was then the backwoods of\u00a0Ontario<\/a>, including\u00a0native<\/a>\u00a0customs, the climate, the wildlife, relations between the Canadian population and recent American settlers, and the strong sense of community and the communal work, known as “bees” (which she, incidentally, hated). She suffered through the economic\u00a0depression<\/a>\u00a0in 1836, and her husband served in the\u00a0militia<\/a>\u00a0against\u00a0William Lyon Mackenzie<\/a>\u00a0in the\u00a0Upper Canada Rebellion<\/a>\u00a0in 1837.<\/p>\nRecognition<\/span><\/h3>\n
Commemorative postage stamp<\/span><\/h3>\n
Bibliography<\/h5>\n
\nMark Hurdlestone \u2013 1853
\nFlora Lyndsay \u2013 1854
\nMatrimonial Speculations \u2013 1854
\nGeoffrey Moncton \u2013 1855
\nThe World Before Them \u2013 1868<\/p>\n
\nPatriotic Songs \u2013 1830 (with Agnes Strickland)
\nEnthusiasm and Other Poems \u2013 1831<\/p>\n
\nSpartacus \u2013 1822
\nThe Little Quaker
\nThe Sailor Brother
\nThe Little Prisoner
\nHugh Latimer \u2013 1828
\nRowland Massingham
\nProfession and Principle
\nGeorge Leatrim \u2013 1875<\/p>\n
\nRoughing It in the Bush \u2013 1852
\nLife in the Backwoods; A Sequel to Roughing it in the Bush
\nLife in the Clearings Versus the Bush \u2013 1853<\/p>\n
\nLetters of a Lifetime \u2013 1985 (edited by Carl Ballstadt, Elizabeth Hopkins, and Michael Peterman)<\/p>\n