Keywords
Detroit River Borderlands, Empire, Community Formation, Essex County
Abstract
This research examines the negotiations that transpired between the people, the British imperial government, and the land within the Detroit River borderlands between 1805 to 1820. This work marries borderlands and imperial interpretations and forms a cohesive foundation for analysis, which interprets empire as a framework through which the people of this region maneuvered. Reciprocally, within this negotiated process the people themselves become a mechanism of empire. Therefore, this work amends a historiographical gap within the Detroit-Essex borderlands that often divides imperial and cultural methods. Focusing primarily on the years surrounding the War of 1812, this work draws nuanced connections between empire, land, and community formation specifically in Essex County, Ontario. Partly through its outright destruction, this imperial conflict drew both Detroit and Essex County closer into the orbits of the opposing metropoles thus challenging the resiliency of the woven kinship networks that spanned across the Riverlands community. This work considers the burgeoning free Black communities that emerged during the first half of the nineteenth century in Essex County and the correlation therein between freedom and the war itself. Ultimately, under the strain of empire, the community land matrix of the region was forever altered, while the personal relationships across the strait prevailed.
Primary Advisor
Guillaume Teasdale
Co-Advisor
Gregg French
Program Reader
Miriam Wright
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Department
History
Document Type
Major Research Paper
Convocation Year
2024
Included in
Canadian History Commons, Cultural History Commons, Social History Commons, United States History Commons