Sep 29, 2018 — GREENWOOD, BC (BG)

PART TWO

As the Female Emigrants Guide instructs in the needed strengths of women, there are many interesting ideas put forward by the author. Women from small farming families are recognized for having skills and fortitude that others will suffer not having upon emigrating to early Canada.

Rather than the modern mood, decrying the notion of 'reducing' fellow humans to subservience, here we read that women took full advantage when they were able to engage servants in their own service. And further, economic practicalities inspired families to put their own children into paid service, to help sustain the household and farm budget. This offered young adults an opportunity to gain skills that would give them a means of making their own living. The author writes:

"The wives and daughters of the small farmers and of the working class, should feel the difficulties of a settler's life far less keenly than any other, as their habits and general knowledge of rural affairs have fitted them for the active labours that may fall to their lot in Canada. Though much that they have to perform will be new to them, it will only be the manner of doing it, and the difference of some of the materials that they will have to make use of: enured from childhood to toil, they may soon learn to conform to their change of life.

"The position of servants is much improved in one respect: their services are more valuable in a country where there is less competition among the working class. They can soon save enough to be independent. They have the cheering prospect always before them: It depends upon ourselves to better our own condition. In this country honest industry always commands respect: by it we can in time raise ourselves, and no one can keep us down.

"Yet I have observed with much surprize that there is no class of emigrants more discontented than the wives and daughters of those men who were accustomed to earn their bread by the severest toil, in which they too were by necessity obliged to share, often with patience and cheerfulness under privations the most heartbreaking, with no hope of amendment, no refuge but the grave from poverty and all its miseries. Surely to persons thus situated, the change of country should be regarded with hopeful feelings; seeing that it opens a gate which leads from poverty to independence, from present misery to future comfort.

"At first the strangeness of all things around them, the loss of familiar faces and familiar objects, and the want of all their little household conveniences, are sensibly felt; and these things make them uncomfortable and peevish: but a little reasoning with themselves would show that such inconveniences belong to the nature of their new position, and that a little time will do away with the evil they complain of.

"After a while new feelings, new attachments to persons and things, come to fill up the void: they begin to take an interest in the new duties that are before them, and by degrees conform to the change; and an era in their lives commences, which is the beginning to them of a better and more prosperous state of things.

"It frequently happens that before the poor emigrant can settle upon land of his own, he is obliged to send the older children out to service. Perhaps he gets employment for himself and his wife, on some farm, where they can manage to keep the younger members of the family with them, if there is a small house or shanty convenient, on or near the farm on which they are hired. Sometimes a farmer can get a small farm on shares; but it is seldom a satisfactory mode of rental, and often ends in disagreement. As no man can serve two masters, neither can one farm support two, unless both parties are which rarely happens, quite disinterested and free from selfishness, each exacting no more than his due. It is seldom these partnerships turn out well.

"There is an error which female servants are very apt to fall into in this country, which as a true friend, I would guard them against committing. This is adopting a free and easy manner, often bordering upon impertinence, towards their employers. They are apt to think that because they are entitled to a higher rate of wages, they are not bound to render their mistresses the same respect of manners as was usual in the old country. Now, as they receive mote, they ought not to be less thankful to those who pay them well, and should be equally zealous in doing their duty. They should bear in mind that they are commanded to render "honor to whom honor is due."

"A female servant in Canada whose manners are respectful and well-behaved, will always be treated with consideration and even with affection. After all, good-breeding is as charming a trait in a servant as it is in a lady. Were there more of that kindly feeling existing between the upper and lower classes, both parties would be benefitted, and a bond of union established, which would extend beyond the duration of a few months or a few years, and be continued through life: how much more satisfactory than that unloving strife where the mistress is haughty and the servant insolent.

"But while I would recommend respect and obedience on the part of the servant, to her employer I would say, treat your servants with consideration: if you respect her she will also respect you; if she does her duty, she is inferior to no one living as a member of the great human family. The same Lord who says by the mouth of his apostle, "Servants obey your masters," has also added, "and ye masters do ye also the same, forbearing threatening; knowing that your master also is in heaven, and that with him there is no respect of persons."

"Your servants as long as they are with you, are of your household, "and should be so treated that they should learn to look up to you in love as well as reverence. If they are newcomers to Canada, they have everything to learn; and will of course feel strange and awkward to the ways of the colony, and require to be patiently dealt with. They may have their regrets and sorrows yet rankling in their hearts for those dear friends they have left behind them, and require kindness and sympathy. — Remember that you also are a stranger and sojourner in a strange land, and should feel for them and bear with them as becomes Christians.

"Servants in Canada are seldom hired excepting by the month. — The female servant by the full calendar month; the men and boys' month is four weeks only. From three to four dollars a month is the usual wages given to female servants; and two, and two dollars and a half, to girls of fourteen and sixteen years of age, unless they are very small, and very ignorant of the work of the country; then less is given. Indeed, if a young girl were to give her services for a month or two, with a good clever mistress, for her board alone, she would be the gainer by the bargain, in the useful knowledge which she would acquire, and which would enable her to take a better place, and command higher wages.

"It is a common error in girls coming direct from the old country, and who have all Canada's ways to learn, to ask the highest rate of wages, expecting the same as those who are twice as efficient. This is not reasonable; and if the demand be yielded to from necessity, there is seldom much satisfaction or harmony, both parties being respectively discontented with the other. The one gives too much, the other does too little in return for high wages."

The Backwoods of Canada