Historic Fort York, 1793-1993 by Carl Benn

Author:Carl Benn
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dundurn
Published: 1993-08-14T16:00:00+00:00

MTL, T1749

Pl. 38: Sir Francis Bond Head (1793-1875). Before becoming lieutenant-governor of Upper Canada in 1836, Head had been an officer in the Royal Engineers, a manager of a mining enterprise in Argentina, and a poor law commissioner in Kent. He returned to England in disgrace after the Mackenzie Rebellion because of his incompetent handling of the province’s affairs.

NAC, C-40831

Pl. 39: The creator of this crude racist cartoon hoped to incite opposition to the government for recruiting Black and Aboriginal peoples to defend the colony during the Rebellion Crisis. For their part, Blacks and Natives believed a successful rebellion would lead to the American annexation of Upper Canada and a corresponding degradation in their already precarious position in the province.

On December 5, 1837, Mackenzie marched down Yonge Street at the head of between 500 and 700 men. (At that time, Head had only 250 supporters by his side.) Some rebels had firearms, others carried home-made pikes, some had clubs and sticks, but many had no weapons at all. Meanwhile, another 100 to 200 rebels waited inside the city, prepared to spring into action once Mackenzie entered Toronto.48 In the face of these threats, the government’s pickets north of the city (at modern Bloor Street) were called in. Frightened and hoping to defuse the crisis, Sir Francis sent negotiators to Mackenzie to see what the rebels wanted.

At this point, the rebellion began to falter. Head soon learned that the rebel force numbered in the hundreds, not the thousands he had been led to believe was the case. Therefore, he terminated negotiations. Mackenzie, instead of ordering a quick attack on Toronto before Sir Francis could consolidate his position, squandered more time north of the city burning down the house of one of his critics and engaging in other ineffective activities. By the time he resumed his march towards the city, it was late afternoon and many of his frustrated and unwilling supporters had deserted. Meanwhile, the governor’s supporters assembled at St. Lawrence Market and at the parliament buildings (between Simcoe and John streets on Front Street), and thirty men formed a picket on Yonge Street to watch the main road into the city from the north.49

Near the corner of Yonge and College streets, the picket, led by Sheriff William Jarvis, took cover across the rebels’ line of march.50 At dusk, Mackenzie’s men came within range. The sheriff’s men opened fire, hit a few rebels, but immediately ran away in terror because they were so badly outnumbered.51 The rebels shot back, but almost all of them fled up Yonge Street in panic a few moments later. There were no government casualties in this skirmish. One rebel was killed and several were wounded.52 Soon afterwards, more rebel sympathizers deserted. Exactly why the rebels retreated is unclear. Mackenzie claimed that his men ran because they thought their front ranks had been killed when in fact they fell to the ground after firing only so the rear ranks could fire over their heads. At the same

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.