The Backwoods of Canada: Letters from the Wife of an Emigrant Officer

The Backwoods of Canada is a collection of personal letters written by Catharine Parr Traill and published in 1836. The book was intended to equip other women immigrants with a realistic view of what life was like on the wilderness frontier of Canada as well as insight into the skills and strength needed to survive. Following her marriage to Thomas Traill, a retired British Lieutenant who served in the Napoleonic Wars, the couple emigrated to Canada and settled in the backwoods near what is now Peterborough, Ontario. Catharine was a prolific writer, having authored her first book at the age of 16. Following the publication of this book, she went on to produce Canadian Crusoes (1851) and The Female Emigrant’s Guide (1854) with which she shared more antidotes of daily frontier life as well as a more thorough collection of requisite domestic skills. Traill was also an avid naturalist, producing multiple volumes on Canadian flora and fauna. This book offers an excellent glimpse into frontier life as it had existed relatively unchanged for many decades. It is especially unique in that it provides that glimpse from a female perspective.