Assignment # 9- Journal of a Loyalist

My name is Sophia Johnson. I am 13 years old. I am a Loyalist who just arrived in Nova Scotia. When my family and I arrived here we were given some land. My father fought for the Crown. He was a captain so he was given seven hundred acres, my mother was given fifty acres, my three brothers were each given fifty acres and my two sisters and I were also given fifty acres. In total we were given one thousand and fifty acres.


My family is eight of the approximately forty- six thousand Loyalists who came to British North America. We were also eight of the approximately thirty- four thousand Loyalists who went to Nova Scotia when we arrived in British North America. The people who were already living in Nova Scotia when we arrived were not at all pleased to see us. It is said that there is going to be a new colony made where my family has settled. This colony is to be called New Brunswick. There will be approximately fourteen thousand Loyalists in this colony. Here is a map of where we live. It is going to be named New Brunswick.

As I said, the people who were living in Nova Scotia before my family and the other thirty- four thousand Loyalists arrived were not at all pleased to see us. They greeted us with no warmth and barely ever spoke to us. This was very upsetting to me. I was very excited to be coming here and these people seem to not even want my family and I to have ever stepped on the land of Nova Scotia. Like I said I was very excited when my family and I arrived here. Not only was I excited but I was also nervous. I was nervous because I had left my home to come to British North America. I never realized exactly how far I would be away from my home until I had made the journey here. Even though I had some doubts about coming here at first I can now say that I am glad I came.

I really hope that things work out here. I hope that the people that lived here before us begin to accept us soon.

Sophia

Here are links to some of the websites that I got information from. Wikipedia, The Canadian Encyclopedia and Rideau-Info

Assignment 8 - Louis Riel

For this assignment I will be writing an interview with Louis Riel. If you want to read the whole assignment you can check out my teacher's blog.


Jessica-Today I have the great privilege to interview Louis Riel. Before we start the actual interview I will give you a small amount of background information on Louis Riel. Louis Riel was the first child of Louis Riel père and Julie Lagimodière. He was born on the 22nd of October, 1844 in a place called St.Boniface. Louis Riel spent most of his childhood on the Red River. He also spent time on his grandparent's( Lagimodière) property. When he was ten ,Louis Riel started began school. He went to a school run by the Christian Brothers. Well, that is the beginning of Louis Riel's life. Now we will continue with the interview to learn about this amazing person's life.

Louis Riel- It is my pleasure to be here today.

Jessica- Am I sure that everyone reading this interview will be very interested to see the answers to the questions that I will ask you.


Jessica- My first question for you is a very simple question that might be hard to answer. I read somewhere that your father unfortunately died in February, 1864. How did you react when the news reached you?


Louis Riel- The news of my father's death was a huge shock to me. After my father's death I lost all confidence in my qualifications for priesthood. I left college the next March. Without graduating.


Jessica- Why did you decide to leave college without even graduating?


Louis Riel- I felt that I had to support my family. My father had unfortunately left my family in a great debt.


Jessica-I know that if I were in your position I would have done anything to support my family. What exactly did you do?


Louis Riel- First I became a clerk in the Toussaint-Antoine-Rodolphe Laflamme law firm in Montreal. The only problem with this job was that I became extremely bored and annoyed by the law and decided to leave that job and return to Red River. I decided to do this in 1866. Before I actually arrived in my hometown of St Boniface I did some small jobs in places such as Chicago.

Jessica-Well you certainly worked very hard to support your family after your father's death.

Louis Riel- Yes, I did.

Jessica- What was your family like? I have heard a lot about your accomplishments but hardly anything about your family. So, tell us about them.

Louis Riel- Well, to start I guess I should tell you that my family was far from small. I was the oldest of the 11 children in my family. My family was very close and we were also quite religious. Also, because my grandmother was a Franco-Chipewyan Métisse I have about one-eighth Indian blood.

Jessica- I have also heard that once you were called to appear in front of the Council of Assiniboia. When exactly did this happen?

Louis Riel- I was called before the Council of Assiniboia on October 25, 1869.

Jessica- Why were were you called to appear before this council?

Louis Riel- I was called to appear in front of the council because in August 1869 I stood on the steps of the St.Boniface cathedral and said that the survey that a man named McDougall ordered that a survey be done of a Metis settlement. I said that the survey was a menace and Ithuoght it should be stopped.

Jessica- Did you eventually stop the survey of that area?

Louis Riel- Yes. On October 11, 1869 a group of Metis and myself stopped the survey.

Jessica- That is really great.

Louis Riel- Thank you.

Jessica- Thank you for talking to me today. I really enjoyed our interview.

Louis Riel- It was my pleasure.


I found most of my information at this website. Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online

Assignment # 7- Canadian Personalities

Canadian Personalities

In this entry I will be talking about different topics so there will be many different sections so make sure you read the titles. Also, here is a link to my teacher's blog if you want to read the whole assignment.

We Inspired

My Favourite Section.

My favourite section in "Meet the Personalities"was the We Inspired section. This section was very interesting to me because most of the people in this category had very tough beginnings to their lives or careers. For example Herman Smith "Jackrabbit" Johannsen was a cross-country skier who was bankrupt during the Depression. During this time he turned his favourite hobby, skiing, into a business.

The Person I found Most Interesting.

The person that I found most interesting in this section was Mordecai Richler. Richler was a writer in the 1900s. He was a member of a Jewish family who lived in Montreal. Richler often had troubles with what he did because he always wanted to know more about what he was writing about. He wrote in many different styles including novels, essays and children's books. During his writing a career Richler made enemies because of his very authentic and very harsh way of writing about what life was like for immigrants in Canada. Over the course of his career Richler published many books here are three of the ones that I found in the Meet The Personalities section.

1.The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz-published in 1959 (first picture)

2.Oh Canada! Oh Quebec!: Requiem for a Divided Country- published in 1992 (second picture)

3.Barney’s Version- published in 1997 (third picture)

Three More Influential Canadians

Three Canadians that I think should be added to the Canadian Personalities Hall is Ian Millar. I think that Ian Millar should be put in the We Inspired list because he is an amazing Olympic show jumper. He was the first person to defend the World Cup Final title. He did this riding his amazing horse Big Ben. Ian Millar also has competed in the Olympics more than any other athlete in every other sport. If you want to learn more about Ian Millar click HERE.

Another person that I think should be put on this list of influential Canadians is Roberta Bondar. I think that Roberta Bondar should be on this list because she was the first female astronaut in space. I think that she should be in the We Inspire section. I you would like more information about this amazing Canadian click HERE

The last person that I think should be on this list is Joannie Rochette. Joannie Rochette has not made any huge contributions to Canada as we know it but she is an amazing figure skater. Joannie is a four-time Canadian Champion figure skater. Recently (February 8, 2009) Joannie won 2nd place in the 2009 ISU Four Continents Championships. I think that Joannie should be in the We Inspire section on this list because I think that she probably inspires young figure skaters around the world. If you want more information click HERE.

My History- Maker Match

After taking the Mystery History-Maker Match-Up quiz I found out that my history- maker match is one of my favourite authors. My history- maker match is Lucy Maud Montgomery. I was able to guess who my match was before I was shown her picture. I knew for sure who my match was when one of the clues said that she was the author of a book called Anne of Green Gables. Another big clue was that she was born in Prince Edward Island.

What We Have in Common

Lucy Maud Montgomery and I have quite a few things in common. One thing that we have in common is that we are both only children. Another thing that we have in common is that we both enjoy reading and writing. Also, we both have nicknames. Lucy was always called Maud when she was young. They called her Maud because it is her middle name.

What We Don't Have in Common

Although we have many things alike about us, there are still many things that we don't have in common. One thing that we don't have in common is our birth dates. Lucy was born in November and I was born in January. Another thing that we do not have in common is that Lucy has had many wards named after her. I obviously have not had any awards named after me. Lucy Maud Montgomery has also published a series of brilliant books. I hope to do this someday but it has not happened yet. Other than these few things, Lucy and I are very much alike.

Me In 2109!!!!!

If someone discovers my profile in a history book in 100 years this is what I think it will look like.

Jessica Muus was born on January 31, 1996. She had a passion for horses from a very young age. Jessica started riding lessons when she was 11 years old in October 2007. She attended lessons once every week. After about two months later she decided to spend her whole weekend at the stable where she took lessons. This lasted about three months. Then she started to go to show jumping lessons three then four times a week. When she was 25 she won silver in the Olympics on her gorgeous Hanoverian gelding Once in a Blue Moon. At the age of 32 she competed in the Olympics again. This time winning gold on her newest horse, Horse Of a Different Colour. Horse Of a Different Colour or Max ,as he was known by his owner, was definitely a horse of a different colour when he won gold. He was the first Appaloosa to compete in the Olympics. During her jumping career Jessica won 4 gold medals, 2 silver medals and 1 bronze medal. After she retired from jumping she wrote a series of seven best selling books giving tips and advice on seven different horse back riding sports including jumping, barrel racing, dressage and reining. Because of Jessica the Olympic jumping community now openly accepts all breeds of horses including Mustangs, Appaloosas, Paints, Standardbreds and even Fell ponies. Jessica also made the jumping community realize that they had to alter the height of the jumps to accommodate the smaller jumping ponies and horses. For example the Fell, Dales and Haflinger ponies. Although Jessica did not really affect the way the entire world is today she did affect she did have a major affect on the showjumping community. Jessica is still an insparation to young jumpers everywhere who now know that they can fufill their dreams of jumping their beloved Appaloosas or Fell ponies in the Olympics.

Mary Ann Shadd

As you have probably noticed by the title of this entry I will be talking about the life of an amazing African-Canadian named Mary Ann Shadd. Mary Ann Shadd was born on October 9, 1893. She was born a free woman and was known as a rebel from a very early age. In 1850 her determination to make Canada an integrated country really showed. It during this year that Mary Ann Shadd moved to Canada and opened the first integrated school. The school was in an old abandoned army building called "The Old Barracks". It cost students $0.37 to go to this school.

Another first that Mary Ann accomplished was being the first female publisher in North America. She was the publisher of Provincial Freeman. It was an abolitionist news paper.

Mary Ann Shadd did one more amazing thing before she died on June 5, 1893. She was the first woman to enroll in Howard University. The only problem was that ,since she was a woman the university wouldn't let her graduate until 9 years after she had completed all of her courses! Today this would probably never happen! It really shows how much our world has changed.

There were many remarkable African-Canadians during and before Mary Ann Shadd's time and there are still many today. In my eyes though Mary Ann Shadd was one of the most remarkable. She did things that many people in that time thought were impossible. She is truly an inspiration.

If you want to know where I got my information you can check out these websites.

BCCNS- Mary Ann Shadd, Wikipedia and Breaking the Ice-The Mary Ann Shadd Story

It is really cold!!!!!

It is hard to believe that the early Canadian settlers lived through the harsh winters without the technology we have today. What I mean is that we have heaters in our houses that heat pretty much our whole house in a matter of minutes. The settlers didn't have this. They used fires.
They did seem to build houses that would be easy to heat though. They also changed the way they dressed in the winter. Just like us. In winter they covered their clothes with furs to make sure that they were warm. They also wore moccasins. The fact that people also lived close together so they could help each other through the hard times. Overall I think that it is absolutely amazing that early Canadian settlers survived through the harsh winters without the things that we couldn't survive without today. If you want to learn more about how the early Canadian settlers lived click HERE

Assignment #4

WOW! Every one's blog entries were great for assignment #3! I read a few that I really liked. One of them was on Sabrina's Blog. I really liked how much information and detail Sabrina put in to the paragraphs about politics and technology. One of my favourite things that she said in her entry was "Plus, with all of the amazing technology we have now, imagine what we can have in the future! I think that there will be some form of technology(maybe robots) that will look after humans, so humans will not have to take care of themselves." Maybe Sabrina is right and we will have robots taking care of us in the future!
Another blog that I thought had a really good entry for assignment #3 was Ryleigh's blog. I especially liked this sentence."In 2109 there might be time machines- that actually work- and maybe even different life forms living on Earth!" It is really creative. That is the main reason why I liked it. If you want to read the rest of Ryleigh's entry here is a link.
The last blog that really caught my eye was Allyson's blog. I can tell that she put a lot of hard work into this entry. It was really detailed. This part really caught my eye. "Some of the things that could be built in the future to help the environment would be cars and transportation that could run off of solar power or other natural resources so that we don't pollute our environment with fumes and gasses." I really liked this little part of her entry because it would be really nice to see the world in better shape than it is in now and I think that Allyson's ideas could greatly improve the situation that the environment is in. Here is a link to Allyson's Blog if you want to read the rest of her entry.

Canada in 2109!

In this entry I will be responding to an entry in a history blog called "To the Nines -- reviewing the centuries" .
In the past 500 years Canada has been through many hard times. From the war with the Aboriginals to the war with the U.S to the current economic situation. There has been a lot to celebrate as well. From forming a new country to inventions that have helped the whole world. Such as the telephone and the Canadarm.
I have no doubt that in the future Canada will have many more things to celebrate and that there will be many more problems. There may also be big changes in the environment. We all know that the environment is not in the best possible state today but who knows, with the measures that are being put into place we may see a reverse effect to what is happening now. Of course the opposite may happen. I am optimistic that the environment will change for the better.
Another thing that may change is the population. We can already see that the population has increased greatly increased since Canada first became a country. In the future more and more people may see that Canada is a great place to live and immigrate here from all over the world.
I believe that another thing that will change greatly in Canada is the politics. Who knows, the U.S has just elected their first black President. In the next 100 years Canada may elect its first Aboriginal Prime Minister.
One thing that I know for sure is that Canada will be nothing like the Canada we know today in the year 2109!