Heavy Burdens on Small Shoulders

The phrase "child labour" carries negative undertones in today's society. However, only a century ago on the Canadian Prairies, youngsters laboured alongside their parents' working the land, cleaning stovepipes, and chopping wood. By shouldering their share of the chores, these children learned the domestic and manual labour skills needed for life on a Prairie family farm. Rollings-Magnusson uses historic research, photographs, and personal anecdotes to describe the kinds of work performed by children and how each task fit into the family economy. This book is a vital contribution to western Canadian history as well as family and gender studies. Examine the vital work pioneer children performed to help their families on the Canadian Prairies. Front Cover Heavy Burdens on Small Shoulders: The Labour of Pioneer Children on the Canadian Prairies Sandra Rollings-Magnusson Spine Heavy Burdens on Small Shoulders: The Labour of Pioneer Children on the Canadian Prairies Rollings-Magnusson Back Cover: The phrase "child labour" carries negative undertones in today's society. However, only a century ago on the Canadian prairies, youngsters laboured alongside their parents working the land, cleaning stovepipes, and chopping wood. By shouldering their share of the chores, these children learned the domestic and manual labour skills needed for life on a prairie family farm. Rollings-Magnusson uses historic research, photographs, and personal anecdotes to describe the kinds of work performed by children and how each task fit into the family economy. Heavy Burdens on Small Shoulders is a vital contribution to western Canadian history as well as family and gender studies. Sandra Rollings-Magnusson teaches Sociology at MacEwan College. Her research interests include political economy, sociology of the family, social policy, and gender and ethnic studies. She is currently researching the economic, political, and social lives of pioneer families on the western prairies. Rollings-Magnusson lives in Edmonton. The University of Alberta Press ISBN: 978–0–88864–509–8 Printed in Canada $34.95 in Canada Book design by Jason Dewinetz www.uap.ualberta.ca 18 B&W images, notes, index "If you have ever indulged in a flight of fancy about the romantic simplicity of pioneer days, then you must read Sandra Rollings-Magnusson's book. It will set you right in no time....Her book is absolutely fascinating, and that's because Rollings-Magnusson understands that if the devil is in the details, so is the beauty. Fully aware that the best and most revealing history is to be found in the lives of everyday folks, she has mined an incredible motherlode of journals, letters and memoirs to draw a riveting picture of life as it really was lived on the Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan prairies.... The author's emphasis is on child labour on the prairies, and these pioneer children were spared little of it....Rollings-Magnusson has written a marvellously fresh account of the lives of prairie pioneers in the most delightful way possible--by giving those long-gone folks the freedom to tell the stories of their daily lives in their own words." Naomi Lakritz, The Calgary Herald, August 2, 2009 "[The book], the culmination of a study the author undertook to explore the role children's work played on family farms in the prairies during the period of settlement between 1871 and 1913, is enlightening and fascinating. The story of children in pioneer communities, much like the story of women, is not well understood, so this project adds much to the understanding of the history of the Canadian west and the role that children played." Rob Alexander, Rocky Mountain Outlook, August 13, 2009 "This book shows through charts and first-person accounts that children were put to work on farms and homesteads as soon as they were able, and that families benefited because of it. When setting out, homesteaders had so much to do that any family contributions were essential." Alberta