Youth in Canada West: A Case Study of Red Hill Farm School Emigrants,1854-1868

Abstract

From 1854 to 1868, ninety-eight boys age fourteen to twenty voluntarily emigrated from the reformatory farm school at Red Hill, England, to Canada West. Volunteer correspondents and earlier immigrants assisted them on arrival and found them positions. While most accepted these positions, they determined their own employment terms, which were subject to employment law and not the law governing pauper apprentices, as was standard for younger immigrants. Few undertook trade apprenticeships. While the Canadian correspondents tried to track them and reported to Red Hill on their progress, they exerted little control over the lives of these independent, mobile young adults.