Chapters in this book

1. Front Matter i
2. Contents vii
3. Maps and Illustrations ix
4. Preface xi
5. Prologue: The Howling Wilderness and Fruitful Fields 1
6. “Around the Domestic Hearth”: Wives and Mothers and Reproduction in Upper Canada
7. “The Most Important Crisis“: Marriage in Upper Canada 28
8. “A Fountain of Life to Her Children”: Mothering in Upper Canada 53
9. “Woman is a Bit of a Slave in This Country”: The Housewife and Her Help
10. “Prime Minister of the House”: Colonial Housekeepers 85
11. “The Ordinary Sort of Canadian Servant”: Helping and the Neighbour’s Girl 107
12. “A Sense of Decorum” and “Service”: The World of the Colonial “Aristocracy”
13. “No End to the Wants“: Living and Working in the ”Big“ House 136
14. “Social Obligations“ and “Angelic Ministrations”: Society Matrons and Crusading Ladies 159
15. Beyond the Bounds of Domesticity: Surrogate Husbands and Independent Business Women
16. “Requesting Their Patronage”: Milliners, Mantuamakers, and Wage-earning Women in Upper Canada 189
17. Ladies’ Academies and “Seminaries of Respectability”: Training “Good” Women of Upper Canada 209
18. Epilogue 232
19. Appendices
20. Patterns of Women’s Part-time Employment, 1832-40 243
21. Women in the Needle Trades in York, Upper Canada 245
22. Notes 249
23. Bibliography 357
24. Index 367