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Michael travels to North America to explore how British rule led to armed rebellion in the USA, and a loyalty in Canada that lasted until the very end of Empire.
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00:01A century ago, Britain ruled over a quarter of the planet.
00:07In this series, I will go in search of Britain's imperial past.
00:13I have found gold.
00:15And uncover its legacies.
00:19How did a small island on the edge of Europe end up dominating the world?
00:25He turned a miserable group of accountants into swashbuckling pirates.
00:32From its proudest achievements to its most shameful failures.
00:37We're ripped away from Mother Africa.
00:40Into a strange land.
00:42And how has the history of empire transformed Britain?
00:46We became the black people of Britain.
00:49On this journey, I uncover the extraordinary story of the biggest empire that the world has ever seen.
01:01In this program, the fate of the empire hangs in the balance as a continent is engulfed by war.
01:08Almost 250 years ago, 13 American colonies went to war with their British rulers to throw off the shackles of
01:18the old world.
01:20For equality.
01:21For the right to bear arms.
01:23Their revolutionary ideas shape the United States to this day.
01:28But just over the water in Canada, the colonists remained loyal till the end of empire.
01:34Indeed beyond.
01:36I want to investigate why British rule produced armed rebellion in one territory and bound the other tightly to the
01:45crown.
01:46How the dream of a new England was swept away by the greatest rebellion in British history.
01:52We became radicalized and decided we had to take matters into our own hands.
01:57There are these mobs who were attacking loyalists, loyalists attacked back.
02:02And how a new vision of empire rose from the ashes.
02:06He was looking to import the British class structure.
02:10This country was built on the backs of these children.
02:13A tale of two Americas that reshaped the world.
02:24The United States of America.
02:28A vast country rich in natural resources and abundant farmlands.
02:33The British Crown's early imperial adventure here brought it wealth and prestige from 13 colonies.
02:43400 years ago, just over 100 people set out from England with a bold new idea.
02:49They would build a new England in the new world.
02:53Transplanting English society, culture and language onto American soil.
02:59They would build the first English settler colonies outside the British Isles.
03:04Beginning the spread of people and ideas that would transform the world.
03:12Over the next 150 years, settlers would fan out from Virginia across the east coast of North America.
03:20In time creating the most populous white settler colonies in the empire.
03:27But in the summer of 1776, Britain's American adventure was under threat.
03:34A year earlier, growing tensions between the 13 colonies and their imperial government had sparked all-out rebellion and a
03:44war for independence.
03:45And on the 4th of July 1776, the insurgents declared their freedom from the iniquities of empire.
03:54The brilliant prose of their radical declaration of independence has echoed down the centuries.
04:03We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their
04:10creator with certain unalienable rights,
04:13that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
04:17Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or
04:24to abolish it and to institute new government.
04:28That these united colonies are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown.
04:35When this declaration was read out in Manhattan, it caused a commotion.
04:45This was a profound rejection of their British roots by the American revolutionaries.
04:52Not just of imperial control, but also the foundations of the old world.
04:58Class, aristocracy and monarchy.
05:01So fired up were the patriots that an enraged mob rushed here to Bowling Green and demolished the statue of
05:10King George and severed its royal head.
05:13This was regicide, in effigy at least.
05:22The empire responded by setting sail for New York with a gargantuan expeditionary force.
05:32It is great to be the situation in New York, let's say at the beginning of 1776.
05:38Well, there's a great amount of agitation going on throughout the streets over the Revolutionary War, which has already started.
05:45Gavin Baker is a New York historian and writer.
05:48There's a lot of violence in the streets.
05:50The Sons of Liberty were up in arms for independence, yet there are quite a few loyal citizens to the
05:56crown as well.
05:57And there are these mobs who are attacking loyalists.
06:00Loyalists attack back their tar and feathering tax collectors.
06:05And then an American Revolutionary Army establishes some sort of control, does it?
06:10Yes.
06:10Early on, they come in, they realize New York is sort of the key to the continent here.
06:15And they're a huge nuisance in many ways.
06:17They're roistering about, they're getting drunk, they're brawling in the streets.
06:21So it's sort of a mess.
06:22Yes.
06:23And then people start to flee the city.
06:25New York was a city of about 25,000 then.
06:28By the summer, only about 5,000 New Yorkers are left in town.
06:32Everybody else has taken off.
06:33How extraordinary.
06:36If I'd walked these streets in 1776, I'd have seen a city simmering with discontent.
06:43New York's taverns were breeding grounds for revolutionary plots and conspiracies.
06:50The Francis Tavern, with its distinctive Dutch yellow brick, has stood here since 1719.
06:57As American discontent with imperial rule grew, a rebellious group,
07:02much associated with the Boston Tea Party, held its secret meetings here.
07:07The Sons of Liberty.
07:11Scott McWhinney and Charles Mackenzie are descended from men who fought against the British Empire in the War of Independence.
07:19So, gentlemen, how would you summarize the cause that motivated your ancestors?
07:26I think, initially, we wanted to be as British as you guys.
07:30We consider ourselves Englishmen, and when we felt that our rights were not being recognized,
07:36then we became radicalized and decided we had to take matters into our own hands, form our own government.
07:44It's quite an evolution of thought, isn't it?
07:47From saying that you want to be like an Englishman, as you put it,
07:51to saying that you want to abolish class, the aristocracy, the monarchy, that's quite a shift.
07:57We don't have an aristocracy here.
07:59We have an American dream where people are included in rising up in society.
08:05I think pushing away from nobility was easy for us.
08:08I think pushing away from our British heritage was a lot more difficult.
08:14Tell me about the activities of the Sons of Liberty.
08:17A fair amount of violence was involved, was it not?
08:20Originally, the Sons of Liberty were actually mostly upper middle class, the wealthy.
08:25In a bid to create a wider movement, they began holding rallies.
08:29The upper classes discovered they could not control these rallies and events.
08:34They would start marching to City Hall.
08:36They would start throwing rocks into loyalist windows, start tearing down statues.
08:41So they may have bitten off a bit more than they could chew.
08:44I should introduce myself as a solid member of the British establishment.
08:48How do you feel about sharing your cups with me today?
08:51This has been lovely. It's been fantastic.
08:54If I could suggest a toast to the two Georges, George III and General George Washington.
09:01Cheers.
09:01To the king and the first president.
09:07Back in the summer of 1776, I wouldn't have been having a friendly drink with New York's Sons of Liberty.
09:15They were intent on throwing off imperial rule, repelling the mighty weight of empire hurled against them.
09:23The British moved to crush the rebellion with overwhelming force.
09:28The Royal Navy established control over the narrows that lead into New York Harbor.
09:34And landed a force of 32,000 men on the sparsely populated Staten Island.
09:40They would then move across these waters to Brooklyn and Manhattan to secure this vital port for the British for
09:49the duration of the war.
09:54The British onslaught recovered New York City for the empire.
10:00But George Washington's army of revolutionaries was allowed to escape.
10:05The British now faced a much harder struggle.
10:08To identify loyal friends amongst communities that were bitterly divided.
10:13To win hearts and minds.
10:15And to outwit the enemy in a secret war where a mistake meant death.
10:28November 1776.
10:30The American War of Independence is in full swing.
10:34New York City stands as a bastion of empire in the 13 colonies.
10:39But it's surrounded by hostile forces.
10:44When the British took New York City, the citizens had to decide where their allegiances lay.
10:50Most of those who supported the revolution, the self-styled patriots, left town.
10:55Headed towards their side strongholds in the direction of New England.
10:59But some chose to remain behind.
11:02Hiding.
11:04Or hiding their feelings.
11:08I've travelled from New York City, halfway along Long Island, to East Sertauket.
11:14Nominally under British control, but just a short boat ride away from the revolutionaries in New England.
11:21This sleepy backwater was the front line of the empire's battle for American loyalty.
11:28And a hotbed of espionage and covert operations.
11:33In those days, Brewster House lay just off the King's Highway.
11:46This is profoundly historic.
11:48In fact, this house goes back to before the American Revolution.
11:52About a hundred years before the American Revolution.
11:56This became a tavern frequented by British officers, maybe British soldiers.
12:02And you can imagine them lifting their tankards of beer with an amazing fireplace.
12:10But this tavern was also frequented in secret by the infamous Culper spy ring.
12:18An underground network of rebel agents who listened out for British military secrets.
12:34A little garret.
12:42But actually, large numbers of people would have slept in this space.
12:49Gathered around this is the chimney breast, giving its welcome warmth in winter.
12:57And as they lay here, they would have heard drifting up from below the alcohol-fuelled gossip of the military
13:06in their cups.
13:08This was a small new country, mostly rural, going up against the best trained, best equipped army on the planet.
13:15So everything depended on intelligence.
13:17Henry Schlesinger is an expert in the history of American espionage from the War of Independence to the War on
13:25Terror.
13:26Was General George Washington in control of this espionage activity?
13:31Yes.
13:32George Washington did look after every detail.
13:34He was meticulous in what he wanted.
13:37He called New York the fountain of all intelligence.
13:41In New York City, they're assembling spy networks of citizen spies.
13:46Many of them formed what we call in America commercial covers, or commercial fronts.
13:52Hercules Mulligan was a tailor down on Lower Manhattan.
13:56And he would fit all of the British soldiers with uniforms.
14:00And as he fit them, he would pump them for information, subtly.
14:04Next door was a woman named Patience Wright, who had a sculpture studio.
14:09And as she sculpted them in wax, she would pump them for information also.
14:14And ship the information back in the wax heads that she made.
14:19Amazing.
14:21The Culpa spy ring provided crucial support, smuggling British military secrets to George Washington's revolutionary army.
14:30To find out how they relayed them across this body of water, I'm taking a lesson in spy craft from
14:36Kayla Cheshire.
14:38Why are we putting up a washing line by the shore?
14:41This was a critical part of the Culpa spy ring.
14:46Anna Smith-Strong was a woman in Setauket.
14:49She would physically be watching the waters, and she would hang specific laundry items to signal that this is the
14:58location that's safest for them to come and share their information.
15:01Or pass on information.
15:04Okay, so we've put out some kind of message here.
15:06Yes.
15:07Black means, come ashore.
15:10Yep, it's safe.
15:11And this means?
15:12You're going to location number three.
15:14Someone is out there watching with a telescope.
15:17Right.
15:18Or somebody is watching from their house, their neighborhood.
15:21So they both know.
15:23So this was a daily activity?
15:25Yes.
15:26That any woman in those days might have engaged in?
15:28Every member of the spy ring did something that was absolutely normal.
15:32Totally not suspicious.
15:34How dangerous was this activity for the spies?
15:37You paid with your life.
15:39Nathaniel Hale would be hung in 1776.
15:44He would be caught red-handed with his information that he was passing on to General Washington.
15:49And would be put to death, not even put on trial, hung.
15:56The choice between staying loyal to the empire or betraying it for the cause of independence was a question of
16:03life and death.
16:04Through the vestibule of the house.
16:09And this is where the house becomes intriguing.
16:13The cupboard.
16:18Or could be more innocent.
16:28Secret door.
16:35And beyond a void.
16:40Just enough room to hide a package.
16:44Or maybe some explosive.
16:48Or a gun.
16:54In those uneasy times, the British couldn't know for sure whose side this tavern's landlord, Joseph Brewster, had chosen.
17:04Gloria Rocchio is president of the Ward-Melville Heritage Organization that owns Brewster House.
17:11In these communities on Long Island, what was the sentiment during the Revolutionary War?
17:15It was pretty tough.
17:17So they would all have to sign a document that they were loyal to the crown.
17:23And they may be not loyal to the crown.
17:26You know, no one comes out and says, I'm a spy.
17:28We've done a lot of research about Joseph Brewster.
17:31And you see, frankly, he wasn't really loyal to the crown, in our opinion.
17:37Brewster was just sort of hanging around and while he was clearing up the mugs or whatever, he'd be listening.
17:42Or his wife, now serving them.
17:44And then the both of them listening and transparenting that information.
17:50And why not? It was smart to do it.
17:52He found out information for the Patriots and he protected his goods and his family.
17:59This spy ring, how significant do you think it was in its achievements?
18:03I think it was very significant.
18:07We couldn't out-fight you.
18:09We outsmarted you.
18:11Sorry.
18:17The Kalpa spy ring would continue to operate for the duration of the war,
18:23undermining the Empire from within.
18:26To understand the mood in British-occupied Manhattan, as the war seemed to be turning in the rebels' favour,
18:33I'm talking to Kevin Baker again.
18:35The British occupation is terrible.
18:38First off, about a quarter to a third of the town burns down in the taking of it.
18:45And after that, you have these British soldiers who are regularly pillaging, raping.
18:51About one-fifth of the city's women are reduced to prostitution.
18:56People are reduced to living in what's called Canvastown,
19:00which is this sort of vast, tent city near the ruins of Trinity Church.
19:04So it's really a miserable time.
19:07However, a lot of loyalists from around the colonies do flee to the city,
19:13because this is when they get sanctuary from the rebels.
19:16These are people who are still loyal to the crown,
19:19and they're trying to escape the depredations of patriots
19:23who are persecuting them and seizing their houses and their land
19:26and trying to kill them in other parts of America.
19:29How is opinion changing in New York during the war?
19:31Well, this becomes, you know, a huge strain on people there,
19:34even for those who really support the crown.
19:38The British strategy in North America is uncannily like the American strategy in Vietnam.
19:45Constantly marching from one sort of comfortable stronghold, one city to another,
19:50Boston to New York to Philadelphia and back.
19:53They're not doing anything to win over the hearts and minds of the people,
19:57and that's eventually what defeats them here as much as anything.
20:03Britain continued to lose on the battlefield, too.
20:06And when 8,000 of its soldiers surrendered at Yorktown, Virginia in 1781,
20:13the American War of Independence was effectively over.
20:17From New York City, the exodus of those loyal to the Empire began.
20:24Over the next two years, tens of thousands were evacuated from the city on Royal Navy ships.
20:31And on the 25th of November 1783, a triumphant George Washington re-entered the city.
20:39British New York had fallen.
20:42On this site, the first U.S. Congress sat and George Washington was sworn in as first president.
20:50The loss of the colonies was a tremendous blow to British prestige.
20:54But it was not the end of the empire in North America.
20:59As its political refugees fled north, they helped to solidify the crown's control over a vast area where Britain had
21:08recently defeated France.
21:10Canada.
21:11The way that Britain secured and extended its rule in Canada would bring freedom for some.
21:18But there was a huge cost for Native Americans.
21:30Britain's loss of its 13 American colonies provoked a great movement of people.
21:37Tens of thousands joined the flight north to what remained of Britain's North American empire.
21:44The Niagara River divided the new United States of America from British North America.
21:52The territories of the crown in what is today Canada.
21:57The lion and the unicorn, supporters of the British crown, have made their way across the globe, including here to
22:04Fort Niagara.
22:10Fort Niagara's British garrison gave aid to American loyalist refugees fleeing into British territory at the war's end.
22:21Dining room.
22:25With lake view.
22:30I think the officers knew how to live well.
22:53Quite a luxurious, spacious room, I think.
22:58Ha.
23:02With locks on the outside.
23:04No.
23:05It's a jail.
23:11This fort in upstate New York was allowed to remain briefly in British hands at the end of the War
23:19of Independence.
23:21I'm here on a beautiful autumn's day, but even so, the wind comes off Lake Ontario and it's quite chilly.
23:27The loyalists who gathered here came during one of the worst winters on record.
23:32It was freezing, there was snow all about, and nothing makes you tired, hungrier, sicker than defeat.
23:40Their conditions must have been simply appalling.
23:45Although the Revolutionary War had been the Empire's fight, most of the people who passed through here fleeing to Sanctuary
23:52were not of British descent.
23:55As the war progressed, Native Americans, who were the 13 colonies' original inhabitants, picked sides and joined the fight.
24:05Rick Hill's Mohawk and Tuscarora ancestors were among those torn apart.
24:13So, when the American Revolution comes, what kind of problem does that pose for your peoples?
24:19It created a big problem, because we had to decide, who are we going to support?
24:24Our people were divided into two. Our families are divided.
24:27Literally down the middle?
24:28Even to the point where my dad's Mohawk relatives fought against my mother's Tuscarora relatives.
24:34They shed each other's blood.
24:36Well, now we're approaching Fort Niagara, and an important chapter is played out here.
24:42And so many of the decisions made inside that wall profoundly impacted on our lives.
24:48And still, today, I think we suffer the consequences of that.
24:53The Mohawk were famous and feared warriors who'd fought with the British before.
24:59When it came to choosing sides, one of their political leaders had a clear vision of what role they should
25:06play in the war.
25:07Joseph Brandt was tutored to be an ally of the British.
25:10He went to church when he was very young, he could read and write in English, he had a Mohawk
25:15heart.
25:16But he also fell in love with the Crown, fell in love with the idea of England.
25:21And so he was a staunch, loyal supporter of the Crown for many years.
25:28When they had a meeting here to try to decide, are we going to support the British or the Americans,
25:35Bradt said, we have an obligation to fight on behalf of the King.
25:41But siding with the British would have disastrous consequences for Rick's ancestors.
25:48General George Washington ordered his army to use scorched earth tactics against them.
25:54More than 40 villages were razed and crops destroyed, sending thousands fleeing their homelands.
26:01And those Native Americans were not allowed back into the United States even after the war's end.
26:10When Great Britain agreed to the treaty to settle the Revolutionary War, they gave away our land to the Americans
26:15without talking to us.
26:17The land from which we derive our identity, which we have this spiritual relationship to, that was harmed by the
26:25American Revolutionary War and the loss of land.
26:27Did your ancestors, those who had been living in what was now to be the United States, move off into
26:33what was to become Canada?
26:34Joseph Brandt negotiated the fact that we would have this large swath of land along the Grand River.
26:40So we live on that land today.
26:43So looking back over all this turmoil and division, how do your peoples tend to regard the British based on
26:51this period?
26:54I'll try to give you an answer that's not X-rated.
26:59We have a love-hate relationship with the British.
27:03We're not British subjects, we've never been conquered, we've got through many difficulties together, we fought many wars together,
27:09and we remain loyal to our alliance.
27:15Of the countless refugees who crossed the border into the Empire in the decades after the war, many sought freedom.
27:24The American revolutionaries had declared that all men were created equal and endowed with unalienable rights, including liberty.
27:33But that did not apply to enslaved people.
27:36And after the revolution, the United States clung to human bondage just as the British Empire began to dismantle it.
27:46At that time, slavery was legal throughout the Empire.
27:50But in British North America, as in Britain itself, there was a growing movement to end it.
27:56In 1793, Upper Canada led the way, with a law that guaranteed freedom to any US slave who managed to
28:05escape across the border.
28:07It would still take 41 years to eradicate slavery in the Canadian colonies.
28:12But increasingly, Canada offered a moral rebuke to the United States, and a magnet to its enslaved people.
28:22Hello, Skipper.
28:24Tens of thousands of enslaved people of African descent would make the dangerous journey from America to Upper Canada in
28:32secret.
28:33Here, almost 170 years ago, Leslie Harper-Welles' ancestors crossed to freedom.
28:41The British Empire carries a heavy burden of guilt for existing on slavery for so long, but then it abolishes
28:49the slave trade and slavery within the British Empire.
28:52It's interesting to me how, when we came to Canada, one of our churches we chose was African Methodist Episcopal.
29:01In 1851, we changed the name of the church to British Methodist Episcopal.
29:07So, in some ways, I think we kind of forgave you Brits for what happened.
29:13And it's one of the reasons, if that's true, that you forgave the Brits, that the fact that the British
29:19Empire had abolished slavery made a real difference to people.
29:22Made a difference.
29:23Absolutely, for finally recognizing the ills of your ways, I suppose.
29:27Tell me about the experiences in your own family.
29:30There were two brothers and a nine-year-old sister that came from Kentucky.
29:33I believe it's 1,500 miles, approximately.
29:36And at one point, the three of them had fallen asleep, but something woke the boys up and frightened them.
29:42And they took off like a shot.
29:44And they got about a quarter of a mile away before they realized they had left the nine-year-old
29:48sister sleeping in a log.
29:50Many people might have said, no, we can't go back, we'll die too.
29:55We love our sister, but we have to leave her.
29:57No, they didn't do that.
30:00They went back and got her.
30:02So three very young members of your family made it to freedom.
30:06What do you think it meant to...?
30:07Oh, can you imagine?
30:09Like, what they had been through, and now they were free.
30:17But to what kind of country were they escaping?
30:21Of the thousands of refugees who'd moved north in the wake of the American Revolution,
30:25the great majority were loyalists of British descent.
30:31I could be in the grounds of a British stately home.
30:35But in fact, Dundurn Castle stands only about 60 miles from Fort Niagara across the border into Canada.
30:42The loss of those 13 American colonies was a disaster for Britain.
30:49And in its wake, the British Empire consolidated and expanded its presence to the north.
30:55As the first lieutenant governor of the colony of Upper Canada put it,
30:59a little Britain will be built in the wilderness.
31:08In the decades after the war, British North America took shape out of a handful of colonies,
31:15including the former French territories of Lower Canada and the land around the Great Lakes, then called Upper Canada.
31:23In the 1830s, the son of a Scottish veteran of the Revolutionary War built this grand home.
31:33Castle Dundurn. Dundurn chosen for its Scottish ring, no doubt.
31:37Maybe calling it a castle a bit of an exaggeration for a house with 40 rooms.
31:42But it's nicely done. This tiling I've seen in the House of Commons in London.
31:48And this is a beautiful sweeping stair. All done to impress. Very nice.
31:56The owner, Alan Napier McNabb, was a man on the make.
32:00A lawyer, property speculator and railway magnate with political ambitions.
32:06In the grand house, I've now, of course, descended below stairs.
32:11Typical upstairs-downstairs construction.
32:14And here the ceilings are low.
32:17It's a brick floor replacing the rugs and the tiles of the grand rooms upstairs.
32:24Sculleries.
32:25Ah!
32:28Presumably where the servants were allowed to take their meals.
32:32The whole house constructed absolutely on the model of the British stately home.
32:39It appears that the British class system rejected by the American revolutionaries was sustained here.
32:48To find out why it might have been important to the son of an empire loyalist,
32:52I'm meeting heritage manager Ian Kerr-Wilson.
32:56He was an individual who was trying to associate with the political elites of what is now Ontario.
33:03And he was one of those people who was looking to import the British class structure,
33:09the idea of the local squire of the town.
33:12And to do that, of course, he had to establish a certain, shall we say, brand,
33:17which was, in this case, a big grand country home complete with, you know, grand dining room and grand hall.
33:25Why do you think he would want to express Britishness in architecture and lifestyle?
33:30He was aspiring to be seen as part of the upper class,
33:33and so you had to have all the trappings of that.
33:37I mean, this is very much the frontier in the 1820s and 1830s,
33:41and so you could make yourself who you needed to be.
33:44Was it preordained that Canada would import a British class system?
33:48Absolutely not.
33:49There was a whole other political movement that was very strong in this era,
33:53which was very much based on the American ideas of republicanism and classless society.
33:58So McNabb's big political rival ultimately led a rebellion
34:01to try and overthrow this idea of a class-based political system.
34:07Fifty years after the Americans won their independence,
34:10both upper and lower Canada were engulfed in turmoil,
34:14when critics of the colonial system rose in armed revolt.
34:19Alan McNabb served in a military unit sent to put the rebellion down.
34:25Determined not to repeat the mistakes made in America,
34:28Britain gradually conceded greater self-rule to the Canadian colonies.
34:33And McNabb was knighted for his efforts in defending the empire.
34:38Several years later, he would receive the ultimate stamp of approval.
34:44So this is actually a very, very early photograph of the Prince of Wales,
34:49Edward VII, visiting McNabb, visiting Dundurn in September of 1860.
34:55An unrecognisably svelte Prince of Wales, who later became Edward VII.
35:01Now, was there, as it were, a royal policy of visiting Canada?
35:05This was actually pretty unprecedented at this time.
35:08There was a lot of concern about the American influence in the colony.
35:13And so having the royal family come out to basically shore up the idea that the crown was supportive of
35:20the growth and expansion of this colony,
35:23I think was a very explicit sort of thing.
35:25It must have been fantastic for McNabb, looking at the history of Canada,
35:29has the royal family felt it convenient to come from time to time to Canada to show the flag, to
35:36show themselves, to reinforce the bond?
35:38Yes, absolutely. It has a good example of just how much enthusiasm there was a few years ago when the
35:44Prince of Wales showed up
35:45and we literally filled this entire front yard. They're very well received.
35:50To understand how the Canadian colonies built a connection with Britain that endures to this day, I'm talking to Professor
35:58Cecilia Morgan.
36:00What role does immigration from Britain play during the 19th century in Canada?
36:05Oh, I think a very great and significant role.
36:07You have people who bring values, institutions, cultural practices with them to Upper Canada.
36:15So I think that represents sort of a remaking of Britain in various kinds of ways.
36:20Not a direct replica, of course, but in terms of their notion of Britain as homeland in certain ways,
36:27transfers with them across the Atlantic. And that continues throughout the 19th century.
36:31Is this entirely accidental or is there any kind of British Empire policy about immigration?
36:37It's sort of a little bit of both. But I think what happens in Britain is that emigration is no
36:42longer seen as a sign of failure.
36:44You know, you're not being shipped off to Australia as a convict. You're choosing something that's going to improve your
36:50lot in life.
36:52By the early 19th century, what had started with a small band of pilgrims dreaming of a new England was
36:59growing into a mass movement.
37:01A human migration on a vast scale that would empower the new world.
37:12The British Empire produced one of the largest ever movements of humanity.
37:18Between 1815 and 1930, close to 19 million left the British Isles to build new lives overseas, building British power
37:28and influence across the globe.
37:31Many headed for the Empire's white settler colonies.
37:34Two point four million went to Australia and New Zealand.
37:39Almost one million to southern Africa.
37:42And more than four million to the biggest white settler colony of them all, Canada.
37:51The British made a big impact on Canada, both personally and through their descendants.
37:57Most migrants departed from Britain willingly to seek a better life for themselves.
38:04It represents one of the great migrations of history.
38:10Emigration to the colonies was encouraged by the British government.
38:14And Canada, with its vast and underpopulated territories, was in need of a new generation of settlers who could cede
38:22Britishness across the nation.
38:25Some of those who came to plant the flag were not old enough to have made the choice for themselves.
38:31Ali, tell me about your father, Henry.
38:34He was born in 1901 in Newcastle upon time in England.
38:40His mother died in 1908.
38:42She was 28.
38:43Yeah.
38:44And this is my dad here.
38:46And so he would have been seven there.
38:48And that's his middle brother and his little brother.
38:51And this is his mother's family that they were sent to to take care of them.
38:57Ali Thompson's father was one of the many who was sent out from children's homes in Britain
39:02to work as domestic servants or farm labourers in Canada.
39:07Dad had never spoken about it, so he wrote a letter.
39:10He said, after a few years of living with the aunties, we heard them say that we've got to put
39:16the boys in a home.
39:17They told us we were going on a railway trip.
39:20So I said to Auntie May, are you going with us?
39:22And she said, yes.
39:23So we three went to the train station together.
39:26The guard came out and said, are these the boys?
39:29And my auntie said, yes.
39:31So we got up on the train and looked back saying to Auntie, are you coming with us?
39:35And she said, no.
39:36So we three started to cry.
39:39We're sitting on the seats and our feet never touched the ground.
39:42They were so tiny.
39:43Yeah.
39:44The trickery that's involved, all the deceit.
39:46How would you ever trust another adult after that?
39:48Exactly.
39:49Exactly.
39:51When the train pulled into London, Henry and his two brothers were taken to a children's home, where they would
39:58live for the next three years.
40:00How does he get to Canada?
40:02They put him on a ship, the Empress of Britain, and they arrived in Canada to Halifax, went by train
40:09up to Toronto, into the Fagans distribution home.
40:13And then from there, they were sent to the farmers, and they were indentured then for at least three years,
40:19and they had to stay with their farmers.
40:21Was he well treated?
40:22Unfortunately not.
40:23He was kept in the barn.
40:24He wasn't allowed in the house.
40:26They were supposed to have education, and he unfortunately did not have any education.
40:31So the first year, he was supposed to get $10. And as far as I know, he didn't receive any
40:37monies.
40:38So you think the experiences of his childhood cast a shadow over his entire life?
40:44Yes, I really believe that. I mean, it was especially hard for these little boys being so far from their
40:49home.
40:49Yeah.
40:50Being put with strangers, and not having contacts with your family, and the brothers not knowing where they were.
40:55It really did upset him.
40:58What kind of memory did he have of England? Was he fond of England, or was he repelled by England?
41:05He honestly didn't speak a lot about it, but he had a yearning for it.
41:10He had a yearning for his mother that had died young, but he also became a very proud Canadian.
41:18More than 100,000 children were shipped across the Atlantic by British philanthropic organizations between 1860 and 1948.
41:29Their work was backed by the British state.
41:32One organization boasted that it was turning nobody's children into empire builders.
41:39Today, about 10% of Canadians are descended from these children.
41:43Laurie Oshefsky is chief executive of British Home Children Advocacy and Research Association.
41:50Her mother and grandmother were both child migrants.
41:55These children are now known in Canada as our nation builders, because they effectively did that.
42:03This country was built on the backs of these children.
42:07You know, we had a lot of abuses. We've had a lot of deaths.
42:12We had a lot of children that didn't survive.
42:15But in the long run, the vast majority of these children did survive.
42:20And they did go on to create their own families and to make valuable contributions to our country.
42:27Whatever the wrongs of the situation, do you think the arrival of so many of these British children has had
42:33an effect in making Canada more English than it otherwise would be?
42:36Absolutely it did. They had an enormous impact on our country, these children.
42:41And when you think about the descendants as well, too, it's an incredible impact that they had.
42:48The idea of a new England that inspired the first settlers to sail for America four centuries ago created a
42:56connection with the British Isles that has not been erased by revolution, war or the end of empire.
43:03The American revolutionaries may have rejected the mother country, but the world's largest economy and most formidable military power emerged
43:13from a political philosophy that was British.
43:19In this series, I've encountered legacies of Britain's empire across the world.
43:25In America, a love of liberty.
43:29In Canada, infrastructure and functioning institutions.
43:35But in India and South Africa, the empire was built on a racial hierarchy.
43:40And in Jamaica, on slavery.
43:43They had a divine right to rule.
43:46They could do as they pleased.
43:48And they did.
43:49This wasn't empty land that was taken over.
43:53It was stolen from the indigenous people.
43:57I've been struck by the generosity of the people that I've met.
44:01Delightful.
44:02Who acknowledge the importance of our shared history.
44:05It has given us a legacy which we have shaped to our best interests.
44:10Nations have built empires throughout history.
44:14The British was the biggest ever.
44:17And so is held uniquely responsible for what it bequeathed.
44:21So be it.
44:22As long as its achievements are judged alongside its crimes.
44:27And by the standards of its time, not only today's.
44:36Dive deep into the clear waters of a Greek odyssey.
44:39As Bettany Hughes set sail on her journey of discovery.
44:42New next Friday night at nine.
44:45Next tonight, an affectionate look back at a life of laughter under a fez.
44:50Showbiz pals remember Tommy Cooper in his own words in just a moment.
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