MIT Seminar on Environmental and Agricultural History
"Popular By Their Misery: The British Response to a Colonial Disaster, 1825"
Alan MacEachern
Professor of History, University of Western Ontario
In 1825, a huge forest fire swept across the British colony of New
Brunswick and parts of Maine, wiping out communities along the
Miramichi River and killing hundreds. The Miramichi Fire is the
largest recorded forest fire on North America's Eastern seaboard, and
perhaps the largest in Canadian history. News of the disaster
quickly reached Britain, which launched an extensive relief
effort. People were greatly moved by the thought of a poor white
society, made up largely of recent British immigrants, living on the
edge of a vast wilderness, experiencing a holocaust of unprecedented
ferocity, and, having survived, looking forward only to the loss of
livelihood and a cold Canadian winter. But it is clear that British
interest in the disaster also reflected very pragmatic concern about
what this fire would mean for Britain's own wood supply, and called
into question British dependence on the colonies.
Friday, October 26, 2007
2:30 to 4:30 pm
Building E51 Room 095
Corner of Amherst and Wadsworth Streets, Cambridge
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