Measuring Support for the 1837 Rebellion in Deux-Montagnes
A Secondary 4 student is writing an evidence-based essay on support for the 1837 rebellion in Deux-Montagnes. She has four sources: (A) a dispatch from Lord Gosford dated December 1837 stating that 'the great body of the inhabitants remain loyal'; (B) an editorial from the Patriote newspaper La Minerve claiming that 2,000 men in the county were ready to take up arms; (C) a parish register listing 187 men who actually joined the rebel camp out of 1,150 adult males in the two parishes; (D) a letter from a British merchant saying rebel sympathizers are 'chiefly the poorer sort, led by notaries.' Her teacher asks her not to simply average the claims but to assess each source's purpose, audience, and proximity to events. The student must produce a thesis about the extent of support, use at least three sources, acknowledge counterevidence, and explain what additional source would most strengthen her argument. She has 600 words and one class period.
1. Assess the reliability of sources A–D for measuring support for the rebellion.
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A-Gosford's dispatch: close in time and place, but official and addressed to London. Gosford had an interest in presenting the colony as controllable, so 'the great body of the inhabitants remain loyal' may understate support or may reflect elite rather than popular opinion. Useful for official perception, not for a count.
B-La Minerve editorial: close to Patriote networks but openly mobilizing. Its claim of 2,000 men has no method and may inflate to intimidate authorities. Useful for rhetoric and claimed support, not as a tally.
C-Parish register: local and specific, with a denominator of 1,150 adult males. It records those who actually joined the camp, which is a narrower measure than sympathy. It is the strongest quantitative source, but it may be incomplete and does not capture supporters who stayed home.
D-Merchant letter: hostile and class-inflected, but it corroborates the role of notaries and poorer inhabitants. Useful for leadership and social composition, not for numbers. No single source is sufficient; they measure different things.
2. Construct a thesis about the extent of support and acknowledge counterevidence.
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Thesis: support for the rebellion in Deux-Montagnes was substantial enough to alarm authorities but was a minority of the adult male population and was socially uneven. The parish register's 187 men out of 1,150 adult males is about 16 percent who actually joined the camp; even allowing for sympathizers who did not take up arms, this is not a mass rising.
Evidence: use C as the anchor, D to show that support drew on poorer inhabitants and notarial networks, and A to show that officials publicly denied widespread disloyalty. B's claim of 2,000 should be treated as mobilization rhetoric, not a count.
Counterevidence: the register may undercount men who supported the camp with food, shelter, or information, and fear of reprisals may have kept names off lists. 'Support' is therefore broader than 'joined.' A·also may reflect Gosford's political needs. The thesis should therefore distinguish active participation from sympathy and avoid claiming a precise percentage of supporters.
3. What additional source would most strengthen the argument, and why?
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The most useful additional source would be a loyalist petition or a military return listing suspected rebels and loyal inhabitants by parish, ideally with names and occupations. Compared with the parish register's 1,150 adult males, it would provide a second denominator and show whether the 187 joiners were isolated or part of a wider network.
A property-damage claim register would also help, because it would identify households that suffered reprisals and might reveal hidden supporters. Notarial records of loans or sales among rebel leaders could map the social network suggested by D.
The key is independence: a source created by the opposing side, for a different purpose, would test the register rather than repeat it. A modern secondary synthesis would be useful for context but cannot substitute for a contemporary list. The student should state what the new source can and cannot prove.