Sandra Rollings-Magnusson, in writing Heavy Burdens on Small Shoulders, tries to reveal some of the activities that occurred towards the end of the nineteenth century and early twentieth century. The events that she puts across base on the activities that with which the pioneer children were involved. She brings out these activities through her knowledge and understanding of the archival material she comes across. In doing this Sandra Rollings-Magnusson, aims at interpreting the social, economical and political aspect that relate to the activities that occurred in this period. Her main goal is to make the readers get to understand the social structures of the period i.e. (1871-1913) and the political and economical structures present at this time. Rollings-Magnusson manages to achieve her objective though there seems to be a bias in the social and the gender aspects as compared to the political and economic aspects.
Sandra Rollings-Magnusson engages herself in a scholarly research to try to identify the role that childrens work played in the execution of homesteading operations during the pioneer era of between the year 1871 and 1913. She uses a variety of archival material to conduct the study that particularly gives the readers a better and more clear understanding of family survival, development of wheat economy and how the young labors carried burdens on their shoulders. She delves into the analysis of the labor of both boys and girls. Her analysis of the childrens labor helps in understanding how helping to build the home, or taking part in productive, entrepreneurial or subsistence tasks or being responsible for various domestic duties were important to the success of the family farm. Rollings-Magnusson goes ahead to take into account economic, social, political and environmental difficulties of the time thus making the contribution of labor by children become even more significant.
In the book, Rollings-Magnusson discusses four types of labor that the pioneer children engaged in. She talks about productive, entrepreneurial, subsistence and domestic labor. According to her, there were no defined or laid down guidelines as to the restriction of the categories. However as we can see clearly from the book, the nature of the labor done by the children had distinguishable gender considerations, such that boys were more active than the girls in the activities that demanded more physical strength.
In productive labor, children only played a major role when they reached the age of nine years. During this period, boys got more involved in fieldwork, livestock production and even the more tasking chores such as working with horses. Girls on the other hand, had different roles most of which were centered on livestock production, doing domestic chores, running errands and helping on general activities.
In entrepreneurial labor, children were in a position to earn money through various ways. The money earned by the children was in most cases given to the parents for the upkeep of the family farm. As Rollings-Magnusson writes, many families expected that their children would obtain paid employment and send their wages back to the family.1 It is thus worth noting that as clearly as it can be seen in the book, the burden of balancing the many needs of the farm was greatly aided by having children. Under this kind of labor, employment outside the farm was greatly important than the contribution of the children within the farm. The main reason for this advantage over the children working in the farm was that the result was cash, which was put in use for greater purposes within the farm. For instance, the families used cash from employment of children outside the farm, purchase family necessities. There were varied entrepreneurial activities but the most significant was the raising of animals for resale.
Subsistence labor was in particular the most important kind of labor that the children were involved. In true, the ultimate survival of the family highly depended in subsistence labor. In this kind of labor, both boys and girls tended animals, gardened, obtained fuel and water and harvested wild fruits and vegetables. The boys had some additional tasks of hunting and fishing.
Domestic labor on the other hand was for the girls in the prairies. Their chores in the farms included cleaning the compound, the house, making of beds, washing the dirty linen and utensils, caring for the babies, sewing and preparing food. In some very few cases, however, boys used to clean and take care of the young siblings though they were never engaged in sewing, washing or cooking activities.
In essence, children were a part of a very closely tied community whose daily activities focused on the survival of the family unit. Often, the children gained motivation from the fact that they did not work or participate in activities as a sign of prescription rather they were engaged in the activities voluntarily as a sense of obligation. According to Rollings-Magnusson, the best explanation for child labor in the prairies was more of a pragmatic choice rather an idealistic belief in duty, social influence or fear of authority.
Actually, payment was not also the motivator for the children to participate in the activities in the prairies. In fact, though they did not receive any form of direct payment or documented recognition for their economic contributions, boys and girls themselves expected and just as the society expected of them to work. This they did and efficiently undertook their duties and necessary tasks that contributed to the success of farms as well as to the survival of the families.
Considering the value of women in the society at this time, it would be in order to say that children were in a way similar to women, this is because they worked hard to assist their families achieve success, but were treated as economically invisible labor especially on the farms. In the prairies, farming children got social approval simply as workers on the farms whose labor eliminated the need for the family to hire external hands additional labor.
Further the fact that Sandra Rollings-Magnusson tries to show that children in the farms at the end of the nineteenth century and at the beginning of the twentieth century were fundamental since they contributed to the success of the farms during this period especially in western Canada. The importance of the children was particularly, owing to the fact that pioneers got land grants for moving to Canada and the government expected them to have their farms up and running within three years whereby without the assistance of the children it would have been impossible. However, it is also imperative that the larger families had the likelihood of succeeding more as compared to the small families.
Sandra, through her hard work and an extensive research into the journals and articles of the pioneer children manages to divide this magnificent piece of work into seven sections. These sections deal with division of child labor and its effects, entrepreneurial labor, subsistence labor, productive labor and domestic labor, all of which are discussed in the earlier sections of this review. She then sums up the book in the seventh chapter with a conclusion that gives an overview of all other chapters and their effectiveness.
Her prowess of writing reveals itself when she includes some very fascinating details in the book. A good example is during the construction of the sod homes, which are essential for the survival where trees are scattered. Without this protection, however simplistic it was life in the prairies could be very unbearable especially during the winter season.
How has the book used teaching aids
The book also uses a great number of teaching aids within its content. These are very useful especially for independent study. Some of the teaching aids in the book are data sources, a bibliography, an index, extensive notes, and a number of black and white photographs, found throughout the book. Within the book, there are also a number of very useful tables, which give illustrations of how the children contributed to the farm activities. For instance, in entrepreneurial labor, she gives the details of the contributions of the children with regard to age and the occupation. In such a case, labor included raising animals for sale and also the harvesting and selling of fruit. Money obtained from these activities was the major contribution to the well being of the family.
The teaching aids apart from them being educative to the reader whereby the reader is able to get supported data of the activities of the pioneers, the book further uses the teaching aids as a way of creating fascination to the readers. It is a technique she uses to remove monotony in the book and thus keeps the readers on toes.
How original is the author in the book
The originality of the book is a matter that can be open for a lengthy discussion. This is because it borrows a lot from the archival material such as diaries, letters, memoirs, and letters in the newspapers and from the published material such as autobiographies and collection of letters. In terms of its content, the author uses reference material especially from journals and personal statements from the pioneers to come up with the book. However, her idea of focusing on the children as the center of the action that take place in the prairies is original. Its originality comes in where no one has ever thought at looking at the development of the pioneers through this perspective. Rollings-Magnusson is well equipped with illustrative data that supports her stories.
The explanation of Rollins-Magnussons methodology and the structure she employs in her book provides a good summary of the social attitudes towards children and work that is the characteristic of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. The context established in the book is that farm work was not only a common and expected aspect of almost all of the childrens lives but was indeed a life teaching tool whereby lessons of perseverance and endurance were taught. Other lesson taught through the activities of the children in the farms were family loyalty, respect and mutual support. Farm activities were healthy physical pass time activities for all the family members to the pioneers.
The book aids in a better understanding of how the Canadian economy developed and the contribution the children had to the development of this economy. It explores a different perspective from other authors who only deal with the pioneers of the prairies from the sociological and historical perspective. Sandra on the other hand explores all the fields. She does this through affixation of the activities of the nineteenth and the twentieth century to assist in telling the readers how events unfolded during this period and how this events added to the development of the traditional economy.
Course commentary
The book generally contributes to the course in a variety of ways. First, it helps us understand how the economic activities evolved from purely subsistence and to entrepreneurial. From the book, we gain knowledge of how the economic activities moved from purely individual to the involvement of division and specialization of labor.
Secondly, it shows us the importance of the pioneer children on the economy. In true, there could be no sufficient development were it not for the assistance of the children though this could be highly downplayed especially in modern day economies. As can be derived from the book the achievement of the children was great. Their participation led to the economic growth of the prairies.
Thirdly, the fact that the book relies on firsthand accounts of the pioneer children in Western Canada makes us able to realize how difficult it was for the pioneers to succeed economically given that they had only three years to establish themselves in marginalized tracts of lands.
Finally, after reading the book, it is worth noting that the period, which it refers to was made entirely of the traditional society where by the economy
No comments:
Post a Comment