A. Heritage and Identity · Communities in Canada, 1780–1850

Then and Now: Roles and Challenges

A1.3 A3.4 A2.5About 35 minutes

Learning goals

I can compare the roles of men, women and children around 1800 with roles today.
I can describe challenges people faced around 1800, such as weather, sickness and being far apart.
I can compare those challenges with challenges today.
I can use evidence to draw a conclusion.

Words to know

challenge
A problem or something hard that people have to deal with.

role
The jobs and responsibilities a person has in a family or community.

isolation
Being far away from other people, with no easy way to reach them.

epidemic
When a sickness spreads quickly to many people at the same time.

evidence
Facts and information from sources that show something is true.

conclusion
What you decide is true after looking carefully at the evidence.

Could you live in 1800?

Imagine you wake up in a log house in January 1810. It is dark and very cold. There is no furnace, no light switch and no tap. Your grandmother is sick, and the nearest doctor is a two-day trip away by sleigh.

What would you do? Today let's compare roles and challenges from long ago with today.

	Around 1800	Today
Getting food	Grow, hunt, fish, gather; trade or buy a few things at a general store far away	Mostly buy from stores; some people garden, hunt or fish
Keeping food	Salt, smoke, dry, or store in a root cellar	Fridges and freezers
Heat and light	Fireplace, wood stove, candles, oil lamps	Furnaces and electric lights
Water	Carried from a creek, lake or well	Taps in the house
Travel	Walking, canoe, boat, horse, ox cart, sleigh. Roads were muddy or rough.	Cars, buses, trains, planes on paved roads
Sending news	Letters by boat or horse, which could take weeks or months	Phones, texts, email, video calls: instant
Health	Few doctors; plant medicines; no vaccines for most sicknesses	Hospitals, doctors, vaccines and medicines
School	Not every child could go; many went for only part of the year	Every child has the right to go to school

Comparing everyday life around 1800 and today.

Three rows from the table as pictures. Each job is still done today, but how we do it has changed.

Roles: then and now

Children around 1800 had real jobs: carrying water, gathering firewood, feeding animals, helping with harvest, caring for babies. In First Nations communities, children learned the skills of adults by helping. Today, children help at home too, but their main job is to learn at school and grow. Laws today protect children from doing dangerous work.

Women around 1800 did many jobs at home and on the farm, but they had fewer rights than men. They could not be lawyers or doctors, for example. In Haudenosaunee communities, women held important leadership roles as Clan Mothers. Today, women and men can do any job and have the same rights under the law.

Men around 1800 usually did the heaviest farm work, hunted and travelled to trade. Today, men and women share many of these jobs, and also cook, care for children and keep house.

Big challenges around 1800

Weather: long, cold winters. If the harvest was poor, families could go hungry by spring.
Isolation: neighbours and towns were far away. In spring, roads turned to deep mud.
Sickness: diseases spread fast, and there were no vaccines for most of them. In 1832, an epidemic of a sickness called cholera arrived on ships and killed many people in Lower and Upper Canada. Earlier, diseases brought by Europeans, like smallpox, had killed very many First Nations people, who had never had them before.
Losing land: First Nations faced settlers taking over their hunting, fishing and farming lands.
Unfair laws: until 1834, some people were enslaved. Black settlers faced racism.

How people met these challenges

They helped each other: bees, sharing food, caring for sick neighbours.
They shared knowledge: settlers learned from First Nations about plant medicines, maple sugar, snowshoes and canoes.
They prepared: root cellars, salted meat, piles of firewood, warm homespun clothes.
They built: mills, roads, schools and churches made communities stronger.
They stood up for fairness: First Nations leaders sent petitions to protect their land, and people worked to end slavery.

Wooden buckets hang from spouts on maple trees in a snowy forest in early spring. — Settlers learned from First Nations how to collect maple sap and boil it into maple sugar. Sap runs in early spring, while snow is still on the ground. AI-generated image

Some things stay the same

When we compare, we look for differences and things that stayed the same. Families still work together, help neighbours, prepare for winter and care for each other. Snowstorms and sickness are still challenges, but we have new ways to deal with them.

Worked example

Let's compare with a T-chart

Make a T-chart to compare travel around 1800 and today.

Draw a big T. Write Around 1800 on the left and Today on the right.
Left side: walking, canoe, sailboat, horse, ox cart, sleigh; muddy or rough roads; a trip of 100 km could take days.
Right side: car, bus, train, plane; paved roads; 100 km takes about an hour by car.
Look for what stayed the same: people still use canoes, sleds and boats, and some roads today follow old routes.
Look at the differences: travel today is much faster and easier.

Travel around 1800 was slow and hard; today it is fast. Some ways of travel, like canoes, are still used, often for fun.

A T-chart compares two things side by side. The box at the bottom shows what stayed the same.

Worked example

Let's draw a conclusion from evidence

Question: Were children's roles more important to their families in 1800 or today?

Evidence:

Children in 1800 carried water, gathered firewood and fed animals every day.
At harvest time, children worked in the fields instead of going to school.
Today, water comes from taps and food comes from stores.
Today, children's main job is learning at school.

Look at evidence 1 and 2: in 1800, families needed children's work to get water, heat and food.
Look at evidence 3: today, many of those jobs are done by machines and stores.
Look at evidence 4: today, children's main role is learning.
Put it together into a conclusion, and use the word because.

Conclusion: In 1800, children's work was needed for the family to survive, because there were no taps, stores or machines nearby. Today, children still help, but their main role is to learn. (Both are important roles!)

Just for fun

Fun fact: In 1800, a letter could take weeks or even months to arrive. Today a text can cross Canada in about a second... but you might still wait ages for your friend to answer!

Hands-on activity

An 1800 hour

With your family, try living one hour like it is 1800 (pick an evening).

Turn off screens and most lights. Use a flashlight instead of a candle. (Only a grown-up should ever light a candle, and never leave it alone.)
Do 1800 jobs: carry a bucket of water from the tap to another room, fold laundry by hand, sweep, and prepare a simple snack without the microwave.
Play an 1800 game: marbles, cat's cradle, checkers, or telling stories.
Afterward, make a list: What was hardest? What was fun? What did you miss most?

Your turn

How did families keep food from spoiling around 1800?

How long could a letter take to arrive in 1800?

What was the main role of children in 1800? What is it today?

What happened in 1832?

Name two challenges people faced around 1800.

Name one way people met these challenges.

Name one thing that is the same today as in 1800.

More practice: warm-up

Where did people get water in 1800?

How do we keep food cold today?

What gave light in a log house at night?

What is an epidemic?

How do people send news quickly today?

More practice: on your own

Why did diseases like smallpox harm First Nations so badly?

Why was isolation a big challenge for settlers?

How have women's rights changed since 1800?

Why might a poor harvest be dangerous in 1800 but less dangerous today?

Use evidence from the chart: was getting food easier in 1800 or today? Explain.

Challenge

Is everything better today than in 1800? Give one thing that is better and one thing that people might have done better then.

Write a conclusion that answers: "Was winter a bigger challenge in 1800 or today?" Use at least two pieces of evidence.

A First Nations family and a settler family in 1820 both faced challenges. Name one challenge they shared and one that only the First Nations family faced.

Check your understanding

Quiz

How did families light their homes around 1800?

What was a main role of children around 1800?

In 1832 an epidemic of ___ arrived on ships.

Which is a way people met challenges around 1800?

Which sentence is a conclusion based on evidence?

What is one thing that has stayed the same since 1800?

For parents and teachers

Big idea: Students compare roles (men, women, children) and challenges (environment, sickness, isolation, unfair laws) around 1800 with today, and draw evidence-based conclusions. They also notice continuity, not only change.

How to help at home:

Try the "1800 hour" (flashlights, not candles).
Ask a grandparent how life was different when they were young; this shows that change is continuous.
Practise "because" sentences: claim + evidence.

Common difficulties:

"Everything was worse back then": challenge this gently; some things (community sharing, less waste) were strengths.
Conclusions without evidence: ask "How do you know?" and point back to the chart.
Presentism: help your child understand why roles were different then (survival needs, laws of the time) without judging individuals, while still being clear that unfair laws, like slavery, were wrong.