A Yankee in Canada with Anti-Slavery and Reform Papers (1866)

AUTHOR: Thoreau, Henry David

KEYWORDS: food, animals, dress reform, Temperance, land usage, environmentalism, slavery, Abolition, Transcendentalism

SUMMARY (Bryn Skibo, edited Deborah Madsen):
In A Yankee in Canada, Thoreau describes his departure from Concord, bound for Canada (Quebec), on 25 September 1850. In the train car, Thoreau describes the passing landscape – in terms of trees, certain towns, and Lake Champlain – and his fellow passengers. Thinking that if he lived in a city, he would go to church on Mondays, Thoreau explains that: “In Concord, to be sure, we do not need such. Our forests are such a church, far grander and more sacred. We dare not leave our meeting-houses open for fear they would be profaned. Such a cave, such a shrine, in one of our groves, for instance, how long would it be respected, for what purposes would it be entered, by such baboons as we are? I think of its value not only to religion, but to philosophy and to poetry; besides a reading-room, to have a thinking-room in every city!” (13).

The abusive treatment of animals on which Thoreau remarks includes sheep in the market: “In the midst of the crowd of carts, I observed one deep one loaded with sheep with their legs tied together, and their bodies piled one upon another, as if the driver had forgotten that they were sheep and not yet mutton. A sight, I trust, peculiar to Canada, though I fear that it is not” (18). In Quebec, he sees dogs used to pull carts: “I had already observed the dogs harnessed to their little milk-carts, which contain a single large can, lying asleep in the gutters regardless of the horses, while they rested from their labors, at different stages of the ascent in the Upper Town. I was surprised at the regular and extensive use made of these animals for drawing, not only milk, but groceries, wood, &c.” (27-28).

Thoreau connects the exploitation of animals to the history of French colonialization: “In no part of the seventeenth century could the French be said to have had a foothold in Canada; they held only by the fur of the wild animals which they were exterminating” (62). Colonialism is also to blame for the obstruction of his view of the Falls, which is blocked by the fencing that surrounds the “private” property “formerly occupied by the Duke of Kent, father to Queen Victoria. It appeared to me in bad taste for an individual, though he were the father of Queen Victoria, to obtrude himself with his land titles, or at least his fences, on so remarkable a natural phenomenon, which should, in every sense, belong to mankind” (35).

Looking for suitable restaurants (offering something other than roast meats), Thoreau describes his encounter with “[a] burly Englishman, who was in the midst of the siege of a piece of roast beef, and of whom I have never had a front view to this day, turned half round, with his mouth half full, and remarked, ‘You’ll find no pies nor puddings in Quebec, sir; they don’t make any here.’ I found it was even so, and therefore bought some busty cake and some fruit in the open market-place” (79). Thoreau reports on their travels through Eastern French Canada the usual breakfast of the area: “In the morning, after a breakfast of tea, maple-sugar, bread and butter, and what I suppose is called potage (potatoes and meat boiled with flour), the universal dish as we found, perhaps the national one …” (47). When asking if there were any pies or puddings, Thoreau explains his choice: “I am obliged to keep my savageness in check by a low diet” (79).

“A Plea for Capt. John Brown”
In this essay Thoreau offers a brief biography of Brown, remarking of Brown’s eating habits: “He was a man of Spartan habits, and at sixty was scrupulous about his diet at your table, excusing himself by saying that he must eat sparingly and fare hard, as became a soldier, or one who was fitting himself for difficult enterprises, a life of exposure” (156).

“Paradise (To Be) Regained”
Thoreau reviews J. A. Etzler’s text, The Paradise within the Reach of all Men, without Labor, by Powers of Nature and Machinery (1842), concluding that “...there is a transcendentalism in mechanics as well as in ethics” (183).

On reform, Thoreau critiques the superficiality and anthropocentrism of many efforts: “What is the part of magnanimity to the whale and the beaver? Should we not fear to exchange places with them for a day, lest by their behavior they should shame us? Might we not treat with magnanimity the shark and the tiger, not descend to meet them on their own level, with spears of sharks’ teeth and bucklers of tiger’s skin? We slander the hyena; man is the fiercest and cruellest animal. Ah! He is of little faith; even the erring comets and meteors would thank him, and return his kindness in their kind” (185). He continues, “How meanly and grossly do we deal with nature! Could we not have a less gross labor? ... Can we not do more than cut and trim the forest, – can we not assist in its interior economy, in the circulation of the sap? Now we work superficially and violently. We do not suspect how much might be done to improve our relations to animated nature even; what kindness and refined courtesy there might be” (185-86).

Much of his discussion of Etzler's idea focus on power. Connected with the theme of animal abuse in A Yankee in Canada, is Thoreau's description of a "butter-churning dog": “We saw last summer, on the side of a mountain, a dog employed to churn for a farmer’s family, traveling upon a horizontal wheel, and those he had sore eyes, an alarming cough, and withal a demure aspect, yet their bread did get buttered for all that. Undoubtedly, in the most brilliant successes, the first rank is always sacrificed” (187). Three kinds of natural power are analyzed by Etzler: wind, water, and sun. While Thoreau questions Ertzler’s comparison between wind power and the power of a horse, Thoreau finds that humans do not make enough use of wind power: “here is an almost incalculable power at our disposal, yet how trifling the use we make of it. It only serves to turn a few mills, blow a few vessels across the ocean, and a few trivial ends besides. What a poor compliment do we pay to our indefatigable and energetic servant!” (189). An extended discussion of the advantages of tidal and water power follows: “But man, slow to take nature’s constant hint of assistance, makes slight and irregular use of this [tidal] power, in careening ships and getting them afloat when aground” (189). The advantages of solar power he imagines applied to “the boiling of water and production of steam. So much for these few and more obvious powers, already used to a trifling extent. But there are innumerable others in nature, not described nor discovered” (191). Thoreau theorizes a few ideas for how agriculturists could use these sources of energy (192-193) and explores how architecture would change if humans took more advantage of the elements. He agrees with Etzler that “[t]he character of the architecture is to be quite different from what it ever has been hitherto” (194). Among the utopian transformations that Thoreau imagines is the creation of a plant-based leather substitute for human clothing: “Clothed, once for all, in some ‘flexible stuff,’ more durable than George Fox’s suit of leather, composed of ‘fibres of vegetables,’ ‘glutinated’ together by some ‘cohesive substances,’ and made into sheets, like paper, of any size or form, man will put far from him corroding care and the whole host of ills” (195).

Thoreau criticizes Etzler’s theory that men must be united to make changes; Thoreau believes that “Nothing can be effected but by one man. He who wants help wants everything. … We must first succeed alone, that we may enjoy our success together” (200). Where Etzler provides a comprehensive account of the material conditions necessary to the regaining of Paradise, Thoreau points out that "Even a greater than this physical power must be brought to bear upon that moral power. Faith, indeed, is all the reform that is needed; it is itself a reform. Doubtless, we are as slow to conceive of Paradise as of Heaven, of a perfect natural as of a perfect spiritual world" (201).

Last updated on March 8th, 2024

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