Research Catalog

Title

Subjects or citizens? : the Mennonite experience in Canada, 1870-1925 / Adolf Ens.

Author

Ens, Adolf.

Publication

Ottawa : University of Ottawa Press, 1994.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

x, 266 pages : illustrations; 23 cm.

Summary

• During the 1870s, 7,000 Mennonites - descendants of Dutch and German Anabaptists - arrived in Canada to settle in the newly created province of Manitoba. While in Europe, they had steadily moved eastward under pressure of persecution and governmental restrictions until they settled in "foreign colonies" in New Russia (Ukraine) in 1789.
• Generations of living as non-citizen settlers under special arrangements with the ruler had reinforced their separatist understanding of what it meant to live in nonconformity with the world.
• Adolf Ens's volume traces the tensions of Mennonites becoming full citizens in the participatory democracy of Canada through the crucial steps of immigration, settlement and naturalization, implementing local municipal government, and becoming part of the public school system. This process was greatly complicated by the outbreak of the First World War and the intolerance it produced toward those who were pacifist, German, and different.
• Almost 8,000 of the descendants of this immigrant group left for Latin America in the aftermath of the war, becoming subjects once again. The rest gradually accommodated themselves to being full Canadian citizens.

Series Statement

Religions and beliefs series ; no. 2

Uniform Title

Collection Religions et croyances ; no 2.

Subject

• Mennonites > Manitoba > History
• Church and state > Canada > History
• Mennonites > History. > Canada
• Mennonites > Manitoba > Histoire
• Église et État > Canada > Histoire
• Mennonites > Histoire. > Canada

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents

• The Mennonites: A Brief Historical Sketch -- Anabaptist-Mennonite Concept of the State -- Mennonite Church Relations with the State in Prussia and Russia -- The Canadian Experience to 1925: An Overview -- Ch. I. Settlement in Canada. Negotiating a Privilegium. Group Migration. Mennonites and the "High" Government: A Summary -- Ch. II. Adjusting to Manitoba, 1876-1890. Public Schools: External Resources. Municipal Government: External Authority. Mennonite Solidarity Broken: Unequally Yoked -- Ch. III. Westward Expansion, 1890-1910. The Reserves. Government Loan. Non-Mennonite Intruders. Homestead Rights. Hamlet Privilege. Naturalization and Land Patents. Termination of the Reserves. Immigration from Russia and the U.S.A. -- Ch. IV. The Rift Widens: The Education Issue in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, 1890-1920. Manitoba Education Legislation to 1916. Higher Education: Alliance of Church and State. School Developments, 1890-1916. The "National Schools," 1916.
• The Zwangsschulen, 1918. Compulsory Attendance: Boycott and Court Enforcement. The Petitions: Articulating the Issues -- Ch. V. The War Issues. Military Exemption Provisions. The Early Years of the War. The National Service Registration, 1917. Implementing Mennonite Exemption: Military Service Act, 1917. U.S. Mennonite Immigrants and the Military Service Act. The 1918 National Registration. Financial Involvement: Red Cross and Victory Loans. Press Censorship -- Ch. VI. Emigration and Accommodation. The Postwar Situation. The Emigration Option. The Accommodation Option. App. 1. Order-in-Council of April 26, 1872 -- App. 2. Order-in-Council of September 25, 1872 -- App. 3. Capital Brought into Canada by Russian Mennonite Immigrants, 1874-1880 -- App. 4. Sample Homestead Entry Receipt -- App. 5. National Service Registration Card, 1917 (Front) -- App. 5. National Service Registration Card, 1917 (Back) -- App. 6. Mennonite Identification Certificate, World War I --
• App. 7. Canada Registration Board Cards, 1918 -- App. 8. Excerpts of the Paraguayan Mennonite Privilegium -- App. 9. Sommerfelder Mexican Privilegium.

ISBN

0776603906 :

LCCN

cn 94900829

OCLC

• 35172486
• ocm35172486

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries