Читать книгу Sophie's Rebellion - Beverley Boissery - Страница 6

The Rebellion of 1838 actually happened. The real history can be found in my own book, A Deep Sense of Wrong, published by The Dundurn Group in 1995, and you’ll find many of the people in Sophie’s Rebellion there. Jane Ellice, for example, is even more out-of-touch in real life than she is in this book, and if you doubt me read the November 4 entry of her diary (Patricia Godsell, editor, The Diary of Jane Ellice). Luc is entirely fictional but Marc Morriset is based on a real person, Leon Ducharme, who wrote his own book, Journal of a Political Exile in Australia. While the Mallorys and Lady Theo are products of my imagination, the model for Sophie’s father was Benjamin Mott, an American, also from Vermont.

Although almost everything on the 1838 rebels’ list of wrongs has been righted, the viciousness of the rebellion’s aftermath has never truly been forgotten. Even today it plays a part in the larger picture of Canadian politics. The crushing defeat of the rebels, both in 1837 and 1838, however, did bring responsible government to Canada and pave the way towards Confederation. Whether or not it will play a part in the separation of Quebec is a question for the future.

Beverley Boissery

August 2005