Families in the Souris Coalfields, 1925-1935
Date
1996
Authors
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Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
ORCID
Type
Degree Level
Masters
Abstract
This study of families in the Souris coalfields in southeastern Saskatchewan
in the 1920s and 1930s argues that women and children in the mine communities
were active and enterprising individuals. In the absence of modem-day conveniences
and comforts, families in the mine camps devised a variety of strategies and techniques
for survival. Perseverance and hardiness marked these coal families, and a
strong and able wife and mother was vital to a family's independence, empowerment,
and survival. Such women were commonplace in the Souris coal camps, and mining
families were characterized by an ability to adapt, respond, and adjust to demands
and circumstances of the mining lifestyle.
Interviews with ex-coal camp residents provide much of the information in
this study. While historians of deep-seam coal mines across Canada are quite correct
in emphasizing the grueling, dangerous, and demanding working conditions of the
underground miners, coal communities above-ground deserve recognition as dynamic
and active entities as well. Traditional labour-focused examinations of the coal
industry fail to acknowledge that male miners were members of a minority group in
the Souris coal camps - women and children made up the bulk of the population, and
played important roles in the communities. These camps were home to hundreds of
hardworking and practical families, and this thesis recognizes the independence and
tolerable lifestyles that these families strove to achieve.
Description
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Citation
Degree
Master of Arts (M.A.)
Department
History
Program
History