Sojourning sisters
Subtitle: the lives and letters of Jessie and Annie McQueen
By: Jean Barman.
Contributors: McQueen, Jessie, 1860-1933.; McQueen, Annie, 1865-1941.
Series: Life and letters series; Life and letters series (University of Toronto Press)
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Published: 2003
Place of publication: Toronto; Buffalo
Language: eng
Number of pages: 304
Subjects: McQueen, Jessie, 1860-1933.; McQueen, Annie, 1865-1941.; McQueen, Jessie, 1860-1933.; McQueen, Annie, 1865-1941.; Women pioneers -- British Columbia -- Biography.; Sisters -- British Columbia -- Biography.; Women teachers -- British Columbia -- Biography.; Frontier and pioneer life -- British Columbia.; Women -- Nova Scotia -- Pictou (County) -- Biography.; Femmes -- Colombie-Britannique -- Biographies.; Vie des pionniers -- Colombie-Britannique.; Femmes -- Nouvelle-Écosse -- Biographies.; British Columbia -- Social life and customs -- 19th century.; British Columbia -- Biography.; Pictou (N.S. : County) -- Biography.
Genres: Biography.; Biographies.
Description: "Shortly after the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1886, two young sisters from Pictou County, Nova Scotia, took the train west to British Columbia. Jessie and Annie McQueen each intended to teach there for three years and then return home. In fact they remained sojourners between British Columbia, Nova Scotia, and Ontario for much of their lives.".

"Drawing on family correspondence and supported by extensive engagement with current scholarship, Jean Barman tells the sisters' stories and, in doing so, offers a new interpretation of early settlement across Canada. Like many other women of these years, Jessie and Annie McQueen were affected by daughterhood's obligations and sisterhood's bonds even as they got involved in their new communities.

Barman takes seriously women as sojourners and uses Jessie and Annie McQueen's letters home to evoke the boundless energy and enthusiasm shown by the thousands of women who helped to form Canada's frontiers.".

"Like other sojourners, the McQueen sisters did not come to their new home empty handed. They brought with them a distinctly Scottish Presbyterian way of life, consistent with ideas of the nation being promoted in the public realm by fellow Nova Scotians such as George Monro Grant. Confident in their assumptions, including the central role of religion in the formation of a grand national vision, women like these sisters were critical in uniting Canada from coast to coast.

Broad in its critical approach and nuanced in its interpretations, Sojourning Sisters is a major contribution to the field of life writing and to the political, gender and social history of Canada."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [251]-292) and index.
Table of contents: title: Sojourning sisters; title: Pictou County origins; title: Nova Scotia to British Columbia; title: Sisterhood's bonds; title: Taking a chance on love; title: Domesticating everyday life; title: Daughterhood's obligations; title: Enduring bonds of sisterhood; title: Annie on the frontier; title: Jessie in charge; title: Sisters full circle; title: Reflections.