In 1928 Miss Cowan published in the series "University of Toronto Studies, History and Economics" her first work on population movements: British Emigration to British North America, 1783-1837. This study has remained a standard reference on its subject and for some time has been available for purchase only through second-hand channels. In the intervening years Miss Cowan maintained an active interest in this field of history; for the present volume she has revised the earlier study in the light of her own and others' investigations and has expanded her discussion to include another quarter-century.
The book is an attempt to give students and general readers something of the story of the outpouring of British subjects who peopled British North America in the years before Confederation. Economic dislocations coincident with the Napoleonic Wars and the industrial and agricultural revolutions were causing a vast uprooting of population. At the same time, the beginning of political and humanitarian reform brought a demand for assistance in poor relief, for land, labour and other improvements at home and for government aid in emigrating to the colonies. The author describes the various policies of governments on emigration, the activities of timber, mercantile and land companies which became greatly interested in the flow of population overseas, and the efforts of individual and societies to held the needy who took part in this epic movement.
