The Tenant League of Prince Edward Island, 1864-1867

Historical writing about the middle years of the 1860s in British North America has focused almost exclusively on the Confederation movement and the theme of nation-building. As a consequence, scholars have largely overlooked one of the most successful extra-parliamentary movements of common people in the history of North America, which flourished in Prince Edward Island during those very years.

The Tenant League produced a highly compelling history, in that it played a decisive role in undermining the leasehold system of land tenure that Britain had imposed a century earlier. Through an exhaustive study of period documents, Ian Ross Robertson examines the origins, the modus operandi, and the impact of this organization. In doing so, he has illuminated a rich part of Canadian history.