This volume presents a broad documentary coverage of the rebellions and material on areas of Upper Canada not directly threatened by them. A judicious reading should provide a sound knowledge of the uprisings.

Starting in 1837, rebels in Upper and Lower Canada revolted against British rule in an attempt to reform a colonial government that they believed was unjust. While this uprising is often perceived as a small-scale, localized event, Revolutions across Borders demonstrates that the Canadian Rebellion of 1837–38 was a major continental crisis with dramatic transnational consequences. In this groundbreaking study, contributors analyze the extent of the Canadian Rebellion beyond British North America and the turbulent Jacksonian period's influence on rebel leaders and the course of the rebellion. Exploring the rebellion's social and economic dimensions, its impact on American politics, policy-making, and the philosophy of manifest destiny, and the significant changes south of the border that influenced this Canadian uprising, the essays in this volume show just how malleable borderland relations were. Chapters investigate how Americans frustrated with the young republic considered an “alternative republic” in Canada, the new monetary system that the rebels planned to establish, how the rebellion played a major role in Martin Van Buren's defeat in the 1840 presidential election, and how America's changing economic alliances doomed the Canadian Rebellion before it even started. Reevaluating the implications of this transnational conflict, Revolutions across Borders brings new life and understanding to this turning point in the history of North America.

Adam Wheeler is a fourteen year-old who arrives in Toronto in the autumn of 1837 after crossing from England on a filthy and crowded immigrant ship. He has emigrated in company with his uncle's family, but, once in Upper Canada, he quarrels with his uncle and sets out on his own. Adam finds work in a paper mill at the village of Todmorden on the banks of the Don River. Adam soon learns that William Lyon Mackenzie is mounting a rebellion. When the uprising begins, he is drawn into the conflict both because his employer sends him to deliver paper to the rebel camp at Montgomery's Tavern, and also because his uncle joins Mackenzie's force. Among those Adam befriends are two teenage girls, Cornelia and Charlotte de Grassi. These historical figures, aged thirteen and fourteen at the time, served as spies and messengers for the government side during Mackenzie's Rebellion. Although this book is a work of fiction, it is solidly based on real history. The events of the 1837 Rebellion have been carefully researched and are presented as accurately as possible. Captain and Mrs de Grassi and their daughters, and several other characters, were real people and, improbable as it may seem, the girls' work as spies and messengers during the rebellion days is fully authenticated. When it comes to presenting human beings however, historical documents are usually uninformative. To bring the characters to life, the author has invented certain scenes and details, all of which she based carefully on what she learned about the de Grassi family, and on the life and circumstances of the time.