Courtship, Love, and Marriage in Nineteenth-Century English Canada

Courtship, love, and marriage are seen today as very private affairs, and historians have generally concluded that after the late-18th century young people began to enjoy great autonomy in courtship and decisions about marriage. This work argues that freedom in 19th-century English Canada was constrained by an intricate social, institutional, and familial framework which greatly influenced the behaviour of young couples both before and after marriage.