Heavy Burdens on Small Shoulders

Heavy Burdens on Small Shoulders is a unique investigation which focuses on an aspect of prairie history that has been overlooked in Canadian literature-the labour of children. It details the findings of a study into the role that children's work played in the execution of homesteading operations during the pioneer era between 1871 and 1913. Analyzing the labour of boys and girls, whether helping to build the family home, taking part in productive, subsistence or enterpreneurial tasks, or being responsible for various domestic duties, enables the reader to understand how important children's work was to the success of the family farm. Furthermore, when economic, social, political difficulties, and environmental hazards of the time are also taken into account, the labour contribution of children becomes even more remarkable. Using a variety of archival materials, the author has conducted a study that gives readers a fuller understanding of how families survived, how the wheat economy was developed, and how burdens were carried on the shoulders of the smallest farm labourers.

Examine the vital work pioneer children performed to help their families on the Canadian Prairies.

The phrase "child labour" carries negative undertones in today's society. However, only a century ago on the Canadian Prairies, youngsters laboured alongside their parents' working the land, cleaning stovepipes, and chopping wood. By shouldering their share of the chores, these children learned the domestic and manual labour skills needed for life on a Prairie family farm. Rollings-Magnusson uses historic research, photographs, and personal anecdotes to describe the kinds of work performed by children and how each task fit into the family economy. This book is a vital contribution to western Canadian history as well as family and gender studies.