Main Page - Susanna Moodie

"In moments like these, I ceased to regret my separation from my native land; and filled with the love of Nature, my heart forgot for the time, the love of home..."

Susanna Moodie (nee Strickland), born December 6, 1803 at Bungay, England, was the youngest daughter of Thomas Strickland and Elizabeth Homer. The Stricklands were a literary family. Susanna Moodie, her brother Samuel Strickland, and her sister, Catharine Parr Traill, were all well-known in Canada. Susanna began to seriously pursue her literary career in 1818 after the death of her father. In 1831, Susanna moved to London, England were she became associated with the Anti-Slavery Society. While working in London, she met her future husband, John Wedderburn Dunbar Moodie. They were wed April 4, 1831. In July 1832, Susanna, John, and their eldest child emigrated to the Cobourg region of Upper Canada.

Resources

Holdings for Susanna Moodie are held at the Trent University Archives.

Clicking on the following links will take you to our finding aid for that accession item. To return to this Online Exhibit please click your browser back button or enter through our Archives Exhibits Home Page and click the On-Line Exhibits link.

69-1001 Susanna Moodie fonds

74-003 Dr. Edwin C. Guillet fonds.(Related)

83-1021 Strickland family genealogy. (Related)

89-1062 Susanna Moodie fonds. Addition (Watercolour)

96-008 Oral histories: audio cassettes and transcript collection (Related)

Susanna Moodie's reflections on life in Canada West have been published in two books: Roughing it in the Bush: or, Life in Canada, 1852, and Life in the Clearings versus the Bush, 1853.

Photo: Susanna Moodie from "Susanna Moodie, Letters of a Lifetime" edited by Carl Ballstadt, Elizabeth Hopkins, and Michael Peterman. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1985.