14 Facts About Susanna Moodie

Susanna Moodie was an English-born Canadian author who wrote about her experiences as a settler in Canada, which was a British colony at the time.

Susanna Moodie was born in Bungay, on the River Waveney in Suffolk.

Susanna Moodie was one of the youngest sister in a family of writers, including Agnes Strickland, Jane Margaret Strickland and Catharine Parr Traill.

Susanna Moodie wrote her first children's book in 1822 and published other children's stories in London, including books about Spartacus and Jugurtha.

In 1832, with her husband, a British Army officer, and daughter, Susanna Moodie immigrated to Upper Canada.

Susanna Moodie continued to write in Canada, and her letters and journals contain valuable information about life in the colony.

Susanna Moodie observed life in what was then the backwoods of Ontario, including native customs, the climate, the wildlife, relations between the Canadian population and recent American settlers, and the strong sense of community and the communal work, known as "bees".

Susanna Moodie suffered through the economic depression in 1836, and her husband served in the militia against William Lyon Mackenzie in the Upper Canada Rebellion in 1837.

Susanna Moodie remained in Belleville, living with various family members after her husband's death, and lived to see Canadian Confederation.

Susanna Moodie died in Toronto, Ontario on 8 April 1885 and is buried in Belleville Cemetery.

Susanna Moodie wrote of the trials and tribulations she found as a "New Canadian", rather than the advantages to be had in the colony.

Susanna Moodie claimed that her intention was not to discourage immigrants but to prepare people like herself, raised in relative wealth and with no prior experience as farmers, for what life in Canada would be like.

Moodie's books and poetry inspired Margaret Atwood's collection of poetry, The Journals of Susanna Moodie, published in 1970.

Susanna Moodie has been a source of inspiration for Carol Shields, who published a critical analysis of Moodie's work, Susanna Moodie: Voice and Vision.