The Letter L’épistolaire

The formation of the Radical Mennonite Union was inspired by two events: the resistance of young Menno- nites in the United States to the Vietnam War draft, and the 1968 occupation of the administration building at SFU by the Students for a Democratic University. [...] The letter depicted here was part of that had requested a file labelled “Radical Mennonite Union,” incor- collection, part of the extraordinary story of the Mennonite Dis- rectly thinking it would be of use for the book I was writing on sidents Study that I later described in the Journal of Mennonite the history of North American Mennonites’ attitudes toward and Studies.6 responses to labour union. [...] For example, several children writing to the Tirfingur’s letter offers a window into the reality of the sort of paper, perhaps predictably, mention the hardships of having rel- family separation common to families who migrate in both the atives taking part in the First World War, and a few children also past and the present. [...] of British troops from Canada, the Fenian Raids, the possibility of Canada’s annexation by the United States, the foibles of Wil- The Harrises were both a large family and dedicated letter writ- liam Gladstone’s government, and Britain’s imperial wars and ers. [...] In working-class households in rural England in the 1830s, the Sockett, the moving spirit of the emigrations, had humanitarian excitement of receiving a letter from Canada might be tinged intentions and an earnest desire to prove the benefits of emigra- with relief when the sheet the letter was written on was missing tion to himself as well as to sponsors and potential candidates.