African+Canadians,+First+Nations+and+Women+in+WW1

Women, Aboriginal and African Canadians in WWI


Overview
This activity focuses on the contributions of women, Aboriginal and African Canadians in World War I. Lesson

Women in the WWI
In 1997 a girl dressed as a nurse for her school Remembrance Day service. She read from her great-grand aunt's thick and yellowed World War I diary. Its author, Canadian Army Medical Corps nurse Lieutenant Clare Gass, was born in Nova Scotia in 1889. She was among the first Canadian army nurses sent overseas and was stationed on the coast of France. She worked with Doctor John McCrae, who became famous for writing the remembrance poem "In Flanders Fields" after the Second Battle of Ypres. Clare's first patients came from that battle. She was shocked and saddened by what she saw, but remained on duty for the rest of the war. Here is part of her diary.

//June 7, 1915 // Some of these new patients have dreadful dreadful wounds. One young boy with part of his face shot away, both arms gone & great wounds in both legs. Surely Death were merciful. Many head [injury] cases which are heartbreaking... These are the horrors of war, but they are too horrible. Can it be God's will or only man's devilishness. Susan Mann, ed., //The War Diary of Clare Gass, 1915-1918 // (Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2000)

Two thousand women from Canada and Newfoundland served overseas as army nurses in the Great War, and hundreds more drove the ambulances to and from the field hospitals.

As the war dragged on, Lieutenant Gass's diary entries became shorter and shorter. Although she escaped injury, the constant work and stress wore her down. She stopped nursing after the war and avoided talking about her wartime experiences. Today, Clare Gass's diary speaks for her.

Women played a critical role in the war effort. Marjorie McColl, Elsie Malone, Wilma Marshal are fictional characters whose stories reflect the real experiences of Canadian women during World War I. http://www.mrzahran.com/history/mme/womenwwi.html

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 20px;">Nellie McClung Video

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">William White: Slavery and Prejudice
<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">"My name is William White and I am a proud African Canadian. Both of my parents were former slaves in the state of Virginia. I came north to Canada to gain an education at Acadia University in Nova Scotia. I was a star athlete at Acadia, and I graduated to become a minister in the Baptist Church. My goal in life was to preach that God had created all persons to be equal." <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">"When the Great War broke out in 1914 there was a lot of prejudice in Canada. Prejudice means a dislike for people who are different. There was prejudice against my race. For example, blacks were not allowed to fight in the Canadian army next to whites." <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">William White: Number Two Construction Battalion <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Only in 1916, did the army create the Nova Scotia Number Two Construction Battalion. This unit was composed entirely of African Canadians, but under the command of white officers. Was this unit given guns to shoot? No, they were not. Instead, their job, as their name suggests, was to use wood to construct platforms and bridges for the trenches. <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">"I, William White, became the chaplain of the unit. As chaplain, I would lead the men in prayer, listen to their stories, and conduct the burial ceremonies when they were killed. As the chaplain, I held the rank of “officer.” <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">I was the only African-Canadian officer in the whole Canadian army and British army."

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">Aboriginal Canadians in WWI
<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">At the time of the First World War, Native people were considered wards of the court under the Indian Act, could not vote, and because they were not considered full citizens of Canada, were exempt from military service. Nonetheless, approximately 3,500 Native men (35% of the military-aged Native population), responded quickly and in impressive numbers to join the Canadian Forces on the European battlefields. More than five hundred Natives gave their lives defending values that were meaningful to all Canadians. This is all the more remarkable because a mere thirty years before, the last of the great ‘Indian’ Wars took place in the United States pitting the government against Native people. And in Canada, the 1876 Indian Act was enacted which had brought Native Canadians to their knees.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%; line-height: 1.5;">Assignment 25 marks Total
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">1. a)What are some words from the diary entry that show how upsetting the war was to Clare Gass? 5 marks <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 1.5;">b)What lasting effect did the war experience seem to have on her? 3 marks <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 1.5;">c)What would you say to Clare Gass if you had met her either in a war hospital or afterwards in Canada? 1 mark <span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 1.5;">2. Find the words to the poem "In Flanders Fields" by John McCrae. What do you think is the meaning and the feeling of this poem? 2 marks <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 20px; line-height: 1.5;">3. How did Marjorie McColl, Elsie Malone and Wilma Marshal each contribute to the war effort? 3 marks <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 20px; line-height: 1.5;">4. When was the Canadian income tax first introduced and why was it introduced? 1 mark

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">5. Why do you think that there was prejudice against African Canadians during World War I? List some examples of prejudice against William White and the Second Construction Battalion in World War I. 3 marks <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">6. Do you still see evidence of racial prejudice in today’s society? Explain. 3 marks

<span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">7. How many Native Canadians enlisted in the Canadian armed forces in World War I? Why was this such a surprise? 2 marks <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black',Gadget,sans-serif; font-size: 150%;">8. What examples of prejudice against Native Canadians are mentioned in this activity? 2 marks