Understanding Gendered & Racialized Power & Oppression at Red River: Foss Vs Pelly

Maddi B.

This factsheet discusses the social position of Métis and Countryborn before and after the arrival of white women to the Red River Colony. The factsheet uses the case of Foss vs Pelly to demonstrate how white women were active agents of colonization who deployed discourses of sexuality and the racialized 'other' through the tool of rumour to solidify and heighten their own social power in private spheres under patriarchy.

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References

Fitzgerald, Sharron A. & Muszynski, Alicia. "Negotiating Female Morality: Place, Ideology and Agency in the Red River Colony," Women's History Review 16, no. 5 (2007): 661-680. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1340076

Source Authors

Alicia Muszynski, Sharron A. Fitzgerald

Events

Keywords

'Race' as a Political Tool, Body Politics, Canada's Colonial History, Challenging Whiteness, Colonialism, Constructing 'Race', Constructing Difference, Deconstructing Popular Ideas, European Settlers, Harmful Ideas, Historicizing Whiteness, Hudson's Bay Company, Identity, Inclusions & Exclusions, Interrupting Colonial Narratives, Land Dispossession, Language and Power, Language of Difference, Metis, Métis History, Ongoing Colonialism, Othering, Patriarchy, Politics of Citizenship, Politics of Recognition, Racialization, Racist Hierarchies, Racist Stereotyping, Representations and Power, Self-Determination, Settler Colonialism, Settler Moves to Innocence, Settler-Indigenous Relations, Unsettling Settlers, White Privilege, White Supremacy

Key Figures

Anne Pelly, Christopher Foss, Métis, Sarah Ballenden, William Cockran

Locations

British North America, Canada, Fort Garry, Métis Homelands, Red River

Themes

History