Moving Day 1 May 1901 (La Patrie)

Segregation inMontreal 1881 - 1901

Experiments with the H-GIS‘Montréal, l’avenir du passé’

by Sherry Olson, Jason Gilliland, Danielle Gauvreau,and Patricia Thornton,with help from everybody

Connecting past and present Historical maps are digitized, rectified & georeferenced, and integrated with databanks from taxroll or census

StreetsCity blocksLotsBuildingsHouseholdsIndividuals

Building the ‘MAP’ H-GIS

182518461880190319492000

1846 1880

Maison bâtie avant 1852, démolie 1898 Collection Notman, Musée McCord

By 1898, 3/4 lived in houses like these

L'habitat ancien

L'habitat nouveau

Holiday

Dillon

Screen shot shows 2 census households, the Dillons and the Hollidays,

living in Point St-Charles, with family members reported in the census of 1881

Censushousehold head

Censusfamilymembers

Taxroll ofoccupants

Propertyowner roll

Lovell’sdirectory

3 sources5 tables

Map link tocensus division

Map link to lot

Map linkto pointMap layers

from Goad

Databases are hooked together as map layers

Diversity revealed at finer scales

Montreal, 1881

20-4950-7980-169170-299300-710

Median rent in street ($/year)

CBD

MontRoyal

Montreal 1880

Status differences

at the block level

Protestant high

French high

Ir ish h ig h

French high

Protestant high

Irish h igh

Irish m iddle

French m iddle

Protestant middle

French m iddle

Protestant middle

Irish m iddle

Irish low

French low

Protestant low

French low

Protestant low

Irish low

People of the same social status but different origins?

Among familieswith 2 or more servants

Among familieswith 1 servant

Among familieswith no servantor who supply a servant

Segregation measured between Protestant and Irish Catholics (at left), between Irish Catholics and French, between French and Protestants (at right)

Concentrations and levels of diversity by district in 1901

Montreal ‘double duplex’:Segregation / diversity is built into the urban habitat

Boiler room

Coal

Sugar house

Sugar house

Storage yellow liquor

Storage yellow liquor

Carpenter shop

Boiler room

Filter

Filter

Kiln

Steam engines

St Lawrence Sugar Refinery, Filter pots crashed, knocking out a wall of 6-story syrup house, 6:30am, outside doors locked, no fire escapes, 6 deaths (Star 15 July 1887).Risks to the male labour force were great, employers were rarely held responsible.

0 10 20 30

A

B

C

D

E

F

0 10 20 30

A

B

C

D

E

F

0 10 20 30

A

B

C

D

E

F

In models of the risk of mortality of infants,cultural affiliation had a powerful impact;for children 1-4 years old, economic status of the household weighed more heavily.

French Catholic

Irish Catholic

Anglo Protestant

Low (labourers)

High merchants)

Infant mortality in Montreal 1880

0

5

10

15

20

25

French Canadian Irish Catholic Anglo Protestant Total

Dea

ths

per

100

fri

st d

ay s

urv

ivo

rs

Post-neonatal infant mortality

Neonatal infant mortality

Occupational status

Is spatial segregation a factor?Environmental factors were intercorrelated.

Bourgois-Pichat distribution of deaths by season and cultural group, Montreal 1880

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

450

cum

ula

tive

dea

ths

pet

100

0 fi

rsd

day

su

rviv

ors

French summer

English summer

French rest of year

English rest of year

Vulnerability of infants was affected by age, seasonalrisks, and age at which they were weaned

Months 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Choice of dwelling

Longerbreast-feeding

Infantsurvival

Later m arriage

Severalwage-earners

Schooling& saving

Higherlifetimeincom e

M other ’s health

Birthspacing

Family strategies for survival and upward mobility

PI

F

Marriages between groups, 9/10 an Irish Catholic woman

People moved to the city to improve their life chances.Risks were greater for babies and small children, for French Canadianwomen and babies, for labourers, and for Irish Catholic men and boys.In each community, of the children who survived, 40% moved up.

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

1842 1861 1871 1881 1891 1901

Pe

rce

nt

Bourgeoisie

Clerks

Skilled

Semi-skilled

Labourers

Upward mobility observed 1842-1901among Irish Catholic household heads

Source : Census, Montreal, Ryan samples

The trend among 'headsof household' reflects thereplacement of Irish-bornimmigrant fathers by theirsons.

• Methodological caution

• Segregation is multidimensional

• Need to understand stability

• Need to understand diversity

• Segregation and diversity are built

into the urban habitat

Using the H-GIS

to observe segregation

Using the H-GIS

• Getting beyond mapping

• Multivariate analysis

• Risking hypotheses

• Putting space into the model

• The problem of scale

to model mortality