Roughing It in the Bush

by Susanna Moodie

"Roughing It in the Bush" by Susanna Moodie is a settler's account published in 1852. Written for British subjects considering immigration, this memoir chronicles Moodie's experiences homesteading in Upper Canada during the 1830s. Through vivid sketches, she exposes the harsh realities of pioneer life—backbreaking labor, crude living conditions, and social tensions—that contrasted sharply with the utopian promises used to lure middle-class emigrants. Her frank, often darkly humorous narrative reveals the profound gap between immigrant dreams and Canadian frontier truths.