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<div align="center"><b><i>MIT Seminar on Environmental and Agricultural
History<br>
<br>
“Popular By Their Misery: The British Response to a Colonial
Disaster, 1825”<br>
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Alan MacEachern <br>
Professor of History, University of Western Ontario<br>
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In 1825, a huge forest fire swept across the British colony of New
Brunswick and parts of Maine, wiping out communities along the Miramichi
River and killing hundreds. The Miramichi Fire is the largest
recorded forest fire on North America’s Eastern seaboard, and perhaps the
largest in Canadian history. News of the disaster quickly reached
Britain, which launched an extensive relief effort. People were
greatly moved by the thought of a poor white society, made up largely of
recent British immigrants, living on the edge of a vast wilderness,
experiencing a holocaust of unprecedented ferocity, and, having survived,
looking forward only to the loss of livelihood and a cold Canadian
winter. But it is clear that British interest in the disaster also
reflected very pragmatic concern about what this fire would mean for
Britain’s own wood supply, and called into question British dependence on
the colonies. <br>
<br>
<div align="center"><b>Friday, October 26, 2007<br>
2:30 to 4:30 pm<br>
Building E51 Room 095<br>
Corner of Amherst and Wadsworth Streets, Cambridge<br>
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