Anne McDonald

This publication of the diary kept by Mercy Anne Coles during her trip with her father and mother to the Quebec Conference in 1864 provides a new, different, and female perspective on Canadian Confederation history. As the daughter of one of the delegates from PEI, Mercy Coles provides insights into the social goings on around the Confederation talks and insight into the personalities of several of the men we study in Canadian History.

Anne McDonald, who has transcribed Mercy Coles' diary for show more the trip, also provides introductory and evaluative notes on either side of each section of the diary, broken down by events over the course of the two months it was written. McDonald provides interesting historical context, which does meander a bit far from the subject at times and occasionally feels repetitive as she more than once laments that Mercy doesn't give more detail on her thoughts and feelings about events. Despite those concerns, the book is a brief and fascinating read for those interested in women's history, Canadian Confederation history, and also American Civil War history (Mercy Coles and her parents returned from the Conference via the US and were in the country during the Civil War and Abraham Lincoln's reelection). show less