Evangelical Balance Sheet

Character, Family, and Business in Mid-Victorian Nova Scotia

Publication Year: 2006

Using the journals of W. Norman Rudolf (1835-1886), a Victorian merchant, Evangelical Balance Sheet: Character, Family, and Business in Mid-Victorian Nova Scotia explores the important role of character ideals and evangelicalism in mid-Victorian culture. Rudolf’s diary, with its daily weather observations, its account of family matters, of social and business happenings, and of his own experiences, as well as occasional literary or naturalistic forays, attempts to follow a disciplined regime of writing, but also has elements of a Bildungsroman. The diary reveals an obvious and significant tension between his inner, spiritual search for meaning in his life (evangelical inwardness) and his outward stewardship duties. Rudolf’s concept of character, then, involved a type of balance sheet of his evangelical service record, to his God, his family, his business, and his community. Needing God’s help to transform his will and to interpret the world in a constructive, rational manner, the underlying intent of his daily journal writing was to keep his commitment to an ethic of benevolence and of the affirmation of the goodness of human beings. Wood elucidates the cultivation of civic-minded masculinity in the context of Victorian Maritime Canada, analyzing the multiple facets of the character ideal and emphasizing its important role in Victorians’ understanding of their life experiences. In the process Wood reveals many underlying assumptions about social change and about civic discourse. The book also describes how the tremendous economic upheavals experienced by many entrepreneurs in the late 1860s to 1880s tempered their evangelical zeal and made it increasingly difficult for them to achieve a balanced and humane perspective on their own lives. Evangelical Balance Sheet will appeal to a broad audience interested in social history, imperial studies, gender studies (especially changing ideas of masculinity and manhood), Atlantic Canada studies, and local history of the Pictou region.

Published by: Wilfrid Laurier University Press

Contents
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pp. ix-

Acknowledgments

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pp. xi-

This ship has been on a long journey. At the start, two family descendants of Norman Rudolf, Robert Weld and Margo (Rudolf) Coleman, loaned me the original journals and searched for family photographs. The Right Reverend A.G. Peters, Bishop of Nova Scotia, and the Reverend Dale Cuffe, Rector of St. James Anglican Church, Pictou, granted me ...

List of Persons

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pp. xiii-xvi

Introduction

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pp. xvii-xxix

Before leaving Pictou, Nova Scotia, for a new position in Scotland, Norman Rudolf considered that his chief asset after seventeen years’ work as a clerk and as a junior merchant was his character. His partners, Howard and Clarence Primrose, would retain “the bulk of the Capital, or their father [James Primrose] for them, would as a matter of course retain ...

1. Character Distinctions

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pp. 1-20

As the young Norman Rudolf approached Pictou Harbour in 1853 on his journey from Lunenburg on the south shore of Nova Scotia to his new job at Pictou, he would have been struck by the attractive view. He had just descended the Cobequid range of hills, which stretched along the southern shore of Pictou Harbour for 160 kilometres. On his right, ...

2. Private Character

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pp. 21-44

Victorian men made a distinction between public and private character. The former was frequently debated in public discourse, the latter often implied in more private journal writings. The Victorian family became the major venue for the development of the individuated self; here, young males, especially the eldest in the family, learned their roles and ...

3. Public Character

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pp. 45-66

In 1854, Norman Rudolf was offered the position of clerk in the merchant firm of Primrose Sons. James Primrose (b. in Banffshire on 17 June 1802) was the founder of the Pictou firm. In 1839 he had been appointed the first agent for the Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS), founded in 1832 in Halifax. At this time, the agent was not an employee of the bank. He was paid a ...

4. Militia Culture

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pp. 67-80

There was one major bone of contention between James Primrose and his “boys.” This was the time they spent on their required militia duties. Norman Rudolf resented this criticism and demonstrated by his rapid advancement in the militia that he had the necessary qualifications and character to succeed in this military culture. Since the 1753 Proclamation, Nova Scotian males between the ages ...

5. Stylistic Essays

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pp. 81-102

As noted in previous chapters, the Pictou region experienced significant cultural change in the first half of the nineteenth century; this necessitated changes in leadership styles. Norman Rudolf experimented in his different positions of responsibility with the old and new styles, at first by analyzing the role models of his mentors. Of course, many of their ...

6. Evangelical Leadership

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pp. 103-122

Norman Rudolf ’s chastening experience with the Reverend Charles Elliott and the growing success of his firm, Primrose and Rudolf, marked a turning point in his own character formation. He began to take on more responsibilities both in voluntary organizations and with his own family. After several years of declining the office, in 1866 Rudolf agreed ...

7. Mature Character

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pp. 123-150

A major test of public character for mid-Victorian self-employed males was whether or not they had succeeded in business and could provide their families with secure incomes and respectable status. In a business culture lacking our modern regulations and financial institutions, and with spheres of business, politics, and government intertwined, the ...

8. Later Life

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pp. 182-160

In Scotland, Rudolf began to experience the effects of structural change and the first non-commercial business cycle significantly affected by industrial development. Independent commercial agents, such as the Primroses, Rudolf, and Alex Scott, had developed a system of specialization in which they acted as intermediaries between manufacturer and retailer. This ...

Conclusion

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pp. 161-166

The Victorian ideal of character was a complex notion. On one level, it was part of the mid-nineteenth-century rise of the middle-class to cultural power and economic and political influence. For males, respectability—meaning attitude and behaviour—became a major hallmark of this new culture and of their public character. Young men such as Norman ...

E-ISBN-13: 9781554581450
Print-ISBN-13: 9780889205000
Print-ISBN-10: 0889205000

Page Count: 228
Publication Year: 2006

Series Title: Studies in Childhood and Family in Canada