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Conclusion
- State University of New York Press
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Conclusion Cornwall and Massena settlers faced the same obstacles as other borderlanders in their quest for social and economic survival based on their isolated and peripheral locations. The towns’ distance from their nations’ heartland forced residents to work collectively to stave off starvation, foster a comparable frontier mentality, and encourage the establishment of a shared regional identity. Early settlers had little contact with the outside world and created political, social, and religious organizations contrary to those in other areas of the country. Unlike their more homogeneous rural neighbors, Cornwall and Massena residents in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries experienced economic prosperity and ethnic diversification. Even before the construction of the St. Lawrence Seaway in the 1950s, the areas underwent industrialization that altered the size and makeup of their populations and caused fear and anxiety among permanent residents. The towns’ factories also contrasted with the surrounding agricultural landscape. Cornwall residents developed a unique society and culture that mirrored those of their Massena neighbors. The histories of Cornwall and Massena, exceptional though they may be, cast doubt on Seymour Lipset’s value-orientation theory and add a new dimension to borderland studies. These two communities within the same world system and situated in comparable space are more alike than different in all ways and hence no “continental divide” separates the United States and Canada in the most fundamental aspects of human behavior and beliefs. The analysis of Cornwall and Massena from 1784 to 2001 identified a consistent pattern of common social, religious, and economic values and beliefs that refuted Seymour Lipset’s central thesis. The residents of both areas desired democratic political organizations, created congregational religious organizations, and were financially ambitious and innovative. This challenges Lipset’s argument that all sectors of Canadian and American society differ because of the countries’ contrasting organizing principles that stem from the outcome of the American Revolution and historically influenced 129 130 From Great Wilderness to Seaway Towns behavior and community structure on both sides of the border. Even though Cornwall and Massena were settled by the Loyalists and Patriots of the American Revolution, this did not guarantee that these individuals cherished contrasting religious, economic, and political ideologies. Both were former residents of the American colonies and desired similar democratic political institutions and congregational churches that often brought them into conflict with national leaders. After industrialization Cornwall and Massena businessmen were driven by a desire for financial success and developed innovative technology. Cornwall and Massena’s parallel social and economic development call into question Seymour Lipset’s assertion that “Canada and the U.S. continue to differ considerably. America and Canada are not the same, they are products of two different histories, two different situations.”1 The differences Cornwall and Massena residents had with their larger societies flowed from their relatively isolated borderland location. The towns’ comparable histories support Oscar Martinez’s borderland milieu theory. Like other borderlanders around the globe, Cornwall and Massena residents lived in a unique human environment on the periphery of their nations and developed a set of values and beliefs that contrasted with that of their compatriots in the heartland. According to Martinez, borderlanders stand apart because of the singular world in which they live that is isolated, underdeveloped, and neglected. Historically, Cornwall and Massena had greater differences in race, religion, and level of economic development than other regions, which caused intergroup tension and social uneasiness. The towns’ location near waterpower encouraged industrialists to erect plants in the area and employ foreign workers. Politically, residents also encountered conflicts with provincial and national government officials because of their desire for a democratic government. Their isolation from major population centers tended to dilute their national identity and fostered a regional identity shared with their American neighbors. Cornwall and Massena residents’ ethnic diversity, industrial economy, and interaction with foreigners made them differ from their immediate neighbors, while their religious diversity and geographic location made their lives stand apart from the national norm.2 The founding fathers of Cornwall did not desire a strong paternalistic government and did not defer to authority, like most Canadians, as Seymour Lipset suggested.3 From the early settlement of Cornwall and Massena, inhabitants built communities and survived on their own without government assistance. They did not see government as a benign presence whose help was needed in the struggle for survival against geography and climate.4 Cornwall residents, unlike their counterparts in the neighboring towns of Alexandria and Kingston, never developed hierarchical political...