Susanna Moodie

English-born Susanna Moodie, who lived in Canada from 6 December 1803 to 8 April 1885, wrote about her experiences as an immigrant in what was then a British province. On the banks of the River Waveney in Suffolk, Susanna Moodie was born in Bungay. In a family of authors that also included Agnes Strickland, Jane Margaret Strickland, and Catharine Parr Traill, she was the youngest sibling. In addition to publishing books about Spartacus and Jugurtha, she wrote her first children's book in 1822...See more

English-born Susanna Moodie, who lived in Canada from 6 December 1803 to 8 April 1885, wrote about her experiences as an immigrant in what was then a British province. On the banks of the River Waveney in Suffolk, Susanna Moodie was born in Bungay. In a family of authors that also included Agnes Strickland, Jane Margaret Strickland, and Catharine Parr Traill, she was the youngest sibling. In addition to publishing books about Spartacus and Jugurtha, she wrote her first children's book in 1822 and other children's stories in London. She participated in the Anti-Slavery Society in London and transcribed Mary Prince's story, a former slave from the Caribbean. She wed retired officer and Napoleonic War veteran John Moodie on 4 April 1831. Moodie emigrated to Upper Canada in 1832 together with her husband, a British Army officer, and daughter. Her brother Samuel Strickland (1804-1867) worked as a surveyor on a farm in Douro Township, close to Lakefield, north of Peterborough, where the family eventually lived. The farm now serves as a museum and houses antiquities. The museum, which Samuel founded, was formerly an Anglican church and has a view of Susanna's former canoeing spot on the Otonabee River. See less