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B Movie Gothic International Perspectives 1st Edition
Justin Edwards (Editor) Digital Instant Download
Author(s): Justin Edwards (editor), Johan Höglund (editor)
ISBN(s): 9781474423441, 1474423442
Edition: 1
File Details: PDF, 4.89 MB
Year: 2018
Language: english
 B-Movie Gothic
international Perspectives
EdiTEd by JusTin d. Edwards and Johan höglund
B-­MOVIE GOTHIC
Traditions in World Cinema

General Editors Post-beur Cinema

Linda Badley (Middle Tennessee State Will Higbee
University)
New Taiwanese Cinema in Focus
R. Barton Palmer (Clemson University)
Flannery Wilson
Founding Editor International Noir
Steven Jay Schneider (New York Homer B. Pettey and R. Barton Palmer
University) (eds)
Films on Ice
Titles in the series include:
Scott MacKenzie and Anna Westerståhl
Stenport (eds)
Traditions in World Cinema
Linda Badley, R. Barton Palmer, and Nordic Genre Film
Steven Jay Schneider (eds) Tommy Gustafsson and Pietari Kääpä
(eds)
Japanese Horror Cinema
Jay McRoy (ed.) Contemporary Japanese Cinema Since
Hana-­Bi
New Punk Cinema
Adam Bingham
Nicholas Rombes (ed.)
Chinese Martial Arts Cinema (2nd edition)
African Filmmaking
Stephen Teo
Roy Armes
Slow Cinema
Palestinian Cinema
Tiago de Luca and Nuno Barradas Jorge
Nurith Gertz and George Khleifi
Expressionism in Cinema
Czech and Slovak Cinema
Olaf Brill and Gary D. Rhodes (eds)
Peter Hames
French Language Road Cinema
The New Neapolitan Cinema
Michael Gott
Alex Marlow-­Mann
Transnational Film Remakes
American Smart Cinema
Iain Robert Smith and Constantine
Claire Perkins
Verevis
The International Film Musical
Coming-of-age Cinema in New Zealand
Corey Creekmur and Linda Mokdad (eds)
Alistair Fox
Italian Neorealist Cinema
New Transnationalisms in Contemporary
Torunn Haaland
Latin American Cinemas
Magic Realist Cinema in East Central Dolores Tierney
Europe
Celluloid Cinema
Aga Skrodzka
Edna Lim
Italian Post-Neorealist Cinema
Short Films from a Small Nation
Luca Barattoni
C. Claire Thomson
Spanish Horror Film
B-Movie Gothic
Antonio Lázaro-Reboll
Justin D. Edwards and Johan Höglund
(eds)

edinburghuniversitypress.com/series/tiwc
 B-­MOVIE GOTHIC
International Perspectives

Edited by Justin D. Edwards and Johan Höglund

Edinburgh University Press is one of the leading university presses in the UK.
We publish academic books and journals in our selected subject areas across the
humanities and social sciences, combining cutting-­edge scholarship with high editorial
and production values to produce academic works of lasting importance. For more
information visit our website: edinburghuniversitypress.com

© editorial matter and organisation Justin D. Edwards and Johan Höglund, 2018
© the chapters their several authors, 2018

Edinburgh University Press Ltd

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­ olyrood Road
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Edinburgh EH8 8PJ

Typeset in 10/12.5 pt Sabon by

Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Stockport, Cheshire
and printed and bound in Great Britain

A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library

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The right of the contributors to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted
in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and the Copyright
and Related Rights Regulations 2003 (SI No. 2498).
 CONTENTS

List of Figures vii

Acknowledgements x
Traditions in World Cinema xi

Introduction: International B-­Movie Gothic 1

Justin D. Edwards and Johan Höglund

PART I AMERICA
1. Its, Blobs and Things: Gothic Beings Out of Time 17
Justin D. Edwards
2. Re-­scripting Blaxploitation Horror: Ganja and Hess and the
Gothic Mode 32
Maisha Wester
3. Alucardas and Alucardos: Vampiric Obsessions, Gothic and
Mexican Cult Horror Cinema 50
Enrique Ajuria Ibarra
4. Gothic Forests and Mangroves: Ecological Disasters in Zombio
and Mangue Negro 64
Daniel Serravalle de Sá
contents

PART II EUROPE
5. Mummies, Vampires and Doppelgängers: Hammer’s B-­Movies
and Classic Gothic Fiction 83
John Edgar Browning
6. Fantaterror: Gothic Monsters in the Golden Age of Spanish
B-­Movie Horror, 1968–80 95
Xavier Aldana Reyes
7. Austro-­trash, Class and the Urban Environment: The Politics of
Das Ding aus der Mur and its Prequel 108
Michael Fuchs
8. Wither the Present, Wither the Past: The Low-­budget Gothic
Horror of Stockholm Syndrome Films 122
Johan Höglund
9. Turkish B-­Movie Gothic: Making the Undead Turkish in Ölüler
Konuşmaz Ki 139
Tuğçe Bıçakçı Syed

PART III AFRICA AND ASIA

10. Filamu ya kutisha: Tanzanian Horror Films and B-­Movie Gothic 157
Claudia Böhme
11. Psychopaths and Gothic Lolitas: Japanese B-­Movie Gothic
in Gen Takahashi’s Goth: Love and Death and Go Ohara’s
Gothic & Lolita Psycho 172
Jay McRoy
12. Hong Kong Gothic: Category III Films as Gothic Cinema 186
Katarzyna Ancuta
13. B is for Bhayanak: Past, Present and Pulp in Bollywood Gothic 209
Tabish Khair

Notes on the Contributors 221

Index 225

vi
 FIGURES

1.1 Carrington grows alien pods in The Thing from Another

World 20
1.2 The blob outside the movie theatre in The Blob 28
2.1 Meda and Hess discuss suicide, betrayal, racial isolation and
racial violence in a scene evoking Jim Crow violence 35
2.2 Crumbling black statue at elite private school reflects Hess’s
cultural and spiritual state 37
3.1 Justine is tortured by the executioner in Alucarda 53
3.2 Manuel and Eduardo pose next to an altar made of merchandise
from the film Alucarda in Alucardos 60
4.1 Night shot of zombies walking in the forest 69
4.2 Evisceration special effects 70
4.3 Priestess morphs into a bestial monster 71
4.4 A POV shot of Luís shooting a zombie in the back of the head 74
4.5 A flooded tropical mangrove and a tide-­out mangrove with its
aerial roots 75
4.6 Old candomblé priestess and night shot of a zombie in the
mangrove 77
5.1 A rocket crashes into England’s countryside in The Quatermass
Xperiment 86
5.2 Christopher Lee dons his macabre make-­up as the Monster in
Curse of Frankenstein 87
figures

5.3 Count Dracula embraces Mina, his not-unwilling victim, in

Horror of Dracula 88
5.4 Mircalla/Carmilla Karnstein takes Amanda in a lesbian embrace
in Lust for a Vampire 93
6.1 Christopher Lee reprised his emblematic Hammer role for Jess
Franco’s faithful yet financially compromised adaptation of Bram
Stoker’s novel, El conde Drácula / Count Dracula 97
6.2 Amando de Ossorio’s Blind Dead, from the co-­production
La noche del terror ciego / Tombs of the Blind Dead, are a
quintessential example of Spain’s production of national Gothic
myths 104
7.1 The Mur about two kilometres north of the old town/city centre
of Graz 110
7.2 The Ding in all its glorious ridiculousness 111
7.3 The movies’ amateurish special effects invite what Jeffrey Sconce
has called ‘paracinematic reading’ 113
8.1 Promotional poster showing the Swedish villains of Madness 129
8.2 Poster for Wither/Vittra 133
9.1 The poster for Çığlık 143
9.2 Newspaper advert dating back to 24 April 1949 regarding the
release of Çığlık 145
9.3 The poster for Ölüler Konuşmaz Ki 147
11.1 Yoru reclines in the stream where the serial killer’s first victim
was found in Gen Takahashi’s Goth: Love of Death 177
11.2 Itsuki crouches over the unconscious Yoru in Gen Takahashi’s
Goth: Love of Death 179
11.3 The vengeful Yuki wields her deadly parasol in Gô Ohara’s
Gothic & Lolita Psycho 180
11.4 Yuki’s mother crucified on the living room wall in Gô Ohara’s
Gothic & Lolita Psycho 181
11.5 Clothed in schoolgirl attire, the dangerous Lady Elle opens fire
on Yuki in Gô Ohara’s Gothic & Lolita Psycho 183
12.1 Poverty and cramped space contribute to the making of the
murderer in Dr. Lamb 190
12.2 Anthony Wong as the Gothic villain: Ebola Syndrome and The
Untold Story 192
12.3 The shadow of Hong Kong handover looms over the characters
in Run and Kill 195
12.4 The mundane face of cannibalism Human Pork Chop and The
Untold Story 198

viii
 figures

12.5 The interplay of caged spaces and shadows in The Rapist 203
12.6 Evil lurking within the labyrinthine spaces of Red to Kill 204
12.7 Spaces of entrapment and separation: The Underground Banker
and Run and Kill 206

ix
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The editors want to thank Edinburgh University Press for making this collec-
tion possible. In particular, Leslie Gillian, Linda Badley and Barton Palmer
deserve our gratitude for their hard work on the manuscript during its various
stages. Johan Höglund wishes to thank the Linnaeus University Centre for
Concurrences in Colonial and Postcolonial Studies which sponsored research
trips and provided a forum for discussion of the project, his wife Cecilia for her
love and support, and his children David and Agnes for all the joy they give.​

x
 TRADITIONS IN WORLD CINEMA

General editors: Linda Badley and R. Barton Palmer

Founding editor: Steven Jay Schneider

Traditions in World Cinema is a series of textbooks and monographs devoted

to the analysis of currently popular and previously underexamined or under-
valued film movements from around the globe. Also intended for general inter-
est readers, the textbooks in this series offer undergraduate- and graduate-­level
film students accessible and comprehensive introductions to diverse traditions
in world cinema. The monographs open up for advanced academic study more
specialised groups of films, including those that require theoretically oriented
approaches. Both textbooks and monographs provide thorough examina-
tions of the industrial, cultural and socio-­historical conditions of production
and reception.
The flagship textbook for the series includes chapters by noted scholars
on traditions of acknowledged importance (the French New Wave, German
Expressionism), recent and emergent traditions (New Iranian, post-­Cinema
Novo), and those whose rightful claim to recognition has yet to be established
(the Israeli persecution film, global found footage cinema). Other volumes
concentrate on individual national, regional or global cinema traditions. As the
introductory chapter to each volume makes clear, the films under discussion
form a coherent group on the basis of substantive and relatively transparent,
if not always obvious, commonalities. These commonalities may be formal,

xi
traditions in world cinema

s­tylistic or thematic, and the groupings may, although they need not, be
popularly identified as genres, cycles or movements (Japanese horror, Chinese
martial arts cinema, Italian Neorealism). Indeed, in cases in which a group
of films is not already commonly identified as a tradition, one purpose of the
volume is to establish its claim to importance and make it visible (East Central
European Magical Realist cinema, Palestinian cinema).
Textbooks and monographs include:

• An introduction that clarifies the rationale for the grouping of films

under examination
• A concise history of the regional, national or transnational cinema
in question
• A summary of previous published work on the tradition
• Contextual analysis of industrial, cultural and socio-­historical condi-
tions of production and reception
• Textual analysis of specific and notable films, with clear and judicious
application of relevant film theoretical approaches
• Bibliograph(ies)/filmograph(ies)

Monographs may additionally include:

• Discussion of the dynamics of cross-­ cultural exchange in light of

current research and thinking about cultural imperialism and globalisa-
tion, as well as issues of regional/national cinema or political/aesthetic
­movements (such as new waves, postmodernism or ­identity politics)
• Interview(s) with key filmmakers working within the tradition.

xii
 INTRODUCTION:
INTERNATIONAL B-­MOVIE GOTHIC

Justin D. Edwards and Johan Höglund

International B-­movie Gothic may well seem like a fraught category: Gothic
was a Western European form that spread outwards (to the USA and beyond);
B-­movies were originally US productions that influenced filmmakers in Western
Europe and elsewhere. Gothic began in novels such as Horace Walpole’s
Castle of Otranto (1764) and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818); it was
then translated into an American texts such as Charles Brockden Brown’s
Wieland (1798), William Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom! (1936) and Stephen
King’s ‘Salem’s Lot (1975). B-­movies such as Jacques Tourneur’s Cat People
(1942) and I Walked with a Zombie (1943) developed out of the Hollywood
low-­budgets of the 1930s and 1940s, but evolved in the post-­War period
with studio pictures such as The Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) and
I Was a Teenage Werewolf (1957) before moving across the Atlantic and
morphing into, for instance, British Hammer Productions such as The Curse
of Frankenstein (1957), Horror of Dracula (1958) and The Mummy (1959)
(Davis 2012, 1–18). On the one hand, these transatlantic movements illus-
trate an international dimension to Gothic and B-­movies; on the other, they
illustrate how Anglophone North Atlantic cultures can be consolidated into
hegemonic cultural forces that extend their reach beyond the region, gaining
economic and cultural dominance in other geographical locations.
In this book, we do not seek to perpetuate a cultural form of North Atlantic
empire by, for instance, imposing the terms of Gothic aesthetics on Tanzanian
cinema or B-­movie categorisation on Indian films. Indigenous movies must be

1
justin d. edwards and johan höglund

recognised on their own terms and in their own contexts, but, as with American
and British B-­movie Gothic, they also develop as a result of reactions to and
engagement with other film cultures. International B-­movie Gothic arises out
of shared cinematic technologies, techniques and budgetary limitations across
cultures. It also gains traction in the latter part of the twentieth century and
early in the twenty-­first century through filmmakers from across the globe
who have begun to explore their own traditions of strange and supernatural
phenomena on film, sometimes independent of North Atlantic cinematic art
and sometimes influenced by it. According to Glennis Byron (2013), there is
‘increasing evidence of cross-­cultural and transnational gothics that call out for
attention and which suggest that, despite the emergence of so many national
and regional forms, in the late twentieth and early twenty-­first centuries gothic
[is] actually progressing far beyond being fixed in terms of any one geographi-
cally circumscribed mode’ (1). For Byron, this is not a one-­way process; it has
engendered transnational exchanges in Gothic wherein new forms are gener-
ated and old forms are reinvigorated. In this international environment, Gothic
films are significant because movies can easily cross linguistic borders and
‘they lend themselves to the marketing of a popular culture that can be easily
commoditized, sold and consumed’ (4). As a visual form of cultural production,
Gothic in film has become more multidirectional than the mode in literary texts.

Gothic in B-Movies
Gothic film is simultaneously easy and difficult to categorise. In the broader
context of the horror genre, the history of Gothic films began with the adapta-
tion of Gothic literary works from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In
1910, for instance, Edison Studios in the USA made a sixteen-­minute film of
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein; in 1913, Carl Laemmle, founder of Universal
Studios, made an adaptation of Stevenson’s Jekyll and Hyde, and in 1915
D. W. Griffith adapted Poe’s ‘Tell-­Tale Heart’ and ‘Annabel Lee’ into his film
Avenging Consciousness (Prawer 1980, 9).
From a historical perspective, we can define a Gothic film as, quite literally,
the cinematic adaptation of a Gothic novel or story. However, this definition
would be too limited, for the aesthetics and sensibility of ­Gothic – ­a Gothic
­mode – a­ re integrated into films such as Edward D. Wood’s Plan 9 from Outer
Space (1959), which includes vampire and zombie iconography alongside
cheapo sci-­fi images, and Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960), with its eerie
doppelgänger narrative and haunting visuals. For the critic Heidi Kaye (2015),
Gothic films reflect contemporary anxieties through ‘strong visuals’ and an
‘emphasis on audience response’ by combining elements from Gothic litera-
ture, stage melodrama and German Expressionism (239–42). Other critics,
such as Misha Kavka, see Gothic not as a cinematic genre, but as a mode that

2
 introduction

is woven into movie images, styles, plots and characters. This mode adapts
Gothic literary spaces and fi ­ gures – ­haunted houses, dark forests, vampires,
­ghosts – ­to the screen, thus tantalising the viewer with trepidation in its subject
matter and affect. According to Kavka, fear in Gothic literature and film is
generated not primarily through its characters, plots or language, but through
its dynamics as spectacle (2002, 209–12).
As spectacle, Gothic films have a recognisable mise-en-scène. The visual sig-
nifiers and narrative codes are associated with the uncanny, and often include
imagery associated with old dark houses, underground passages, secret places,
dungeons and graveyards. Settings are often obscured by darkness, fog or even
cobwebs to destabilise the viewer and convey a sense of seclusion and isolation.
Shadows blur the action and soft lighting creates the sense of perpetual night
while under-­lighting distorts features. As in Gothic novels, dream and reality are
blurred; irrationality is not overcome by rational explanation; transgressions
and taboos are indulged, confounding ethical boundaries. Characters include
sexual predators, doubles, deformed creatures, mad scientists, the insane, the
animal within, as well as figures of the undead such as vampires, zombies and
spectral forms. The audience responses of fear, shock, suspense and disorienta-
tion are engendered through breakdowns in the distinctions between life and
death, the homely and unhomely, obedience and transgression.
This collection theorises the international development of low-­budget cinema
mainly through the concept of Gothic, but any discussion of movies that seek
to frighten the audience must also consider the concept of horror. The two are
often difficult to distinguish, partly because both lay claim to the same origin-­
texts, and partly because they seek to produce similar, although not necessarily
identical, affect in their audience. Thus, H. P. Lovecraft claimed in 1927 that
Walpole must be considered ‘the actual founder of the literary horror-­story as
a permanent form’ (Lovecraft 1927, 21). Horror scholar Noel Carroll agrees,
arguing in The Philosophy of Horror (1990) that of ‘greatest importance for
the evolution of the horror genre proper was the supernatural gothic, in which
the existence and cruel operations of unnatural forces are asserted graphically’
(4). This conclusion allows Carroll to define late-­Victorian Gothic narratives
such as Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891) and Bram Stoker’s
Dracula (1897) as ‘[c]lassic novels of horror’ (6). From this perspective, horror
can be described as a by-­product and development of Gothic literature and
film, but also as a potentially synonymous term that describes a very similar
generic corpus. As a result, Gothic and horror share texts and also tropes and
conventions such as the maiden in distress, the haunted house, the predatory,
monstrous villain and, often, a deep sense of suspicion about rationality and
modernity.
Horror arguably produces a different affective response from Gothic.
Carroll argues that in horror texts, human protagonists encounter monsters

3
justin d. edwards and johan höglund

that they perceive as ‘abnormal, as disturbances of the natural order’ (16). This
encounter causes both the characters and, through a ‘mirroring effect’ (18), the
audience reading or watching the horror text to experience shudders as well as
‘nausea, shrinking, paralysis, screaming, and revulsion’ (18). This has much in
common with Fred Botting’s definition of Gothic: he argues that while Gothic
encourages an ‘expansion of one’s sense of self, horror describes the movement
of contraction and recoil’ so that ‘terror marks the uplifting thrill where horror
distinguishes a contraction at the imminence and unavoidablility of the threat’
(10).
Horror is arguably more clearly centred on the visceral than Gothic. Horror
is typically physically violent, often displaying the aftermath of brutality in the
gory blood and guts that ooze out of mangled bodies that have been destroyed
by an abject, monstrous force, person or presence. The terror, panic and dread
experienced by the audience of horror arise out of anticipating and seeing the
corporeal impact of violence on the body. Horror plays upon the fear of death
and the nightmare of dismemberment or the repulsive acts of a psychopath
or serial killer. Horror gets under our skin. Rather than a spectacle unfolding
on the screen in front of us, horror subsumes the viewer, through the mirror-
ing effect, into its own world of the anticipation of pain, torture, suffering.
The real merges with the simulation. We do not leave horror at the cinema.
Afterwards, it lurks behind the corner of our street, in the closets of our house,
under our bed and behind our curtains. By contrast, the spectacle of Gothic
film erects a boundary between audience and film, or between spectating
subject and cinematic object. Conversely, the horror movies’ affective power
resides in its ability to infect the psyche of the viewer beyond the film as self-­
contained object.
But genres and other forms of cinematic categorisation are always fluid, not
fixed. Horror films often overlap with, among other forms, thrillers, science
fiction and fantasy. This permeability of modes gives rise to a hybrid form
that Xavier Aldana Reyes (2014) refers to as the ‘Gothic horror’ film, which
‘emphasizes the affective qualities of the horror genre’ while also including
‘recognizable Gothic settings and [conveying] disturbing moods that aim to
create the unease or destabilization often ascribed to the reading experience
of the Gothic novel’ (388). For Reyes, the hybrid category of ‘Gothic horror’
is useful because it combines Gothic atmospheres and settings (the spectacle)
with the ‘grossing out’ potential of horror (the corporeal). Some of the features
of Gothic horror are the corporealisation of the ghost, the focus on forms
of monstrosity and the body as a site of monstrous sexualities, as well as a
‘marked move toward embodiment which has led to an opening up of the body
and its transformation as the ultimate site of Gothic inscription’ (388–9).

4
 introduction

B-Movies and Gothic: International Perspectives

The expression ‘B-­movie’ was originally used to describe Hollywood movies
that were largely subordinate to and supportive of the Hollywood A-­film.
Made with modest budgets, the first B-­movies of the 1930s and 1940s were
made to generate healthy profits and satisfy a market-­place that demanded
more cinematic entertainment. While these films were originally designed for
a specific means of distribution within the framework of the double bill, the
production of B-­movies pioneered new cinematic methods in order to over-
come the fiscal restraints of the limited budgets. These innovations ensured
that, even after improved economic conditions in the 1950s, the B-­movie did
not disappear. Instead, the expression ‘B-­movie’ became used to describe any
low-­budget films made in the 1950s, including underground filmmaking, that
were more concerned with artistic expression than with bottom-­line profit
motives (Taves 1993, 313–25).
As early as the 1930s, low-­budget movies and Gothic cinematic productions
went international. Inspired by Hollywood B-­movies, the British Hammer Film
Productions made a series of pictures based on the Gothic writings of Edgar
Allan Poe, including cinematic adaptations of The Black Cat in 1934, The
Raven in 1935, The Fall of the House of Usher in 1960 and The Pit and the
Pendulum in 1961. There is a significant international dimension to Hammer’s
Gothic movies, for these B-­movies are based on American Gothic texts and are
highly influenced by the Hollywood Gothic productions released by Universal
Pictures in the early 1930s, particularly Todd Browning’s adaptation of Bram
Stoker’s Dracula and James Whale’s adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
(both released in 1931). The success of these fi
­ lms – ­Whale went on to make the
highly lucrative sequel Bride of Frankenstein in 1­ 935 – d­ isseminated many of
the tropes associated with the undead and Gothic spaces used in the Hammer
productions. The success of these films also inspired other filmmakers to adapt
Gothic novels and stories to the screen. Alfred Hitchcock’s 1940 adaptation
of Daphne Du Maurier’s Gothic novel Rebecca (1938) is a notable example.
As this book observes, Anglophone low-­budget Gothic cinema was dis-
seminated to an international audience and had a tremendous impact on the
emergence and development of local cinematic traditions. Even in the early
twentieth century, the cinemas and distribution systems needed to view these
films were in place. The technology of cinema had travelled the globe very
rapidly. The first cinematograph arrived in South America in 1896 (Barnard
2011, xiv) and in Japan in 1897 (Balmain 2008, 12). Before long, the movie
theatres and distribution channels needed for receiving and disseminating films
were present in most major parts of the world, and a number of national
cinematic traditions had begun to appear. Inspired by Anglophone Gothic,
filmmakers in countries as diverse as Italy and South Korea have produced

5
justin d. edwards and johan höglund

their own Gothic narratives for the screen. These transnational influences have
led to significant works such as Dario Argento’s Suspira (1977) in Italy and
Ki-­hyeong Park’s Whispering Corridors (Yeogogoedam 1998) in Korea.
The international and transnational territories of Gothic and horror have
been neglected by scholarship. Cinematic Gothic and horror traditions,
from Hollywood’s golden age in the 1930s to the rise of J-­ horror in the
late 1990s, have been studied from national perspectives and contexts. There
are also several studies, including Steffen Hantke’s Horror Film: Creating
and Marketing Fear (2004) and Bruce Kawin’s Horror and the Horror Film
(2012), that discuss the general phenomena of horror film and occasionally
wander into international territories. However, very few works have made a
concerted attempt to explore the global field of Gothic and horror film. Jay
Schneider’s Fear Without Frontiers: Horror Cinema Across the Globe (2003)
is an ambitious, strikingly illustrated and kaleidoscopic attempt at describing
global horror films; it is useful as a comprehensive and fascinating inventory
of various national traditions, but does not offer a careful scholarly explora-
tion of international horror films. Jay Schneider and Tony William’s Horror
International (2005) takes a more academic approach and observes that the
‘horror film traditions of other national and regional cinemas are engaged
in a dynamic process of cross-­cultural exchange with American mainstream,
independent, and underground alike’ (2). However, the concept of horror is
used here only in its generic sense, a fact that makes it difficult for the book’s
excellent contributions to fully account for the affective and cultural work
performed by the films and industries under scrutiny.
B-Movie Gothic: International Perspectives moves beyond previous scholar-
ship by discussing the emergence of international cinema through the theoreti-
cal lenses supplied by Gothic, by horror, and by Gothic horror. This allows for
a more complex reading of these films than the designation of them as simply
‘horror’. In addition to this, this book highlights the B-­movie or low-­budget
quality of international Gothic and horror film and observes how low-­budget
Gothic and horror film produced by independent filmmakers or independ-
ent companies has led to artistic innovations, new approaches to genre, and
unique demographic patterns and screening practices. After the 1950s, major
and minor film studios across the globe questioned the commercial viability
of low-­budget productions and, as a result, B-­movies often exist in opposition
to the big-­budget studios in the USA, Britain, India and Japan, a legacy that
has inspired many independent filmmakers to produce imaginative Gothic
cinema.
This book also contributes to existing scholarship by further exploring
the international horror traditions that texts such as Horror International
have begun to investigate. A crucial point here is that the films studied in
this volume are not just derivatives of Gothic narratives from North Atlantic

6
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 Contents.
Illustrations and Portraits
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MILL IN DEVON, ENG., IN 1897. USED AND OWNED BY ROGER CONANT PREVIOUS TO
SAILING TO AMERICA WITH THE PILGRIMS IN 1623.
BARCLAY, CLARK & CO. LITHO. TORONTO

Upper Canada Sketches

BY
THOMAS CONANT
 With Illustrations, Portraits and Map

TORONTO
WILLIAM BRIGGS
29-33 Richmond St. West
1898

Entered according to Act of the Parliament of Canada, in the year one

thousand eight hundred and ninety-eight, by Thomas Conant, at the
Department of Agriculture.

To Thomas G. Milsted

Of Chicago, Ill., U.S.

A LARGE-HEARTED, FAITHFUL FRIEND AND PLEASANT

COMPANION, UNDER EVEN THE MOST TRYING
CIRCUMSTANCES;
WHO SWAM IN THE DEAD SEA, ASCENDED THE NILE TO
THE MAHDI’S CONFINES, AND LIKEWISE WITH ME
KICKED PARIAH DOGS FROM OUR PATHS
IN CONSTANTINOPLE,

THIS VOLUME IS DEDICATED,

WITH FULL RELIANCE IN THE HOPE THAT EXPATRIATED

CANADIANS, WHO ARE SO VERY NUMEROUS IN THE
UNITED STATES, MAY ENJOY WITH HIMSELF
(LIKEWISE ONE OF THEM)
THESE RANDOM CANADIAN SKETCHES.

THE AUTHOR.
 CONTENTS.

PAGE
Prefatory Note vii
CHAPTER I.
Normandy—William the Conqueror—Origin of the name Conant—
Devon, England—Sir Walter Raleigh’s home—Richard the Mill-
owner—Roger the Pilgrim—The first Governor of Massachusetts
—Salem, Massachusetts—Mill-owners 9
CHAPTER II.
The American Revolution—Personal Rule of King George III.—
Washington’s politeness—Valley Forge—Washington’s prayer—
Raw New England levies—John Hancock—Other leaders and
generals—Colonel Butler—Murder, not war—Roger Conant
removes to Canada—An old deed—Governor Simcoe—York
(Toronto) 21
CHAPTER III.
A home in the wilderness—Salmon fishing—An idyllic life—
Logging—Fur trade—Durham boats—Rapids of the St. Lawrence
—Trading with the Indians—The Hudson’s Bay Company—
Coureurs du bois—Maple sugar making—Friendly Indians 32
CHAPTER IV.
Waubakosh—Making potash—Prosperous settlers—Outbreak of
war of 1812—Transporting military supplies—Moode Farewell’s
hotel—“Here’s to a long and moderate war”—A lieutenant’s
misfortune—“Open in the King’s name”—Humors of the time—
Ingenious foragers—Hidden specie—Hardships of the U. E.
Loyalists 40
CHAPTER V.
Capture of York—Immigration increasing—David Annis—Niagara
—Prosperous lumber business—Ship-building—High freight
rates—Salmon spearing—Meteoric showers—An affrighted
clergyman—Cold winters—A tragedy of the clearings 51
CHAPTER VI.
Discontent in Upper Canada—Election riots—Shillelahs as 65
persuaders—William Lyon Mackenzie—Rioting in York—
Rebellion—Patriots and sympathizers—A relentless chase—
Crossing Lake Ontario in midwinter—A perilous passage—A
sailor hero—A critical moment—Safe on shore—“Rebellion
 Losses Bill”—Transported to Botany Bay—Murder of my
grandfather—Canadian legends—A mysterious guest
CHAPTER VII.
Religious movements—Itinerant preachers—$50 a year—Camp-
meetings—Weird scenes at night—Millerites—World coming to
an end—Dissenters attempt to fly—Affrighted by a “sun-dog”—
Destruction fails to materialize—The Mormons—An improvised
Gabriel—Raising the dead—Converts—Salt Lake—An Irish
refugee and his poem 89
CHAPTER VIII.
Canadian laws—Cases of justifiable homicide—Ineffectual attempt
to discipline a church member—Major Wilmot—Asa Wallbridge
—“Uncle Ned”—Cows and matrimony—A humorous dialogue—
A witty retort—An amusing duel 102
CHAPTER IX.
Paring bees—Mirth and jollity—Dancing and games—Playing
“forfeits”—Anti-Slavery Act—Canada’s proud distinction—
Refugee slaves—“Uncle Tom”—Old Jeff—Story of a slave 120
CHAPTER X.
Civil war in the United States—Large bounties paid Canadian
recruits—Prices of products go up—More than two million men
under arms—I make a trip to Washington—Visiting the military
hospitals—I am offered $800 to enlist—Brief interview with
President Lincoln—A pass secured—I visit the Army of the
Potomac—90,000 men under canvas—Washington threatened by
the Confederates—Military prison at Elmira, N.Y.—Cheap
greenbacks—A chance to become a multi-millionaire 137
CHAPTER XI.
The “Trent affair”—Excitement in Canada—Bombastic “fire-
eaters”—Thriving banks—High rates of interest—Railway
building—The bonus system—A sequestered hamlet—A
“psychologist” and his entertainment—A mock duel—A tragic
page of family history 153
CHAPTER XII.
Fenianism—A claimant for my father’s farm—A scare at Port
Oshawa—Guns, forks and clubs for fighting—Awkward squad—
Guard catch a young man out courting—The Fenian raid of 1866
—A Catholic priest taken prisoner—United States Government at
last cries “Stop!”—Adventure in high life—A youth runs away
from home—Tragic death of the mother of the runaway—Marries
the serving-maid—Wedding and funeral journey in one 171
 CHAPTER XIII.
The French in Upper Canada—Sir Wilfrid Laurier—Voyageurs and
their songs—“A la Claire Fontaine”—Money-lenders—
Educational matters—Expatriated Canadians—Successful railway
speculation—A shrewd banker 181
CHAPTER XIV.
Poor-tax—Poor-houses undesirable—The tramp nuisance—A
tramp’s story—Mistaken charity—Office seekers—Election
incidents 193
CHAPTER XV.
Upper Canada’s favored situation—Our Great Lakes—Cases of
apparent tides on Lake Ontario—Canadians as givers—Oshawa’s
generous support to churches and charities—Life insurance—
Amusing incidents of a railway journey—A “talking machine” 209
CHAPTER XVI.
Drinking habits in the early days—Distilleries and mills—Treating
prevalent—Drinking carousals—Delirium tremens—“One-
Thousand-and-One” Society—Two gallon limit—Bibulous
landlords—Whiskey fights—Typical Canadian pioneers—
Clearing the farm—Sons and daughters married—Peaceful old
age—Asleep in death—Conclusion 228
 ILLUSTRATIONS AND PORTRAITS.
PAGE
Roger Conant’s Mill, Devon, England Frontispiece
Thomas Conant 6
Mrs. Thomas Conant 7
Map of Upper Canada (Ontario) 9
Roger Conant’s house, Salem, Mass. 18
Roger Conant’s first settlement in Upper Canada 33
Typical Logging Scene 40
Durham boats ascending River St. Lawrence 48
David Annis 52
Indian trading scene 65
Maple sugar making 78
Indian wigwams of birch bark 84
Potash making—the “melting” 97
Hauling cannon in the war of 1812 104
Moode Farewell’s tavern 122
Daniel Conant’s lumber mill 135
Meteoric shower (1833) 144
Daniel Conant 152
Mary Eliza Conant 153
Loading lumber on schooners, Lake Ontario 160
Refugees escaping over the ice at Oswego, N.Y. (1837) 172
Crossing Lake Ontario in a canoe 186
Assassination of Thomas Conant (1838) 193
Camp-meeting scene 209
A Millerite’s attempt to fly 220
Mormon attempt to raise the dead 228
Awkward squad—Fenian raid, 1865 236
 THOMAS CONANT.
BARCLAY, CLARK & CO. LITHO. TORONTO
MRS. THOMAS CONANT.
 PREFATORY NOTE.

I N presenting to the public these random sketches I crave the reader’s indulgence. I
do not pretend to elegance of style in my writing, and if—as is doubtless the case—
the canons of literary form are occasionally offended against in these pages, I ask the
kindly consideration of the critics.
If asked my reasons for publishing the volume, I would state: First, the many
communications received by me from time to time, from various sources, commenting
favorably on my letters to the press, have given me to believe that the Canadian public
appreciate and value the relation of old settlers’ stories and the legends and traditions
of the past; again, as a son of this noble Province, a descendant of one of its pioneer
families, having witnessed much of the marvellous development of the country, I feel
constrained to thus preserve records which I believe are historically valuable. I have
sought to present glimpses of the rude, free life that obtained in the earlier years of
settlement, while at the same time depicting some phases of life in Canada as seen at
the present day. Though since Confederation (1867) our Province has been known as
Ontario, I have preferred to use the old name of Upper Canada, which seems not
improper in view of the fact that much of the matter herein given relates to pre-
Confederation times.
It has been my endeavor, in compiling these sketches, to avoid wounding the
feelings of others in my references to the living or their friends who have passed away.
If, unfortunately, I have done so, I ask the pardon of such persons, and assure them that
wherever I have used names or made personal references, I have done so only where I
considered it necessary to render the events chronicled historically correct.
For the insertion of some family portraits it is unnecessary to ask the reader’s
indulgence, as they are portraits of those who have helped materially in the upbuilding
of the Province.
Thomas Conant.
Oshawa, Ontario, Canada,
September 28th, 1898.
MAP OF UPPER CANADA
1898
UPPER CANADA SKETCHES.
 CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTORY.

Normandy—William the Conqueror—Origin of the name Conant—

Devon, England—Sir Walter Raleigh’s home—Richard the Mill-owner
—Roger the Pilgrim—The first Governor of Massachusetts—Salem,
Massachusetts—Mill-owners.

Though of the past from no carved shrines,

Canvas or deathless lyres we learn,
Yet arbored streams and shadowy pines
Are hung with legends wild and stern;
In deep dark glen, on mountain side,
Are graves whence stately pines have sprung,
Naught telling how our fathers died
Save faint Tradition’s faltering tongue.
—Adapted.

T HERE is no reason to doubt that the progenitor of the Conant family in England
and America came originally from Normandy, in 1066, as one of the followers of
William the Conqueror. Frederick Odell Conant, of Portland, Maine, whose
exhaustive work, “History and Genealogy of the Conant Family,” entitles him to be
quoted as an authority, has arrived at this conclusion.
Edward Nathaniel Conant, of Oakham, Rutland County, England, a member of the
English branch, told the author, when visiting Lyndon Hall, in 1894, that he had seen
the name Conan—from which Conant has been evolved—on a castle archway in
Normandy. In 1896 the author met a Frenchman of the same name in Melbourne,
Australia, who was, no doubt, a descendant of the branch of the family that remained
in Normandy when the others came over with William to the conquest of England.
There are several derivations given of the name Conant, many of which would
establish it as of Celtic origin; and though a Conant came over to England with
William, it would appear his ancestors had come originally from Cornwall and Devon
to Brittany. The meaning of the name is almost as variously given as its origin, but it
appears that the conclusion arrived at by the family historian and genealogist is that it
is equivalent to the word in the Welsh, Irish, Saxon, Dutch, German and Swedish
tongue, and also the Oriental, signifying chief or leader.
Although the Conants probably returned to Normandy during the reigns of William
and his sons, they finally settled at East Budleigh, in Devonshire. It is unnecessary
here to trace the succeeding generations of the family, as we have to do only with the
immediate connections of Roger Conant, known as the Pilgrim, who emigrated to the
English Colonies in America in 1623, and from whom all the Conants in the United
States and Canada are descended.
The picture which forms the frontispiece to this volume is a faithful one of the mill
yet standing on the Conant lands at East Budleigh. This mill was owned and occupied
by Richard Conant, father of Roger the Pilgrim. It will be observed that the part of the
stone building at the end farthest from the water-wheel is now used as a residence.
Whether it was so occupied by Richard Conant the author has been unable to ascertain.
There are indications that a residence had been located back from the mill and on
rising ground farther from the road. The mill is a long stone structure. In front of the
part used as a dwelling is a yard, and at one side farm buildings. Mr. Green, the present
Rector of East Budleigh, assured the author that there is no doubt of its being the
identical building and mill occupied and used by Richard Conant. The family records
(parish register) are in Mr. Green’s care. There are entries of the birth of John Conant
in 1520 and of his son Richard, born in Devon in 1548. These are on parchment, the
latter yellow, covered with leather, wood-bound and worm-eaten.
Back of the house and mill a small spring creek runs. It has been turned from its
bed by the rising ground, so that no artificial dam is needed, and to-day, as in 1560, it
runs over the wheel and pours from the flume. In volume it is four inches deep and
twenty wide, and is about six feet above the wheel. The latter, of course, has been
renewed, being an overshoot about fourteen feet in diameter, but its foundations are
now just as Richard Conant originally laid them. The lands owned by Richard Conant
probably amounted to about two hundred acres. The glebe land, extending nearly to
the mill, which is about five hundred yards from the church, and the Conant lands
extending to the farm of Sir Walter Raleigh, we may conclude to be the probable
extent of the property.
Roger’s father, Richard, inherited the mill from his father. He graduated at Emanuel
College, and was also Rector of East Budleigh. The book of his charities accounts is
still extant. On the fly-leaf are the words, “This book was bought in 1600, to mark the
amounts of charities,” etc. It is in Richard’s handwriting. Every few pages are signed
by him, and the entries are neatly made, not a blot, erasure or scratch upon the well
inscribed pages. The amounts vary from one penny to sixpence. All this is evidence of
the careful upbringing and piety practised in the home of Roger Conant, the man
destined later to exert so beneficent an influence for the well-being of the
Massachusetts Colony in America.
Ascending for three-quarters of a mile the little burn whose waters turned Richard’s
mill-wheel, one finds it running by the door of the Raleigh homestead, Hays Barton
House.
His living near the man who drew so much attention to the New World would
suggest that Roger Conant’s ambitions to seek a new home in the wilds had been fired
by the tales told by the adventurous knight; and hearing of its wonders and possibilities
possibly made the lad restless, and later on willing to sail away to America.
The Raleigh pew in East Budleigh church is at a right-angle from the Conant pew,
and not ten feet away. They both face the pulpit, and as these were possessions as
hereditary as their lands and homes, there is nothing improbable in the idea that the
families were well known to each other.
On the Raleigh pew-ends are carved the armorial bearings of the family, the lower
part cut off. This was done when Sir Walter was attainted for treason, and may be a
curious instance of the penalties exacted from the families whose head suffered such
attainder at the hands of the sovereign. On the Conant pew is the head of a North
American Indian. It is well done. The Indian features, high cheek-bones and large
nose, are faithfully depicted. On the other pews are negroes, ships’ paddles, tropical
trees and foliage. Sir Walter’s father was Rector of East Budleigh when Richard
Conant ran his little grist-mill and attended the church.
Roger could not, in the natural order of succession, inherit the mill from his father,
so he went early to London. No doubt the seeds sown by the study, as a child, of the
quaint carvings in his parish church had an influence in directing his manhood’s steps.
The church is a small stone leaded roofed building. It is dedicated to All Saints, and
was consecrated by Bishop Lacy about A.D. 1430. It consists of a nave and chancels,
and north and south aisles. It is eighty feet long and forty-eight and a half feet wide.
The tower, which contains five bells, is seventy-two feet high. It is a Norman
embattlemented tower with a chimney-shaped buttress. (Vide “History and Genealogy
of the Conant Family.”) About the church is the graveyard, walled in and the earth dug
away, leaving the church and graveyard isolated, and above the level of the
surrounding roads and lands.
Although the Conants are buried here, no stone or monument has been found to
mark the spot where they lie. The Rector told the author that all the Conants had
moved away, leaving none to care for the graves of their ancestors. This was probably
the cause of the absence of any information by which the place of burial could be
ascertained.
A brother of Roger’s—John, matriculated at Exeter College, Oxford—was made a
full Fellow, 10th July, 1612; B.D., 2 Dec., 1619, or 28 June, 1620. He resigned his
fellowship, and was instituted Rector of Lymington, a country parish near Ilchester,
Somersetshire, on the presentation of Sir Henry Rosewell, and on the 20th of January,
1620, compounded for the firstfruits of the living—the sureties of his bond being his
brothers Christopher and Roger. The name of Rosewell or Rowswell, is well known to
students of the history of Massachusetts. Sir Henry’s name stands first among the
grantees in the Patent from the Council of Plymouth—a fact which bears some
significance to the emigration of Roger and Christopher to the New World, and also
indicates that Conant had already espoused the cause of the Puritans.
 The above is taken from the “History and Genealogy of the Conant Family,” and is
necessary to connect Roger’s early life with the period of his emigration to the New
World.
Roger was baptized at All Saints’ Church, East Budleigh, on the 9th April, 1592.
He was the youngest of eight children. His after life showed that the integrity and piety
which characterized his parents and elder brothers had been instilled into his mind in
childhood. Like his brothers, he evidently received as good an education as the times
would afford. He was employed to lay out boundaries, survey lands and transact other
public business. The records of the Salters’ Company, to which he belonged, have been
burned, so that no more authentic proof of his having been a freedman of the company
can be adduced than the presumptive evidence given by the fact of his signing his
brother John’s bonds as “Salter of London.” He married in London in November,
1618, and emigrated with the Pilgrims to New England in 1623.
Members of the Drysalters’ Guild of London (the ninth of the twelve great livery
companies, and chartered by Queen Elizabeth in 1558) have certain privileges and
perquisites. To illustrate this more fully, the author during a visit to London, at the time
of the Queen’s Jubilee, 1887, learned upon enquiry that by the laws of primogeniture
(only abolished in Upper Canada in 1841) the direct descendant of Roger Conant was
entitled to two meals a day and a bed to sleep on. The perquisite is not retroactive and
an application for any commutation could not be regarded, but he was told that the two
meals a day and a bed would be given to the direct heir of Roger Conant, the Drysalter,
whenever he chose to claim them.
It is not certain what was the name of the vessel in which Roger Conant sailed, but
from the fact that his brother Christopher was a passenger in the Ann, which arrived at
Plymouth about 1623, it may be inferred that Roger accompanied him. In a petition to
the general court, dated May 28th, 1671, he states that he had been “a planter in New
England forty-eight years and upwards.” This would fix the date of his arrival early in
1623. Roger did not remain long in Plymouth. There were differences between him
and the Pilgrim Fathers, he being a Puritan and they Separatists, and although these
differences were not sufficiently marked to subject him to the treatment meted out to
Allan and John Lyford, he left Plymouth for Nantucket, where they had settled soon
after their expulsion from the former place. While here he appears to have made use of
the island in Boston harbor, now called Governor’s Island, but then and for some time
afterward known as Conant’s Island.
The Dorchester Company was formed in 1622-3, and in 1624-5 Roger Conant’s
reputation as “a pious, sober and prudent gentleman” reaching its associates, they
chose him to manage or govern their affairs at Cape Ann. While here a proof of the
truth of the report was given them in the magnanimity and justness, as well as
prudence, exercised by him in settling a dispute over the possession of a fishing stage
between Miles Standish, “the captain of Plymouth,” and a captain Hewet, who had
been sent out by the opposite party. This scene has been made the subject of a window
in the Conant Memorial Congregational Church, recently erected at Dudley, Mass., by
Hezekiah Conant.
Cape Ann was not a suitable place for settlement; the land was poor and the
merchandise brought from England unproductive of lucrative returns. Roger selected a
site “on the other side of a creek called Naumkeag (now Salem),” and shortly after
removed there.
During his stay at Cape Ann Roger occupied the great frame house which had been
built by the old planters in 1624. The frames, it is said, and probably with truth, were
brought from England. The timbers are oak, yet sound, and in existence still as a part
of a stable. The house, as given in the accompanying illustration, is taken from a
drawing made in 1775. It is similar to many of the old houses of the same date, and
still the most picturesque features of the villages in Surrey and Devon.
This house was occupied by Endicott when

ROGER CONANT’S HOUSE, SALEM, MASS., 1628, FIRST GOVERNOR OF MASS. BAY
COLONY.
BARCLAY, CLARK & CO. LITHO. TORONTO

appointed Governor, it being taken down and removed to Salem. The exact site of
Roger’s house, the first built in Salem, cannot be ascertained. Subsequent records go to
show that the stability, the permanency and good government of the colony were
largely dependent upon the influence of Conant, although after the appointment of
Endicott as Governor, under the new patent, he was no longer the head. During the
rivalry between the members of the old and the new company his self-denial and
upright character won him friends on both sides and secured that harmony which
resulted in the public good; he “quietly composed that the meum and tuum which
divide the world should not disturb the peace of good Christians.”
There has been some controversy among the antiquarians on Roger Conant’s claim
to the title of first Governor of Massachusetts. He is, however, entitled to the honor, for
the colony of which he was the recognized head for three years was the first permanent
settlement in the territory, and from it the other colonies sprung. There are many
documents extant, besides entries in the records of the Governor and Company of
Massachusetts Bay, which go to prove how frequently Roger Conant was called upon
to fill offices and do his share in the numerous works inseparable from the building up
of a country, the knowledge and experience as well as the influence of the “prudent
Christian gentleman” being invaluable to his fellow-townsmen and settlers.
In 1668 that part of Salem known as Bass River, on the Cape Ann side, was
incorporated under the name of Beverley, and one of the most interesting incidents of
his long and active life is Roger Conant’s effort to change this name for that of
Budleigh. The original petition, which however was not granted, is among the
Massachusetts archives. It is interesting as showing how the memory of his birth-place
still remained fresh in his affections. He died November 19th, 1678, in the eighty-
eighth year of his age. From this date until that of the Revolution the succeeding
generations of Conants have left individual records of worth, as landed proprietors in
the State of Massachusetts; but it is unnecessary here to enter into their history. Several
of them were graduates of Harvard University, and many of them mill-owners, thus
carrying on the calling and talents of their ancestor, as we shall see, to the seventh,
eighth and ninth generation; Hezekiah Conant, of Pawtucket, being a large owner of
the great thread works of J. P. Coates, employing five thousand hands; and Daniel
Conant, the author’s father, also a mill-owner in Upper Canada, a property which
contributed largely to his success.
 CHAPTER II.

The American Revolution—Personal rule of King George III.—

Washington’s politeness—Valley Forge—Washington’s prayer—Raw
New England levies—John Hancock—Other leaders and generals—
Colonel Butler—Murder, not war—Roger Conant removes to Canada—
An old deed—Governor Simcoe—York (Toronto).

“There are moments, bright moments, when the spirit receives

Whole volumes of thought on its unwritten leaves;
When the folds of the heart in a moment unclose,
Like the innermost leaves from the heart of the rose;
And thus when the rainbow had passed from the sky,
The thoughts it awoke were too deep to pass by;
It left my full soul like the wings of a dove,
All flutt’ring with pleasure, and flutt’ring with love.”

U PON the outbreak of the American Revolution there were three brothers, Conants,
of the sixth generation from Roger the Pilgrim, in Massachusetts. Two of these
took sides at once with the patriots and joined Washington’s army when that
General came from Virginia and took command at Cambridge. One of them, Daniel
Conant, was wounded at Lexington, April 19th, 1775.
The third, Roger, and the author’s immediate ancestor, believed that the wrongs of
the colonists would be righted in time by petition, and while expressing his sense of
these wrongs, refused to join the patriot army. Copy of statement in “Conant
Genealogy,” page 252: “The name of Roger Conant of Ealton appears on the muster-
roll of Capt. Abiah Mitchell’s Company, which was down at the Alarm” (“Mass. Arch.
Lexington Alarm Lists,” Vol. XIII., p. 16) and Roger Conant served one month and
twelve days as corporal in Scott’s Company of Ashley’s Regiment, “which marched
from Westmoreland, Chesterfield and Hinsdale to Ticonderoga on the alarm of May
8th, 1777” (N. H. State Papers, Vol. XV., p. 6). To-day, however, we all rejoice at the
success of the colonies, and that the personal rule of King George III. was terminated.
The brothers met frequently and talked over current events. Among the
reminiscences of these conversations the following anecdotes have been handed down
from father to son, and although they have no direct relation with Upper Canada, they
may be worth repeating, as showing a little of the personal character of some of the
actors in the life of that time.
Washington, when at Cambridge, was riding one day to a distant part of the field,
attended by several of his aides and gentlemen of the New England Colonies. On the
way he met a mounted negro, who took off his hat and bowed very profoundly,
showing his teeth and the whites of his eyes as he smiled and exclaimed, “How are
you, General, how are you?” General Washington quickly lifted his hat, and though not
halting his horse, replied courteously to the salutation.
One of the New England gentlemen who accompanied him remarked to
Washington, “I wonder you take the trouble to salute that negro!”
Washington replied, “It would, indeed, be a hard matter if I had not as good
manners as a negro.”
The fortunes of war in 1777-80 brought the struggle to Valley Forge, just north of
Philadelphia. Here the patriot army wintered in log cabins in the forest. Daniel Conant
returned to his place in the ranks, and during the long winter met most of the
inhabitants of the neighborhood. Among these was a fatherly Tory Quaker who one
day met Washington on foot, walking within the lines, looking sad and dejected. “The
British will hang thee, George,” said the Quaker. In a twinkling the great man revived,
pulled down the collar of his coat, and saying, “This neck never was made for a
halter,” walked briskly away.
A few days after the Quaker was walking alone in the forest. While making his way
he heard a voice being lifted up in prayer. Pushing the bushes aside in the direction of
the sound, he saw Washington, bare-headed and kneeling in the snow, with upturned
face and closed eyes, asking the God of battles to preserve his little army and himself,
and to favor the right.
Reverently the Quaker waited until the General had ended his prayer, then he
stepped to his side as he rose, and said, “George, thee will succeed and conquer the
British.”
As to the character of Washington, there never were two opinions; he seemed
always to tower above all and every one. At first when he came to New England, they
said, he was disposed to find fault and look with doubt upon the New England levies.
Time, however, corrected that, and not a few of the Revolutionary generals and leaders
among them became known as genuine men.
John Hancock the Conant brothers did not care for, saying that he went into the war
mainly to avoid the heavy suits then pending against him for customs dues. Among the
leading civilians they admired and revered John Adams and Benjamin Franklin,
although they did say of Adams that he was always finding fault with the British
Government, and that he was offered lucrative offices in order to keep him quiet; but
he was not to be held.
General Knox, who was a Boston bookseller, they always spoke well of. Greene
and Schuyler they thought were men who possessed real military ability and were
high-minded gentlemen. Ethan Allen and General Putnam they thought brave men, but
not in possession of military abilities.
Roger Conant said of Sir William Johnson, that “he was the cleverest man he had
ever met. He could manage both Indians and white men.” He had met Brant also, and
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