Mackey introduces the entrepreneurs who forged this important link between Montreal and the nation's interior and chronicles the course of their industry, correcting previous misinterpretations. He sheds light not only on steamboats but also on the social, commercial, and geographical development that they made possible. He shows that the history of this country, a land with vast expanses and a harsh climate, cannot be fully appreciated without looking at the different modes of transportation that made it possible.

Frank Mackey is the author of Steamboat Connections: Montreal to Upper Canada, 1816-1843, and Black Then: Blacks and Montreal, 1780s-1880s.

Frank Mackey's profile page

"Steamboat Connections makes a substantial, original contribution to the descriptive history of marine transportation between Montreal and Kingston ... Mackey's mining of the notarial records is impressive." M. Stephen Salmon, business archivist, National Archives of Canada "Mackey's work rests on a huge body of primary documents that substantially update the research in this field. His sources are excellent" [translation]. Jean Belisle, Department of Art History, Concordia University