Middle School
Worksheets
Newfoundland and Confederation
Caption: Mr. Joseph Smallwood signing the agreement which admitted Newfoundland into Confederation. Hon. A.J. Walsh, chairman of the Newfoundland delegation, is at the right.
Newfoundland was Britain's oldest colony. The people living on this island jutting into the Atlantic earned their living from the sea. This isolation helped foster a spirit of independence. That, in turn, caused her people to look on Confederation with a certain amount of distrust.
By the 1820s more than 50,000 people lived in Newfoundland. Money was hard to come by. Most purchases were made through a barter system. The cash-poor economy left most of the people near the poverty line.
