Sex, Court Records, and Labour History

COURT RECORDS have proven valuable in researching and writing the history of numerous aspects of the past. Recently, feminist historians have used court records to explore a variety of subjects, including the history of women's crime and the historical meanings and experience of rape and heterosexual conflict Court records are also the primary source I have used to document the making of homosexual subcultures and identities in turn-of-the-century Ontario. In what follows, I want to draw attention to one particular, relatively-unknown set of court records, housed at the Archives of Ontario: the Crown attorney prosecution case files. I want to highlight the potential of these records as a source for Canadian labour history

Canadian Identity and History · Historical Gender and Feminism Studies · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · History