Moodie, Susanna

Susanna Moodie (nee Strickland), born December 6, 1803 at Bungay, England, was the youngest daughter of Thomas Strickland and Elizabeth Homer. The Strickland's were a literary family of whom Catharine Parr Traill and Samuel Strickland are best known in Canada, as well as their sister Susanna Moodie. Susanna began to seriously pursue her literary career in 1818, after the death of her father. In 1831, Susanna moved to London, England were she became associated with the Anti-Slavery Society. For the society she wrote two antislavery tracts, "The History of Mary Prince, a West Indian Slave" (1831) and "Negro Slavery Described by a Negro" (1831). While working in London, she met her future husband John Wedderburn Dunbar Moodie. They were wed April 4, 1831. In July 1832, Susanna, John, and their eldest child emigrated to the Cobourg region of Upper Canada. After two unsuccessful attempts at farming in this area, the Moodie family moved to Belleville in 1840. In Belleville, Susanna wrote and published a number of works, primarily romantic fiction. From 1847 to 1848, both Susanna and her husband edited and wrote for Victoria Magazine. In 1852, she published Roughing it in the Bush which is her best known literary work. The books to follow included Life in the Clearings, published in 1853, and Flora Lyndsay, published in 1854. Susanna Moodie lived in Belleville until the death of her husband in 1869. She then moved to the Toronto area where she continued to live until her death, April 8, 1885.