Railing, tattling, and general rumour: Gossip, gender, and church regulation in Upper Canada

In the first half of the nineteenth century in Upper Canada, Baptist and Pr esbyterian churches disciplined their members for failure to adhere to a 'G odly' code of behaviour. Proper speech was a significant part of this code. Church members were disciplined for improper speech: for spreading gossip or rumour, or for 'railing' against the church or fellow church members. In the church communities of Upper Canada, however, speech was not simply som ething to be controlled. It was also a means of control. Rumour and gossip served as an important method through which the churches were able to regul ate a wide range of personal behaviour among church members. The importance of both regulating speech and using speech as a means of reg ulation points to the significance of oral communication in the face-to-fac e communities of Upper Canada and tells us much about the Baptists and Pres byterian churches examined here. The use of gossip and rumour points to the lack of a clear public/private division in the colony. The way in which sp eech was regulated also tells us much about the churches. This article exam ines the gendered nature of the regulation of speech and finds that men wer e more likely to be charged with offences of improper speech than were wome n. This imbalance is explained in a number of ways, most particularly throu gh the significance the churches placed on the power of speech and on its p otential misuse-among both men and women.