This slide shows the men of a Bell Island family in their Sunday best. Their dress points to the outport traditionalism that was at the core of Island life. Indeed, the very cut of their clothes is suggestive of two qualities that have permeated the lives of Newfoundland working people; a deeply entrenched acceptance of the efficacy of social and industrial hierarchy and a profound sense of deference. These qualities are, in turn, a reminder of the danger of projecting into the past and particularly onto the working class the contemporary disdain for the "corporate ripoff'' of Canadian resources. Whatever one may think about the present status of corporations involved in resource extraction in the Province of Newfoundland, the fact of the matter is that the local working man offered little resistance to the activities of entrepreneurs of the sort who opened up the Bell Island mines. What must be grasped above all else in the history of Bell Island is contrast and at times conflict between the outport, preindustrial attitudes and habits of the ordinary people and the requirements of their new urban and industrial working environment.
