October 25, 1881: one of the best-known dates in the history of New England Franco-Americans. It was on that day that community leaders appeared before Carroll D. Wright, a Massachusetts civil servant whose latest report had represented French-Canadian migrants as “the Chinese of the Eastern States.” Ferdinand Gagnon, Hugo Dubuque, and other “influencers” answered Wright’s […]
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Canada to California: Defying Distance in the Mid-Nineteenth Century
An earlier version of this essay appeared in the winter 2021-2022 issue of Le Forum, the quarterly publication of the Franco-American Centre (University of Maine). Please cite appropriately. * * * Few years in American history carry the same symbolic significance as 1848, which set the stage for what was to come in subsequent decades. […]
Continue readingHistoire des Franco-Américains : Un survol
Les résidentes et les résidents des États-Unis qui déclarent des origines françaises se comptent par millions. Pensons à la population huguenote installée en Amérique du Nord à l’époque coloniale et dont l’empreinte culturelle s’est largement effacée. Plusieurs grandes villes du pays reçoivent plus tard des gens venus directement de l’Hexagone. La Louisiane, le seul état […]
Continue readingWinter Carnivals of French Canada
In the colony’s earliest days, winter was an enemy. It suspended communication with the mother country and brought agriculture to a standstill for six months. Early frosts imperiled the food supply; long winters raised, in the first years, the specter of famine and scurvy. The settlers of New France at least benefitted from a seemingly […]
Continue readingA Vindication of Franco-Americans
There is nothing more interesting and, at the same time, more heartening than a reading of the slim volume that Mr. Chandonnet has published at Desbarats. Our exiled compatriots have been so maligned; it has been so often said that on setting foot on foreign soil, they lose all memory of their God and their […]
Continue readingVoting While Franco-American: The View from Plattsburgh
Franco-American political candidates do not earn the same easy acclaim from their own heritage community they once did. This is especially clear in Maine, where Paul LePage seeks to return to the governor’s office. By virtue of his policies and his remarks on his ethnic background, LePage has alienated many compatriots. His opponent, by contrast, […]
Continue readingBuilding Better History
It all starts with inconvenient, even provocative questions. If we believe that history truly matters—whatever our reason for saying so—we must surely agree that historical truth matters.[1] That truth is rarely tangible or instantly accessible. Our awareness and understanding of past events are molded by our memory, our values, and the natural limits of popular […]
Continue readingDebating Emigration in Ottawa: 5 Takeaways
Quebec’s nineteenth-century legislative debates on emigration are available virtually in two searchable volumes (1867-1880 and 1881-1900). These compilations reveal policymakers’ ambivalence about industrialization as a viable means of curbing outmigration and the rise of domestic colonization as a projet national drawing bipartisan support. Excerpts are available here. Emigration to the United States was not confined […]
Continue readingA Complete 180? Webster-Ashburton in Hindsight
This year, August 9 marks the 180th anniversary of the Webster-Ashburton Treaty. In 1842, the American and British governments, respectively represented by Daniel Webster and Alexander Baring, Baron Ashburton, resolved longstanding points of contention and established grounds for better relations in North America. The first point of contention involved the still-unsettled boundary between Maine and […]
Continue readingThose Other Franco-Americans: New Bedford, Part II
This week we resume and conclude our overview of New Bedford’s Franco-American history. See Part I here. Franco-Americans’ institutional network continued to grow in the 1890s and early 1900s. The Francs-Tireurs, one of the earliest and largest fraternal and cultural societies in New Bedford, played a significant role in community building. Other groups appeared in […]
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