We continue to see online posts and comments about the Patriot invasion and occupation of Quebec in 1775-1776. The subject has become something of a niche parlor game for Quebec history buffs. Some people are quick to opine on the merits of British rule and whether French Canadians in the St. Lawrence River valley might […]
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Recension : Deschênes, Un pays rebelle
Compte-rendu critique Gaston Deschênes, Un pays rebelle : La Côte-du-Sud et la guerre de l’Indépendance américaine. Québec : Septentrion, 2023. Ouvrage portant sur un aspect plutôt méconnu de l’histoire québécoise, Un pays rebelle arrive à la veille du 250e anniversaire de l’occupation de la vallée du Saint-Laurent par les troupes continentales. Son auteur, Gaston Deschênes, a été […]
Continue readingThe Birthplace of Franco-America
The subscribers . . . beg leave to lay before Your Excellency their sad situation, seeing themselves abandoned in general by those who have conducted them in the just cause they have been engaged in since 1775 . . . in consequence of orders, and promises as well from Your Excellency as from the honorable […]
Continue readingReview: Mayer, Congress’s Own
Book Review Holly A. Mayer. Congress’s Own: A Canadian Regiment, the Continental Army, and American Union. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2021. It may too trite to assert, as scholars have for generations, that the American struggle for independence was complex, messy, and far from linear. But, in the wake of the national holiday, the […]
Continue readingFranco-American History in Ten Documents, Part I
No history as rich and complex as that of Franco-Americans can be reduced to small vignettes. But what would a survey of iconic Franco-American documents and moments—perhaps destined to a neophyte—would look like? As a fun experiment, I propose the following. It is hoped that these texts (some well-known, some less so) will encourage readers […]
Continue readingThose Fractious Francos (Part I)
Dueling Francos The battles were over. The fighting had ceased. But, while men might lay down their arms, often the war does not leave them. Trauma is not easily cast aside; invisible wounds remain. By 1792, the French-Canadian veterans of the Continental Army had not seen a battlefield in over a decade. But since those […]
Continue readingTwo Days in March: Historical Anniversaries
This week the blog takes a slightly different tack to recognize landmark anniversaries that had bearing on the history of French Canadians. The first of these comes a week from today. On March 5, 1770, a scuffle in the snow led British regulars billeted in Boston to open fire on civilians. Within minutes, three colonists […]
Continue readingThe First Franco-Americans Revisited: Revolutionaries and Refugees
Last spring, on this website, I wrote of Clément Gosselin and other French Canadians who participated in the American War of Independence. After three years, a lengthy labor of love now comes to fruition with the publication of my “Promises to Keep: French Canadians as Revolutionaries and Refugees, 1775-1800,” which will appear in the next […]
Continue readingFrench Canadians and the American Political Promise
In recent decades, Quebec scholars have paid special attention to the américanité of French Canadians—the extent to which they have been culturally, economically, and politically American, whether they be on Canadian soil or in the United States. This conceptual lens has proven its worth not merely in studies of recent Quebec history. When projected over […]
Continue readingMignault and Son: A Transnational Story
Revolutionary War veteran Clément Gosselin was not alone. Basile Mignault, too, fought in the ranks of the Continental Army. Both would spend the better part of the post-war period in Canada, although Mignault could claim a more settled existence. Indeed, while Gosselin travelled as far as Yorktown, where he was injured, his counterpart’s war was […]
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