In several weeks, I will have the privilege and pleasure of sharing my work on Franco-Americans at a colloquium on Quebec Studies at my dear alma mater, Bishop’s University. Below is a sneak peak, which may touch on themes familiar to friends and frequenters of this blog. Though Franco-Americans in the hinterland were typically not […]
Continue readingCategory: Borderlands
Early Canadian Migrations to the United States
As previously noted on this blog, it was not the call of political liberty that drew great numbers of French Canadians to the United States in the nineteenth century, but economic opportunity (if not, sometimes, economic necessity). Life in ethnic clusters, in the shadow of gargantuan textile mills, was but a small facet of this […]
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 […]
Continue readingThe Canadians of Clinton County: The First Franco-Americans
Some six years after the end of the American War of Independence, Clement Gosselin, a veteran, sought the support of President George Washington. Appeals to the highest executive office were not usual, but Gosselin’s letter, written in French and alluding to a “common enemy,” merits special attention. The veteran, born on l’Ile d’Orléans near Quebec […]
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