The story of the French-Canadian diaspora that began in the nineteenth century is perhaps not as well-known now as it should be. Yet some aspects of Canada’s emigration history are even more obscure. One easily overlooks the fact that English Canada experienced a comparable exodus from the 1850s to the 1920s. Nova Scotia was particularly […]
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Two 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 readingTurning the Past into Policy with Quebec Historians
Life by itself is formless wherever it is. Art must give it a form. – Hugh MacLennan, Two Solitudes (1945) The historical events we remember can be very revealing, not least because recollection is not a pure, spontaneous act. Collectively, it is a response to present-day concerns and the result of careful selection by well-placed […]
Continue readingMaska, Mexico, and Pre-Civil War Migrations
It’s a long way from the lowlands of the St. Lawrence to the Valle de México. As someone who once spent eleven hours simply trying to cross Montana, I can vouch for the almost unimaginable size of this continent. So too will anyone who has crossed North America by land. It is all the more […]
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 readingStories of a Sick Country? Emigration from Canada, 1849-1857, Part II
This is the second part of an essay on nineteenth-century emigration reports. Please find the first half here. In retrospect, the great demographic hemorrhage that weakened Canada in the 1840s might come as little surprise. There was a clear disparity between available labor, at a time of tremendous population growth in the St. Lawrence River […]
Continue readingStories of a Sick Country? Emigration from Canada, 1849-1857, Part I
In the United States and much of Europe, immigration and nativism have provided ample fodder for the front page in recent years. So it has often been. When it comes to geographic mobility, politicians and policymakers worry far more about those who cross into their country than about those who leave. In Canada’s case, such […]
Continue readingFrench Canada, Emigration, and Providence, 1880-1898
The fate of francophones outside of Quebec has recently attracted renewed public scrutiny. In September, New Brunswick’s People’s Alliance, a party hostile to official bilingualism, made a political breakthrough and secured a position of influence by supporting the Progressive Conservative government. The following month, columnist Denise Bombardier argued that the French language had largely disappeared […]
Continue readingA Confederate in Canada
Gentlemen: I thank you most kindly for this hearty British reception, which I take as a manifestation of your sympathy and good-will for one in misfortune. It bespeaks the true instincts of your race. I trust you may ever remain as free a people as you now are, and that under the union of your […]
Continue readingAn American General in Quebec (Part II)
See Part I here. Part II: Canada or Mexico? The cordiality of British officers in Canada and Grant’s gestures of good will were not enough to quell larger suspicions. The Journal de Québec noted that three Union generals had preceded Grant in Quebec City—Rosecrans, Thomas, and Dix. The newspaper surmised that these officers were coming […]
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