For your friendly, neighborhood director of archives, October was intellectually rich. Maine Archives and Museums, the Center for French Colonial Studies, and the Institut d’histoire de l’Amérique française (IHAF) held their respective annual conferences. All three yielded fascinating insights and proved particularly special for the engaging conversations with colleagues. The professional and scholarly organizations behind […]
Continue readingCategory: Ethnicity and Race
Laid to Rest: Whitefield, Part II
But what will it take to give life to those who gave Vermont a second life after the Civil War, after the momentous diaspora that emptied the Green Mountain valleys and piedmonts: the Canadians who took over marginal dairy farms? the Irish who made the railroad work? the Springfield and Bennington Jews who processed mountains […]
Continue readingThe Canuck as Character: An Origin Story
This blog post follows an article titled “Silent But Visible? French Canadians on Stage and Screen,” which appeared in the fall 2021 issue of Le Forum, the quarterly publication of the Franco-American Centre (University of Maine). The article later appeared here and provides context for the present post. A condensed, French-language version of this post […]
Continue readingSt. Johnsbury and the Two New Englands
You can find regular nuggets of French-Canadian and Franco-American history on Query the Past’s new Facebook page. Click “Follow” on the page to avoid missing news and updates. We might file this story under “Those Other Franco-Americans,” the QTP series on communities whose French heritage remains little known. Relatively few people in New England, perhaps […]
Continue readingForgotten Tales of the Cold French North
Jean Baptiste In the nineteenth century, Jean Baptiste became an unofficial moniker for French Canadians—a symbolic term applied to them by English speakers to mirror their own John Bull and Brother Jonathan. A glimpse of parish records in the St. John Valley suggests that there was something to it. But in the same records we […]
Continue readingFrench Vermont
Last September, I had the opportunity to bring my research on French Canadians to the Vermont Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Educational Series. Established by statute in 2022, the Commission is tasked with seeking “community-centered justice and holistic healing” for individuals and groups that have suffered from policies and social practices leading to discrimination in Vermont. […]
Continue readingFranco-Americans and the Construction of Race
Mention race and the conversation to follow may prove to be a powder keg. Some folks are likely to bring up (with contempt) woke ideology and critical race theory; others, systemic racism and persistent inequities. These issues are political, as they should be, politics being the space where we discuss society-wide issues to find solutions, […]
Continue readingFranco-American Archives: Lowell and Irasburg
Last month, we revisited one of our recurring characters in light of new archival evidence. This post also brings us to Vermont, but it takes us away from politics and away from archives as we usually imagine them. Our “guest” did not have the name recognition that J. D. Bachand enjoyed in his day. He […]
Continue readingBack-Page Americans: Clippings
In conversation with Claire-Marie Brisson of the North American Francophone Podcast, several years ago, I introduced the concept of “back-page Americans,” which applies to many historically marginalized groups. In the context of Franco-American history, the concept grows out of the seeming invisibility of French Canadians in the mainstream (i.e. non-ethnic) American press. In reality, immigrants […]
Continue readingThe Lost Wor(l)ds of Franco-America
This post marks the fifth anniversary of this Franco-American history blog. Sincere thanks to everyone who has read, encouraged, and supported its research and reflections. The author delivered the following remarks as the opening lecture of the University of Maine at Fort Kent’s Scholars Symposium on April 26, 2022. The transcript appeared in the summer […]
Continue reading