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 readingCategory: Franco-Americans
La Saint-Jean-Baptiste in New England, 1873-1890
This week, in connection with Quebec’s “national” holiday, la Saint-Jean-Baptiste, we see how budding Franco-American communities celebrated the day in nineteenth-century New England. Until the mass emigration of Catholics to the region, only Masonic lodges had attributed any significance to June 24. The arrival of French Canadians fashioned St. John’s Day into a semi-official holiday […]
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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