See Part I here. The development of Saint-Césaire, on the Yamaska River, announced the expansion of French-Canadian settlement into areas either previously unoccupied by white settlers or hegemonically English-speaking. It lay on the doorstep of the Eastern Townships, colonized successively by Loyalists, other Americans inching New England’s northern frontier onto Canadian soil, and British immigrants. […]
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A French-Canadian Journey: Bellechasse to Sweetsburg
Like thousands of other families, economic and demographic pressures carried them away from the ancestral heart of French Canada and into the breadbasket of the Richelieu and Yamaska rivers, into the “foreign” Eastern Townships, and into the fields and factories of the Great Republic. The descendants of Jean Lacroix and Marie Anne Fradet—both of them […]
Continue readingHauntingly Silent: Some Questions Concerning Maine’s English Education Bill
An earlier version of this essay appeared in the spring 2021 issue of Le Forum, the quarterly publication of the Franco-American Centre (University of Maine). Please cite appropriately. * * * …provided, further, that the basic language of instruction in the common school branches in all schools, public and private, shall be the English language. […]
Continue readingThose Other Franco-Americans: The Madawaska Mirage?
It is not quite the mountainous wilderness—an Appalachia of the north—that I had expected. Yet, in my experience, after hours on the road, as each hill softly yields to another, you do sense that you are entering a different world. Push beyond the highways and you may see signs for Frenchville, Ouellette, and New Canada. […]
Continue readingShowdown in Chicago: Forming Franco-America
See Part I here. The Convention nationale des Canadiens français des Etats-Unis opened in Chicago on August 22, 1893. The event drew hundreds of delegates—though the attractions of the Columbian Exposition likely had something to do with their interest in attending. Exemplifying the incredible breadth of the French-Canadian diaspora, these delegates came from Langdon, North […]
Continue readingShowdown in Chicago: The Summer of ’93
In the summer of 1893, all roads led to Chicago. The Great Republic was celebrating itself—or at least its white, colonialist incarnation—and the whole world was invited. The Columbian Exposition was to recognize four centuries of European settlement and achievement in the Americas and the United States’ own social and technological progress. All was not […]
Continue readingQuebec’s Emigration Debates (1867-1880): New Resource
Not a week goes by that we do not find new and interesting articles, videos, and conversations about Franco-American history and culture. Lately, at Moderne Francos, Melody Desjardins draws attention to traditions old and new that might help spark a cultural renaissance. Over at My French-Canadian Family, Tim Beaulieu has the story of actor Christopher […]
Continue readingA Political History of Franco-Americans: The Book
As many of you know, my first academic book, John F. Kennedy and the Politics of Faith, is now available from the University Press of Kansas. I am touched by the expressions of interest and support I’ve received in the last few weeks. As readers might suspect, the book is drawing attention due to its […]
Continue readingCrossing a Closed Border in 1808, Part II
The story of the commercial embargo on Lake Champlain continues with E. A. Kendall. See Part I here. “I was in pursuit of no palace for my lodging; but, even I was destined to adventure. On the Province Point, on the north side of the boundary, I was taught to expect to find a store, […]
Continue readingThose Other Franco-Americans: St. Albans, Part II
See Part I here. Six years after the invasion of St. Albans by Confederate agents, a different spectacle played out in the town center, though this one, too, was the doing of people who had descended from Canada: At 11 o’clock in the forenoon the Convention formed in procession, under escort of the St. John […]
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