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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Quebec’s Emigration Debates: 7 Takeaways
As some of you know, in the last few months, I have compiled all debates of the Quebec legislature that addressed (or mentioned) emigration and repatriation between 1867 and 1900. In making these debates more accessible, I hope they will draw the attention and interest of other researchers, thus bringing more voices into the historical […]
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 readingThe Day Repatriation Died
It was half past three on July 5, 1888—well, shortly after half past three, some members of Quebec’s lower house being perennially slow to take their seats. Speaker Marchand turned to the honorable member for the riding of Bellechasse, on his left. Faucher de Saint-Maurice had the floor. So did, vicariously, the Franco-American community. Faucher […]
Continue readingSmash This Un-American Exclusion
War and peace. A pandemic. The League of Nations debate. Nationwide women’s suffrage. Prohibition. Unending strikes and the Red Scare. Runaway inflation and a deep recession. Race riots. Intense Americanism (read: xenophobia), and proposals for English-only education and immigration restriction. And more. From 1917, the United States experienced rapid transformations that revolutionized—at least for a […]
Continue readingMr. Dubuque Goes to Nashua
We could write a lengthy treatise on the French-Canadian “national” convention held in Nashua, New Hampshire, in June 1888. Some unusual moments and distinguished visitors set it apart. Still, it remains significant partly because it did not mark a major departure from prior congresses; its speeches and resolutions offer a microcosm of late nineteenth-century Franco-American […]
Continue readingFranco-American History in Ten Documents, Part II
See the first installment on important Franco-American documents here. A Man and His Dream (1909) Félix Albert had a tale to tell—with some false modesty, his own. In the early twentieth century, after a turbulent life, he had someone, perhaps a local priest, write down his experience as an immigrant and a man of many […]
Continue readingFranco-American History in Ten Documents, Part I
No history as rich and complex as that of Franco-Americans can be reduced to small vignettes. But what would a survey of iconic Franco-American documents and moments—perhaps destined to a neophyte—would look like? As a fun experiment, I propose the following. It is hoped that these texts (some well-known, some less so) will encourage readers […]
Continue readingThose Fractious Francos (Part II)
Disunity and Discontent See Part I here. “I am full of grief,” Jacques Rouse declared, “that so few Frenchmen as we are here, we cannot live in concord together.” How often have we heard this story of the factious (or fractious) French Canadians? How often have we experienced it? French Canadians in Quebec failed to […]
Continue readingThose Fractious Francos (Part I)
Dueling Francos The battles were over. The fighting had ceased. But, while men might lay down their arms, often the war does not leave them. Trauma is not easily cast aside; invisible wounds remain. By 1792, the French-Canadian veterans of the Continental Army had not seen a battlefield in over a decade. But since those […]
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