The following is a slightly edited version of a manuscript drafted at the request of the Brome County Agricultural Society in 2018. Please cite appropriately. * * * Agricultural exhibitions or fairs stemmed from efforts to improve agricultural production in eighteenth-century Europe. The commercialization of agriculture, the consolidation of large rural estates, and the beginnings […]
Continue readingCategory: Quebec History
Chandonnet and the “Horror and Execration of Posterity”
The age of the Atlantic Revolutions began in Lexington in 1775 and ended in Odelltown sixty-odd years later. Through that time, societies on both sides of the ocean wrestled with a question of daunting proportions and implications: What type of insurrection ought to be allowed or considered legitimate? This was a pressing concern for Americans […]
Continue readingLeMay’s French-Canadian Holidays
Pamphile LeMay (1837-1918) is little known to recent generations of Quebeckers. But he was once a literary celebrity. Like many of his contemporaries, a civil service position enabled LeMay to dedicate time to his leisures. He wrote poetry, novels, and plays; he also translated Longfellow’s Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie into French. His original works […]
Continue readingA Brawl in Saint-Michel
They weren’t ten feet tall. In the midst of dissertation research, I stumbled across words to that effect. In an interview, John F. Kennedy reflected on the men who had preceded him in the White House, particularly Franklin Roosevelt, who now seemed larger than life. Hindsight had enlarged them. In truth, Kennedy stated, they were […]
Continue readingThe Ghost of Léon Duroc
Canada was a close witness of the Civil War. A great many of its sons even took part in it, such that the events of this great tumult do not find us all indifferent. The episode that Mr. Tremblay resurrects belongs to American history by its stage, but belongs to ours by virtue of the […]
Continue readingPapa Michaud Was a Rolling Stone
Michaud: it’s a common name. Statistics published several decades ago ranked it among the 50 most common surnames in Quebec—ahead of Desjardins, Parent, Charbonneau, and Lacroix. Just across the border, it outnumbered all other names in the early records of the Fort Kent, Maine, Catholic parish. Michauds are still present all across the Upper St. […]
Continue readingNotes from a So-Called Artificial Country
Canada’s forty-fifth general election concluded on April 28. Though the margin was relatively slim from a historical standpoint and this will again be a minority Parliament, the Liberal Party increased both its popular support and its seat count. Prime Minister Mark Carney will likely hold the reins of power until the New Democratic Party selects […]
Continue readingBefore Lord Durham
Quebec historians and mythmakers have accorded a lot of attention to Lord Durham, the governor who spent five months in Lower Canada in 1838. Today, he might be remembered for granting a broad amnesty to people implicated in the first rebellion, if remembered at all, were it not for the report he submitted in Britain […]
Continue readingA French-Canadian House in 1815
Marie Mainville’s family may have had some notoriety in Saint-Ours, the Richelieu parish where she grew up. Her father, baptized Jean Baptiste but known in adult life as Charles, had acquired minor infamy for his role in the Continental Army’s occupation of Quebec. He served as a scout for the insurgents and British authorities imprisoned […]
Continue readingLewiston: Winter Wonderland
It is thought doubtful if any city in the United States has ever entertained as picturesque a gathering of wintersportsmen from across the Canadian border as it was Lewiston’s privilege to entertain during the past week-end. In any event Lewiston has eclipsed its neighboring New England cities in this respect, and for 36 hours, at […]
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