No newspapers.
No lawyers.
And most especially: NO PROTESTANTS.
Most Americans know that the English sent their dissidents, their debtors, and their religious nutjobs to the New World. But the French took a different tack: keep out the troublemakers, make nice (mostly) with the First Nations, and import a few mail order brides to keep things lively. It was sure-fire, right?
Hah! If you learned anything last time in The Era of Encounter, you know that Canada’s story kept being anything but predictable. Grab a mug of tea, coffee, or French-Canadian pea soup, and read on for Part 2, the next installment in this continuing series, CAN HIST 101: Canadian History for Americans...(Crossposted at The Next Agenda.)
It Takes A Party: Era of Samuel de Champlain
It takes a village to raise a child. But it may take a shindig or two to keep the village happy, n’est- ce pas?
In 1603, a well-off French Protestant businessman, the Sieur de Monts, received an exclusive charter from the Crown to trade fur and settle in New France(wherever that was.) Mapmaker and adventurer Samuel de Champlain was to be his right hand man.
Skilled in navigation and cartography, he had been tasked by King Henri IV of France with exploring Canada and finding a suitable place to set up a settlment (preferably something with a beachfront view). After an initial voyage in 1603, Champlain and his men returned in 1604. They spent a miserable winter on the lonely island of Sainte-Croix before moving their settlement to the mainland Port Royal, Nova Scotia.
There, to fight off depression in the long winter, Champlain and his men began the first European-style social club in North America. Each of the 15 men was responsible for a periodic hunt, and then arranging a feast around the game they found. Poet Mark Lescarbot wrote fine verses for each occasion (he later became Canada’s first historian with his “History of New France.”) Their Mi’kmaq neighbors were invited to these evenings where wine flowed freely, songs were sung, and even theatrics were staged. (Now doesn’t that sound more fun than having Thanksgiving with the Puritans)?
Fun or no, Port Royal wasn’t a prime spot for trading, So in 1608, Champlain led a 32 settlers to establish a trading post near the old Stadacona settlement, now dubbed “Quebecre” by the Natives. Only 9 men survived the winter, but a fresh influx of settlers the next year helped keep the colony going, in part because Champlain managed to do pretty well making alliances with their neighbors, a confederacy of Iroquoian tribes that French called the “Huron.” (They called themselves the Wyandot, but bilingualism wasn’t a strong suit for Canada just yet. )
I Want These M*&^%$ing Assassins Out of this M*&^%$ing Colony!
Champlain prospered and even survived a plot against his life, thanks to a sailor who informed him about some Basque traders who had paid off the colony’s locksmiths to kill Champlain. (They weren’t so keen on the whole competitive market thingy.) Cool as a cucumber, Champlain invited the plotters around to his house for a six pack of wine or so. Imagine their surprise when they found themselves in irons. Most were frog-marched to a boat to France for trial, but one was hanged almost immediately. For weeks, his body rotted in full view of the colony’s wall, a stern message to other would-be plotters. No-one, but no-one, was going to mess with Sam “ Jackson” Champlain.
In between foiling plots and making buddies with the Huron, he sponsored one Jean Nicollet in a search for a route to China, what would come to be known as the fabled “Northwest Passage.” Nicollet thought he’d found it, but it turned out to be something trivial...the Mississippi. More on that later!
External Link: Watch a one-minute re-enactment of Nicollet’s exploration here.
Champlain’s governance was key to the survival of French colonies in the New World, but his era was not without its troubles. For one thing, the English had set up their own little enclaves up and down the Atlantic coast.
Henry Hudson’s Bane, er, Make That “Bay”
In 1610, a settlement at Cuper’s Cove in Newfoundland became the first English settlement in what is now Canada, but its founder, John Guy, decided to abandon the settlement in 1614. Settlers lingered until the 18th century. Although fishermen of all nations used the area as a place to crash during their summer expeditions, formal English attempts to settle in Newfoundland were mostly abortive in 17th century. (The expedition that became Maryland was actually first attempted on Newfoundland’s Avalon peninsula.)Still a few managed to eke out an existence and even aid other English colonists–the Mayflower, for example, stopped at the tiny village of Renew in 1620 on its way to Plymouth.
However, the English were still interested in the North and 1610 King James I (of Bible fame!) commissioned Henry Hudson to explore it. Hudson had been cooling his heels in the pokey for the crime of sailing under another nation’s flag (namely, finding a nice little piece of real estate ---Staten Island-- for the Dutch.) Now he went to work for the English Virginia Company in search of the Northwest Passage. Instead, he found Hudson Bay and James Bay, where he got stuck in the ice and had to winter over. This caused him some, uh, personnel “issues” the next year when it seemed he and the crew would have to spend a second winter up North. (“What’s for dinner?” “Polar Bear.” “AGAIN?!!!”). In 1611, the crew mutinied and set Hudson, his son, and few dead ender loyal crewmen afloat in a small boat, from which they doubtless perished.
Where are the Green Alien Women? Or, the Original Captain Kirke
Other English encroachments in Canada were more aggressive. Virginia-based pirates (ARRRGH, y’all!) attacked Port Royal in 1613. In the 1620s, Scots settled in what they learnedly dubbed “New Scotland in Latin,” or Nova Scotia. King Charles I of England hired five French Calvinists (Huguenots), dodgy buccaneer brothers named Kertk, or Kirke (Louis, Thomas, John, Jarvis, and David) to take possession of French Canada. While certainly motivated by gold, its also possible that they resented the Catholics-only policy established for New France in 1625 by Karl RoveCardinal Richelieu, powerful Churchman who “advised” Louis XIII.
After a long siege, Captain Louis Kertk and his men forced Champlain and his men to surrender in 1629. Dejectedly, Champlain went to England where he discovered that the war between France and England had been over for months when Quebec surrendered! He petitioned to have the surrender annulled; after a bunch of negotiating, Charles I agreed to give Quebec back if King Louis XIII would pay up the wedding present he still owed to Charles—a cold, shiny fondue pot dowry of 1 million livres. The Scottish settlers who had taken up residence in “New Scotland” reluctantly cleared out, and all the maps had to be changed back to calling it “Acadia.” What a pain!
Richelieu was interested in the New World. In 1627, he had founded the “Company of One Hundred Associates”(Compagnie des Cent-Associés) a mixed partnership between private investors, the Church, and the Crown. The 100 enjoyed a complete monopoly on the fur trade. Champlain was chosen the Company’s first commander in New France, and returned there after the departure of the Kirkes. He complied with the charter’s requirement that Roman Catholic priests be settled in every village and every exploratory voyage made in New France, and (perhaps reluctantly) agreed to share authority with the Bishop of New France. He also got aggressive with the remaining Protestants of the colony: convert, or get out. (Many chose the latter, and chose to relocate to the English colonies south of them.)
How to Win Friends and Influence the Fur Trade
The power of the Church was key to good trade relations between Natives and newcomers under the French regime. The French approach to gaining territorial influence was far more spiritual than military. (Donald Rumsfield, are you taking notes? More smart priests, less smart bombs!) They effectively wielded religion as a weapon of “mass” attraction, using the Special Forces of the 17th century Catholicism:the Jesuits, or Society of Jesus.
Who were the Jesuits? Simply put, an army for God (brand Catholic, that is). Formed by ex-soldier Ignatius Loyola in the wake of the tumultuous Protestant Reformation, they were priest/monks specially trained in cultural analysis, languages and rhetoric, and the art of going underground. Essentially they were trained in proto-anthropology: to analyze foreign cultures and languages, and then to adapt their message into the terms best understood by their listeners.
Highly educated and disciplined, they also were perfectly situated to go to places as exotic as China and New France.
After a initial attempt by the Recollet Brethren to monopolize the Canadian missions, the Jesuits arrived in 1625. Their first head, Fr.Paul le Jeune, enthusiastically chronicled their activities in letters back to France known as the “Jesuit Relations.” He told of trips to remote villages and learning the local languages and cultural norms that would soon garner the Jesuits respect amongst their Native proto-converts. The so-called “Back Robes’” also petitioned the Crown to do something about the use of alcohol in the fur trade, identifying it as part of the problems in Native-Newcomer relations (They achieved some success in 1662 when the French Crown outlawed the use of alcohol in the fur trade, but this regulation was poorly enforced. Canadians have always had a dim view of Prohibition.)
External link: Read “The Jesuit Relations ” here
The Jesuits were not universally trusted or embraced. Their celibacy struck the Huron and Montagnais as very, very peculiar, and the European diseases–notably smallpox– that followed in their wake led some to conclude that the Jesuits were evil spirits. On the other hand, the Jesuits ability to travel and spread their Word in Native metaphor proved invaluable in cementing spiritual alliances between French and First Nations. The first Native person to be beatified, Kateri Tekakwitha, was converted by Jesuits, who held her up as a pious model for French and First Nations alike.
External link: For an example of the Jesuit use of cross-cultural metaphor, see (and hear) the Huron Christmas Carol here
Gettin’ Schooled (Send in the Nuns!)
The Jesuits were important to New France’s success in other ways as well. In 1635, the Jesuits also opened the first school for boys in the colonies, teaching a round of classics, French, arithmetic, and rhetoric. In 1673, the school added “Hydrography,” a course included mapmaking,
the use of scientific instruments, astronomy, and navigation–all important tools in the New World. The 1680s and 1690s saw a flurry of other, smaller schools established throughout the colony, often focusing on trades and practical employments. Schools for both Natives and French children spread literacy, and of course, promoted orthodox Catholicism.
But let’s not forget the ladies. And although many 17th century Europeans believed that educating girls was a very bad thing (because giving them ideas would, well, you know, give them ideas), the Ursuline nuns of New France disagreed. They established a school for girls in 1639, instructing First Nations girls as well as les petites Canadiennes. Their institutions spread throughout the French colonies, eventually reaching as far south as New Orleans.
The Hospitallers also founded schools for girls, as well as institutions to care for the poor and the sick. The Congregation of Notre-Dame followed, establishing schools throughout the colony for girls beginning in 1653. (Their founder, Marguerite Bourgeoyes, was declared a saint by the Roman Catholic Church in 1982, by the way. She is commemorated by both Catholic and Anglican churches in Canada today–can you say “interfaith initiatives?” I knew you could.)
Thanks to these nuns, New France enjoyed a remarkable network of education for women, the like of which had no parallel in the mostly Protestant English colonies. And the Mother Superiors of these Orders wielded real political power in New France, the like of which certainly had no female equivalent among the fox-huntin’ tobacco farmers of Virginia or the witch-huntin’ Puritans of New England.
Fur, Friends, and a Fistful of Boomstick
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. What did the French want with their cold-n-snowy possession, anyway?
Generations of American schoolchildren learn that the Spanish explored Mexico in search of the 3 “G’s”: God, gold, and glory. There’s a similar device to help you remember what the French were interested in: Fish (cod), Fur (beaver) and Forests (lumber.)
Of the three, the beaver trade was the most immediately lucrative. The beaver is an odd little fellow with a penchant for felling trees, building damns, and, it was once rumored, occasionally biting off his own testicles. (The last proved to be but a slander perpetrated by marginally literate Europeans who assumed that the term “castor” for beavers was related to “castrare,” to castrate.”) More to the point, his soft, waterproof fur made wonderful clothing–especially hats–perfect for European winters.
But the getting the beaver meant trading for it. And you can’t trade without some friends to trade with (unless you attend the Bush School of Diplomacy for Dummies, in which case, enemies will suffice). Champlain had thrown in the French fortunes with the Huron in 1609 when he chose to accompany them and some Montagnais on a raiding party against the Mohawk, the leaders of the Iroquois Confederacy to the south. His use of firearms proved crucial in the resulting battle. The Huron (and to a somewhat lesser extent the Montagnais) would serve as key trading partners with the French.
The Huron were culturally similar to their Iroquois rivals, but were masters of trade. With their sturdy canoes they went further and faster than the Iroquois birchbark. Guns, guns, beautiful guns! These they obtained from the French in exchange for pelts. (Other hot items included metal vessels and woolen cloth) For a little while, the Huron enjoyed tremendous weapon superiority over the Iroquois, doing Charlton Heston proud with their embrace of firepower.
The Iroquois Strike Back
But the Iroquois Confederacy found some trading partners (with guns!) of their own: the Dutch traders in New York. By the 1640s, however, Iroquoian beaver stocks seem to have been diminishing, and this probably played a role in the decision to heat up their long-running rivalry with the Huron. Europeans dubbed the aggression the “the Beaver Wars” (always good for provoking snickers in the average freshman classroom.) Note that some historians quibble with the Beaver Wars interpretations, suggesting that the fur trade was less important to the Natives than to the Europeans, who assumed that the “capitalists in moccasins” were fighting over trade just as they themselves did.
At any rate, the 1640s did not bring puppies and sunshine for the Huron. Weakened by new diseases inadvertently bestowed upon them by their French friends, they were not in a good position to resist the Iroquoian invasion of their villages along the St. Lawrence. In 1649, the Iroquois ranged even further North, killing thousands and destroying several settlements entirely. The results were devastating for the Huron. Of their small remaining numbers, many bands simply moved elsewhere, out of range of Iroquois attacks. Others joined with other tribes. As a great political player, the Huron were no more.
But let’s imagine for a moment that Ann Coulter is writing this diary. She would tell you that the devastation was nothing to worry about—a construction of the liberal media. In fact, the Iroquois-Huron war was going SWIMMINGLY. Yes, what the liberal media is ignoring are the numbers of martyrs being created during this process. Martyrs=saints=friends in Heaven=Divine Grace for the colonies. Come on. What kind of godless liberal can’t understand that advantage?
(OK, I gotta stop writing like Coulter. In fact, I need a shower now!) In all seriousness, the attacks on a Jesuit mission near what is now Midland Ontario gave Canada its earliest saints, eight Jesuit missionaries ritually tortured and killed by the Iroquois during this period. They are known as the “Canadian Martyrs,” and were adopted as the patron saints of Canada: St. Jean de Brébeuf ( martyred 1649), St. Noël Chabanel (m. 1649), St. Antoine Daniel (m. 1648), St. Charles Garnier (m. 1649), St. René Goupil (m. 1642), St. Isaac Jogues (m. 1646 ), St. Jean de Lalande (m. 1646), and St. Gabriel Lallemant (m. 1649).
Now in Theatres: The Iroquois Supremacy
In the 1650s, the powerful Mohawk tribe convinced the Iroquois to shift their attacks toward the French settlements themselves. (Two tribes of the confederacy, the Oneida and Onondaga, had previously traded with the French.) They conducted withering raids on isolated farms. Hundreds of French families were killed or captured. These prisoners might be adopted into an Iroquois family, or they might be ritually tortured and killed.
Iroquois raids might even have wiped out Montreal (then known as Ville-Marie) itself, were it not for a garrison officer named Dollard des Ormeaux. Either the bravest or most suicidal individual in Canadian history, he took 16 men out of the fortress and intercepted a 700- strong raiding party of Iroquois. The Frenchmen were soon overwhelmed and killed, but the Iroquois changed their minds about the raid on Montreal, and so the town was saved.
The French-Iroquoian conflict was only a small part of a wider period of attacks by the Iroquois across the interior of the continent. The precise reason for these raids in unclear (although I hear that the other First Nations had some WMD stockpiled somewhere...kidding, kidding). They may have been “mourning wars,” a practice whereby Iroquois tribes took captives to replace dead relatives.
Through these wars, the Iroquois absorbed, drove away, or killed the Confederacies controlling the Great Lakes fur trade (the Erie and so-called Neutral Confederacies). Other tribes fled, resulting in a massive influx of new First Nations into the modern-day American Midwest. As a result, the Iroquois enjoyed unquestioned dominance over the fur trade of the Northeast.
Their dispersal of pro-French tribes made the situation in New France even grimmer, as the colonists saw the number of friendly fur-trading tribes shrink around them. The saviors of the colony were the Carignan-Salieres regiment. This battle-hardened regiment had previously seen action against the Turks, and were unfazed by their unfamiliar surroundings. They also just happened to be the first uniformed, professional army in what is now Canada and their presence discouraged Iroquois attacks and initiated a 20 year period of peace. Although their stay was temporary–they left in 1667 after the Iroquois threat had passed—some members chose to stay and settle in the colony, adding diversity to the colony’s settlers.
The Crown Steps In
And speaking of settlers, just what were these gentlemen supposed to be doing, anyway? The French government required that its settlers that most of its settlers not engage in trade; they were supposed to let the furs come to them. But what’s a little illegality amongst friends?
In 1610, Etienne Brul became the first “coureur de bois,” or “Runner of the woods,” traders who illegally went out into the wild, battling raging rivers and dive-bombing mosquitos to trade directly with the First Nations. EB did a brisk business in “hot” furs until he was killed by the Wyandot 1634, possibly for sexual improprieties with Huron woman, but more likely for trade violations. After decades of fruitless attempts to prevent fur trading by settlers, the French government reversed its position, and in 1681 sanctioned the activities of the men who would become known as voyageurs (travelers.) Their work would form the backbone of the fur trade–and French power in North America.
But in theory, the “habitants” of New France were supposed to be living in villages, working land, replicating French society. The Company of 100 Associates, a joint stock company, was responsible for parceling out land to Seigneurs, or Lords, who promised to clear and settle their land. However, most Seigneurs were content to gain the fancy title and leave the land alone.
That changed in 1663. The Crown revoked the charter of the Company of 1000 Associates and made New France a royal province. Under Louis XIV’s remarkable minister Stephen Jean-Baptiste Colbert, the French Crown got serious about populating and regulating New France. Colbert had a little theory about colonies–they exist for the profit of the mother country (“mercantilism”). And he was going to make New France profitable (or kill someone else trying).
Under Colbert’s reforms, the Seigneurs had to actually settle land, or lose it. Their engagees (“hired hands,” something like the English indenture system) signed contracts, usually for 36 months, at the end of which they could settle on the land, or go back to France. It was a good offer for a landless man, but recruitment was still slow.
Desperate (for) Housewives
To address the population issue, Colbert appointed Jean Talon, as Intendent. The position of Intendant has no clear correlation in English colonies: the Intendant worked alongside a governor, but with even greater powers–he could interpret the law as well as execute it. He oversaw the colony’s budget, and all of its internal regulations. He and the governor worked with the governing Council of the colony ( men appointed by the Intendant). Basically, the Intendant actually had most of the powers that George Bush only thinks he has.
Talon took a census of the colony in 1666. He found 3,215 settlers, 73% were under 29 years of age. 63% of the population were men The number of unmarried men under the age of 29 was 791; there were only 257 unmarried women in the colony, many of whom were nuns. Typically, young men came to New France, made their money, and then returned to France.
External Link: See a flash exhibit about life in New France
Unlike the maudite anglais, the French crown was unenthusiastic about allowing troublemakers (you know, Puritans, Quakers, debtors, lawyers, and the like) into its colonies. Only good Catholics could settle in New France, where they faced harsh punishment for backsliding. Those who uttered oaths against God, the Virgin Mary, or the Saints faced a punishment of being:
..... condemned the first time to a fine according to their means, the size and enormity of the oath or blasphemy, ... those who were thus punished repeat the said oaths they will be for a second third and fourth time condemned to a double, triple and quadruple fine, and for the fifth time will be put in an iron collar on feast days, Sundays or any other and will stay there from eight o'clock in the morning until one o'clock in the afternoon... for the sixth time, will be led to the pillory and there have their upper lip cut off with a hot iron and, the seventh time will be led to the pillory and have their lower lip cut off;and if by obstinacy and inveterate bad habit they continue after all these punishments to utter oaths and blasphemies, we wish and order that they have their tongue cut out, so that they may no longer utter them..
Yikes! With the prospect of tongue-cutting for a wee little blasphemy among friends, New France wasn’t the place for the faint of heart.
Besides, Colbert and Louis XIV believed that "it would not be wise to depopulate his kingdom in order to populate Canada." They needed settlers, but more than that, they needed babies. Colbert encouraged Talon to bring the First Nations into the French colony:
... the most useful way to achieve it would be to try to civilize the Algonquins, the Hurons, and the other Savages who have embraced Christianity; and to persuade them to come to settle in a commune with the French, to live with them, and educate their children in our mores and our customs...we shall be one people and one blood
A Good Woman is Hard to Find
To that end, First Nations women were encouraged to convert to Christianity, adopt French customs, and settle down in villages with lonely male habitants. In 1680, the Crown even set up a fund to provide dowries for these women. But relatively few Native women chose to take up this offer, preferring (for some strange reason) the matrilineal customs of their own peoples to the patriarchal and Patrilineal French household.
Still, the flexibility of French law and relative open-mindedness about intermarriage led some voyageurs to regularize their unions with First Nations women, whom they often lived with while away from French settlement, and might marry according to Native custom.
The children of these unions straddled two cultures: some might live in Quebec and consider themselves French; others might remain with their mother’s family and consider themselves Native. They would form the basis of Canada’s M tis, one of its French-speaking populations today. (They would also prove important figures in negotiating the relations First Nations and Americans in the “Old Northwest” of Indiana, Michigan and Illinois...but that’s another story. And another country. Back to Canada!)
The second part of the plan: mail-order brides (sort of). Between 1663 and 1673, about 770 young women–mostly poor orphans, but including some noble and bourgeois women–chose to make the arduous voyage to New France with the aid of a dowry granted by the crown, making them “daughters of the King,” or filles du roi.
A rash of hair-combing and face-washing broke out in New France, as the fur traders, farmers, soldiers, and craftsmen eagerly competed for the young ladies’ attentions. Most of the women found someone to their liking, although a few broke their first marriage contracts and found second (or even third) fiancees instead of settling with their first choice. (“I’m sorry Jean-Claude. She’s just...not that into you.”)
Talon’s encouragement did not stop with the wedding, however. Legislation rewarded families with 10 living children with an annual allowance of 300 livres; the sum went up to 400 livres for those with 12 or more. Later laws required parents to marry off their children by the age of 20 for boys and 16 for girls—or explain to a court why they didn’t.
Within a decade, the colony’s population climbed to 9000. By 1700, there were approximately 25,000 French in North America. That’s a lot of farmers—and farm they did, producing grain, exporting lumber, and even learning to get food from the very trees around them. (“Maple Syrup”–maybe you’ve heard of it?)
External Link: See a one-minute movie about maple sugar and early Quebec farmers here
Go North, Young Englishmen!
Because Colbert wanted to establish more farming, he was reluctant to provide much government assistance for further fur trading initiatives. In fact, he turned down two traders, Pierre-Esprit Radisson and Médard des Groseilliers, who wanted backing for an expedition towards a mysterious "frozen sea" they had heard about from the Cree. Guessing this might be the Bay/ Bane of Henry Hudson, they argued that a trading post there would bring nothing but profit.
Rebuffed by Colbert, they did the unthinkable: approached the heretics–er, the English. Backed by interested Bostonians, the Frenchmen set out to explore more fo the North and set up trading posts or “factories.” Following their initial voyages in 1668-69, “ The Governor and Company of Adventurers of England trading into Hudson's Bay” was formed and was granted trading rights by King Charles II of England.
The first director of this company was Charles’ cousin Prince Rupert of the Rhine, and, in a vanity license plate kind of move, the territory was dubbed “Prince Rupert’s Land.” (Prince Rupert had been a dashing Cavalier during the English Civil Wars, and since then had dabbled in military technology including new forms of gunpowder and an early form of grenade- explosive glass vials known as “Prince Rupert’s tears.” He also introduced the poodle into England. Go figure.) The Hudson’s Bay Company, or HBC, or just “The Bay” if you’re at a shopping mall in Canada. It’s still the oldest continuous corporation in North America–but it’s now owned by a South Carolina businessman (something wise Americans just don’t bring up with their Canadian friends.)
External Link: Check out the PBS documentary about the Hudson Bay Company here.
Alert Bill O’Reilly! Or, the French Invade America
But back to the French. The latter part of the 1660s saw the development and expansion of the French in both Canada and what’s now the U.S. In the 1670s, Father Jacques Marquette and Quebec-born explorer Louis Jolliet were sent by Jean Talon to explore rumors of a great river that ran into the sea. Their explorations took them to the Mississippi, the Gulf of California, part of Arkansas, and then back up towards modern Illinois.
Meanwhile, dodgy ex-Jesuit-turned-seigneur Robert de la Salle (he had left the Order for what he called “moral weakness,” nudge nudge wink wink) had also been searching for profitable routes in the south. After building Fort Frotnenac (Kingston, Ontario) as part of a fur trading venture, he traveled on number of expeditions in what is now Missouri and Illinois before making his most famous voyage, building a fort at what is now Memphis and finding the mouth of the Mississippi. Near modern-day Venice, Louisiana, he buried a plate, claiming he land for France and dubbing it “Louisiana” in honor of the king. By 1699 the new colony was well on its way.
Through a system of forts, trading posts and small settlements, combined with First Nations alliances, the French controlled a vast swath of what its today the middle of the United States. To be specific, many of those “French” men were actually Canadiens–yes, put that in your pipe and smoke it, Tucker Carlson. Canada was ruling over some or all of Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and even Texas, cowboys. Yee-haw, eh?
What is a Protective Dyke, Anyway?
A separate French colony was growing slowly but steadily in today’s Nova Scotia. The name “Acadia” may be a corruption of the ancient Greek pastoral paradise “Arcadia.” Or, it may be a from the Mi’kmaq suffix “e'kati,” meaning "land of" or "place of." Whatever you call it, the families of the old Port Royal settlement had survived despite all the French and English squabbling over who owned their territory. About 1500 Acadians lived across today’s Maritimes in the late 1600s, and another 200 or so French settlers lived in Newfoundland.
Many of the Acadians had forebears from Poiteau, making their language and culture quite unlike that of their cousins in Quebec (who came from different parts of France) Even today, Acadian French and Quebec French have their own distinctive vocabulary and pronunciations. Along with their language, they brought the farming customs of Poiteau, where farmers routinely built dykes to rescue the marshiest of farmland from the sea.
Around 1680, Acadian settlers from Port Royal migrated to Grand-Pre (Great Meadow) on the Minas Basin of Nova Scotia. They quickly constructed miles of dikes that allowed them to take advantage of the rich marshy soil while keeping the water out. Despite lying below sea-level, Grand-Pre became the breadbasket of Acadia.
And, yes, I know what you’re thinking. “These Acadians, do they have anything to do with the Cajuns?” They sure do. But that’s a story for next time, when North America erupts into conflicts that forever shake up the balance of power. You see, while the French were 25,000, their English neighbors had swelled to 270,000. I sense trouble. Don’t you? Look for ships, cannons and men in kilts in next week’s installment of CAN HIST 101: Canadian History for Americans.
And if this has you jonesing for more about Canada, why not check out The Next Agenda, a DKos-style blog for progressive Canadian politics!
Can’t wait that for your history fix? Be sure to check out
Unitary Moonbat’s continuing U.S. History series, and mkfox’s Forgotten Founding Fathers (now with trading cards!)
P.P.S. And Play the Canadian History game here!
Films courtesyCanadian History Minutes
Flash display into from the Virtual Museum of New France
Maps from the Digital Collections of Canada.Dyke painting property of the Musee Acadien. All other pictures believed to be in the public domain.
Update [2006-9-1 21:4:53 by aphra behn]: Added link to Part 1.