In 1599, Pierre Dugua de Mons, Pierre de Chauvin de Tonnenuit and Samuel de Champlain traveled to North America on behalf of Henri IV, King of France and Navarre, also called le bon roi (the good King).Henri IV wanted France to harvest the rich pelts it could find in Northeastern America. Henri also asked Du Gua de Mons to create a settlement in what are now the Maritime provinces of Canada. Officially, Port-Royal (Annapolis Royal) is the first French settlement in North America. It was settled in 1604, four years before Champlain settled Quebec City. However, to be precise, Tonnetuit’s trading post was the first French settlement in North America, and it was located in the present-day Québec, one of the two provinces of New France. The other was Acadie. Henri IV had been a Protestant, a Huguenot, and so were the above-mentioned explorers.
Huguenots, a popular term used since 1560 to designate French Protestants, some of whom became involved in the Newfoundland fishery and Canadian fur trade, and in abortive colonization attempts in Canada (1541-42), Brazil (1555) and the Carolinas (1562-64).
Champlain was a secretive Huguenot, but Pierre Dugua de Mon(t)s wasn’t. As for Pierre de Chauvin de Tonnetuit, his occupation, fur trading, was that of a Huguenot. So, if his trading post was the first French settlement in the Americas, the very first French settlement in the Americas was a Huguenot settlement. In fact, although Champlain did not reveal his religious affiliation, he founded Quebec-City in New France’s Huguenot times. But matters changed in 1627. New France was governed by the Company of One Hundred Associates and its first shareholder was Cardinal Richelieu.
More permanent was the fur-trade. The French in Canada tended to their thirty acres, but many had to go to the countries above, les pays d’en haut. They were voyageurs or coureurs des bois. Coureurs des bois did not have a licence, so if caught, the pelts they had harvested were confiscated.
I love Pierre Chauvin’s trading post. New France would have its legendary voyageurs. They would be Catholics. But Pierre Chauvin’s trading post was a Huguenot settlement.
When Pierre de Chauvin de Tonnentuit returned to France, he left sixteen (16) men at Tadoussac. It was a settlement. Only six (6) survived.
The image above can be found in Arnaud Bessière’s[1] entry on Slavery, in the Virtual Museum of New France, Slavery. Bessière’s document is short and authoritative. Morever, it is bilingual. I have used it to create this post. There were slaves in New France, but most were the Indigenous people of North America who themselves owned slaves.
Slave-owning people of what became Canada were, for example, the Yurok, a fishing society, who lived along the Pacific coast from Alaska to California or the Northwest Coast.
Some of the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast, the Haida and Tlingit, were traditionally known as fierce warriors and slave-traders, raiding as far as California. Slavery was hereditary, the slaves being prisoners of war and their descendants were slaves. Some nations in British Columbia continued to segregate and ostracize the descendants of slaves as late as the 1870s.
(see Slavery in Canada, Wikipedia).
Slavery among Amerindians may not have been as ingrained a cultural element in the native population of North America Northeastern coast, but Amerindians living on the shores of the St Lawrence had slaves. It was not uncommon for an Amerindian friend to give a slave to a French colonist. These Amerindians were members of the First Nations.
Let us see the numbers.
Before the Conquest of New France by the British in 1659,[2]New France had 4,000 slaves, but 1,123 were Blacks and the remainder, 2,472, Aboriginals. After the Conquest, French- speaking Canadians owned 1,509 of which 181 were English. These are Marcel Trudel’s numbers, quoted in Slavery in Canada (Wikipedia). Marcel Trudel also notes 31 marriages between French colonists and Aboriginal slaves (see Slavery in Canada, Wikipedia).
After the Conquest of Canada by Britain (1759), formalized by the Treaty of Paris (1763), French Canadians owned 181 Black slaves and 1,509 Amerindian slaves. So, as Bessière writes, no slave ship sailed down the St. Lawrence River.
Despite colonial officials’ oft-reiterated yearning to have African slaves imported to the colony, no slave ship ever reached the St. Lawrence valley.
Bessière also writes that
[t]hose black slaves who arrived in the region came from the neighbouring British colonies, from which they were smuggled or where they were taken as war captives. A number of Canadian merchants also brought black slaves back from their business trips to the south, in Louisiana or in the French Caribbean.
Lower Canada: the First Black Citizen & the First Black Slave
Mathieu da Costa
Olivier le Jeune
We know that Mathieu da Costa was the first Black to come to New France. He was not a slave, but a free man of African-Portuguese descent and Canada’s first linguist. As for the first Black slave in New France, he was a six-year old child. The young slave belonged to Sir David Kirke, one of the Brothers Kirke, who blockaded the St. Lawrence during the Anglo-French War of 1627 – 1629. Quebec fell (1628), but Samuel de Champlain argued that the English seizure of his land was unlawful, as the war had already ended when David Kirke took Québec. The territory was therefore returned to France, in 1632.
Oliver le Jeune may have had other owners, but he was last bought by Father Paul le Jeune and then given to one of Nouvelle-France first colonists, perhaps the first, Guillaume Couillard (see Bessière and Slavery in Canada, Wikipedia).
Guillaume Couillard, figure au monument Louis-Hébert, parc Montmorency, Québec (Wikipedia)
New France did not have large plantations requiring an enormous work force. It was a semi-feudal society consisting of Seigneuries, long and narrow tracts of land located on both sides of the St Lawrence river. It was owned by the Compagnie des Cent-Associés, the Company of a Hundred Associates, who had a monopoly over the fur-trade. Finally, Black slaves were too expensive for ordinary colonists.
“The company was closely controlled by Richelieu, and was given sweeping authority over trade and colonization in all of New France, a territory that encompassed all of Acadia, Canada, Newfoundland, and French Louisiana. Management was entrusted to twelve directors.” (See Slavery in Canada, Wikipedia)
Consequently, the Black slaves of New France were domestic servants. Moreover, most of the colonists of New France were poor. In Philippe-Aubert de Gaspé‘s 1863 Les Anciens Canadiens (The Canadians of Old), a male Ethiopian is mentioned. Jules d’Haberville’s father was a Seigneur. But to return to Olivier le Jeune, it is believed the child was manumitted (freed) by the Couillard family. He died in 1654.
According to Afua Cooper, author of The Hanging of Angélique: The Untold Story of Canadian Slavery and the Burning of Old Montréal, “enslaved First Nations people outnumbered enslaved individuals of African descent, under French rule. She attributed this to the relative ease with which New France could acquire First Nations slaves. She noted that the mortality of slaves was high, with the average age of First Nations slaves only 17, and the average age of slaves of African descent, 25.”[3]
The Seigneurial System
Farmers, later called cultivateurs, were given thirty acres of land. They paid their rente to their Seigneur and their dîme, to their curés, the parish priest. Their was a Chemin du Roy, but the river was the highway. It linked Quebec-city, Trois-Rivières and the island of Montréal. Under the Seigneurial System, farmers did the work.
The Code Noir, which regulated enslavement in the French colonial empire, was promulgated by Louis XIV, in 1685. The first Code Noir was written by Colbert, but it was amended. It stressed that slaves had to be Catholics or convert to Catholicism. In 1689, New France was granted permission to enslave Blacks. But New France’s slaves were mostly Amerindians, all of whom were called Panis, whether or not they belonged to the Pawnee people. New France had very few slaves in the 17th century, but their numbers grew in the 18th century.
It would be difficult to determine how many Panis were given by Amerindian friends to the citizens of New France and how many were taken by colonists. However, no one can dispute that most slaves in New France were Amerindians rather than Blacks. Slavery and racism can be linked, but Amerindians had Amerindian slaves. Slavery has existed since time immemorial, but the Blacks of New France were owned by Whites. The transatlantic slave trade was human trafficking. It is a practice that has yet to end. La traite des Blanches, white slavery, was/is also human trafficking, and racism cannot be excluded.
I have noted that given Canada’s harsh climate, survival is a keyword in both the history New France and English-speaking.[4] In other words, the French, fur traders in particular, depended on Amerindians: birch bark canoes, snowshoes, remedies. Jacques Cartier, Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Monts and his nagivator, Samuel de Champlain, were provided with thuja occidentalis, when their men were dying of scurvy. As for North America’s natives, they were not immune to certain European illnesses, such as smallpox, a devastating illness.
1876 portrait of Gobineau by the Comtesse de la Tour (Photo Credit: Wikipedia)
Slavery vs Racism
Slavery may or may not be racist. However, enslavement is an extreme form of humiliation. So persons who have been slaves may be viewed as inferior.
Joseph Arthur, comte de Gobineau (14 July 1816 – 13 October 1882), the author of Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races (Essai sur l’Inégalité des races humaines), believed commoners were inferior to aristocrats. (See Arthur de Gobineau, Wikipedia) and the White race superior to other races. However, although Arthur de Gobineau believed in Aryan supremacy, he did not look upon the Jews as an inferior “race.”
However unsavoury Arthur de Gobineau’ writings, he is associated with Scientific Racism. The 19th century is the birthplace of sociology and related disciplines. Charles Darwin (12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) developed the science of evolution. His ideas were shocking to many, but more scientific than Gobineau’s who thought the Black race was an inferior race.
The Disappearance of Indigenous Women
At the moment, the disappearance of aboriginal women in Canada is alarming.
“The issue gained increased awareness and attention after Amnesty International published Stolen Sisters: A Human Rights Response to Violence and Discrimination against Indigenous Women in Canada (2004) and No More Stolen Sisters (2009). Research conducted by the Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC) established a database of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. In 2011, the NWAC database included 582 known cases, most of which had occurred between 1990 and 2010.” (The Canadian Encyclopedia)
The Hanging of Angélique
Marie-Josèphe dite Angélique is Canada’s most famous slave. Marie Josèphe, was a Portuguese slave brought to New England by a Flemish owner who sold her to a Montreal Seigneur, François Poulin de Francheville. When he died, his wife Thérèse de Couagne de Francheville decided to sell Marie-Josèphe to a Quebec City owner. Fearing she would lose the man she loved, an indentured servant whose name was Claude Thibault, the two escaped but were returned to Madame de Francheville, Thérèse de Couagne.
Marie-Joseph-Angélique, (Photo credit: The Dictionary of Canadian Biography)
While she was absent, Thérèse de Couagne’s house was destroyed in a fire that spread to a large part of Old Montreal, including l’Hôtel-Dieu, a hospital. Marie-Josèphe was accused of arson. She was a runaway slave. She had run away with Claude Thibault who had been jailed and released. He disappeared. Marie-Josèphe was tried and convicted of arson. She was to be tortured, make amends (amende honorable), and be burned alive. The five-year old daughter of Alexis Monière, Amable, claimed she saw Marie-Josèphe- Angélique transporting coal. Marie-Josèphe-Angélique was tortured and hanged on 21 June 1734.
“The Hanging of Angélique: The Untold Story of Canadian Slavery and the Burning of Old Montréal”
Marie Josèphe’s guilt was questioned by Denyse Beaugrand-Champagne in a book published in 2004. The fire may have started elsewhere. Two years later, in 2006, Dr Afua Cooper, PhD, who was born in Jamaica and is a faculty member at Dalhousie University, in Halifax, published The Hanging of Angélique: The Untold Story of Canadian Slavery and the Burning of Old Montréal. According to Dr Cooper, Marie-Josèphe did set fire to her owner’s house, thus rebelling against her condition: slavery. (See Marie-Joseph Angélique, Wikipedia.)
In Lower Canada (Quebec), Sir James Monk, who could not abolish slavery, “rendered a series of decisions in the late 1790s that undermined the ability to compel slaves to serve their masters…” (See Slavery in Canada, Wikipedia). Later, Sir James Kempt refused a request to return a black slave to the United States. In practice, slavery had ended in Lower Canada.
There is racism in Canada, including Quebec, but I do not know whether it is “systemic.” The French in Québec, the former Lower Canada, have concentrated on preserving their language. Bill 21 (secularization) led to demonstrations.
A Métis man and his two wives, circa 1825-1826. Mikan # 2835810, Library and Archives Canada, Acc. No. 1973-84-1
The killing of George Floyd nearly drowned the discussion about Covid-19. The current conversation is about a man who was killed by a man whose duty it was to protect him, even as he arrested him. The police have duties to everyone. Therefore, it was racism at its worst. George Floyd’s life didn’t matter.
Racism in the United States is a complex topic because the economy of the United States depended, in certain southern states, on slavery. Blacks travelled packed like sardines in the hull of a slave ship and, on their arrival in North America, they were sold. Slavery took away a person’s life. A human life belonged to the owner of a plantation, which means that life was taken away from a human being. Black lives matter. The mindset of Americans is therefore rooted in colour and status.
Racism exists in Canada. A the moment, the question is whether it is “systemic” racism (racisme structurel) or racism. Our Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, says racism in Canada is systemic. At first, monsieur Legault of Quebec stated that racism in Canada is not systemic, but it seems he changed his mind. Premier Doug Ford of Ontario also believes that racism in Canada is systemic. For my part, I need to read further before I position myself. As for Dr Theresa Tam, Canada’s top doctor, she urges protesters to stay safe.
Because the Black in the United States were slaves, racism in the United States cannot be the same as racism in Canada. Canada’s racism may be systemic, but Canada’s economy did not depend on the work of slaves. Diamonds were not found on the shores of the St Lawrence River. Canada’s diamonds where its precious pelts at a time when men wore high beaver hats.
In other words, in the 17th century, survival in Nouvelle-France depended on agriculture and fur-trading. Logging was also important. Some houses were log cabin. It should also be noted that, in New France, settling would not have been possible without the Amerindians. Jacques Cartier the official discoverer of Canada made three trips to Eastern Canada. He first travelled to Canada in 1534. He took to France chief Donnacona‘s two sons and returned them to their father in 1535. They had learned French.
Cartier waited too long to return to France, so his ship(s) was locked into the ice and his men were rapidly dying of scurvy. Amerindians provided thuya occidentalis, white cedar rich in On his first trip, the French could not have gone to les pays d’en haut, the countries above or to the north, as voyageurs, in particular. They needed bark canoes and, snowshoes and the guidance Amerindians could provide. A canoe could be made in a matter of hours and the French had to work with the natives. “Survival” is a keyword in the history of Canada.
The fact remains, however, that the fur trade in Canada did not preclude abuse. The French gave trinkets and alcohol to natives who were prone to alcoholism, which outraged Monseigneur Laval, François-Xavier de Montmorency-Laval (1623-1708). But their land was not taken from Amerindians.
The Bishop of Quebec
However, in the United States, settlers deprived aboriginals of the land they had inhabited for centuries, if not millennia. American natives were sent West forcibly west of the Mississippi. The Louisiana Purchase (1803) would facilitate that process. Moreover, the French had settled in New Orleans, Nouvelle-Orléans, but the population of the rest of Louisiana consisted primarily of Aboriginals. In Canada, their land was not taken from Amerindians until what is known as Confederation (in 1867), or the birth of Canada.
There was hostility between tribes which affected New France. Iroquois captured and killed a number of French-speaking citizens of New France. Iroquois also tortured and killed eight Jesuit missionaries. They are the Canadian Martyrs. To defend the citizens of Nouvelle-France, France sent le Régiment de Carignan-Salières. Le Régiment de Carignan-Salières, soldiers, who arrived in 1759, which is during the ten years or so when les Filles du Roy, the King’s wards were sent to New France.
Before the arrival of the Filles du Roy, the French resorted to marrying the natives, which explains why some Québécois have Amerindian ancestry. Métissés Québécois never formed a nation and are not recognized as Métis. Therefore, I am métissée, but I must pay my taxes, and look after myself. Québecois are considered culturally French and we identify with France. However, I am proud of my Amerindian ancestry. It makes me feel a legitimate inhabitant of the North American continent. It appears I am also a descendant of Alix de France, Eleanor of Aquitaine‘s daughter with Louis VII, a Bourbon king.
The French lost the Seven Years’ War, called the French and Indian War in North America. France had to give some of its colonies. So when Nouvelle-France was officially ceded to Britain, Amerindians feared for their lives. They were rescued by George III’s Proclamation of 1763, which did not please Americans.
Ironically, Amerindians in the what would be Canada lost their waterfront lots beginning in 1867, when four provinces of Canada when Nova Scotia, New Brunswick Québec and Ontario confederated and bought Rupert’s Land. It was land that belonged to the Hudson’s Bay Company. The HBC retained its trading posts, but Amerindians were eventually placed on reservations, a mixed blessing.
Rupert’s Land
Louis Riel was a Métis, the most famous among Métis, and he was elected three times to Canada’s Parliament. Riel was executed on 16 November 1886 for the execution of Thomas Scott, an Orangeman (Protestant) from Ontario. The Métis thought they would participate in the creation of Canada and that it would be bilingual and Catholic, in the case of Catholic Métis. Between the Conquest, 1763, and Confederation, 1867, voyageurs were employed in the fur trade and when the beavers were nearly extant, they accompanied explorers, such as David Thomson, who married an Amerindian.
The Métis in Canada live West in or near Winnipeg and are the descendants of the voyageurs, persons who went west to collect fur from the Amerindians. But voyageurs also retired in Minnesota. When the border between Canada and the United States was traced, after the War of 1812, voyageurs trading posts were suddenly located in Minnesota, where a significant number of voyageurs retired. One of the voyageur who settled in Minnesota is Gabriel Franchère, a hero to Americans. (See Gabriel Franchère, a Hero to Americans.)
Voyageurs married Amerindians, because they could be away from Quebec for three years. Some had two wives, one west and one in Quebec. As the picture above illustrates, some had two Amerindian wives. Derek Chauvin has a French name, which suggests voyageur ancestry, but not necessarily Amerindian ancestry. Derek Chauvin has a French name. Other Métis are the descendants of the baron de Saint-Castin, who was an Amerindian chief. (See Jean-Vincent d’Abbadie, Baron de Saint-Castin.) One of my readers is a descendant of Jean-Vincent d’Abbadie, Baron de Saint-Castin.
Several Quebecers are métissés but they are not considered Métis. French-speaking Canadians identify with France, their motherland. We are culturally French, so despite our ancestry, we must pay our taxes. I like being métissée because it makes me feel that I belong just a little more than others.
Nova Scotia has a black population some of whom are part Amerindian.
Conclusion
However, I stand by George Floyd. His colour is an accident of birth and his ancestors. The only justice is eradicating racism and the process must start at home and in schools. We must not let children bully others.
I would like to tell you about French-Canadian poet Octave Crémazie (1827-1879). Crémazie wrote « Le Vieux Soldat canadien, » a poem featuring an old Canadien soldier watching the harbour and asking his son whether or not the French can be seen. France returned, but the arrival of « La Capricieuse », in 1855, did not signal a rebirth of New France.
La Capricieuse
As unbelievable as it may seem, it had been ninety-two years since France had visited its former colony. From 1763 to 1855, no French ship had come from France to what was, in 1855, the Province of Canada.
The ship, a Corvette, arrived at Quebec city on the 14 July 1855, Bastille Day, a day which meant very little to French-speaking Canadians. In fact, as devout Catholics, many of them looked upon the French Revolution (1789-c. 1794) as the moment when the French clergy had been imperiled to such an extent that many priests had to flee their native land.
French-speaking Canadians who witnessed the arrival of « La Capricieuse » were overwhelmed. They may have known that, under the terms of the Treaty of Paris (1763), France had chosen Guadeloupe over New France. But it may have been comforting for the former citizens of New France to think that they had simply lost a battle, the Battle of the Plains of Abraham.
The Battle of the Plains of Abraham
The Battle of the Plains of Abraham was a fifteen-minute battle fought on 13 September 1759. Yet, the short battle claimed the life of its two commanding officers: 32 year-old Major-General James P. Wolfe and 47 year-old Louis-Joseph de Montcalm. French-speaking Canadians look upon that defeat as the catastrophe that caused New France to become a British colony. The defeat is a major factor in this narrative, but it doesn’t tell the full story. It is better for French-speaking Canadians to think they were defeated, than ceded to England. Under the terms of the Treaty of Paris (1763), France chose to cede New France in order to keep Guadeloupe.
The Literary Movement of Quebec: Octave Crémazie
Octave Crémazie, baptized Claude-Joseph-Olivier,[i] (1827-1879) was the leading member of a literary school created in the wake of Lord Durham’s remark to the effect that French-speaking Canadians did not have a history and lacked a literature. That remark had been offensive to French-speaking Canadians and the decision to assimilate them was also unacceptable. They had been living in on North-American soil since the 1600s, tilling their thirty acres of land.
When he was appointed Prime Minister in 1842, (1827-1879) addressed the assembly in French and French-speaking Canadians set about to prove Lord Durham wrong. François-Xavier Garneau (1809-1866) wrote a three-volume Histoire du Canada, published between 1845 and 1848. Moreover, a literary movement was created in Quebec city, calledLe Mouvement littéraire de Québec (the Literary Movement of Quebec or the Patriotic School of Quebec.)
Octave Crémazie was the leader of that particular school and was one of the founders of l’Institut Canadien. Although he declared bankruptcy and had to seek refuge in France, in 1862, never to return to Canada, these circumstances did not tarnish his reputation as a poet. He is considered the father of French-Canadian poetry. During his years of exile in France, he kept in touch with members of group. He and Henri-Raymond Casgrain wrote to one another. But he had become Jules Fontaine and died in poverty.
The Encyclopædia Britannica on Crémazie
In TheEncyclopædiaBritannica, the “national bard,” is described as “[a]n extraordinarily learned man, educated at the Seminary of Quebec [who] started a bookshop in 1844 that became the centre of an influential literary circle later referred to as the Patriotic School of Quebec (or the Literary Movement of Quebec).” Writers and historians met in “la boutique à Crémazie,” Crémazie’s shop.
Britannica also tells us that “[i]n 1861 Crémazie and his friends began issuing a monthly magazine of literature and history, Les Soirées Canadiennes, to preserve the folklore of French Canada” and that among Crémazie’s most “famous patriotic poems are ‘Le Vieux Soldat canadien ’(1855; ‘The Old Canadian Soldier’), celebrating the first French naval ship to visit Quebec in almost a century, and ‘Le Drapeau de Carillon’ (1858; ‘The Flag of Carillon’).”[ii] At Carillon, New France won the battle.
Le Vieux Soldat canadien
However, the poem we are looking at is “Le Vieux Soldat canadien.” The old soldier is certain France will return and keeps asking his son whether or not the ships can be seen on the horizon. Each eight-line decasyllabic (10 syllables) stanza ends with a haunting: Dis-moi mon fils ne paraissent-ils pas? (Tell me, my son, are they not within sight?). As he was dying, (« mais en mourant ») the old soldier was still telling his crying son ( « il redisait encore » ) that he, the son, would see the dawn (« l’aurore ») of that great day, when they would return (« Ils reviendront ! »), but that he [the father] would no longer be alive (the full text is online).
Mais en mourant, il redisait encoreÀ son enfant qui pleurait dans ses bras:« De ce grand jour tes yeux verront l’aurore,« Ils reviendront ! et je n’y serai pas ! »
(But as he was dying, he kept saying
To his child who was crying in his arms:
“Of that great day your eyes will see the dawn
They will come back! but I will not be there!”)
The people of Quebec city were delighted to see “La Capricieuse.” The French had sent a gift of books for the Institut Canadien, its Montreal branch, I should think. But the French were in Canada to conduct business.
La Patrie Littéraire or The Literary Homeland
Crémazie’s poem is an example of literary homeland (patrie littéraire) literature as is Philippe-Joseph Aubert de Gaspé Anciens Canadiens.[iii] (For the Wikipedia, entry click on Philippe-Joseph Aubert de Gaspé.) French-speaking Canadians had lost their Lower Canada and built a “literary homeland.” They created the history and literature which, Lord Durham had reported, they did not have. Writing became their salvation.
“Commander Paul-Henry de Belvèze proceeded by steamer and train to Montréal, Toronto and Ottawa before leaving Québec for France on August 25. His mission was to report on the prospects of trade with Canada, made possible by Britain’s proclamation of free trade and by the Anglo-French alliance of 1854. The result was the opening of a French consulate at Québec in 1859, followed by mutual, short-lived tariff concessions and the development of a modest trade. However, the visit is remembered chiefly as the official endorsement of the Franco-Canadian cultural rapprochement that had been gathering impetus since the 1830s.”
09 MOZART-concerto clarinette et orch, K.622: Michel Portal (clarinette), Wiener Kammerorchester (Philippe Entremont, dir.)
(click on the title to hear the music)
The Battle of the Plains of Abraham (13 September 1759), is a battle that takes its name, Abraham, from the fact that it was fought on a piece of land belonging to Abraham Martin (1589-1664), a fisherman and a river pilot (Wikipedia), nicknamed The Scot. The Battle of the Plains of Abraham killed both General Wolfe and General Montcalm and I suspect that, as he was nearing death, at the age of 47, General Louis-Joseph de Montcalm knew that the colony he had been sent to protect would be ceded to Britain.
In my last post, I wrote that, as he lay dying, Montcalm was not told that Major-General James P Wolfe had died. I was puzzled, but let us read the testimonial of the American historian Reverend Francis Parkman (16 September 1823 – 8 November 1893), the author of the seven-volume France and England in North America. The sixth volume is entitled Montcalm and Wolfe (1884).
So, allow me to quote Parkman, quoted in Wikipedia:
He (Montcalm) then asked how long he might survive, and was told that he had not many hours remaining. “So much the better,” he said; “I am happy that I shall not live to see the surrender of Quebec.”
Officers from the garrison came to his bedside to ask his orders and instructions “I will give no more orders,” replied the defeated soldier; “I have much business that must be attended to, of greater moment than your ruined garrison and this wretched country. My time is very short; therefore, pray leave me.”
The officer withdrew, and none remained in the chamber but his confessor and the Bishop of Quebec. To the latter, he expressed his contempt for his own mutinous and half famished troops, and his admiration for the disciplined valour of his opponents. He died at midnight, and was buried at his own desire in a cavity of the earth formed by the bursting of a bombshell.
As indicated above, Montcalm used the word “wretched,” referring to the colony. He had been short-changed by Vaudreuil who was not a military tactician and opposed Montcalm’s use of European warfare on North-American soil. The two feuded from the moment Montcalm arrived in New France, in May 1756 .
Expertise should override uninformed opinion
Canadian-born Pierre de Rigaud de Vaudreuil de Cavagnal, Marquis de Vaudreuil (22 November 1698 – 4 August 1778), Governor of New France, had been in the military, but his second-guessing Montcalm was not very judicious. Between Montcalm and Vaudreuil, Montcalm was the better soldier and, as a rule, one must defer to greater expertise.
The Battle of Fort Oswego
Although Montcalm was not familiar with the hit-and-run type of warfare Vaudreuil favoured, the siege and Battle of Fort Oswego, fought between August 10 – 14, 1759, three months after Montcalm arrived in New France, was proof positive that there was merit to European warfare. As happens in wars, Colonel James Mercer, the British leader, lost his life at Fort Oswego. The battle was then fought under the command of James Littlehales. At Oswego, the French were well prepared, which was not the case at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham.
The Battle of Fort William Henry
The Siege of Fort William Henry, (click on the above picture to enlarge it)conducted between 3 and 9 August 1757, seems an inglorious victory. The British forces, led by Lieutenant-Colonel George Monro (1700–1757) were defeated by Montcalm’s troops which included 1,800 Amerindians of different tribes and 6,200 “regulars” and militia. The British were outnumbered and lost, but suddenly disorderly and blood-thirsty Amerindians, who had fought under Montcalm’s command, started to kill British soldiers and civilians.
Monro and Montcalm were not able to subdue the Amerindians, so infamy is attached to this siege or battle of Fort William Henry. However the Amerindians made the mistake of unearthing the corpses of individuals who had recently died of smallpox. They wanted trophies. As a result, they went back to their various encampments carrying the seeds of a disease that would be more costly than their rampage.
British General Jeffery Amherstwould remember the massacre. This was not European warfare. Lieutenant-Colonel George Monro died suddenly a few months after the battle.
The Battle of Carillon
The Battle of Carillon, also known as the 1758 Battle of Ticonderoga, took place between 6 July and 8 July 1758. Once again, Montcalm, ably assisted by the Chevalier de Lévis, his second in command, was victorious under troops led by James Abercombie and George Howe. Fort Carillon was a French Fort built on the shores of Lake Champlain. How the French won that battle is difficult to explain. They were outnumbered because Vaudreuil had sent half of New France’s troops to Louisbourg, against the advice of Montcalm.
Rhodes Scholar and Pulitzer-prize laureate American historian Lawrence Henry Gipson (1880–26 September 1971) has faulted Abercombie for the disaster at Carillon. Just how did the French win this battle? (click on the picture below to enlarge it)
The Victory of Montcalm’s Troops at Carillon by Alexander Ogden
The Battle of Beauport and the Battle of Montmorency
The Battle of Beauport or Battle of Montmorency was Montcalm’s last victory on North-American soil. It was fought a short distance away from Quebec City by British troops under the command of Major-General James P. Wolfe. It was fought on 31 July 1759, six weeks before the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, a final battle for Major-General Wolfe and General Montcalm, and two weeks after the British had succeeded in passing seven ships, including the HMS Sutherland and two frigates, the HMS Diana and HMS Squirrel to the west of Quebec-city. My question is the expected: how could this have happened unnoticed?
Beauport, located near the Montmorency Falls, was a French redoubt. So, General Wolfe’s 6,000 regulars were outnumbered by Montcalm’s 10,000 regulars and militia. General Wolfe lost more than 211 men and 233 soldiers were wounded, however and, ironically, British ships having passed through the narrow strait between Lévis, to the south, and Québec-city, to the north, the British were in a very good position to attack the French. Six weeks later, Montcalm’s troops were defeated at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham.
Conclusion
Montcalm lost one of his five battles in North America. He was a good soldier. Yet, he lost not only this one battle, but his life, as did Wolfe. Wolfe was only 32 and he was also a good soldier. As is quoted above, Montcalm praised General Wolfe on his death-bed, which is not insignificant. On the contrary!
There would be another battle: the Battle of Sainte-Foy, sometimes called the Battle of Quebec, fought on 28 April 1760. It opposed the French under the Chevalier de Lévis, and the British under General James Murray. The French won that battle, but Lévis was not able to retake Quebec City. The British retrenched and waited for reinforcement. It had been a difficult winter and scurvy had taken British lives. Lévis also waited for reinforcement, but it came too late. France came too late and, in 1763, it chose to keep Guadeloupe.
In the end, it seems all was decided in the corridors of power. So let Montcalm’s final words be my final words: this “wretched country.”
During the eighteenth century, France was not as vigilant as it could or should have been regarding the management of its North-American colonies. The motherland had considerable problems of its own that culminated in the French Revolution (1789 – 1794).
Yes, there were battles, the most significant being the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, in Quebec City. It took place on 13 September 1759. The British won, but the battle claimed the life of Major-General James P. Wolfe (2 January 1727 – 13 September 1759). As for Louis-Joseph de Montcalm-Gozon, Marquis de Saint-Veran (28 February 1712 [O.S. 17 February 1712] – 14 September 1759), he was mortally wounded. There were sufficient men on both sides, but “many of the French were ill-trained militia,” not “regulars.” In other words, the French were not in a position to fight Major-General Wolfe’s professional soldiers.[i]
C. W. Jefferys (1869 – 1951)
The Death of General Montcalm depicts the Marquis de Montcalm mortally wounded in 1759. He died on 14 September 1759.
The Treaty of Paris, 10 February 1763
Signed on 10 February 1763, the Treaty of Paris brought to a close both a European conflict, not to say the first world war, the Seven Years’ War, and the North-American French and Indian War. Nouvelle-France was ceded to Great Britain on 10 February 1763.
Under the terms of the Treaty of Paris, the King of Great Britain
granted “the liberty of the Catholick [sic] religion to the inhabitants of Canada,”
agreed that the French inhabitants of Canada might withdraw from Canada without hindrance, and
gave to French fishermen “the liberty of fishing in the gulph [sic] of St. Lawrence” and “the liberty of fishing and drying on a part of the coasts of the island of Newfoundland”, as well as
the ownership of the islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon, “to serve as a shelter to the French fishermen.”[ii]
The Canadiens
For the Canadiens (French-speaking Canadians), the loss of New France was a devastating blow. The Canadien felt he had abandoned by the motherland, in which he was mostly correct. The shores of the St Lawrence had become his country. He could not return to France. According to theTreaty of Paris, the Canadiens would be free to practice their religion and farmers did not lose their farms, nor did city dwellers lose their home. However, aristocrats working in Nouvelle-France returned to France. This was also a stipulation of the Treaty of Paris.
The Voyageurs
However, as I wrote in an arlier post thevoyageursmay not have learned they had become British subjects immediately. But they learned. Certain fur-trading posts were no longer French, but British or American. Under the terms of the Treaty of Ghent, signed on 24 December 1814, ending theWar of 1812between theUnited States of America and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, a border would have to be drawn between British and American territories in the Northern limits of the continental United States of America.
For one thing, many voyageurs would work forJohn Jacob Astor(17 July 1763 – 29 March 1848), the owner of theAmerican Fur Trade Company, established in 1808. Ramsay Crooksurged John Jacob Astor to hire Canadiens as boatmen. Americans, who had first been hired, lacked the ability to work as a team and could not respect Amerindians.
In a famous council on 27 April 1763, Pontiac urged listeners to rise up against the British. (19th century engraving by Alfred Bobbet)
(please click on picture to enlarge it)
The Pontiac Rebellion
The Treaty of Paris had not made provisions for North-American natives, the Amerindians. Somehow and regretfully, the negotiators had not thought of them. This shameful oversight led to thePontiac Rebellionwhich lasted from 1763 to 1766 and opposed the British and Chief Pontiac’s forces. Chief Pontiac was the leader of the Ottawas. On 25 July 1766, Pontiac met with the British superintendent of Indian affairs, Sir William Johnson, at Fort Oswego, New York. Hostilities ended on that day. As for Chief Pontiac, he was murdered on 20 April 1769. His assassination was not investigated.
—ooo—
I will end this blog here, but it will be followed by an account of the battles that took place during the French and Indian War(or the Seven Years’ War). All I will say for now is that Montcalm died on 14 September 1760. When he learned that his wound would take his life, he is reported to have said that his death was a blessing. The Battle of the Plains of Abraham had also claimed the life of General James P. Wolfe. (please click on picture to enlarge it)
Wolfe dying, The Battle of the Plains ofAbraham by Benjamin West (1738 – 1820)
