I have continued to research Scots in Canada. They were fur traders and became were wealthy. When beavers nearly disappeared, they became explorers. As fur traders, they founded the North West Company (1779) which competed with the Hudson’s Bay Company (established in 1670). They lived in the Montreal’s Golden Square Mile(mille carré doré) and socialized at the Beaver Club, a gentleman’s dining club, founded in 1785. Later, they moved to Westmount, Montreal. A few senior members married French-Canadian women. The French who had remained in the fur trade after the Conquest were senior members at the Beaver Club. New France had its bourgeoisie and bourgeois remained. Some were Seigneurs. Affluent French-speaking Canadian may have lived in Outremont, a lovely area of Montreal. Until recently, bourgeois French Canadians did not live in Westmount. They lived in lovely homes located in Outremont. I visited relatives in that arrondissement. Their homes were lovely, but their dining-room could not accommodate a hundred guests.
Charles Chaboillez was a wealthy fur trader, but he lost his money. His daughter married James McGill who, in his will, paid his father-in-law’s debts and provided him with an annuity.
Montreal is a gem, but the money was in the hands of Anglophones, as Mr Neilson told Alexis de Tocqueville and as Tocqueville himself knew.
The Château Clique is associated with some members of the North West Company, but seigneurs and French bourgeois also belonged to the Château Clique. Fur trading had its classes, and the wealthy are its upper class. The French had been voyageurs and Amerindians were their guides. However, one could be wealthy in New France and Canada without exploiting others. I would not make that generalization.
Hudson’s Bay Company Ships Prince of Wales and Eddystone bartering with the Inuit off the Upper Savage Islands, Hudson Strait, NWT. Watercolour by Robert Hood (courtesy Library and Archives Canada/C-40364) (Photo credit: The Canadian Encyclopedia)
The Hudson’s Bay Company ships Prince of Wales and Eddystone bartering with the Inuit off the Upper Savage Islands, Hudson Strait by Robert Hood (1819) (Hudson Strait, Wikipedia)
The French Régime
During the French régime, the voyageurs or canoemen who travelled to the heart of the continent to collect beaver pelts were hired by a “bourgeois” who used the selection criteria I listed in my last post:
short legs,
a powerful upper body, and
a good singing voice.
The Hudson’s Bay Company
Matters changed when Pierre-Esprit Radisson(1636–1710) and his brother-in-law,Médard Chouart des Groseilliers(1618–1696), discovered the sea we now know as the Hudson’s Bay. They collected enough beaver pelts to fill a hundred canoes. Having done so, they travelled to Canada which, at that point in history, was the western part of Nouvelle-France. The eastern part was l’Acadie, comprising Maine, part of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.
Radisson and Groseilliers thought that officials in Canada would be interested in their discovery: one could harvest the coveted pelts travelling by boat, large boats. Officials confiscated the fur Radisson and Des Groseilliers had brought back. It was proof of their discovery. They were treated like coureurs des bois, mere adventurers, not to say criminals.
Prince Rupert of the Rhine (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Radisson being very shrewd, he and Des Groseilliers went to Boston to seek the help they required to travel to England. The Bostonians agreed to take them to England where a member of the royal family, Prince Rupert of the Rhine(17 December 1619 – 29 November 1682), took an interest in the findings of the two explorers. He financed a trip to the Hudson’s Bay. The first ships to venture to what would be Rupert’s Land were the Eaglet and the Nonsuch that left England on June 3, 1668. The Company was chartered on 2 May 1670. That is how the Hudson’s Bay Company was established.
According to the Canadian Encyclopedia, the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC)
is the oldest incorporated joint-stock merchandising company in the English-speaking world.[I]
Rupert’s Land showing York Factory (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The British Régime
Under the terms of the Treaty of Paris, signed on February 10, 1763 by France, Britain and Spain, France relinquished its claim on its two provinces of New France. The Treaty of Paris ended the Seven Years’ War, an international conflict.
The North West Company
After New France became a British Colony, a second Fur Company was founded, the North West Company, and it established its headquarters in Montreal. The most prominent figures in the newly-founded company were Benjamin Frobisher, his brother Joseph, and Simon McTavish.
The North West Company competed with the Hudson’s Bay Company from 1779 to 1821, when a merger was negotiated. The conflict between the two companies reached an apex on 19 June 1816 when Robert Semple, Governor-in-Chief of Rupert’s Land challenged a party of Métis at Seven Oaks. The Métis were allies of the North West Company. Semple and 20 of his men were killed.
The Merger
This event served as a catalyst in the merger of the North West Company and the Hudson’s Bay Company. After the merger, the man in charge, was the immensely capable and pleasant Sir George Simpson (1787 – September 7, 1860), a Scots-Quebecer. Sir George Simpson was Governor-in-Chief of Rupert’s Land and administrator over the Northwest Territories and in British North America (now Canada) from 1821 to 1860. He was knighted by Queen Victoria.
To sum up, let us simply say that we had voyageurs working for
a “bourgeois,”
The Hudson’s Bay Company (1670 – ),
The North West Company, revived in 1990, but not a fur-trading company,
a merger (1821-1860; end of the fur trade).
However, by 1821, only one company remained: the Hudson’s Bay Company.
York boats were used by the Hudson’s Bay Company to transport furs in the Northwest. The sails could be used in open water.(Canadian Encyclopedia)
A Métis Family by Peter Rindisbacher (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Louis Riel’s demise is a fine example of what happened to French-speaking Canadians and their Amerindian spouses in the western provinces of Canada. A new post will follow.
From Coast to Coast
John A. MacDonald was the first Prime Minister of Canada and a Father of Confederation
Georges-Étienne Cartier was a Quebec Leader and a Father of Confederation
Gabriel Dumont (a Métis leader) took Riel to Saskatchewan (second Rebellion)
Louis Riel is the grandson of Jean-Baptiste Lagimonière/Lagimodière (1778-1855), a farmer and a voyageur who made a name for himself. On 21 April 1806, he married Anne-Marie Gaboury (1780 – 1875), the first white woman resident in the west, and the grandmother of legendary Louis Riel.
Upon learning that the Earl of Selkirk, DOUGLAS, THOMAS, Baron DAER and SHORTCLEUCH, 5th Earl of SELKIRK (1771 [St Mary’s Isle, Scotland] – 1820 [Pau, France]) was settling the Red River, Lagimonière and his wife went to live in the Red River settlement. But rivalry between the Hudson’s Bay Company and the North West Company was so intense that North-West Company men nearly destroyed the settlement.
Lagimonière was sent to Montreal to speak to Lord Selkirk, but taken prisoner on his way back to Manitoba. Lord Selkirk attacked the fort and the settlers were able to resume a difficult but relatively normal life. Lord Selkirk rewarded Lagimonière for his services, by giving him a large grant of land between the Red River and the Seine, close to present-day Winnipeg. Lagimonière had become a celebrity.
Louis Riel
The Lagimonières had several children: four girls and four boys and, at one point, they became a very prosperous family. One of the Lagimonière daughters, Julie, married a Métis, a neighbour named Louis Riel, and is the mother of Louis Riel (22 October 1844 – 16 November 1885; aged 41) who is considered the father of Manitoba.
Louis Riel
Louis Riel (1844 -1885; by hanging)
An intellectually-gifted child, Louis Riel was sent to the Petit Séminaire, in Montréal. In a petit séminaire, one prepared for the priesthood. Louis Riel dropped out before graduation and studied law under Rodolphe Laflamme.
Riel was not very fond of the subtleties of laws and slowly found his way back to Manitoba working odd jobs in Chicago and St Paul, Minnesota. Many voyageurs, who had been employed by John Jacob Astor’s American Fur Company, retired in Minnesota. Riel then travelled back to the Red River settlement, which had changed during his absence.
On his arrival in St-Boniface, the current French area of Winnipeg, Riel observed that settlers had arrived from Ontario. They were white Anglo-Saxon Protestants who disliked Catholics. Many were Orangemen or Orangists. Settlers had also moved up from the United States.
As well, land surveyors were dividing up the land, but not in the manner it had been divided formerly. The long strips of land of New France were becoming square lots. This land still belonged to the Hudson’s Bay Company, but the Crown was preparing for a purchase (1869), and no room was being made for the Métis.
Moreover, William McDougall, an outsider, had been appointed Lieutenant-Governor of the territory and was overseeing the progress of the land surveyors.
As for the Métis, they had suffered from an invasion of grasshoppers, so food was scarce. Moreover, immigrants were dwarfing Métis and Amerindians. They needed a leader and went to Louis Riel, who was literate and had studied law.
A goodwill mission arrived from the Federal Government. One member of this group was Donald A. Smith, the chief representative of the Hudson’s Bay Company. Frightened by Thomas Scott and Charles Boulton, Métis had them imprisoned and court-martialed. They were condemned to death by Ambroise Lépine.
Charles Boulton was pardoned, but
Thomas Scott, an Orangeman, was executed, despite pleas on the part of Donald Smith of the Hudson’s Bay Company.
Manitoba enters into Confederation: 12 May 1870
The Bishop of Saint-Boniface, Bishop Taché, returned from Rome carrying an amnesty proclamation for all acts previously performed. At this point, Riel and his men reached an agreement and the Manitoba Law was passed on 12 May 1870. The Federal Government gave land to the Métis and made both French and English the official languages of the new Province of Manitoba.
However, in 1870, after learning that Colonel Garnet Wolseley was being sent to the Red River by the new Governor-General, A. G. Archibald, Riel fled to the United States but returned home to Saint-Vital in the fall of 1871. He then offered to help keep Fenians from attacking the Red River Settlement.
Louis Riel
was elected into office in 1873;
He was re-elected to the Federal Assembly in 1874, but a motion to expel him from the room was proposed by Orangist or Orangeman Mackenzie Bowell and passed.
But Riel was re-elected into office. However, he was prevented from sitting with other members of Parliament.
At about the same time, Ambroise Lépine’s death sentence for the “murder” of Thomas was commuted. Lépine spent two years in jail and lost all his rights. However, Lépine and Riel were amnestied in February 1875. Louis Riel’s amnesty was “conditional on five years of banishment from ‘Her Majesty’s Dominions.’”
Riel had a nervous breakdown in 1875 and was hospitalised for three years (1875-1878), under assumed names. He was treated for depression and turned to religion. At this point, Riel started believing he had a divine mission to guide his people.
Riel was released from the hospital and went to the United States where he managed to earn a living, became an American citizen, joined the Republican Party and, in 1880, married a Métis woman, Marguerite Monet. There is little information about Marguerite. Born in 1861, she died in 1886. Riel fathered three children, one of whom died as an infant.
In June 1884, Riel was asked, by Saskatchewan Métis Gabriel Dumont, to help Métis whose rights were being violated. Dumont had been defeated and wounded at the battle of Duck Lake, on 26 March 1885. Riel went to Saskatchewan believing that it was his divine mission to do so. He took over a Church in Batoche, Saskatchewan, and gathered a small army. However, on 6July 1885, he was officially arrested and accused of ‘treason.’
He was tried and his lawyer asked that he be examined by three doctors one of whom came to the conclusion that Riel was no longer responsible for his actions. This divided determination was not made public and Riel was condemned to death. Riel himself did not wish to use insanity as his defence.
Appeals failed so Louis Riel was hanged in Regina on 16 November 1885. His body was sent by train to Saint-Vital and he was buried in the cemetery of the Cathedral at Saint-Boniface.
To this day, opinion remains divided as to Riel’s guilt. Riel, who was hanged for “treason,” is nevertheless a Father of Confederation.
Comments
Yet, Louis Riel had been elected into office three times. He is still considered by many as the father of Manitoba. Riel had brought Manitoba into CanadianConfederation as a bilingual province where Métis were allotted the land they needed.
Yes, the Red River Rebellion was ‘treason,’ but clemency had been requested by the judge and there were mitigating circumstances: Riel’s mental health is one of these contingencies. However, the execution of Thomas Scotthad long generated enormous resentment on the part of Ontario Orangemen or Orangists. As a result, amnesty did not weigh in Riel’s favour.
As for the North-West Rebellion of 1885, it was considered ‘treason.’ Riel was found guilty and condemned to death, but the judge asked for clemency. However, Orangists remembered the execution of Thomas Scott and, despite appeals, Riel was hanged ostensibly for ‘treason,’ but also, in all likelihood, for the “murder” of Thomas Scott.
Eventually, colonists came. It was inevitable. Generations of refugees and other immigrants found a home north of the 49th parallel which would become, for the most part, the border dividing the United States and Canada. Much of the Earl of Selkirk‘s Assiniboia,[1] as the Red River Colony was named, would be North Dakota and spill somewhat beyond. It was the land of the Métis.
Colonists on the Red River in North America (1822) by Peter Rindisbacher (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Assiniboia(Photo credit: Wikipedia)
(Please click on the map ↑ to enlarge it.)
Thomas Douglas, the 5th Earl of Selkirk(Photo credit: The Canadian Encyclopedia)
The Red River Settlement (1811 – 1815)
Thomas Douglas, the 5th Earl of Selkirk
crofters
Assiniboia (the current Manitoba and North Dakota)
However, in 1811, he was granted 300,000 km2 (116,000 square miles) of arable land by the Hudson’s Bay Company, and founded the Red River Colony. In fact, the Earl of Selkirk and members of his family had bought enough shares in the Hudson’s Bay Company to control it. The colony would be called Assiniboia.
Miles Macdonell
Thomas Douglas, Earl of Selkirk, appointed Miles Macdonell as governor of Assiniboia and the latter established his base at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers, the current downtown Winnipeg, Manitoba.
The first group of displaced crofters and some Irish immigrants travelled by way of the Hudson Bay and wintered at York Factory. They arrived in Assiniboia on 29 August 1812, escorted by its governor Miles Macdonell. A second group arrived in October and further groups followed every year until 1815.
Fur-trading country
The Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC)
The North West Company (NWC)
The Métis
Not only had these settlers been sent to an area of Canada where winters were long and extremely harsh, which threatened their survival, but the Red River was home to Métis, many of whom were in the employ of North West Company or related to employees of the Montreal-based North West Company. The NorthWest Company, established in 1779, was a rival to the Hudson’s Bay Company, established in 1670. But, as noted above and more importantly, the Red River had already been colonized by Métis: people of European origin, Frenchmen mainly, but also Scots and others, who had married Amerindians.
Many Métis originated from Lower Canada (Quebec), so the division of land along the Red River mirrored that of New France, down to the relatively narrow strips of land abutting the Red River. The “Red” constituted the Métis’ and other voyageurs‘ “highway.” One travelled by canoe, when the weather permitted, or toboggan, when the River was frozen.
Métis and Settlers
In short, it would be difficult for the inhabitants of the Red River to accept newcomers. Unknowingly, at that point in history, the Métis had developed a sense of community. In fact, the situation of the Canadien voyageurs resembled that of Jacques Cartier’s men dying of scurvy and saved by Amerindians. French settlers may not have survived without the assistance of Amerindians.
Similarly, voyageurs needed the skills Amerindians had developed. They also needed the food they prepared as well as their guidance in an unchartered territory. Moreover, fur-trading posts being a long distance away from the shores of the St. Lawrence River and other “homes,” voyageurs needed wives. A nation grew: the Métis nation.
Therefore, reticent Métis enticed many colonists back to Canada by promising better land. (See The Red River Colony, The Canadian Encyclopedia.) There were, no doubt, other shenanigans, a word the origin of which has yet to be determined, but which seems an Amerindian word.
The Pemmican Proclamation
At any rate, fearing a lack of food for the settlers, governor Macdonell forbade the exportation of pemmican out of Assiniboia. Amerindians and Métis prepared pemmican for the voyageurs. This is how voyageurs were fed. When he issued the Pemmican Proclamation, on 8 January 1814, Miles Macdonell acted recklessly.
The Pemmican Proclamation was not viewed by Nor’Westers as an unwise decision on the part of the rather “belligerent” Miles Macdonell. (See MilesMacdonell, The Canadian Encyclopedia.) It was viewed instead as a low blow dealt by the Hudson’s Bay Company, which does not appear to be the case.
Buffalo hunting in the summer (1822)
Assiniboine hunting buffalo on horseback (1830)
Peter Rindisbacher’s Swiss family was recruited by an agent of the Earl of Selkirk. Peter specialized in watercolours and his subject matter was Assiniboia. Later, he and his family moved to St. Louis. To my knowledge, we have few if any other sources of images from the Selkirk Settlement other than Rindisbacher’s art. Born in 1806, Peter died in 1834, at the age of 28.
Running of buffalo banned
Governor Macdonell then made matters worse by forbidding not only the exportation of pemmican out of Assiniboia, but also the running of buffalo with horses, a manner used by Amerindians to hunt buffalos. Buffalo meat was sustenance. How would voyageurs and other citizens of the established Red River area feed themselves and survive?
From Rivalry to Enmity: Macdonell arrested
Miles Macdonell had therefore transformed a rivalry between competing fur-trading companies into enmity. Nor’Westers feared the HBC was attempting to penetrate the Athabascan country to the north. Moreover, the HBC captured Fort Gilbratar (NWC) and the North West Company retaliated by taking Fort Brandon, led by Métis Cuthbert Grant.
Métis Leader Cuthbert Grant(The Canadian Encyclopedia)
Amerindians and Métis
By extension, Macdonell had also pitted the Métis nation against the immigrants. Intercepting “brigades” of canoes filled with provisions wasn’t an acceptable way of feeding impoverished crofters. In the end, in June 1815, Governor Macdonell had to surrender to NWC (North West Company) representatives, standing accused of “illegally confiscating pemmican.” He was sent to Montreal to be tried. (See the Pemmican Proclamation, The Canadian Encyclopedia.) However, there would be no trial and, according to Wikipedia, Miles Macdonell had resigned.
The Battle of Seven Oaks
Seven Oaks, 19 June 1816, is viewed as an incident, but there was some provocation. However, to be cautious, I will use the word “incident” because the clash at Seven Oaks seems unpremeditated. Nor’Westers, escorted by Cuthbert Grant, were retrieving pemmican stolen by HBC men to sell it to Nor’Westers, their customers. But accounts differ. The Métis may have been on their way to escort a “brigade” of canoes transporting pemmican. I have just, 30 May, added a quotation. It seems that when the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) took Fort Gilbratar(NWC), they exposed canoe brigades containing provisions.[2]
Be that as it may, the Métis accidentally crossed paths with Governor Robert Semple and settlers. Governor Semple was Miles Macdonell’s replacement and appointed by the Earl of Selkirk. Semple had left Fort Douglas where he was secure. In the battle that ensued, he and twenty of his men were killed. There were two Métis casualty.
The Earl of Selkirk’s Response
Some colonists left and a few settled in Saskatchewan. However, others settled in the current Manitoba. On 13 August, 1816, when Lord Selkirk heard of the incident at Seven Oaks, he seized Fort William and them recaptured Fort Douglas on 10 January 1817. According to the Canadian Encyclopedia,
“[w]hen Selkirk finally arrived that July, he distributed land and restored the settlers’ confidence, promising them schools and clergymen. Roman Catholic priests arrived in 1818, but not until 1820 did a Protestant missionary come, and John West was Anglican rather than a Gaelic-speaking Presbyterian, a source of grievance to the Scots settlers for years.” (See The Red River Colony, The Canadian Encyclopedia.)
At the moment, the University of Regina, Saskatchewan, has a federated First NationsUniversity. Programs such as Indigenous Foundations at the University of British Columbia also provide an examination of Canada’s varied past. I have noticed moreover that many aboriginals are moving to cities.
But let us return to the Earl of Selkirk.
After he seized Fort William, a trading post belonging to the North West Company, Lord Selkirk had to appear in court in Montreal to defend himself. He had acted hastily. In 1821, a year after the Earl’s death, at Pau, France, the Hudson’s Bay Company and the North West Company were merged. The rivalry subsided.
As for the Métis, the Red River Settlement allowed them to realize they had become a nation.
[2] “In the spring of 1816, the HBC officers and men seized and destroyed the Nor’Westers’ Fort Gilbratar at the forks, thus exposing the latter’s canoe brigades, just as the pemmican supplies were being moved down the Assiniboine to meet the Nor’Westers returning from the annual council at Fort William. The HBC’s Fort Douglas thus dominated the Red and denied passage both to the Nor’Westers and the provision boats of their Métis allies.” (Seven Oaks Incident, The Canadian Encyclopedia.)
The map to the left helps us see where Martin Frobisher,[i] (b. 1539?; d. 1594) the men, now less than 400, and the thirteen ships, fifteen to begin with, spent the stormy summer of 1578. To the right of the map, we see the Hudson Strait, a passage leading to the Hudson Bay. Above is Baffin Island at the bottom of which we find a bay named after Martin Frobisher: Frobisher Bay. During the third trip, in 1578, the men were on Kodlunarn Island, 500 miles (800 kilometers) off the northeastern shore of Frobisher Bay.
Martin Frobisher’s first trip to the Labrador Sea had been undertaken in 1576 when Frobisher was granted a licence at the request of Michael Lok of the Muscovy Company. He was then in search of a northwest passage to India. He lost the Michaell, the Gabriell‘s sister ship, but nevertheless discovered the inlet that bears his name.
During his first trip, Frobisher had found ore which he suspected was gold and, as promised, he gave to Michael Lok, his governor, “the fyrst thinge that he founde in the new land.” (Alan Cooke, “Sir Martin Frobisher,” The Canadian Encyclopedia) The ore was identified as marcasite by three assayers, but a fourth expert, Agnello, an Italian, found three tiny amounts of gold.
Consequently, Frobisher ceased to look for a northwest passage to India. On 7 June 1577, the Ayde, the Gabrielle, and the Michaell left Harwich with 120 men. Ships and men went to the island from which the marcasite had been taken, a year earlier, but found little. Frobisher moved to another island in his “strait” for mining. Five miners and other members of the expedition loaded the Ayde with about 200 tons of ore.
The 1578 expedition was also launched for the purpose of finding gold. Frobisher had fifteen ships. But this sad story has been told. (See Related Article below) Martin Frobisher’s third trip had been a very expensive venture that brought a degree of shame on the leader of the expedition, except that Frobisher may well have traveled to the Hudson Strait which led to the Hudson Bay.
(please click on the map to enlarge it)
Martin Frobisher’s Three Trips
the Hudson Strait, an entrance to the Hudson Bay
The Hudson Strait, was not officially discovered until Henry Hudson’s ill-fated expedition of 1611. A munitous crew “forced Hudson, his son and 7 others into a small shallot and cut it adrift[.]”(James Marsh, “Henry Hudson,” The Canadian Encyclopedia).[ii] Martin Frobisher had discovered Frobisher Bay, a relatively large inlet of the Labrador Sea which he had explored all the way to its harbor. However, although the Hudson Strait is named after Henry Hudson, it appears it was also explored, albeit inadvertently, by Martin Frobisher.
A quarter of a century elapsed before George Waymouth, in 1602, and Henry Hudson, in 1610, demonstrated that the “mistaken straytes” led not into the South or West Sea, as Frobisher believed, but into the inland sea now called Hudson Bay.[iii]
Radisson and Groseilliers
Consequently, about a century later, when Pierre-Esprit Radisson (b in France 1636; d at London, Eng June 1710) and his brother-in-law, Médart Chouard des Groseilliers (b in France 31 July 1618; d at New France 1696?) discovered the Hudson Bay by land, from the south, they knew there was a northern sea entrance, to “the sea to the north.” Both Frobisher, unofficially, and Henry Hudson, officially, had chartered that territory. Fur was North America’s gold. Therefore, ironically, Sir Martin discovered gold.
When Radisson and Groseilliers filled one hundred canoes with precious pelts and left for the shores of the St Lawrence River, New France, their pelts were confiscated and our two explorers were treated like coureurs des bois. Voyageurs worked for a licensed bourgeois. They were hommes engagés, hired men. As for coureurs des bois, theydid not have a licence to travel along waterways and exchange mostly trinkets and, all too often, alcohol with Amerindians who supplied them with pelts.
Having been treated like criminals, Pierre-Esprit Radisson and Médard Chouard des Groseilliers traveled to England and told their story. Prince Rupert listened and, as a result, when the Nonsuch returned to England, proving that Radisson’s proposed venture was “practical and profitable,” (“Pierre-Esprit Radisson,” The Canadian Encyclopedia) the Hudson’s Bay Company was established. It was incorporated by Englishroyal chart on 2 May 1670 as The Governor and Company of Adventurers of England trading into Hudson’s Bay.
Frobisher, the Privateer and the Hero: the Spanish Armada
Frobisher’s apparent demise, in 1578, put an end to his attempts to find a northwest passage to India. But he became one of Elizabeth’s trusted Sea Dogs or privateers: Sir John Hawkins, Sir Francis Drake, Sir Walter Raleigh and Sir Martin himself. Unlike pirates, privateers pursued an enemy to the Crown and were therefore in possession of a licence, as were the voyageurs and their employers.
In 1585, Sir Francis Drake (1545- 1596), with Frobisher as vice-admiral, led a privateering expedition of 25 vessels to the West Indies. The bounty Sir Martin Frobisher made working alongside Sir Francis Drake allowed him to repay the money lost in the pursuit of ore that glittered but was not gold. Reports differ. Frobisher may have been knighted at this point, but I would suspect he was knighted because he was one of the seamen who repelled the Spanish Armada in 1588.
In 1591, Sir Martin Frobisher married Dorothy Wentworth (1543 – 3 January 1601), a daughter of Thomas Wentworth, 1st Baron Wentworth. However, a year later, he was again at sea having taken charge of the fleet “fitted out” by Sir Walter Raleigh to the Spanish coast. He returned with a generous bounty. In 1594, Frobisher died, in England, of a gunshot wound inflicted at the Siege of Fort Crozon, in France.
A Métis Family by Peter Rindisbacher (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
From Coast to Coast
John A. MacDonald was the first Prime Minister of Canada and a Father of Confederation
George-Étienne Cartier was a Quebec Leader and a Father of Confederation
Gabriel Dumont (a Métis leader) took Riel to Saskatchewan (second Rebellion)
Louis Riel is the grandson of Jean-Baptiste Lagimonière (1778-1855), a farmer and a voyageur who made a name for himself. On April 21,1806, he married Anne-Marie Gaboury (1780 – 1875), the first white woman resident in the west, and the grandmother of legendary Louis Riel.
Upon learning that the Earl of Selkirk, DOUGLAS, THOMAS, Baron DAER and SHORTCLEUCH, 5th Earl of SELKIRK (1771 [St Mary’s Isle, Scotland] – 1820 [Pau, France]) was settling the Red River, Lagimonière and his wife went to live in the Red River settlement. But rivalry between the Hudson’s Bay Company and the North West Company was so intense that North-West Company men nearly destroyed the settlement.
Lagimonière was sent to Montreal to speak to Lord Selkirk, but taken prisoner on his way back to Manitoba. Lord Selkirk attacked the fort and the settlers were able to resume a difficult but relatively normal life. Lord Selkirk rewarded Lagimonière for his services, by giving him a large grant of land between the Red River and the Seine, close to present-day Winnipeg. Lagimonière had become a celebrity.
Louis riel
The Lagimonières had several children: four girls and four boys and, for a time, they became a very prosperous family. One of the Lagimonière daughters, Julie, married a Métis, a neighbour named Louis Riel, and is the mother of Louis and is the mother of Louis Riel (22 October 1844 – 16 November 1885; aged 41) who is considered the father of Manitoba.
Louis Riel
Louis Riel (1844 -1885; by hanging)
An intellectually-gifted child, Louis Riel was sent to the Petit Séminaire, in Montréal, to prepare for the priesthood. He dropped out before graduation and studied law under Rodolphe Laflamme.
He was not very fond of the subtleties of laws and slowly found his way back to Manitoba working odd jobs in Chicago and St Paul, Minnesota, where many of the voyageurs employed by John Jacob Astor’s American Fur Company had retired. He then travelled back to the Red River settlement, which had changed during his absence.
On his arrival in St-Boniface, the current French area of Winnipeg, Riel observed that settlers had arrived from Ontario. They were white Anglo-Saxon Protestants who disliked Catholics. Many were Orangemen or Orangists. Settlers had also moved up from the United States.
As well, land surveyors were dividing up the land, but not in the manner it had been divided formerly. The long strips of land of New France were becoming square lots. This land still belonged to the Hudson’s Bay Company, but the Crown was preparing for a purchase (1869) and no room was being made for the Métis.
Moreover, William McDougall, an outsider, had been appointed Lieutenant-Governor of the territory and was overseeing the progress of the land surveyors.
As for the Métis, they had suffered from an invasion of grasshoppers, so food was scarce. Moreover, immigrants were walking all over the Métis’ flower-beds, metaphorically speaking. They therefore needed a leader and went to Louis Riel for help.
A good will mission arrives from the Federal Government. One member of this group is Donald A. Smith, the chief representative of the Hudson’s Bay Company. Frightened by Thomas Scott and Charles Boulton, Métis have them imprisoned and court-martialed. They are condemned to death by Ambroise Lépine.
Charles Boulton is pardoned, but
Thomas Scott, an Orangeman, is executed despite pleas on the part of Donald Smith of the Hudson’s Bay Company.
Manitoba enters into Confederation: 12 May 1870
The Bishop of Saint-Boniface, Bishop Taché, returns from Rome carrying and amnesty proclamation for all acts previously performed. At this point, a committee of Métis reach an agreement and the Manitoba Law is passed on 12 May 1870. The Federal Government gives land to the Métis and makes both French and English the official languages of the new Province of Manitoba.
However, in 1870, after learning that Colonel Garnet Wolseley is being sent to the Red River by the new Governor General, A. G. Archibald, Riel flees to the United States but returns home to Saint-Vital in the fall of 1871. He then offers to help keep Fenians from attacking the Red River Settlement.
Louis Riel
is elected into office in 1873;
He is re-elected to the Federal Assembly in 1874, but a motion to expel him from the room was proposed by Orangist or Orangeman Mackenzie Bowell and was passed.
But Riel is re-elected into office. However, he will not sit with other members of Parliament.
At about the same time, Ambroise Lépine, who condemned Thomas Scott to death, is also condemned to death for the “murder” of Thomas Scott, but his sentence is commuted. He spends two years in jail and loses all his rights. However, Lépine and Riel are amnestied, in February 1875.
Next, Riel spends nearly three years (1875-1878) in hospital where he was treated for depression. He has turned to religion and feels he has a divine mission to guide his people.
Riel was released from hospital and went to the United States where he managed to earn a living, became an American citizen, joined the Republican Party and, in 1880, he married a Métis woman, Marguerite Monet (1861-1886). Riel fathered three children. His wife, Marguerite, died of tuberculosis in May 1886. She lived with Louis Riel’s mother, Julie Lagimonière.
But in June 1884, Riel is asked, by Saskatchewan Métis, Gabriel Dumont, to help Métis whose rights are being violated. Riel goes to Saskatchewan believing that it is his divine mission to do so. He takes over a Church in Batoche, Saskatchewan, gathers a small army, but on 6July 1885, he is officially arrested and accused of ‘treason.’
He is tried and his lawyer asks that he be examined by three doctors one of whom comes to the conclusion that Riel is no longer responsible for his actions. This divided determination is not made public and Riel is condemned to death.
Appeals fail so Louis Riel is hanged in Regina on 16 November 1885 and the body is then sent by train to Saint-Vital and he is buried in the cemetery of the Cathedral at Saint-Boniface.
To this day, opinion remains divided as to Riel’s guilt.
Comments
Yet, Louis Riel had been elected into office three times. He is still considered by many as the father of Manitoba. Moreover, Riel had brought Manitoba into CanadianConfederation as a bilingual province and with Métis being allotted the land they needed.
Yes, the Red River Rebellion was ‘treason,’ but clemency had been requested by the judge and there were mitigating circumstances: Riel’s mental health is one of these contingencies. However, the execution of Thomas Scotthad long generated enormous resentment on the part of Ontario Orangemen or Orangists. As a result, being amnestied did not weigh in Riel’s favour.
As for the North-West Rebellion of 1885, it was ‘treason.’ Riel was found guilty and condemned to death, but the judge had asked for clemency. However, Orangists remembered the execution of Thomas Scott and despite appeals Riel was hanged ostensibly for ‘treason,’ but also, in all likelihood, for the “murder” of Thomas Scott.
Riel, who was hanged for ‘treason,’ is nevertheless a Father of Confederation.
LOUIS HÉBERT (c. 1575 – January 1627): the First Farmer
Before I write further on the subject of Nouvelle-France’s viability, we need to return to the blog I posted earlier this week: The Treaty of Paris (1763) and the Fate of the Canadiens. A few sentences disappeared as drafts were saved.
However, it would not be unreasonable to think that the Associates played one role only, which was to send settlers to New France or bring settlers to New France and that, as a consequence, farming may have been limited. The individuals who were granted a SEIGNEURIE were not necessarily persons who could run a farming community.
The official reason given by the Company of One Hundred Associates for abandoning its mission in New France was hostility on the part of Amerindians. Settlers were being killed. The Associates played one role only: sending or bringing in settlers. The colony was attacked several times by hostile Amerindians, which means that the company did not ensure the safety of the settlers.
Medical Care
Moreover, in this part of the North-American continent, life was harsh. There were epidemics of scurvy. It was therefore necessary to bring in not only a regiment, but also medical practitioners. Had arrangements been made to that effect?
Louis Hébert as Apothecary
Canada’s first settlers who actually farmed the land were Louis Hébert (c. 1575 – January 1627) and his wife Marie Rollet. Louis Hébert was an apothecary in Paris. His arrival dates back to the earliest days of New France and it was a blessing. He first went to Port-Royal, the main settlement in Acadie. He accompanied a relative, a cousin-in-law, the Baron de Poutrincourt, in what was an attempt to settle in the colony. However, Hébert did not settle definitively until Champlain built the HABITATION in what is now Quebec City. The first farmer had arrived but he, Louis Hébert, and his wife were unprotected.
The Régiment de Carignan-Salières
In 1665, Louis XIV[i] of France did send the Régiment de Carignan-Salières, named after Thomas-François de Savoie, prince de Carignan. The regiment’s commander was the Marquis Henri de Chastelard de Salières, hence the name Carignan-Salières. At that rather late point, the colony was defended by 1 300 soldiers, 1,000 according to the Canadian Encyclopedia(French entry). The French settlers were attacked by Odinossonis called Iroquois or Agniers and also had to fight the citizens of Nieue Amsterdam, New Amsterdam (New York) where citizens were also attacked by Iroquois Amerindians. The Iroquois were defeated in 1666.
Entente with Iroquois Amerindians
The entente signed in 1667, may have brought a temporary thruce in the struggle to survive despite attacks. However, at the end of the seventeenth century Madeleine de Verchères (3 mars 1678 – 8 août 1747), the 14 year-old daughter of a SEIGNEUR, drove away the Iroquois Amerindians, but historian Marcel Trudel[ii] has suggested that this story was embellished by Madeleine de Verchères herself. It nevertheless belongs to a chronicle of hostility on the part of the Iroquois against New France. But the Dutch and other colonists were also targeted by Iroquois. The Amerindians were losing their land.
The Fur Trade
Moreover, when I studied the fur trade (blogs are listed below, please click), I read that when he arrived in New France, Pierre-Esprit Radisson (1636–1710) was kidnapped by Amerindians and tortured.[iii] And matters would not improve. When Pierre-Esprit and his brother-in-law, the older Médard Chouart des Groseillers (1618–1696), discovered the Hudson’s Bay, by land, colonial authorities did not, it seems, act in the best interest of the colony nor, for that matter, in the best interest of the motherland.
The Golden Goose: Radisson Goes to England
On the contrary, when Radisson and Groseillers brought back one hundred canoes of pelts to the shores of the St Lawrence, these were confiscated. Radisson therefore travelled to England, made a favorable impression, and in 1670, the Hudson’s Bay Company was created:
The company was incorporated by Englishroyal charter in 1670 as The Governor and Company of Adventurers of England trading into Hudson’s Bay
As a result, we now know why, “[i]n 1701, no furs were collected but France was forced to still pay the colony to keep it running.” (from a website entitled The Economy of New France, in PDF). It would appear that colonial authorities did not think in the long term. I suspect that they pounced on the pelts, made money quickly, thereby killing the Golden Goose. Authorities acted as if there were no tomorrow.
Farming…
Morever, even though there were HABITANTS on SEIGNEURIES, little importance was given to agricultural skills. New France would grow into an agrarian society, but Louis Hébert introduced farming with very little help. He then fell on the treacherous ice, which killed him prematurely.
Related to this question is the matter of monopolies. I will tell a little more about the monopoly Henri IV of France gave Pierre du Gua de Mons. This will take us back to an earlier post: Richelieu & Nouvelle-France.
However, I will pause to avoid fatigue. My next post is a continuation of this one. As mentioned above, I have made a list of posts on the voyageurs, This list does not include posts on their songs.
Hudson’s Bay Company Ships Prince of Wales and Eddystone bartering with the Inuit off the Upper Savage Islands, Hudson Strait, NWT. Watercolour by Robert Hood (courtesy Library and Archives Canada/C-40364) (Photo credit: The Canadian Encyclopedia)
The Hudson’s Bay Company ships Prince of Wales and Eddystone bartering with the Inuit off the Upper Savage Islands, Hudson Strait by Robert Hood (1819) (Hudson Strait, Wikipedia)
The French Régime
During the French régime, the voyageurs or canoemen who travelled to the heart of the continent to collect beaver pelts were hired by a “bourgeois” who used the selection criteria I listed in my last blog:
short legs,
a powerful upper body, and
a good singing voice.
The Hudson’s Bay Company
Matters changed when Pierre-Esprit Radisson(1636–1710) and his brother-in-law,Médard Chouart des Groseilliers(1618–1696), discovered what we now know as the Hudson’s Bay. They collected enough beaver pelts to fill a hundred canoes. Having done so, they travelled to Canada which, at that point in history, was the western part of Nouvelle-France. The eastern part was l’Acadie, comprising Maine, part of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.
Radisson and Groseilliers thought that officials in Canada would be interested in their discovery: one could harvest the coveted pelts travelling by boat, large boats. Officials confiscated the fur Radisson and Des Groseilliers had brought back. It was proof of their discovery. They were treated like coureurs des bois, mere adventurers, not to say criminals.
Prince Rupert of the Rhine (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Radisson being very shrewd, he and Des Groseilliers went to Boston to seek the help they required to travel to England. The Bostonians agreed to take them to England where a member of the royal family, Prince Rupert of the Rhine(17 December 1619 – 29 November 1682), took an interest in the findings of the two explorers. He financed a trip to the Hudson’s Bay. The first ships to venture to what would be Rupert’s Land were the Eaglet and the Nonsuch that left England on June 3, 1668. The Company was chartered on May 2, 1670. That is how the Hudson’s Bay Company was established.
According to the Canadian Encyclopedia, the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC)
is the oldest incorporated joint-stock merchandising company in the English-speaking world.[I]
Rupert’s Land showing York Factory (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The British Régime
Under the terms of the Treaty of Paris, signed on February 10, 1763 by France, Britain and Spain, France relinquished its claim on its two provinces of New France. The Treaty of Paris ended the Seven Years’ War, an international conflict.
The North West Company
After New France became a British Colony, a second Fur Company was founded, the North West Company, and it established its headquarters in Montreal. The most prominent figures in the newly-founded company were Benjamin Frobisher, his brother Joseph, and Simon McTavish.
The North West Company competed with the Hudson’s Bay Company from 1779 to 1821, when a merger was negotiated. The conflict between the two companies reached an apex on June 19, 1816 when Robert Semple, Governor-in-Chief of Rupert’s Land challenged a party of Métis at Seven Oaks. The Métis were allies of the North West Company. Semple and 20 of his men were killed.
The Merger
This event served as a catalyst in the merger of the North West Company and the Hudson’s Bay Company. After the merger, the man in charge, was the immensely capable and pleasant Sir George Simpson (1787 – September 7, 1860), a Scots-Quebecer. Sir George Simpson was Governor-in-Chief of Rupert’s Land and administrator over the Northwest Territories and in British North America (now Canada) from 1821 to 1860. He was knighted by Queen Victoria.
To sum up, let us simply say that we had voyageurs working for
a “bourgeois,”
The Hudson’s Bay Company (1670 – ),
The North West Company, revived in 1990, but not a fur-trading company,
a merger (1821-1860; end of the fur trade).
However, by 1821, only one company remained: the Hudson’s Bay Company.
York boats were used by the Hudson’s Bay Company to transport furs in the Northwest. The sails could be used in open water.(Canadian Encyclopedia)
Micheline's Blog 