Sir Martin Frobisher: the First Thanksgiving

25 Sunday Nov 2012

Posted by michelinewalker in History, Immigration, United States

Tags

Canada, Canadian Encyclopedia, Donnacona, Martin Frobisher, Thanksgiving, Thirteen Colonies, United Empire Loyalist, United States

The First Thanksgiving 1621, oil on canvas by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris (1863–1930). The painting shows common misconceptions about the event that persist to modern times: Pilgrims did not wear such outfits, and the Wampanoag are dressed in the style of Plains Indians

It has become common knowledge that the first Thanksgiving in North America was held by Martin Frobisher and his crew in the eastern Arctic in 1578.

Sir Martin Frobisher (b near Wakefield, Eng 1539; d at Plymouth, Eng 22 Nov 1594).

Sir Martin Frobisher, a mariner, explorer and “chaser of fool’s gold” made three trips to the Arctic looking for a route to India. Jacques Cartier had embarked on such a mission making two trips to what is now the East Coast of Canada. The first of these trips took place in 1534. He then claimed the territory he had reached for France by planting a ten-meter cross in the Gaspé area feeling he had discovered an Asian Land. He kidnapped Taignoagny and dom Agaya, the two sons of Iroquois chief Donnacona and took them to France. In 1535, he made a second trip returning his sons to Donnacona.

Frobisher & a Stormy Arctic Sea

As for Sir Martin Frobisher, hoping to find a northwest passage to India, he traveled to inauspicious destinations.[i] In 1578, he commanded a flotilla of 15 ships and more than 400 men. However, a storm threatened the entire flotilla. One ship returned to Europe and another was sunk by ice. Yet, Frobisher was undeterred.

Frobisher and his men, the thirteen ships that remained, were then at the northern entrance to the Hudson Strait, the sea to the north discovered by land, from the south, by Pierre-Esprit Radisson and his brother-in-law, Médard Chouart Des Groseillers, a sea that permitted easy access to beaver pelts.[ii]

The thirteen remaining ships assembled at the Countess of Warwick’s Island, known today as Kodlunarn Island, 500 miles (800 kilometers) off the northeastern shore of Frobisher Bay, a relatively large inlet of the Labrador Sea. Frobisher’s men established two mines on the island and tested the ore spending a month battling storms for most of July.[iii]

Sir Martin’s Thanksgiving

When they returned to Frobisher Bay, Martin Frobisher and his men “celebrated Communion and formally expressed their thanks through the ship’s Chaplain, Robert Wolfall, who ‘made unto them a godly sermon, exhorting them especially to be thankefull to God for theyr strange and miraculous deliverance in those so dangerous places’ (Collinson).[iv]

United Empire Loyalists & the Canadian Thanksgiving

Frobisher’s Thanksgiving resembles a Te Deum as would, after the Seven Years’ War, the Thanksgiving held by the people of Nova Scotia. However, United Empire Loyalists, the British who remained loyal to Britain after the Thirteen Colonies chose to part with their motherland, brought to British colonies to the north, where they fled, the tradition of celebrating that year’s harvest, although it may not have been a firmly-entrenched yearly event yet. However, after W. W. I, Thanksgiving and Armistice, Canada’s current Remembrance day, were celebrated the same week and seemed indistinguishable.

Two Different Feasts: Thanksgiving and Armistice

Yet the two feasts are of a somewhat different nature. In the lengthy chronicle of human deeds or misdeeds, wars stand as mostly inglorious events. The end of a war is cause for celebration, despite devastating losses. However, giving thanks to Providence because the earth has been generous seems mainly joyful. What is celebrated is life eternal. So I am rather pleased that, on January 31, 1957 “[Canadian] Parliament proclaimed ‘a day of General Thanksgiving to Almighty God for the bountiful harvest with which Canada has been blessed,’ to be observed on the second Monday in October.”

At this point, the Canadian celebration merged with the apparently regular American observance which was first conducted by the Pilgrims’ first harvest in Massachusetts in 1621 and brought to Canada by United Empire Loyalists. The only difference has to do with dates. In the United States, Thanksgiving is now observed later than in Canada, but this may not have been the case in earlier days. Given that American winters do not usually set in as early as Canadian winters, in most Canadian provinces, an earlier celebration makes sense. In fact, there are parts of the United States where winter is not a cold season.

However, Sir Martin Frobisher’s Te Deum, “God, We Praise You,” was called a Thanksgiving and it is remembered as such. The Canadian Encyclopedia‘s entry underscores the fact that “Frobisher sailed for Elizabeth I, whose reign was marked by public acts of giving thanks; Elizabeth expressed her gratitude for having lived to ascend the throne (and not being whacked by “Bloody Mary”), for delivery from the Spanish Armada and in her last speech to Parliament, for her subjects. The first known use of the word “Thanksgiving” in English text was in a translation of the bible in 1533, which was intended as an act of giving thanks to God.”

So whether it be the end of a destructive storm, the end of atrocious hostilities or the sight of a plentiful harvest, we give thanks for weather becalmed, for peace restored and for our daily bread. Some people still say Grace.

(please click on the picture to enlarge it)

Le Bénédicité, by Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin, 1740

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

[i] Richard Collinson, The Three Voyages of Martin Frobisher: In Search of a Passage to Cathaia and India by the North-West (Cambridge University Press, 2010), quoted in Laura Neilson Bonikowsky, “The First Thanksgiving in North America,” The Canadian Encyclopedia.

[ii] Radisson and Groseillers’s discovery led to the establishment of the Hudson’s Bay Company, “the oldest commercial corporation in North America and one of the oldest in the world.” (Hudson’s Bay Company, Wikipedia)

[iii] “The First Thanksgiving in North America,” The Canadian Encyclopedia.

[iv] Richard Collinson, The Three Voyages of Martin Frobisher: In Search of a Passage to Cathaia and India by the North-West (Cambridge University Press, 2010), quoted in Laura Neilson Bonikowsky “The First Thanksgiving in North America,” the Canadian Encyclopedia.

composer: Sir Edward Elgar 1st Baronet, OM, GCVO (2 June 1857 – 23 February 1934)

piece: Cello Concerto in E minor

performer: Jacqueline du Pré (26 January 1945 – 19 October 1987)
director: Daniel Barenboim

Nature morte, by Chardin

24 November 2012

WordPress

Upper and Lower Canada

12 Thursday Apr 2012

Posted by michelinewalker in Canada, History

≈ 480 Comments

Tags

Canada, Cornelius Krieghoff, Eastern Townships, Estrie, Lower Canada, Montreal, Quebec, Quebec Act, United Empire Loyalist, Upper Canada

Owl’s Head and Skinner’s Cove on Lake Memphremagog, by Cornelius Krieghoff (courtesy The Canadian Encyclopedia and National Gallery of Art)

This is Owl’s Head as depicted by Cornelius Krieghoff, in 1856.

By and large, during the many years Dutch-Canadian artist Cornelius Krieghoff spent in Canada, he did not often visit the Eastern Townships, now called l’Estrie, the region southeast of Montreal where seigneurs did not own land. But he made a painting of Owl’s Head and Skinner’s Cove, on Lake Memphremagog. Owl’s Head is a small mountain.

United Empire Loyalists & The Eastern Townships

In the early days of Nouvelle-France, the seigneuries were narrow and deep properties situated on the shores of the St Lawrence River. I should think that forestiers (lumberjacks) and coureurs de bois, harvested wood and fur in the Eastern Townships and that there may have been a few Canadiens parishes. However, the Townships were not settled systematically until 10,000 United Empire Loyalists fled the independent Thirteen Colonies out of loyalty to Britain.

Some went to St John’s, New Brunswick, some to Kingston, in the current Province of Ontario, but a large number settled in the area of the Province of Quebec that would be called the Eastern Townships (les Cantons de l’Est). The Townships were a favorite destination for United Empire Loyalists.

Quebec’s Eastern Townships

The Eastern Townships are a mountainous area. Its mountains are part of the Appalachian Mountains and therefore not very high or steep. The Appalachians were probably cropped and rounded by icebergs and other northern giants moving south in a pre-historic past. But although the Appalachian Mountains do not possess the high peaks of the Rocky Mountains, in Western Canada, they are nevertheless perfect for skiers in winter. Moreover, the region has several lakes and rivers. Closest to Sherbrooke, the main city in the Eastern Townships /l’Estrie, is Lake Memphremagog, where the Benedictine Abbey (Saint-Benoît-du-Lac) I wrote about in my Easter post is located. But Lake Memphremagog is also depicted in Krieghoff’s painting featured above (oil on canvas).

The Quebec Act, 1774

But let us travel back in time. You may recall that the Quebec Act [i] of 1774, discussed in The Aftermath & Krieghoff’s Quintessential Quebec, made French-speaking Canadians full-fledged British citizens. Many Canadiens were happy to have escaped the French Revolution, the priests in particular. The same could be said of the seigneurs. Their life remained as it had been before 1763, the year New France was officially ceded to Britain, under the terms of the Treaty of Paris.

Matters changed however with the arrival of United Empire Loyalists in the Province of Quebec and other British locations north of the Thirteen Colonies. Authorities had to make room for the United Empire Loyalists. Consequently, a large number of English-speaking settlers were given land in the Eastern Townships, now better known as l’Estrie. So the Quebec Act needed reconsideration and reconsidered it was.

The Constitutional Act, 1791

Lower Canada and Upper Canada, 1791 (please click on the map to enlarge it)

The year 1791 saw the enactment of the Constitutional Act, an act which Guy Carleton, 1st Baron Dorchester, KB (1724 – 1808) opposed. The former Province of Quebec was divided into two Canadas: Lower Canada, down the St Lawrence River, and Upper Canada, up the St Lawrence River and bordering on the Great Lakes.

This division of the former Province of Quebec gave French-speaking Canadians a land, Lower Canada, in which they were the majority despite the arrival of United Empire Loyalists. Therefore, their life did not change considerably. In fact, the creation of Lower Canada gave French-speaking Canadians the sense that they inhabited a Canada of their own. However, the Constitutional Act protected all Canadiens. On this subject, I will quote the Canadian Encyclopedia in order to provide you with accurate information:

The Act guaranteed continuity of ownership of lands held under the SEIGNEURIAL SYSTEM in Lower Canada and created the CLERGY RESERVES in Upper Canada. [ii]

Lower Canada was nevertheless different than the Province of Quebec. For one thing, it was smaller. Moreover, the inhabitants of Upper Canada were predominantly English-speaking Canadians and those of Lower Canada, predominantly French-speaking Canadians. In other words, joined, the two Canadas would be a mostly English-speaking country.

In the Canadian Encyclopedia, the Constitutional Act of 1791 is described as follows:

The bill had 4 main objectives: to guarantee the same rights and privileges as were enjoyed by loyal subjects elsewhere in North America; to ease the burden on the imperial treasury by granting colonial assemblies the right to levy taxes with which to pay for local civil and legal administration; to justify the territorial division of the PROVINCE OF QUEBEC and the creation of separate provincial legislatures; and to maintain and strengthen the bonds of political dependency by remedying acknowledged constitutional weaknesses of previous colonial governments. [iii]

In short, in 1791, the Quebec act was replaced by the Constitutional Act which led to the division of the Province of Quebec into two Canadas. Everything seemed acceptable but, in 1837-1838, both Canadas rebelled. Lord Durham, John George Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham GCB, PC (12 April 1792 – 28 July 1840), was asked to conduct an enquiry and provide a report as well as recommendations. The Report led to the Act of Union “enacted in July 1840 and proclaimed in 1841.” (Wikipedia, “The Act of Union”).

At this point, we pause so we can remember the essential facts. 1) In 1774, Canadiens inhabited a very large Province of Quebec, but 2), as of 1791, due to the arrival in the Province of Quebec of the United Empire Loyalists, the Province of Quebec was divided into Lower Canada and Upper Canada. 3) As a result, Canadiens lived in a smaller territory, but a territory which they felt was theirs.

12 Alouette [iv] (please click on Alouette to hear the music)

[i] A short term for a long title: An Act for making more effectual Provision for the Government of the Province of Quebec in North America (please see below).

[ii] Pierre Toussignant, “The Constitutional Act 1791”

http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/constitutional-act-1791

[iii] Pierre Toussignant’ “The Constitutional Act”

http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/constitutional-act-1791

[iv] Theodore C. Blegen, Songs of the Voyageurs (St Paul: Minnesota Historical Society, 1998[1966], p. 46. (Université de Moncton’s 21-voice male choir)

The Fine Print:

The Quebec Act, 1774

According to Wikipedia, “the principal components of the [Quebec] Act

were:

The province’s territory was expanded to take over part of the Indian Reserve, including much of what is now southern Ontario, plus Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, and parts of Minnesota.
The oath of allegiance was replaced with one that no longer made reference to the Protestant faith.
It guaranteed free practice of the Catholic faith.
It restored the use of the French civil law for private matters while maintaining the use of the English common law for public administration, including criminal prosecution.”

The Constitutional Act of 1791, formally The Clergy Endowments (Canada) Act, 1791 (31 Geo. 3. c.31), is an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain.