The emigration of people from Quebec to the United States
by Richard Belair, 2008
Introduction:
Emigration to the United States from 1840 to 1930 is not unique to Quebec. In 1900, 14% of the population of the United States was made up of people born in a foreign country1. Almost a million Quebecers came to settle in the Northeastern United States during this period. A comparative study of the history of French Canadian immigrants in New England and that of their "cousins" in Quebec is stimulating insofar as New England is so close to Quebec, a large proportion of the population of New England is made of descendants from French Canadians2 and the French Canadian language and culture have survived in the United States much longer than those of other ethnic groups3.
This work attempts to identify the elements that make it possible to understand the adventure of the French Canadian immigrant in New England by comparing it to that of the Quebecois who remained in Quebec. Several leads appeared, but several problems came to complicate this research. It was easy to find a common pattern. It was more difficult to isolate spatial and temporal differences. A chronological study was necessary, but with certain limitations. Quantitative comparisons were straightforward, but qualitative comparisons much less obvious and often subjective. I therefore relied on the interpretation made by historians and on the writings of the elites and writers of this period. To allow a fair and valid comparison, I first drew up a comparative and chronological table, in an attempt to identify the relevant historical events (Table V, below). I focused my
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1 10,341,276 foreign-born people out of a total population of 74,212,168 in 1900, according to the US Bureau of the Census (Gibson, table 14) .
2 In 1990, it is estimated that 13.4% of the population of New England were of French-speaking descent (Quintal, p. 579).
3 According to Dean Louder, “thanks to the solidity of their institutional structures...” (Louder, p. 78). In 1991, nearly 7% of the population of New Hampshire and Maine still spoke French (Quintal, p. 568).
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attention on language, religion, culture, power and health while trying to look at the changing economic, demographic and sociological contexts. I will try to answer the question that every immigrant asks: “Was the permanent establishment of French Canadians in the United States in their best interest?” Louder writes:
The study of Franco-Americans is an area that belongs to the history of the United States [...]. Because it is difficult to conceive of the study of an immigrant [...] population that ignores the structural and economic realities of the adoptive society... (Louder, p. 8).
I) DEPARTURE FROM QUEBEC:
To better understand the extent of the problem of emigration to the United States, I refer you to Table II, page 17. The true rate of emigration is the subject of discussion among historians. The relative proportion of Francophones who left Quebec between 1840 and 1930 is close to 35% of the total Francophone population in 19314.
It is necessary to take the time to look into the reasons motivating this departure to better understand the Franco-American society that resulted from it. Several texts highlight the major points and explain the details. Yves Roby writes "it is essentially misery, famine in some cases, and the inability of the Quebec authorities to solve their problems that pushed them into exile”. In his text, with a touch of irony, he raises a very important point; the Quebec elite distinguishes two types of immigrants in the United States: “one who can be excused, the needy” and “another who is to be deplored, the opportunist” (Roby, p. 43). The majority of emigrants came from
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4 Respectively third and fourth French cities in America, in 1900, after Montreal and Quebec (see Table I , page 16, population and rank of some of the largest cities in the United States).
5 Total emigration of 900,000 Quebecers would represent nearly 35% of the French-speaking population of Quebec in 1931, which was estimated at 2,444,000 (i.e. 85% X 2,875,000 people living in Quebec in 1931), extrapolation using the work of Yolande Lavoie and Rudin. (LAVOIE, p.53 and RUDIN, p. 28).
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rural environment. In short, the main reasons are rural overpopulation, land speculation and control by large landowners, the opposition of forest owners to colonization, the lack of roads to extend colonization, the positive propaganda of Franco-Americans6 and labor recruiters, the difference in income and standard of living, not to mention the weaknesses of the government (Quintal, p. 15). Following this major movement of the population, the religious, medical, intellectual and commercial elite had a moral obligation to follow (even if for some, the interest was of a purely financial nature).
Some authors partly blame the English speakers. Perreault writes that these motivations for leaving also included the fact that English-speaking Canadians hated French Canadians, leaving them little chance of survival in a city like Montreal (Perreault, p.10).
II) ARRIVAL IN NEW ENGLAND :
In this chapter, I want to take a closer look at the destination of French Canadian immigrants and summarize the factors that motivated them to settle in the Northeastern States. From 1840 to 1860, travel was expensive and slow. Quebeckers therefore preferred the States near the border. Before 1840, the concept of the boundary between Canada and the United States was far from obvious to the inhabitants of the territories in question. It is therefore not surprising to find francophones in the northern States of Maine, New York, Vermont and New Hampshire. Migrations were often seasonal (wood cutting in winter). But from 1840, francophone immigration was more significant. They
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6 Yves Roby defines Franco-Americans “as those who accept to preserve the essential characteristics of the ancestral heritage (language and religion)” (Roby, p. 12). He writes: “out of need, but also out of conviction, they chose to remain Catholic, French-speaking and to preserve the traditions and customs of their fathers. But they become Americans in heart and mind. They are Franco-Americans” (Roby, p. 114). He adds to his definition, to better respond to the evolution of the beginning of the 20th century, the concept of being an American citizen, which implies “the naturalization and learning of English” (Roby, p. 278).
7 The Act of Union forming United Canada was ratified in 1840. Disputes over boundaries (particularly over the Maine border) continued until the signing of the Webster-Ashburton Treaty in 1842 .
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came to work in the brick and marble factories, on the farm or in the lumber industry or in the cotton mills near Burlington. Until 1860, 44% of immigrants went to Vermont8. With the advent of the railroads around 1848, it was easier to gain access to the southern states; Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut (Quintal, p. 89). The massive arrival of French Canadians in the towns of southern New England really began after 1860.
The opportunity to work, better wages and living conditions, the economic boom at the end of and after the Civil War explain the particular interest in this region (Roby, p. 25). The number of French Canadian immigrants in Massachusetts increased from 7,780 in 1860 to 250,024 in 1900, and finally to 336,871 in 19309 (I would like to refer you to Tables III and IV, pages 18 and 19). The total number of Franco-Americans is much higher than this number. Roby emphasizes very well that it is necessary to include the descendants of immigrants (the third and fourth generations) to have a better perception of the situation (Ibid., p. 167). A glance at the statistics allows us to grasp the scope of the phenomenon; in 1900, the population of French-Canadian origin in the northeastern United States was estimated at 1,200,000 (43% being born in Canada), while the French-speaking population of Quebec was less than 1,800,000 (the population of Quebec itself tripled from 1850 to 1930 following the attempt to “reconquer” Canada by “the revenge of the cradles”) (Ibid., p. 56).
Map I, page 15, reproduced from Claire Quintal's book, shows the location of Franco-Americans in 1900 and the percentage of the total population (see also Table I, page 16 and Table IV, page 19) . The concentration of immigrants in southern New England and in specific towns can be explained by several factors; the social support of friends or members of the family,
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8 Roby explains that historian Mason Wade calls this period “the dark age of French Canadians”, “since they were deprived of the support of the clergy” at the start of this wave of immigration (Roby, p. 30).
9 Claire Quintal in, Steeples and smokestacks, describes the “Settling-In Process” well (Quintal, p. 89).
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the presence of parishes and social structures supported by the clergy and similar to those of Quebec, the possibility of living in French, the ease of obtaining unskilled work. These places will be called “Little Canadas”10. Several elites of the time think: “they did not leave the country, they enlarged it” (Roby, page 111). From there arose, in the 1900s, the conflict in French Canada between extending “the French Fact” and Catholic religion beyond the border or fighting against the exodus and the weakening of the french-speaking workforce in Canada and Quebec in the Canadian Union.
This continual influx of new immigrants simplifies and promotes “survival” in the United States (Ibid., p. 56). “Survival” means preserving at all cost the language, the culture and the religion. This process will continue until 1930. Following the stock market “crash” of 1929 and the American anti-immigration law, the movement ceased. A movement of some of the immigrants back to Canada ensued. The extent of this return is poorly quantified, some historians speak of 100,000 French Canadians (Lavoie, chap. IV).
III) LIFE IN THE UNITED STATES: “THE SURVIVAL”11
It is interesting to compare the living conditions of the Franco-Americans of this period to the French Canadians who remained in Quebec. The comparison is very complex. Historians, politicians and writers often seem to have dramatized the situation of Franco-Americans by comparing their situation to that of other immigrants to the United States (example: slowness to assimilate and to climb the social ladder compared to the Irish or Lebanese12), while blaming this lack of ascension in the social ladder on the desire for “survival” of the French Canadian people
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10 Roby introduces the concept of “ little Canadas ” on page 30 of his book .
11 Louder defines aspects of survival: parish, family life, school, press, language. It includes naturalization and Americanization. “The parish was the great pillar of active survival” (Louder, p. 57, 63).
12 I refer you to the work of Amy E. Rowe comparing the Franco-Americans to the Lebanese of Waterville.
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and their tendency to consider their presence in the United States as temporary.13
Interestingly, no one seems to have compared the situation of French Canadians in the United States to the social progress of French-speakers in Quebec itself (which was also very difficult). Roby quotes Honoré Beaugrand14 who writes “the French-Canadian emigrant therefore comes and stays in the United States because he earns his living there more easily than in Canada. This is the truth in all its simplicity” (Roby, p. 43). The conditions in which they lived in the United States “surpassed the poverty in which they had lived in Canada” (Perreault, p. 13). “The industrial centers of New England, despite air and noise pollution, offered living conditions far superior to those of Quebec” (Ibid., p. 16). For many, the only options were to choose between being “Chinese from the East” in the United States or “White Nigger from America” in Canada (allusion to the book by Pierre Vallières).
To allow a comparison with the worker in Montreal, these few lines from the book by Marcelle Brisson and Suzanne Côté-Gauthier, “Montreal of living memory: 1900 to 1930”, summarize the situation well:
...most of the factories in Montreal belong to the English, the Scots and the Jews. [...] Lack of mastery of the English language [...] makes it impossible for French Canadians to obtain a post of foreman or forewoman. […]. The state of insalubrity of many places of residence, [...] is exacerbated by to the extremely polluting industries… The number of drains is insufficient, and the milk is full of microbes (Brisson, p. 171 and p. 294).
Along the same lines, Kenneth McRoberts and Dale Postgate write in “Quebec: social change and political crisis“:
...the following impression in 1899: in the City of Montréal [...] it is well known that, man for man, the average income of the French-Canadian is perhaps not one-fourth that of his British
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13 I refer you to the extract from the twelfth annual report of the Massachusetts Bureau of Labor Statistics (1981) which describes the French Canadian worker in a very negative way, qualifying him as Chinese from the East. Quoted and translated by Pierre Anctil in Chinese of the Eastern States, 1881 (Roby, p. 61).
14 Text taken from the book by Honoré Beaugrand, La fileuse, Montreal, 2 nd ed. (1st. 1878), Les Presses de la Patrie, 1988, p. 190 (Roby, p.43). Honoré Beaugrand (1848-1906), journalist, newspaper owner, politician, as well as mayor of Montreal lived in the United States, among others in Fall River, where he was an important figure. At one point he advocated the annexation of Quebec to the United States (Quintal, p. 414)
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neigbhour (p. 21) [...] (Quoting Everett Hughes who studies industrial cities in Quebec, he writes) It is in the upper ranks of the industry that one finds the English[...] people of french culture are in the lower ranks (Posgate, p. 37).
Louder also underlines the idea put forward by Julia Schulz in her anthropology thesis from McGill University, that even the (Anglophone) owners of spinning mills favored the maintenance of Franco-Americans in a lower social class unilingual Francophone, to preserve the qualities that made them good employees. That is to say their docility, the fact that they agree to work long hours in difficult conditions at a very low salary. In addition, they agreed to have their children work and could move elsewhere or return to Canada if the factories were temporarily closed. Schulz expresses the opinion of a connivance
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15 Quintal cite Anctil: “The emerging French-Canadian petite bourgeoisie in Woonsocket... developed the sur- vivance ideology to create a kind of state within a state in order to further its own interest. These middle-class entre- peneurs fought assimilation because it would destroy their monopoly over their working-class clientele.” (Quintal, p.83).
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between the clergy, the French Canadian elite and the factory owners to maintain the ethnic identity as it was in order to better exploit it. From this, one can conclude that the “aculturism” of the Franco-Americans served well both the Francophone and Anglophone elite (Ibid., p. 91). The Franco-American can be summed up in a few words: he is submissive, poor, illiterate, accepts any salary, mobile, anti-union and violates child labor laws (Roby, p. 95 and Quintal, p. 77). A situation singularly analogous to the situation experienced in Quebec by French speakers.
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Section added to clarify the subject:
We should not forget that the Canadians (French Canadians) lived under a french semi-feudal system (seigneurial system) since the beginning of the French Colony in New France in 1541 (Quebec was founded in 1608 by Samuel de Champlain) and were used to have an elite provides education, religion, and a structure to their society, including grist mill for the parish. We may say without mistake, that the inhabitants preferred a socialized system (not to say socialist) to a capitalist system. The life appeared simpler and easier for most with a seigneurial system. It is true to this day, where health care is free and higher education is relatively free, and the various level of government play a major role in the society in Québec.
After loosing Canada to the English in 1763, 70,000 French inhabitants remained under the same system until 1854. And it is only in 1935 that the Legislative Assembly of Quebec passed the Seigniorial Rent Abolition Act.
The French had accepted to stay in the New World under certain conditions, including the right to maintain their culture, their language, their religion, and also the seigneurial system, all that in a new hostile Anglo-Protestant continent America. Of course, it is not the “habitants” but the elite (the clergy and the few aristocrats that decided to stay after the defeat of 1763) that negotiated the terms of surrender and the terms to stay in this part of the new continent considered inhospitably by the English preferring the more southern and warmer English colonies of the northeast of the future United States.
The Quebec Act voted in 1774 meant the continuance of the “Coutume de Paris” in Civil law with the maintenance of the manorial system and English practice in criminal law. The use of the French-Canadian parishes as the central control of the Habitants’ way of life remained for many years.
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Despite the economic crises, such as the recession of 1873, which hit the United States, French Canadians did not leave this the United States (Roby, p. 47). The economic situation in Canada is dependent on the situation in the United States (except at the beginning of the Civil War). As we often hear: “when the United States sneezes the rest of the world with the flu!”. Repatriation attempts by the Canadian government were also failures.
Towards the end of the 19th century the condition of Franco-Americans improved16. Roby writes: “what a difference between that time and the one when, too few in number, French speakers were forgotten, despised and shouted down” (Roby, p. 158). Perreault rightly considers that the period before the First World War is the “Peak of the bicultutal state of being of the Franco-Americans”, the period having the “most favorable conditions and structures for the survival of the language and the French-Canadian customs in America” (Perreault, p. 26). In the United States they could live in French (Roby, p. 158). “The clergy supervises the faithful in multiple associations” in Quebec.
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15 (Ibid., p. 83). During a speech in Worcester in 1915, Henri Bourassa marveled at the strength of Francophones in the United States. He writes in Le Devoir:
16 I refer you to the editorial “The French Canadians in New-England”, from the New York Times, June 4, 1892, which clearly demonstrates the awakening of Americans to the growing power of Franco-Americans.
17 The Ladies of Sainte-Anne for married women, the Children of Mary for young girls, the League of the Sacred Heart for men, the Society of Saint-Vincent-de-Paul, the Ladies of the charities for the needy, temperance societies for alcoholics (Roby, p. 83).
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The Franco-Americans abandoned their dirty tenements and their ugly quarters to the Portuguese, Slavic or Hungarian newcomers. [...] Franco-Americans are infinitely better treated throughout New England than French-Canadians [...] in any of the English provinces of Canada (writes Bourassa). Bourassa cites Mr. Aram-J as an example. Pothier, a Franco-American, several times governor of Rhode Island.
Later, unfortunately, the situation only got worse. Following the 1914 World War II, anti-German sentiment degenerated into an anti-foreign sentiment that affected Franco-Americans. Everything that wasn’t English and white was “Anti-American” (“Non-American”). The Americans opted for “the Anglo-conformity” (Roby, p. 223).
“The Sentinel Affair” which lasted from 1923 to 1929 gives an idea of the tensions of that time. I will just summarize it very succinctly. This is a controversy over the levying of parish taxes by the church (controlled by the Irish ecclesiastical hierarchy) for the construction of upper level English Catholic schools. The Franco-Americans had to comply (Roby, p. 260). This situation demonstrates a lack of freedom of the latter against the control of the Catholic Church by the Irish. An event that played against “the French fact”. Fortunately, this control of the church by another race was never a problem in Quebec.
At the same time, from 1921 to 1926, another great recession in Quebec explains another wave of departures for the United States20. The “crash” of 1929 followed. The closing of the American borders meant that the influx of new French speakers stopped. The closure of spinning mills in the Northern United States forced labor out of the “Little Canadas”. It was the
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18 Henry Bourassa ((1868-1952), respected journalist and politician. Articles published in Le Devoir, September 1915.
19 “ Being American” is misunderstood by immigrants. For Americans it means speaking one language, having one culture, democracy, freedom and fulfilling one's civic responsibilities (such as voting).
20 Roby presents testimonies of the difficult conditions in Quebec. “The world was happy in the United States. There was money, enough to live on. In Canada it was poverty” (Roby, p. 267).
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beginning of a hard and unrelenting struggle, but, also, a great hope for the “survival” that just begun21.
CONCLUSION:
It seems that the Franco-Americans did well in the United States. The preservation of language and faith is a relative success if we compare the speed of assimilation of immigrants from other countries. On the other hand, the social and economic rise of Franco-Americans was probably delayed by this phenomenon of resistance to integration into the English-speaking world and the desire of the elite to keep it as such. The oppression of French Canadians in the United States does not only seem to be a phenomenon of immigration (as many immigrants unfortunately seem to have to suffer), but rather a form of social destiny common to all French Canadians since the conquest of America by the English.
A people whose ideology is the preservation of French, the Catholic faith and their culture, with the “Anglophone establishment” as their employer. Which, in collusion with the French-speaking elite, directly benefited from the maintenance of French-speaking people in their inferior state. It should be noted that around 1910-1920, Father Lionel Groulx22 was one of the first monks to challenge the idea that the conquest of New France by the English was beneficial and that French Canadians should therefore submit to English power.
It seems that life for the common, uneducated workers in the filthy factories of Montreal was similar, if not worse, than life in the mills and ghettos of New England. In fact, in the United States, French-speaking workers found it easier to find work, and to move from town to town depending on the offers.
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21 I refer you to a letter from President Roosevelt to the Prime Minister of Canada, Lyon Mackenzie King, dated May 18, 1942, suggesting and explaining to him how to assimilate French Canadians; a connivance between the United States and Canada to promote the extinction of French culture. As a matter of fact, laws against the use of French in schools were passed during the same period, around 1915, in both countries (see Table V).
22 Father Lionel Groulx (1878-1967), priest, man of letters, historian, philosopher, defender of French-Canadian nationalism at the start of the 20th century. Some of his writings are available online: <www.vigile.net/ds-groulx/index.html> (03/25/2004).
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More jobs, better pay, and apparently a better quality of life than the French Canadian workers in Montreal, associated with a social structure controlled by the church were sufficient in themselves to generate a state of financial and social security annihilating any desire to return to Quebec. They could live in french preserving their culture without ever speaking english in Northeast America; they had French Canadian doctors, priests, schools, bankers, butchers, journals, and food markets.
Ultimately, the Church controlled schools, hospitals and social policy as in Quebec. She was the force sustaining 'survival'. The only element she did not control was related to the source of the work, even if she was in collusion with English-speaking employers. I therefore ask myself two question, what would be the current situation of Franco-Americans if the clergy in New England had not been suddenly controlled by the Irish ecclesiastical hierarchy after 1929? And, we're the French Canadians having a better quality of life and happiness, following without question their elite?
The proximity of Quebec and the gradual and continuous influx of newcomers to the United States until 1930 were decisive factors in the success of "survival" and the well-being of French speakers in the Northeastern United States. This proximity created the hope of a possible return to the native land for recent immigrants and gave a surprising force to the values instilled by their parents in the generations that followed. Even-though the vast majority did not seek American citizenship, ultimately, very few returned to live permanently in Québec.
Claire Quintal summarize the view on many historians, when she writes: “French has obviously never been a necessity in the United States, its preservation is a surprising social phenomenon” (Quintal, p 568).
For that reason, several questions remain for the moment unanswered. The major problem encountered was that the documents on the period between 1840 and 1880 dwell on the poor living conditions of the Franco-Americans. While thereafter, the texts give too much importance to industrial and cultural advancement and forget the people. Trigger is right when he writes: “The written records of a society tell us more about the mentality of its upper classes than on that of the peasants and illiterate workers who form the mass of its population” (Trigger, p. 237). More in-depth comparison work between different coexisting ethnic groups that would look at their social, cultural and economic evolutions would allow us to draw interesting conclusions that would perhaps modify our understanding of history...
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Table V
CHRONOLOGICAL COMPARISON BETWEEN NEW ENGLAND AND QUEBEC
New England | year | Québec |
1845-1851: Great famine in Ireland, “potato famine”, 3 million deaths, more than a million emigrated to America during this period. | before 1840 | From 1784-1844: population increased by 400% 1791: Constitutional Act: French-speaking Lower Canada and English-speaking Upper Canada. 1833: slavery is abolished in the British colonies 1837-1838 Failed rebellion in Lower Canada, departure for the United States of fugitives Irish immigration to cities in Canada |
35,000 French Canadian immigrants (Can. f.), mainly to Vermont and northern Maine Work on the farm, in the wood, brick and marble industry (often seasonal work) 1839: 1st journal Can. F. in the USA “The Patriot” (VT) 1842: Webster-Ashburton Treaty determining the Canada-US border (especially Maine) | 1840 | population (pop.)=690,000, 25% anglophone, 85% rurale birth rate of 60/1000 inhabitants Act of Union 1840: Quebec + Ontario = United Canada 1840: English is the only official language in Canada 1842-1843: economic crisis in Quebec 1846-1849: economic crisis 1849: official loss of the right to vote (for women) 1840: Lord Durham's report advocating the extinction of the Can nation. f. by assimilation 1841: law of public instruction 1842: 7% of children aged 7-14 attend school 1849: Commission of Inquiry into Emigration |
70,000 French Canadian immigrants 1st wave of industrialization (and immigration ) Work in cotton mills, non-specialized, in difficult conditions with a meager salary Great mid-century “Victorian” economic boom culminating in 1857. 1854: economic reciprocity treaty with Canada, elimination of customs tariffs (kind of free trade) 1857: economic depression 1850-1860: “Know-nothing movement” anti-catholique 1850: 1st Can parish. f. = Burlington, VT. 1860: only 10 Can parishes. f. | 1850 | pop.=890,000 emigrants: 2/3 agricultural class, 9/10 of Can. f. 1852: Great Fire of Montreal 1852: Laval University Foundation (1st Univ . Can. f.) 1854: end of the seigniorial regime 1860: 464 priests 1853: Great Canadian railway projects to the United States (“the Great Western”, “the Granc Trunk”) 1857: 2nd commission of inquiry on emigration |
100,000 French Canadian immigrants 44% to Vermont 1865-1873: several epidemics of cholera, typhoid fever, yellow fever, smallpox, scarlet fever 1861-1865: Civil War (30,000 Can. f. soldiers). Towards the end of the war and after: resurgence of F. Can. immigration following the economic boom and wage increases. 1864: train from Montreal to Lowell, MA= 5 days of travel. in Rhode Island: 66% population is urban 1868: creation of the newspaper “The Canadian Protector” (Burlington, VT) focusing on the religion and cultural activities of the Can. f. in the USA (by Rev. Druon) 1869: beginning of the newspaper “L'idée Nouvelle” ( secessionist newspaper of Quebec) | 1860 | pop.=1,112,000 1/3 of children born in Montreal die in the 1st year of life, Can children. f. have a higher death rate (no improvement from 1860 to 1900). Decrease in emigration during the war and increase in immigration to Canada (refugees and deserters from the United States) period of prosperity in Canada 1867: North America Act: Confederation (including: Quebec, Ontario, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia), French resumes as the official language 1862 and 1868: commissions of inquiry into emigration |
120,000 French Canadian immigrants 44% heading to Massachusetts 1871: Honoré Beaugrand founds “Echo of Canada” 1873-1879: economic depression, falling prices and wages, drop in immigration 67% of Lowel, MA children < 16 years old work 1872: 1 st can. f. in Woonsocket, RI 1874: start of the newspaper “Le Travailleur” (founded by Ferdinand Gagnon) | 1870 | pop.=1,192.00, in 1873= 77% rural 1871: New Brunswick passes the “Common School Act” abolishing French schools. 1873-1896: extreme economic depression. 1874: St-Jean Baptiste Day becomes a national holiday for Quebecers. 1876: creation of the Montreal Health Bureau 1875: Can Repatriation Act, f. is a failure, the economic conditions are no better than in NA 1875: famous words of Georges-Etienne Cartier (one of the leaders of the 1837 insurrection) “Let them go, it is the rabble which is leaving” (Perreault, p. 16). |
150,000 French Canadian immigrants 2nd wave of industrialization laws to standardize working conditions work in cotton and woolen mills 1881: formation Société Jacques-Cartier (RI) to promote the French fact 1880: Massachusetts Bureau of Statistic of Labor present French Can. as “Chinese of the East” 1883 and 1889-1894: severe recessions | 1880 | pop.:1,927,000 1888-1890: bad harvests, whole families begin to emigrate to the United States 1884: Foundation of the newspaper “La Presse” 1885: smallpox epidemic (+>5,800 deaths in Montreal) 1880: 2120 priests (510 per capita) 1885: hanging of Louis Riel attempts to repatriate Can. f. unsuccessful |
140,000 French Canadian immigrants 1891 and 1894-1896: two economic crises with lower prices, wages and strikes (stock market crash). ("The Panic of 1893": stock market crash preceding the Depression ) 1896 to 1914: 3rd wave of industrialization 1896 to 1913: great period of prosperity 1890-1925: Americans maintain a fear of communism and therefore of foreigners, including French Canadians (fear peaks in 1918, “Red Scare” following the Revolution in Russia). 1890: NH Legislature has 10 Can. f. 1896: The Association Canado-Américaine and the Union Saint-Jean Baptiste d'Amérique are two powerful Franco-American societies, also playing the role of a fraternal insurance company | 1890 | pop.:2,114,000, 66% rurale (pop. MTL, 1891= 220,000) From 1849 to 1880, Montreal's “drinking” water came from a 3 million gallon reservoir (Carré St-Louis) Beginning of MTL's water and sewer infrastructures Booming nationalist movements led by Henri Bourassa and Lionel Groulx 1890: French abolished in schools in Manitoba 1896:1st French Canadian Prime Minister in Canada: Sir Wilfrid Laurier. |
100,000 French Canadian immigrants Estimated population of 1,200,000 of F. Can. origin. Fall River, MA is the 3rd French city in America after Montreal and Quebec (pop. Can. f. = 33,000) Woonsocket, RI est 60% Can. f. (pop. Can. f. = 17,000) 4th French city in America, has 5 parishes. 50% of RI population is Catholic (200,000/428,556) 19004: foundation of Collège l'Assomption (Worcester, MA) Formation of a cultural identity : the “Little Canadas” | 1900 | pop .: 2,183,000, 66% rural Pop. estimated 1,800,000 French speakers 1901: first Catholic union 1901: law prohibiting child labor in factories Significant increase in immigration to Canada from Europe 1984 fathers and 6628 nuns |
518,887 Can. f. = 9.3% pop. from new england 1907: Rev. Georges Albert Guertin: 1st French Can. Évêque (diocese of Manchester, NH) 1908-1928: Aram-J. Pothier, elected Governor of the State of Rhode Island on 6 occasions. salary in mills: $5/week (for 14 hours/day) (Cost of small rent = $5/month) | suite 1900 | |
80,000 French Canadian immigrants 1910: compulsory school for all children < 12 years old 1911: Hugo-A. Dubuque est nommé “Justice of the Superior Court in MA” 1916: poliomyelitis epidemic 1918: worldwide epidemic of “Spanish Flu” 1914-18: 1 stWorld War (army=100,000 Can. f.) 1919-1920: economic crisis due to inflation and decreasing wages. 1918: anti-German and anti-ethnic propaganda. Foreigners are considered “Un-American” 1918: laws to limit the teaching of French in parochial schools. The spinning mills are slowly moving south. Slow and gradual ascent of the Can. f. in the social scale . 1920: 19th Amendment to the Constitution grants women the right to vote. | 1910 | pop.:2,527,000 1910: great epidemic of typhoid fever: decision to chlorinate and filter the water. 1910: Henri Bourassa founds “Le Devoir” 1915: law restricting the use of French in bilingual schools in Ontario (Regulation XVII, 1912). 1918: 1st water filtration plant in MTL 1914-1918: 1 st World War (few Can. f.) 1917: Conscription (Quebec movement against) 1918-1920: Great prosperity following the war, but also high inflation until 1920. Lionel Groulx advocates the independence of Quebec. 1919: “Dominion Elections Acts”: universal federal suffrage (including women). 2462 priests (652 per capita) |
130,000 French Canadian immigrants the United States = world's largest economy 1920: “Sentinel affair” (briefly, controversy over the levying of parochial taxes for the building of upper-level English Catholic schools) 1922: several strikes due to lower wages 1920: Immigration law limiting the number of immigrants
1929: start of the Great Depression, stock market “crash” 1927: 620 priests, 239 schools, 32 convents, 5 colleges in Massachusetts: 270 priests, 849 men and women religious , 78 churches, 6 convents, 2 colleges, 81 schools, 3 hospitals, 3 orphanages. | 1920 | pop.:2,834,000, 44% rurale (pop. MTL, 1921= 420,000) 1922: CKAC: 1st French -language radio station in Quebec 1921-1926: great recession in Quebec, wave of departure to the United States |
1930: US Anti-Immigration Act 1932: French radio in the USA = WFEA-AM (Manchester NH) | 1930 | pop.: 2,875,000, almost 85% French speaking, 37% rural |
(>900,000 Can. f. immigrants in 80 years, but more than 30 million Europeans during the same period) Beginning of the isolation of the Franco-American group | return to Quebec of 1/3 of the emigration of the years 1900-1930 (i.e. approximately 100,000 people). 1940: return of women's right to vote in Quebec |
Abbreviations :
Can.f.= French Canadians
MA= Massachusetts, MTL= Montreal
NA= New England, NH= New Hampshire
pop.= population
VT= Vermont
RI = Rhodes Island
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Table II
Emigration of Quebecers to the United States from 1840 to 1930.
By using a table of the emigration rate of Quebecers to the United States and a table to estimate the percentage of French speakers in Quebec, we can better understand the high rate of French speakers who left Quebec (assuming that those who left Quebec were mostly French-speaking (9/10)).
Period | Emigration from Quebec | emigration rate % | (year) % % population of Quebec Francophones F.C. emigrants |
1840-1850 | 35 000 | 5 | (1844) 690,000 75 6.7 |
1850-1860 | 70 000 | 8 | (1851) 890,000 75 10.5 |
1860-1870 | 100 000 | 9 | (1861) 1,112,000 75 12 |
1870-1880 | 120 000 | 10 | (1871) 1,192,000 80 12.6 |
1880-1890 | 150 000 | 8 | (1881) 1,927,000 82 9.5 |
1890-1900 | 140 000 | 7 | (1891) 2,114,000 82 8.1 |
1900-1910 | 100 000 | 5 | (1901) 2,183,000 83 5.5 |
1910-1920 | 80 000 | 3 | (1911) 2,527,000 84 3.4 |
1920-1930 | 130 000 | 5 | (1921) 2,834,000 85 5.4 |
1930-1940 | - | - | (1931) 2,875,000 85 ~0 |
1840-1940 | 900 000 | Total emigration of 900,000 for an estimated Francophone population of (85% X 2,875,000) 2,444,000. approximately 35% of the French-speaking population of Quebec in 1931. |
CARTE :
POPULATION FRANCO-AMÉRICAINE EN 1900
Source: Claire Quintal, Steeples and smokestats: a collection of essays on the Franco-American experience in new England, Worcester, MA, Assumption College, Institut français, 1966, 683p., p.69.
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TABLEAU I :
Population et rang de certaines des plus grandes villes des États-Unis et nombre de Canadiens français.
En 1850:
Rang Ville POPULATION
3 Boston city, MA *.................. 136,881
22 Lowell city, MA....................... 33,383
52 Manchester city, NH................ 13,932
57 Fall River town, MA................ 11,524
81 Lawrence town, MA................ 8,282
En 1900:
Rang Villes POPULATION Nombre de Canadiens Français
5 Boston city, MA.................... 560,892 5,800 (1%)
29 Worcester city, MA................ 118,421 15,300 (13%)
33 Fall River city, MA............... 104,863 33,000 (32%)
39 Lowell city, MA..................... 94,969 24,800 (26%)
57 Lawrence city, MA................. 62,559 11,500 (13%)
58 New Bedford city, MA........... 62,442 15,000 (24%)
65 Manchester city, NH............... 56,987 23,000 (40%)
82 Holyoke city, MA................... 45,712 15,500 (34%)
Woonsocket, RI....................... 28,333 17,000 (60%)
___ Lewiston-Auburn,ME............+ 30,000 13,300 (46/18%)
___ Biddeford-Saco.......................+ 20,000 10,650 (62/16%)
1 Campbell Gibson, ”POPULATION OF THE 100 LARGEST CITIES AND OTHER URBAN PLACES IN THE UNITED STATES: 1790 TO 1990", U.S. Census, Washington, D.C.,
Juin 1998. Disponible [En ligne]: <http://www.census.gov/population/documentation/twps0027/tab13.txt> (15/02/2004).
2 Gérard J. Brault,”État présent des études sur les centres Franco-Américains de la Nouvelle-Angletterre”, Vie française. Québec, 1980, pp. 11-12. Disponible [En ligne]:
<http://www2.marianopolis.edu/québechistory/maps/cities.htm> (12/02/2004).
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TABLEAU III : Les Canadiens français en Nouvelle-Angleterre, 1860-1930.
Le tableau suivant est basé sur les donnés puisées de sources sures et vérifiées, en combinant les informations du ”U.S. Census Bureau” et les tableaux compilés par Leon Truesdell, Ralph D. Vicero et Anthony Coelho.
États Nouvelle-Angleterre(N-A) | Population 1860 de Canadiens français | Population 1900 de Canadiens français | % en 1900 (Population de l’état) | Population 1930 de Canadiens français |
Maine | 7,490 | 58,583 | 8.4% (694,466) | 99,765 |
New Hampshire | 1,780 | 74,598 | 18% (411,566) | 101,324 |
Vermont | 16,580 (44% de l’immigration Can. f.) | 41,286 | 12% (343,641) | 46,956 |
Massachusetts | 7,780 | 250,024 (44% de l’immigration) | 8.8% (2,805,346) | 336,871 (44% de l’immigration) |
Rhode Island | 1,810 | 56,382 | 13% (428,556) | 91,173 |
Connecticut | 1,980 | 37,914 | 4% (908,420) | 67,130 |
Total | 37,420 | 518,887 | 9.3% (5,591,995) | 743,219 |
Franco-Américains de la N-A nés au Canada | 275,529 (53%) | 264,586 (36%) | ||
% des Franco-Américains nés au Canada en N-A. | 70% (275,529 sur 395,126) | 67% (264,586 sur 370,852) | ||
% de Can. f. relativement à tous les immigrants aux Etats-Unis | 5.8% (275,529 sur 4,762,796) | 3.7% (264,586 sur 7,201,674) |
1 Campbell Gibson, Emily Lennon,, “Table 14. Foreign-Born Population by Historical Section and Subsection of the United States:1850 to 1990" et “Table 4. Region and Country or Area of Birth of the Foreign-Born Population, With Geographic Detail Shown in Decennial Census Publications of 1930 or Earlier: 1850 to 1930". Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census.
2 Leon Truesdell, The Canadian Born in the United States, New Haven, Yale University Press, 1943, p.77. (Roby, pages 96 et 167). Tableau sur les Franco-Américains de la Nouvelle-Angleterre nés au Canada (1890-1930).
3 Ralph D. Vicero, Immigration of French Canadians to New England, 1840-1900, Univesité du Wisconsin, 1968, p. 148 et p. 275. (Roby, pages 21, 26 et 33). Tableaux sur la distribution des Canadiens français en Nouvelle-Angleterre de 1860 à 1930.
4 Anthony Coelho, A Row of Nationalities: Life in a Working-Class Community: The Irish, English and French Canadians of Fall River, Massachusetts, 1850-1890, Brown University, 1980, p. 102. (Roby, 1990, p. 61). Tableau du % des Canadiens français, et tous les groupes ethniques par rapport à la population totale en 1900.
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BIBLIOGRAPHIE:
BRISSON, Marcelle et Suzanne Côté-Gauthier, Montréal de vive mémoire:1900-1939, Montréal, Triptyque, 1994, 340 p.
LAVOIE, Yolande, L'émigration des Québécois aux États-Unis de 1840 à 1930, Québec, conseil de la langue française Québec, 1981, 68p. Disponible [En ligne]: <http://www.cslf.gouv.qc.ca/Publications/PubD101/D101ch1.html> (03/01/2004).
LOUDER, Dean R., Le Québec et les francophones de la nouvelle-Angleterre, Saint-Foy, Québec, Presse de l’Université Laval, 1991, 309p.
MCROBERTS, Kenneth et Dale Posgate, Quebec: social change and political crisis, Toronto, McClelland and Stewart, 1976, 216 p.
PERREAULT, Robert B, One piece in the great American mosaic: the Franco-Americans of New England, Lakeport, N.H., André Paquette Associates, 1976,43p., reprinted from Le Canado-Américain, v.2, no. 2, avril-mai-juin, 1976.
QUINTAL, Claire, Steeples and smokestacks: a collection of assays on the Franco-American experience in New England, Worcester, Massachusetts, Collège l’Assomption, 1996, 683 p.
ROBY, Yves, Les Franco-Américains de la Nouvelle-Angleterre:rêves et réalités, Sillery, Septentrion, 2000, 526 p.
TRIGGER, Bruce, Les Indiens, la fourrure et les blancs, traduit de l’anglais pas Georges Khal, Montréal, Boréal, 1990, 542 p.
ARTICLES ET AUTRES DOCUMENTS:
BOURASSA, Henry, “Les Franco-Américains”, Le Devoir, septembre 1915, articles reproduits dans le bulletin de la Société Historique Franco-Américaine, vol 2, 1956, p. 158. Disponible [En ligne]:
<http://www2.marianopolis.edu/quebechistory/frncdns/docs/bourassa.htm> (03/19/2004).
Éditorial , “The French Canadians in New-England”, The New York Times, 6 juin 1892, p. 4.
Disponible [En ligne]: <http://members.aol.com/FAWIDIR/FCinNE.html> (02/14/2004).
ROOSEVELT, Franklin Delano, “letter from President Roosevelt”, extrait d’une lettre destinée au premier ministre du Canada, Lyon Mackenzie-King, 18 mai 1942, reproduite du livre de Jean-François Lisée, Dans L’oeil de l’aigle: Washington face au Québec, Montréal, Boréal, 1990, 577 p. Disponible [En ligne]: <http://www.republiquelibre.org/cousture/ROO2.HTM> (02/11/2004).
ROWE, Amy E., An Exploration of Immigration, Industrialisation, and Ethnicity in Waterville, Maine, mémoire de baccalauréat (anthropologie), Colby College, 1999, 220 p. Disponible [En ligne]: <www.francomaine.org/English/Travaux/Rowe.pdf> (02/24/2004).
TABLEAUX:
BRAULT, Gérard J., ”État présent des études sur les centres Franco-Américains de la Nouvelle-Angletterre”, Vie française. Québec, 1980, pp. 11-12. Disponible [En ligne: <http://www2.marianopolis.edu/québechistory/maps/cities.htm> (12/02/2004
COELHO, Anthony, A Row of Nationalities: Life in a Working-Class Community: The Irish, English and French Canadians of Fall River, Massachusetts, 1850-1890, Thèse de doctorat, Brown University, 1980, p. 102. Tel que présenté dans le texte de Y. Roby (Roby, 1990, p. 61). Disponible [En ligne]: <http://www.fl.ulaval.ca/cefan/franco/my_html/Francam.html> (18/02/2004).
GIBSON, Campbell, Emily Lennon,, janvier 2001, “Table 14. Foreign-Born Population by Historical Section and Subsection of the United States:1850 to 1990" et “Table 4. Region and Country or Area of Birth of the Foreign-Born Population, With Geographic Detail Shown in Decennial Census Publications of 1930 or Earlier: 1850 to 1930", Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census. Disponible [En ligne]:<http://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0029/tab14.html> (14/02/2004).
GIBSON, Campbell, ”POPULATION OF THE 100 LARGEST CITIES AND OTHER URBAN PLACES IN THE UNITED STATES: 1790 TO 1990", U.S. Census, Washington, D.C., juin 1998. Disponible [En ligne]: <http://www.census.gov/population/documentation/twps0027/tab13.txt> (15/02/2004).
LAVOIE, Yolande, L’émigration des Québécois aux Etats-Unis de 1840 à 1930, Québec, 1981, p. 53. Disponible [En ligne]: <http://www2.marianopolis.edu/quebechistory/stats/goto-us.htm> (14/02/2004).
RUDIN, Ronald, “Anglophone population of Quebec [%], 1766-1996", The Forgotten Quebecers: A History of English Speaking Quebec, 1759-1998, Institut de recherche sur la culture, p.28. Disponible [En ligne]: <http://www2.marianopolis.edu/quebechistory/stats/images/anglos.jpg> (14/02/2004).
TRUESDELL, Leon, The Canadian Born in the United States, New Haven, Yale University Press, 1943, p.77. Tel que présenté par Yves Roby, Les Franco-Américains de la Nouvelle-Angleterre, 1776-1930, Sillery, Septentrion, 2000, p. 96 et p. 167.
University of Virginia Geospatial and Statistical Data Center, United States Historical Census Data Browser, 1998. Disponible [En ligne]: <http://fisher.lib.virginia.edu/census/> (28/02/2004).
VICERO, Ralph D., Immigration of French Canadians to New England, 1840-1900, thèses de doctorat, Univesité du Wisconsin, 1968, p. 148 et p. 275. Tel que présenté par Yves Roby, Les Franco-Américains de la Nouvelle Angleterre, 1776-1930, Sillery, Septentrion, 2000, p. 21, p. 26
et p. 33.
