{"id":7905,"date":"2018-12-22T21:04:13","date_gmt":"2018-12-23T02:04:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/toupin.org\/?page_id=7905"},"modified":"2019-01-04T20:23:53","modified_gmt":"2019-01-05T01:23:53","slug":"new-france","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/toupin.org\/?page_id=7905","title":{"rendered":"New France"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Indigenous Peoples<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When considering the French as pioneers in\nNorth America, we must recognize that the First Nations, or indigenous peoples\nwere present with well-established civilizations and cultures for some\n8,000-10,000 years before Jacques Cartier first stepped on the continent in\n1534 or Samuel de Champlain was part of settlements in Acadia in 1605 or in\nQuebec in 1608. The Mi\u2019kmaq, Malecite and Beothuk peoples were original\noccupants of the Eastern coastal regions, while the Algonquin (Anishnabee),\nHuron (Wendat) and Iroquois Confederacy (Haudenasaunee) were well established\nin the region now known as Quebec and Ontario, along with the Cree, Montagnais,\nNaskapi, Ojibway, Odawa, and other First Nations, along with the Inuit to the\nfar north.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus, the French were not the first settlers\nin the part of North America now known as Canada. In 1608 Champlain established\na French settlement with 28 men in what had been known as Stadacona, an\nIroquois settlement, when Jacques Cartier had been there in 1634 (Cartier\nestablished a short-lived fort there in 1641). Champlain\u2019s settlement lasted\nuntil David Kirke\u2019s invasion in 1628 (when the French population was 100,\nincluding a dozen women). English troops then occupied Quebec until the French\nretook possession in 1632, and Champlain returned with settlers in 1633.\nWell-known among the few settler-families during the initial French occupation\nuntil 1627 were Louis H\u00e9bert and Marie Rollet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

La Compagnie des Cents Associ\u00e9s<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

From 1632 to 1662, the French colony was run\nby a private company, La Compagnie des Cents Associ\u00e9s <\/em>(Company of One\nHundred Associates), whose primary interest was the fur trade and profit, and\nwhich invested little in the settlement of the colony. However, notable efforts\nin French colonization of this territory during this period included the Sieur\nde Maisonneuve\u2019s settlement of Hochelaga, also an Iroquois settlement, renaming\nit Ville-Marie (later Montr\u00e9al), the work of Marie de l\u2019Incarnation, Jeanne\nMance and Marguerite Bourgeoys in establishing educational and health\nfacilities, and the limited filles \u00e0 marier<\/em> program which brought some\n240 marriageable women to New France between 1632-1662.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cardinal Richelieu set up the seigneurial\nsystem of land ownership, along with religious and educational institutions.\nFrench explorers and trappers (coureurs de bois) and French Catholic\nmissionaries travelled the unsettled territory, claiming lands, furs and souls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

King Louis XIV<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

King Louis XIV assumed the throne of France\nin 1662 and through his Minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert, took control of New\nFrance, and its fur trade, instituting many changes.  In 1664 the Custom of Paris provided the\ncivil law for the colony. Two royal programs in particular had a significant\nimpact on the French colony: the arrival of 770 marriageable women, the Filles\ndu roi<\/em>, from 1663-1673, and of 1200 soldiers and officers of the first\nFrench infantry regiment in North America, the Carignan-Sali\u00e8res Regiment, in\n1665. At the conclusion of the deployment of the bulk of the Regiment in 1668,\nthe King\u2019s Minister directed officers to establish and train a formal militia\nin the colony, and encouraged both soldiers and officers to settle in the\ncolony (some 440 did so).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a result, King Louis XIV aggressively\naddressed two problems; the repeated pleas of the colonists since the 1650s for\nthe Crown to intervene militarily and stop the deadly Mohawk raids on the settlements;\nand the failure of growth in the settlement\u2019s population and economy,\nexacerbated by the lack of marriageable women and the negative impact of the\nMohawk raids on French participation in the fur trade. Our ancestor Jean\nPoisson was a victim of one of the Iroquois raids in 1652.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Flourishing Colony<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The years of peace in the colony following\nthe Regiment\u2019s arrival provided a sense of security that drew new settlers to\nthe colony and permitted the fur trade to thrive and areas outside of the town\nof Quebec to develop. Montr\u00e9al became a business center, hastened by the\nparticipation of former officers and soldiers in the fur trade. These changes\nprovided an opportunity for immigration and marriage between immigrants that\ndoubled the population (3200 in 1663) from 1665 to 1668 to well over 6000.\nTroops from the Compagnie de la Marine were brought to New France starting in\n1669 to further secure the colony for the French.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The population continued to grow, until it\nreached 10,000 by the time of the next series of Iroquois attacks in 1683 (and\nup to 60,000 by the Conquest in 1760). There were a total of 4459 births to the\nnewly settled Filles du roi from 1664-1702. Over 100 births per year occurred\nduring 1669-1687 alone. Also, the militia established following the Regiment\u2019s\ndisengagement improved the defenses of the colony by the time of the next\nonslaught of the Mohawk. The peace further allowed Canada to consolidate its\npresence along the St-Lawrence River, while former forts along the Richelieu River\nmatured into villages and towns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fur traders and explorers ventured further\nwest, establishing French trading posts along the Great Lakes and then down\nrivers southwards. Our ancestor Nicolas Perrot was a trapper, explorer,\ninterpreter and negotiator of treaties on behalf of the King with indigenous\npeoples west of Montreal. His wife was fille du roi<\/em> Madeleine Raclos. As\na literate person, Perrot wrote a report to the Intendant B\u00e9gon regarding the\nstate of affairs with and among the indigenous peoples he dealt with, both\nallies and enemies of France, later being published in the mid-19th century as\nthe now very dated (but interesting) \u201cM\u00e9moire sur les moeurs, coustumes et\nrelligion des savauges de l\u2019Am\u00e9rique septentrionale<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

End of New France<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the next 90 years, many additional events occurred in New France (Canada), which remained in French hands despite the loss of Acadia (initially in 1713, then finally in 1755). The French retained the colony initially through the beginning of the French-Indian War (the Six Years War), but finally lost Louisbourg to the English in 1658, Quebec in 1759 at the battle of The Plains of Abraham, and then Montreal in 1760, resulting in the Treaty of Paris signed February 1763 and the surrender of the colony to England. Known as \u201cthe Conquest\u201d, this war not only ended the colony of New France but left an indelible mark on the psyche of French-Canadians, commemorated in the phrase \u201cJe Me Souviens<\/em>\u201d (I will remember).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Researched & Written by David Toupin, great-grandson of Felix Toupin.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

References<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wikipedia, History of Quebec City, https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/History_of_Quebec_City<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wikipedia, History of New France, https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/New_France<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wikipedia, History of Montreal, https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/History_of_Montreal<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

500 Nations: First Nations, https:\/\/www.500nations.com\/Canada_Tribes.asp<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ren\u00e9 Jett\u00e9, Dictionnaire g\u00e9n\u00e9alogique des\nfamilles du Qu\u00e9bec des origines \u00e0 1730<\/em>, 1983, PRDH<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Raymond Douville and Jacques Casanova, La\nvie quotidienne en Nouvelle France<\/em>, 1964; translated by Carola Congreve as Daily\nLife in Early Canada,<\/em> 1967, The MacMillan Co., New York<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jack Verney, The Good Regiment: The\nCarignan-Sali\u00e8res Regiment in Canada<\/em>, 1665-1668,  1991, McGill-Queens University Press<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yves Landry, Les filles du roi au\nxvii\u2019\u00e8me si\u00e8cle: Orph\u00e9lines en France, pionni\u00e8res au Canada<\/em>, 1992, Lem\u00e9ac\nEditions Inc., Montr\u00e9al<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Peter J. Gagn\u00e9, Before the King\u2019s\nDaughters: The Filles \u00e0 marier, 1634-1662<\/em>, 2017, Reprinted edition,\nAmerican-French Genealogical Society<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nicolas Perrot, M\u00e9moire sur les moeurs,\ncoustumes et relligion des savauges de l\u2019Am\u00e9rique septentrionale<\/em>, 199\n(1864, Edition \u00e9tablis par Jules Tailhan), Comeau & Nadeau\n\nW.J. Eccles, France\nin America<\/em>, 1972 (1990), Fitzhenry & \n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Indigenous Peoples When considering the French as pioneers in North America, we must recognize that the First Nations, or indigenous peoples were present with well-established civilizations and cultures for some 8,000-10,000 years before Jacques Cartier first stepped on the continent in 1534 or Samuel de Champlain was part of settlements …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"template-full-width.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-7905","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","column","twocol"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/toupin.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7905"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/toupin.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/toupin.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toupin.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toupin.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7905"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/toupin.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7905\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8652,"href":"https:\/\/toupin.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7905\/revisions\/8652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/toupin.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}