McGill-Queen's Studies in Early Canada / Avant le Canada – serie

Marie-André Duplessis (1687-1760) guided the Augustinian sisters at the Hôtel-Dieu of Quebec - the oldest hospital north of Mexico - where she was elected mother superior six times. Although often overshadowed by colonial nuns who became foundresses or saints, she was a powerhouse during the last decades of the French regime and an accomplished woman of letters. She has been credited with Canada’s first literary narrative, Canada’s first music manual, and the first book by a Canadian woman printed during her own lifetime. In A Touch of Fire, the first biography of Duplessis, Thomas Carr analyzes how she navigated, in peace and war, the unstable, male-dominated colonial world of New France. Through a study of Duplessis's correspondence, her writings, and the rich Hôtel-Dieu archives, Carr details how she channelled the fire of her commitment to the hospital in order to advance its interests, preserve its history, and inspire her sister nuns. Duplessis chronicled New France as she wrote for and about her institution. Her administrative correspondence reveals her managerial successes and failures, and her private letters reshaped her friendship with a childhood Jansenist friend, Marie-Catherine Hecquet. Carr also delves into her relationship with her sister Geneviève Duplessis, who joined her in the cloister and became her managerial and spiritual partner. The addition of Duplessis's last letters provides a dramatic insider's view into the female experience of the siege and capture of Quebec in 1759. A Touch of Fire examines the life and work of an enterprising leader and major woman author of early Canada.

Beyond redrawing North American borders and establishing a permanent system of governance, the Quebec Act of 1774 fundamentally changed British notions of empire and authority. Although it is understood as a formative moment - indeed part of the "textbook narrative" - in several different national histories, the Quebec Act remains underexamined in all of them. The first sustained examination of the act in nearly thirty years, Entangling the Quebec Act brings together essays by historians from North America and Europe to explore this seminal event using a variety of historical approaches. Focusing on a singular occurrence that had major social, legal, revolutionary, and imperial repercussions, the book weaves together perspectives from spatially and conceptually distinct historical fields - legal and cultural, political and religious, and beyond. Collectively, the contributors resituate the Quebec Act in light of Atlantic, American, Canadian, Indigenous, and British Imperial historiographies. A transnational collaboration, Entangling the Quebec Act shows how the interconnectedness of national histories is visible at a single crossing point, illustrating the importance of intertwining methodologies to bring these connections into focus.

The fur trade was the heart of the French empire in early North America. The French-Canadian (Canadien) men who traversed the vast hinterlands of the Hudson Bay watershed, trading for furs from Indigenous trappers and hunters, were its cornerstone.Though the Canadiens worked for French colonial authorities, they were not unwavering agents of imperial power. Increasingly they found themselves between two worlds as they built relationships with Indigenous communities, sometimes joining them through adoption or marriage, raising families of their own. The result was an ambivalent empire that grew in fits and starts. It was guided by imperfect information, built upon a contested Indigenous borderland, fragmented by local interests, and periodically neglected by government administrators. Heirs of an Ambivalent Empire explores the lives of the Canadiens who used family and kinship ties to navigate between sovereign Indigenous nations and the French colonial government from the early 1660s to the 1780s.Acting as cultural intermediaries, the Canadiens made it possible for France to extend its presence into northwest North America. Over time, however, their uncertain relationships with the French colonial state splintered imperial authority, leading to an outcome that few could have foreseen – the emergence of a new Indigenous culture, language, people, and nation: the Métis.

When strange signs appeared in the sky over Québec during the autumn of 1660, people began to worry about evil forces in their midst. They feared that witches and magicians had arrived in the colony, and a teenaged servant named Barbe Hallay started to act as if she were possessed. The community tried to make sense of what was happening, and why. Priests and nuns performed rituals to drive the demons away, while the bishop and the governor argued about how to investigate their suspicions of witchcraft. A local miller named Daniel Vuil, accused of using his knowledge of the dark arts to torment Hallay, was imprisoned and then executed.Stories of the demonic infestation circulated through the small settlement on the St Lawrence River for several years. In The Possession of Barbe Hallay Mairi Cowan revisits these stories to understand the everyday experiences and deep anxieties of people in New France. Her findings offer insight into beliefs about demonology and witchcraft, the limits of acceptable adolescent behaviour, the dissonance between a Catholic colony in theory and the church's wavering influence in practice, the contested authority accorded to women as healers, and the insecurities of the colonial project. As the people living through the events knew at the time, and as this study reveals, New France was in a precarious position.The Possession of Barbe Hallay is both a fascinating account of a case of demonic possession and an accessible introduction to social and religious history in early modern North America.

When strange signs appeared in the sky over Québec during the autumn of 1660, people began to worry about evil forces in their midst. They feared that witches and magicians had arrived in the colony, and a teenaged servant named Barbe Hallay started to act as if she were possessed. The community tried to make sense of what was happening, and why. Priests and nuns performed rituals to drive the demons away, while the bishop and the governor argued about how to investigate their suspicions of witchcraft. A local miller named Daniel Vuil, accused of using his knowledge of the dark arts to torment Hallay, was imprisoned and then executed.Stories of the demonic infestation circulated through the small settlement on the St Lawrence River for several years. In The Possession of Barbe Hallay Mairi Cowan revisits these stories to understand the everyday experiences and deep anxieties of people in New France. Her findings offer insight into beliefs about demonology and witchcraft, the limits of acceptable adolescent behaviour, the dissonance between a Catholic colony in theory and the church’s wavering influence in practice, the contested authority accorded to women as healers, and the insecurities of the colonial project. As the people living through the events knew at the time, and as this study reveals, New France was in a precarious position.The Possession of Barbe Hallay is both a fascinating account of a case of demonic possession and an accessible introduction to social and religious history in early modern North America.

The Enlightenment Atlantic was awash in deep feelings. People expressed the ardour of patriots, the homesickness of migrants, the fear of slave revolts, the ecstasy of revivals, the anger of mobs, the grief of wartime, the disorientation of refugees, and the joys of victory. Yet passions and affections were not merely private responses to the events of the period – emotions were also central to the era’s most consequential public events, and even defined them. In Enthusiasms and Loyalties Keith Grant shows that British North Americans participated in a transatlantic swirl of debates over emotions as they attempted to cultivate and make sense of their own feelings in turbulent times. Examining the emotional communities that overlapped in Cornwallis Township, Nova Scotia, between 1770 and 1850, Grant explores the diversity of public feelings, from disaffected loyalists to passionate patriots and ecstatic revivalists. He shows how certain emotions – especially enthusiasm and loyalty – could be embraced or weaponized by political and religious factions, and how their use and meaning changed over time. Feelings could be the glue that made loyalties stick, or a solvent that weakened community bonds. Taking a history of emotions approach, Enthusiasms and Loyalties aims to recover and understand the wide range of political and religious emotions that were possible – feelable – in the Enlightenment Atlantic.

What people wore in the distant past is often challenging to determine, owing to the disintegration of natural textiles and materials over time. Yet when new findings from archaeological excavations are compared with documentation about early Acadia, a fascinating picture of the society's early fashions is revealed.Fashioning Acadians is a history of clothesmaking and dress in Acadia from 1650 to 1750. Through the analysis of four Acadian settlements in what is now Nova Scotia, Hilary Doda uncovers the regional fashions and trends that had begun to emerge prior to the violence of the deportations of 1755. Men's and women's wardrobes are described from head to toe, from headdresses and hairstyles down to stockings and shoes, along with accessories such as buttons, buckles, and jewellery. While Acadians retained many aspects of the fashion systems of France, New France, and New England, a distinctive Acadian identity can be seen to take shape as their dress evolved and was influenced by other regional styles. Exploring the possibilities of a new methodology for identifying lost or decayed garments, Doda argues that surviving notions, sewing tools, and accessories – the small finds of archaeological sites – are important sources of information not only about domestic life, but about manufacturing processes, dress and textile cultures, and the influence of intersecting fashion systems in colonial spaces.Fashioning Acadians expands our understanding of Acadian lives and their connections to both the Atlantic world of goods and the landscapes of Nova Scotia.

Long before Confederation created a nation-state in northern North America, Indigenous people were establishing vast networks and trade routes. Volcanic eruptions pushed the ancestors of the Dene to undertake a trek from the present-day Northwest Territories to Arizona. Inuit migrated across the Arctic from Siberia, reaching Southern Labrador, where they met Basque fishers from northern Spain.As early as the fifteenth century, fishing ships from western Europe were coming to Newfoundland for cod, creating the greatest transatlantic maritime link in the early modern world. Later, fur traders would take capitalism across the continent, using cheap rum to lubricate their transactions. The contributors to Before Canada reveal the latest findings of archaeological and historical research on this fascinating period. Along the way, they reframe the story of the Canadian past, extending its limits across time and space and challenging us to reconsider our assumptions about this supposedly young country.Innovative and multidisciplinary, Before Canada inspires interest in the deep history of northern North America.

Long before Confederation created a nation-state in northern North America, Indigenous people were establishing vast networks and trade routes. Volcanic eruptions pushed the ancestors of the Dene to undertake a trek from the present-day Northwest Territories to Arizona. Inuit migrated across the Arctic from Siberia, reaching Southern Labrador, where they met Basque fishers from northern Spain.As early as the fifteenth century, fishing ships from western Europe were coming to Newfoundland for cod, creating the greatest transatlantic maritime link in the early modern world. Later, fur traders would take capitalism across the continent, using cheap rum to lubricate their transactions. The contributors to Before Canada reveal the latest findings of archaeological and historical research on this fascinating period. Along the way, they reframe the story of the Canadian past, extending its limits across time and space and challenging us to reconsider our assumptions about this supposedly young country.Innovative and multidisciplinary, Before Canada inspires interest in the deep history of northern North America.

La Nouvelle-France offre un laboratoire historique pour examiner l’interaction entre les dimensions individuelles et collectives de la spiritualité. Séparés de la France par l’Atlantique tout en étant reliés aux communautés religieuses, aux familles, aux doctrines et aux mentalités françaises, les catholiques en Nouvelle-France ont transmis et modifié, voire réinventé, les modes d’expression associés à la Réforme catholique à la française.*Regards sur l’âme en Nouvelle-France *explore la manière dont la Nouvelle-France met au jour la tension entre les trajectoires personnelles de la foi et les modes collectifs de la vie religieuse aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles. Depuis les formules codifiées des lettres exprimant le désir personnel d’aller en mission au Canada jusqu’à la composition de la musique dans les couvents de Québec, les actions des prêtres cherchant le martyr, la transformation des pratiques de prières ou la représentation des saintes autochtones, les chapitres de ce volume se consacrent à la reconstruction du double mouvement entre l’âme et la communauté.Même si la Nouvelle-France produit des saints, ce volume évoque moins une zone d’individualité radicale que des rapports nouveaux entre le moi et le nous. Pour éclairer cette interaction entre le for intérieur de l’individu et les liens sociaux qui structurent son identité, l’approche intersectionnelle de Regards sur l’âme met en valeur les multiples dimensions qui forgent l’expérience de la spiritualité en espace colonial.

La Nouvelle-France offre un laboratoire historique pour examiner l’interaction entre les dimensions individuelles et collectives de la spiritualité. Séparés de la France par l’Atlantique tout en étant reliés aux communautés religieuses, aux familles, aux doctrines et aux mentalités françaises, les catholiques en Nouvelle-France ont transmis et modifié, voire réinventé, les modes d’expression associés à la Réforme catholique à la française.*Regards sur l’âme en Nouvelle-France *explore la manière dont la Nouvelle-France met au jour la tension entre les trajectoires personnelles de la foi et les modes collectifs de la vie religieuse aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles. Depuis les formules codifiées des lettres exprimant le désir personnel d’aller en mission au Canada jusqu’à la composition de la musique dans les couvents de Québec, les actions des prêtres cherchant le martyr, la transformation des pratiques de prières ou la représentation des saintes autochtones, les chapitres de ce volume se consacrent à la reconstruction du double mouvement entre l’âme et la communauté.Même si la Nouvelle-France produit des saints, ce volume évoque moins une zone d’individualité radicale que des rapports nouveaux entre le moi et le nous. Pour éclairer cette interaction entre le for intérieur de l’individu et les liens sociaux qui structurent son identité, l’approche intersectionnelle de Regards sur l’âme met en valeur les multiples dimensions qui forgent l’expérience de la spiritualité en espace colonial.

During the eighteenth century, the French and British empires mobilized thousands of workers in what is now Canada through a system of mandatory labour known as corvée. Rooted in the feudal obligations of peasants to their landlords, corvée was introduced by the French, and later exploited by the British, becoming part of their arsenal during the American revolutionary wars.Richard Tomczak chronicles the transformation of the corvée system over a century. Under the French regime, corvée was mostly directed towards local public works projects, such as building roads and bridges. After the conquest of Quebec, the system assumed greater scope. The British realized their need for labour in an underpopulated region and co-opted corvée for their imperial ends, requiring the male inhabitants of New France to work in state enterprises such as iron mining and logging, and conscripting Canadians to support their military expeditions during the American Revolution. This surging demand for labour in the service of the state precipitated widespread protests in New France, forcing the governor to ratify a new provincial code regulating the use of corvée. Tomczak also sheds light on the rhythms of French Canadians’ working lives, their understanding of corvée obligations, and the ways they expressed resistance when the system became burdensome.Exploring a lesser-known aspect of the labour arrangements that propped up the colonial state, Workers of War and Empire from New France to British America, 1688–1783 puts French Canadian workers front and centre in the history of early Canada.

During the eighteenth century, the French and British empires mobilized thousands of workers in what is now Canada through a system of mandatory labour known as corvée. Rooted in the feudal obligations of peasants to their landlords, corvée was introduced by the French, and later exploited by the British, becoming part of their arsenal during the American revolutionary wars.Richard Tomczak chronicles the transformation of the corvée system over a century. Under the French regime, corvée was mostly directed towards local public works projects, such as building roads and bridges. After the conquest of Quebec, the system assumed greater scope. The British realized their need for labour in an underpopulated region and co-opted corvée for their imperial ends, requiring the male inhabitants of New France to work in state enterprises such as iron mining and logging, and conscripting Canadians to support their military expeditions during the American Revolution. This surging demand for labour in the service of the state precipitated widespread protests in New France, forcing the governor to ratify a new provincial code regulating the use of corvée. Tomczak also sheds light on the rhythms of French Canadians’ working lives, their understanding of corvée obligations, and the ways they expressed resistance when the system became burdensome.Exploring a lesser-known aspect of the labour arrangements that propped up the colonial state, Workers of War and Empire from New France to British America, 1688–1783 puts French Canadian workers front and centre in the history of early Canada.

Awash in a sea of rum describes the years between the 1670s and the 1830s in the colonies that would later become Canada. Millions of litres of the sugar-based liquor were imported every year to supply a comparatively small population of colonists and Indigenous people. Why rum, and why so much?Rum was cheap and plentiful. Intimately connected to the West Indian slave plantation complex, rum shipped to early Canada and around the Atlantic World was part of the early modern expansion of intercontinental trade known as the first globalization. Canada in the Age of Rum shows what happened to the vast quantities that came to Canadian shores. Rum was especially important to workers in the early Canadian staples industries. Fishermen and fur-trade voyageurs drank rum in massive quantities, supplied on credit and at grossly inflated prices by their employers, an arrangement that served to claw back wages and ensure the profitability of enterprises that would not have been viable otherwise. Traders deliberately sought to get hunting peoples hooked on rum in order to ensure a steady supply of pelts – alcohol was not so much a commodity for sale as it was a gift used to induce hunters to conform to the ways of the capitalist economy. However, Indigenous people drank rum in their own ways and for their own reasons; and when drinking became a serious social problem, they organized to resist it. The story ends in the 1830s when the combined effects of the temperance movement and the rise of whisky led to a sharp decline in rum consumption.This brilliant history follows the thread of a single commodity from West Indian plantations to Newfoundland, Quebec, and the west, revealing rum as a critical lubricant of the social life of early Canada and its particular version of early capitalism.

Describing how to pickle beef, make a low-cost substitution for sugar, waterproof a coat, or treat kidney stones, eighteenth-century settler recipes recorded a wide range of processes essential to daily life. Early Modern Maritime Recipes offers a compendium of culinary, medicinal, and domestic recipes from before 1800 that point to the many ways knowledge was preserved and circulated in the Atlantic world.Drawn from newspapers, letters, diaries, and notebooks held in archives of the northern Wabanaki territories – the region French settlers called Acadia and later named New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island – the collected recipes reflect the needs and practices of an eighteenth-century English-speaking population, revealing much about how settlers grew and prepared food, treated ailments, cared for animals, controlled pests, and maintained their households. Each recipe is Introduced with an explanation of its origins and followed by detailed analysis focusing on sources, ingredients, and techniques. Tracing the integration of Indigenous, African, and other non-European knowledge into settler cultures, the book highlights the many intersections of domestic life with social networks and political power.Richly detailed and historically grounded, Early Modern Maritime Recipes documents the cosmopolitan quality of settler household knowledge, revealing that the history of settler domesticity is never far from the history of colonialism.