The Unwritten Rules of History

Tag: refugees

The Hidden Narratives of Clandestine Communities: Digital History and the Religious Minorities of New France

Painting by Henri Motte, Siege of La Rochelle

Cardinal Richelieu in Henri Motte’s “Siege of La Rochelle,” 1881

Note from Stephanie: Hello everyone and welcome to the third and last of our 3-part series, based on a panel presentation given this past spring at the Canadian Historical Association annual conference in Regina, SK! You can read the first paper of the series here, and the second part here. Today’s essay is mine! It feels strange introducing my own essay, so without further ado, please enjoy this short analysis of how the digital humanities helps break away from traditional historiographies and shed light on clandestine communities of New France.

Note from Andrea: Stephanie is too modest! I’m super pleased to have the chance to share some of her great work with you! Enjoy!

 

French Canadian history has always been locked in a struggle to define its history and separate it from its nationalism. Even when discussing the origins of French settlers in New France, Leslie Choquette had to contend with a nationalist mythology which contradicted her own work:

“Yet for right-wing Frenchmen writing in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, French Canadians (or those who resisted the gathering exodus to New England, at any rate) embodied the classical values of a less decadent age: travail, famille, patrie, and, last but not least, the Catholic Church. Such writers, in their zeal to reclaim Québec’s virtuous habitants for la France profonde, insisted on the rural and Catholic provenance of the French-Canadian ancestors.[1]

The history of Huguenots[2] is long and complicated – too complicated to discuss here in any depth. For a long time, many people believed that there were no Huguenots in New France, a viewpoint that is still held by some. This attitude in due in large part to the French government’s active hostility against Huguenots as well as their refusal to allow anyone not of the Catholic faith to settle in New France. While Huguenots were guaranteed certain rights by the Edict of Nantes (1598), by the 1620s, religious civil war broke out again, creating not only bad feeling but also a wave of war refugees. However, research by scholars such as, Marc André Bédard, J.F. Bosher, and Leslie Choquette, has shown that there were small communities of Huguenots scattered across the French colonies of the New World. [3]

 

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Upcoming Publications in Canadian History – August & September 2018

header including six covers from the books featured in this month's upcoming publications post.

Welcome back to our monthly series, “Upcoming Publications in Canadian History,” where I’ve compiled information on all the upcoming releases for the following month in the field of Canadian history from every Canadian academic press, all in one place. This includes releases in both English and French. To see the releases from last month, click here.

***Please note that the cover images and book blurbs are used with permission from the publishers.***

N.B. This list only includes new releases, not rereleases in different formats.

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A Guide to Online Resources for Teaching and Learning Loyalist History

A Guide to Online Resources for Teaching and Learning Loyalist History

The Coming of the Loyalists by Henry Sandham (1925). Public Domain. Source: Wikimedia Commons

Welcome back to yet another resource guide! This time, in collaboration with the Atlantic Loyalist Connections blog, our latest resource guide focuses on the history of the Loyalists, broadly defined as those individuals who chose to leave the US for various reasons following the American Revolution.

Once again, I have stuck to sources that are produced by institutions, museums, archives, and historical societies. This is again to ensure that the sources presented are authentic and their provenance clear. In order to keep this guide to a manageable size, I have excluded websites that are narrative-based,  rather than providing primary sources and/or learning tools. However, unlike previous guides, the nature of this area of study is such that my sources as transnational in nature, and come from Canada, the United States, and Great Britain. Also in the interest of keeping this guide manageable, I have focused most of my sources on the experiences of Loyalists after they left the United States. That said, I have included some materials that relate explicitly to the experiences of Loyalists (rather than  American colonists in general) during the American Revolution.

There are a couple of issues I would like to address before diving into the guide itself. First, a note on terminology:

The easiest way to think of the term “Loyalist” is to compare it to how we use the term “Kleenex” today. For instance, all Kleenexes are facial tissues, but not all facial tissues are Kleenexes. Further, we often call facial tissues “Kleenxes” as if it were a generic term rather than a brand name. What do I mean by this?

First of all, the term “Loyalist” is a bit of a misnomer. Many of these people would have referred to themselves as Tories or Royalists, especially since the term “Loyalist” only dates to 1775.

Second, the people whom we now refer to as “Loyalists” were a collection of groups of individuals with very different backgrounds, political leanings, and motivations to leave the (newly-formed) United States. Some of these people have been given names, like the Black Loyalists* (Africans and African-Americans who fled behind British lines in exchange for the promise of freedom and land), the United Empire Loyalists” (a sort of honorific that was granted after-the-fact in 1789 by then governor-general of British North America, Lord Dorchester), and the Late Loyalists (Americans who chose to come to Canada after the War of 1812, most often in search of free land and to escape the political climate and racial discrimination of the early Republic). However, when most people say the word “Loyalist” they are referring to the United Empire Loyalists. In my analogy from above, Kleenex is the United Empire Loyalists, while facial tissues are Loyalists – all United Empire Loyalists are Loyalists, but not all Loyalists are United Empire Loyalists.

Third, there were many other groups of people that are included in the category of “Loyalists” that do not fit so easily. First of all, there are the thousands of Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) and other Indigenous peoples who were expelled from New York after the American Revolution, and were resettled by the British in Canada. Most famous of these are the Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk), under the leadership of Thayendenagea (Joseph Brant). Similarly, there roughly 2,000 enslaved Africans and African-Americans who were brought to Canada by their Loyalist owners. Both groups did not really have much of a choice about moving to Canada, nor were they “loyal” to the British Crown.

The second issue I would like to draw your attention to are some of the limits of this resource guide. First of all, many of us commonly assume that the Loyalists all came to Canada. While the majority did, they were free to go anywhere in the British Empire. Many chose to resettle in Britain, Australia, New Zealand, and (in the case of name Black Loyalists after they got fed-up with the Canadians) Sierra Leone. However, far less is known about these individuals, simply because their small number has meant that they attracted far less attention. Consequently, I could not find any primary sources relating to their experiences that met the criteria for inclusion in this guide. I hope that in the future, this oversight will be corrected.

Of course, then there is the matter of historical representation and privilege. As I discussed in my previous guide on Black History in Canada, history is always political, and certain aspects will always be highlighted over others. This is particularly the case when it comes to the histories that do and do not reflect how we as a country like to see ourselves. These principles apply equally to Loyalist history. You will notice below that nearly all of the sources relate to two specific topics: the United Empire Loyalists and the Black Loyalists. This is largely due to the influence of the many historical societies and organizations dedicated to preserving their history. In the case of the former, “Loyalist” ancestry is often a marker of status, while the latter reinforces the idea of a progressive Canada. As a result, other “Loyalist” histories are almost entirely invisible.

As I’ve said before, it is important that we remember the experiences of all of the people who are included under the umbrella of “Loyalist,” even when these experiences make us uncomfortable. We need to recognize that part of the reason why some white Loyalists came to Canada was because they were permitted to bring their slaves with them, thereby perpetuating the institution of slavery. We also need to recognize that Indigenous peoples played a hugely significant role on both sides of the American Revolution, as allies to both the Patriots and the British (though many communities tried to remain neutral, they were often forced to take a side). Further, during the treaty negotiations after the end of the war, the British broke their promise to their Haudenosaunee allies by giving away the bulk of their lands to the Americans. As a result, those who allied themselves to the British were forcibly expelled from their homelands and driven into exile. While leaders like Thayendenagea negotiated with the British for land grants, what they received was often far less than they were promised, and their contributions and losses still remain largely unrecognized. As I mentioned in my previous guide, we must continue to reflect on our behaviour and fight against racism and colonialism in its varied forms, including the marginalization of Indigenous peoples and people of colour in the field of history, by ensuring that our history is truly representative of the diverse nature of our past.

As always, this guide is not intended to be a comprehensive list of all of the online sources of information on Loyalist history. Instead, it contains links to primary source collections and databases, online exhibits, media, and other resources that will be most helpful to educators, particularly at the university and college levels. All of these documents come from verified sources and/or official archives and institutions. If there is something you think should be added to this list, please let me know in the comments below.

* Please see Barry Cahill, “The Black Loyalist Myth in Atlantic Canada,” Acadiensis XXIX, no. 1 (Autumn 1999): 76-87 and James G. St. G. Walker, “Myth, History and Revisionism: The Black Loyalists Revisited,” Acadiensis XXIX, no. 1 (Autumn 1999): 88-105 for a fascinating debate on this subject. Thanks to Melissa N. Shaw for this suggestion!

 

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