Historian, sociologist, writer, lecturer at the University of Quebec at Chicoutimi in history, sociology, anthropology, political science and international cooperation programs and holder of the Canada Research Chair on collective imaginaries.
This text will perhaps surprise some readers. My only defense is that it is based on duly established facts to which attention will be paid. In several nations, the memory of our origins perpetuates values and ideals, great dreams on which the heirs are nourished and which are witnessed by characters, episodes, first symbols (the Plymouth Rock in the United States, the Magna Carta in England, William Tell in Switzerland, the Virgin of Guadalupe in Mexico, etc.). These values also nourish national identities.
There is hardly any equivalent in Quebec. What are the places, the episodes that periodically mobilize people’s minds to revive the great ideals associated with the beginnings of New France and which are still very much alive in the heart of modern Quebec?
I am talking about the time of our origins and not of subsequent moments, such as the rebellions. Why this absence ? The old heritage is however in the spotlight, the biographies follow one another and the teaching of this period occupies a good place at the school. However, I venture to affirm that the impact of these efforts on our imagination remains weak – except when we idealize these beginnings, as we have done so often in the past.
The erasure of heroic characters and symbols in recent history textbooks testifies to this, as does the scarcity of references in everyday life, in the media or in political discourse.
Who could say that Cartier, Talon, Frontenac, La Vérendrye, the missionaries and the others are truly inspiring figures for Quebecers today?
A story that is not ours
New France is very much a French story. It was a colony ruled from Paris and for its own interests. The explorers were working to expand the empire. The aristocratic (and autocratic) rulers stayed there temporarily, endeavoring to enrich themselves and raise their rank in anticipation of their return (the majority left after the Conquest).
The wars against the Iroquois and the English were waged for the benefit of the metropolis. The intendants (including Champlain, the “father of New France”) were primarily concerned with maintaining the fur supply network. The traders were predators with little interest in the settlement. The missionaries were dedicated to the Christianization of the “Savages”. The peace treaty of 1763 confirmed that this colony was only a resource that could be sold off.
A society born under colonialism
Deprived of liberty, the people lived under the rule of the Church and of the king. Public assemblies as well as the printing of newspapers and books were prohibited. Education beyond the most basic level was largely reserved for the elite. The living conditions of the settlers were miserable and social mobility marginal.
The wealth produced by industry and commerce was diverted by mercantilism. The metropolis even hampered the development of businesses focused on local development.
In addition, there was the practice of large-scale corruption among metropolitan officials and, with regard to Aboriginals, the beginning of a discriminatory tradition that was to have a bright future.
The presence of slaves (around 12,000 according to recent research) and the prohibition of Protestants are also part of the black dossier of New France.
This portrait is based on a number of authors (including L. Groulx) who harshly criticized the management of the colony. In fact, the harm that the Conquest did us less was to sever our political link with this despotic France than to divert from its destiny a people who were perhaps advancing towards their full emancipation.
The purposes assigned to this nascent society were threefold: a) to extend the influence and prestige of the French Empire throughout the world; b) to build an exceptionally virtuous Catholic society which would be given as a model to an immoral France and to Europe; c) to evangelize the Aboriginals.
None of these ideals really resonated with the locals. They were first and foremost European, imperial dreams. We search in vain for ideals in the form of a heritage that we would like to cultivate today. It took the failure of these utopias and these colonialist aims for a society to emerge with which Quebecers can truly identify.
But submission to yet another more detestable colonialism was the price to pay (remember: Garneau spoke of “the passage … from French domination to English domination”).
Here is a past which is difficult to appropriate, unless one alienates oneself in the great imperial dream of France – or cultivate the ideals of Marguerite Bourgeoys (to be inspired by the Blessed Virgin) and of Marie de l ‘Incarnation (to rise to holiness). This past has difficulty in penetrating our imagination: is Quebec therefore a nation in search of its origins, an orphan nation?
Continuities
This is not the case, bridges connect us to New France. The “inhabitants” constitute an authentic lineage to be cultivated. Under the most ungrateful conditions, they advanced the settlement and founded a society. Little esteemed (despised?) By the governors and several intendants, they ensured continuity after the Conquest.
If it is necessary to speak of an epic of New France, it is with this people – with the feminine as with the masculine – that it must be associated. Little literate, he left few traces of his dreams. He nevertheless transmitted to us his culture, a muscular culture, “snatched up”, that the high clergy vainly tried to fight.
The Aboriginals, whose fate is always linked to ours, are another lineage. And there is of course the language as well as the territory. But beyond that, what links us to this ancient society is perhaps the thought of what it could have become in this New World if it had been free. Sadly, she was born and raised behind bars.
As for ideals, our real story begins with the post-Conquest. It was then, under another colonialism, that our founding myths appeared, those with which we can really identify today, as I will show in my next text.
I think I should add a note to avoid a possible misunderstanding. I have dealt here with our origins before the Conquest. But it goes without saying that the 1840s opened a new chapter. A very different relationship was then established with France, a cultural relationship from which we have amply nourished ourselves until recently.
A second text will be published next Saturday on this subject.