18th century Canadianse century have often been portrayed as spectators of the conflicts to which they have been exposed. We easily imagine them secluded in their cottage discussing plowing, indifferent to the passage of armies on their soil.
Gaston Deschênes challenges this myth in his most recent book, which highlights the revolutionary momentum of the Côte-du-Sud during the occupation of Canada by the Americans in 1775-1776. “The population was very sympathetic to the rebels,” explains the specialist in the region between Beaumont and Kamouraska, downstream from Quebec.
The historian of the Côte-du-Sud took advantage of the digitization of American archives to reconstruct in detail the profile of the insurgents of this country of legends. Starting with the famous Clément Gosselin, who became a soldier, then a spy, in the hope of freeing Canada from British tutelage.
Queens of Hungary
The American colonies had not yet declared their independence in 1775 when the Congress of Philadelphia, which represented them, sent two armies to conquer Canada. The first seized Montreal via Lake Champlain while the second waded through the forests of Maine before descending the Chaudière River. “The only thing left to the British was the old town of Quebec,” observes Gaston Deschênes, “it’s not insignificant! »
The priest of Montmagny will say that the women were almost more rebellious than the men.
The blockade of the capital began in December 1775. The American forces camped near the Plains of Abraham were supplied there by the inhabitants of the greater Quebec region. Those of the Côte-du-Sud also lent their tools to allow the besiegers to build the batteries of cannons and mortars that bombarded the British garrison from Lévis Point.
This revolutionary fervor was fueled by the women who organized assemblies where they sometimes made the men drink “strong liquor” in order to encourage them to enlist in one of the two Canadian regiments raised by Congress. “The parish priest of Montmagny will say that the women were almost more rebellious than the men”, relates Deschênes.
The most militant Canadian women inherited the incongruous nickname of “Queen of Hungary”, which refers to the title carried at the same time by Marie-Thérèse of Austria. Gaston Deschênes listed three in the Quebec region, in Saint-Vallier on the Côte-du-Sud, in Saint-Pierre on the Île d’Orléans and in Sainte-Marie de Beauce. “The women have not remained inactive”, emphasizes the author.
Mobilization
The British Conquest of 1759 haunts the memory of the Côte-du-Sud, which particularly suffered from the passage of General Wolfe’s regiments, as Deschênes recounted in The Year of the English. The native of Saint-Jean-Port-Joli, however, is careful not to establish a direct link between the farms burned in 1759 and the revolutionary momentum that blew through the region fifteen years later.
Sources have their limits. We do not know what could have led master carpenter Clément Gosselin to risk his life and his comfort to join the insurgents at the age of 28. “He built churches, one could almost speak of an entrepreneur, observes Deschênes. He was a man at ease, who could have continued his career, he was not a barefoot. »
While the Americans besieged Quebec, Gosselin surveyed the Côte-du-Sud in search of volunteers to fight the troops of King George III. “There were many obstacles to enlistment, notes the historian. The oath of allegiance and the teachings of the Church had to be ignored. »
Of the 500 Canadian volunteers recruited during the period, there are about a hundred from the Côte-du-Sud. This is too little for the army of Benedict Arnold, whose regiments are decimated by their unsuccessful assault on the lower town of Quebec and by an epidemic of smallpox.
maquis
In May 1776, the Americans slipped away as soon as the ships of the Royal Navy approached, disembarking thousands of soldiers in the port of Quebec. Gosselin was arrested and then released by the royal authorities, who showed leniency towards the traitor. “He did pretty well,” admits Deschênes.
Clément Gosselin could have returned to his peaceful life of yesteryear, like the vast majority of his compatriots who were immersed in the Winter Revolution of 1775-1776. The resident of La Pocatière, however, chooses to go underground with the complicity of his wife, Marie Dionne. After carrying out spy missions for the Americans, the guerrillas returned to his regiment with the rank of captain, for which he received a monthly salary ranging from 26 to 60 US dollars.
France’s entry into the war on the side of the United States in 1778 revived the hopes of Canadian revolutionaries. Versailles, however, has no intention of taking back its former colony. “Did poor Gosselin know that? I don’t know, but it was used,” laments Deschênes.
The carpenter continues the fight until his demobilization in the months which precede the peace treaty of 1783. He will pass the remainder of his life with horse on the border. Marked by his revolutionary experience, Gosselin will still present himself under his former rank of major “of the armies of the United States of America” in the post-war years. He will do so in particular in 1784 during a simple land transaction before a notary of the Côte-du-Sud. “It’s intriguing,” admits Deschênes. He collaborated in the War of Independence and he comes to show off in enemy territory! »
Oversight
For Gaston Deschênes, the trajectory of Quebec could have deviated from its axis if the colony had had a parliament in 1775. does not have a democratic structure of representation? asks the man who worked for nearly thirty years at the library of the National Assembly.
The historian is surprised today by the faint echo left in our memory by the revolutionary ferment of 1775. “It was an act of rebellion, says Deschênes, thinking back to the insurgents of the Côte-du-Sud. I don’t understand why these people have never been identified as separatists. No monuments were erected to them…they lost. »