and
dispute, boundary northeastern the in position hard-line a took state,
a
became
Maine 1820, in Then, posterity. for impressions his penning ered
both none but
area, the in permanently settled men those of Some arrived,
lumberers
and cruisers timber when 1810s, the late until John St. upper
the
reached
to have seem Americans other No 1790. in John St. upper the
to
way his
made who purchase Bingham the of surveyor the of exception
the
with later,
much until appear not did travellers American settled. was it
before even Valley John St. upper the through went travellers British
duce.
pro
to expected
were they report the for information collect to cifically
spe
region
the visited often they travellers, official more for As Valley.
John St. the
of
reaches upper the through trip their of account an left and
travelogues,
of writing the the time, of classes respectable the among mon
com
pastime a in indulged travellers British of those Many it. view and
way
their along stop to point a it make would travellers official even tion;
attrac
public a well-known become quickly had which Falls, Grand the by
drawn
usually were latter The pleasure. or business for travelling viduals
indi
private or couriers officials, be government could who people, ish
Brit by
used
frequently it was Consequently, ones. summer few the of one
and City, Québec and Halifax
between route winter only the was valley
T
the century, nineteenth the of part latter the in railways of ing
build the Until onward. century eighteenth late the from place
a well-frequented been to have seems Valley St. John upper he
Craig Beatrice
French
Valley John St. the and British, Yankees,
Face-Off: Cultural
) Ltd (jcu 66 RJ Craig / Cultural Face-Off 67
tried to assert her sovereignty over her very remote and not very accessible the French, but “saw” the local Irishmen instead, and could mislead their northern reaches. She sent her agents to the disputed territory to investi readers into thinking the upper St. John Valley was the site of a hardscrabble gate “trespasses and aggressions” by the British, to inquire into the inhab Hibemian pioneer community of poor families eking out a living among itants’ land claims, and, after the settling of the boundary dispute, to report stumps.3 upon the progress of education in the settlement. Official reports were picked Travellers who did notice that the St. John Valley inhabitants were up by journalists who drew their own portraits of the Madawaska French French did not necessarily make much fuss over the issue. Park Holland, for the benefit of their readers; private visitors followed in the footsteps of the Bingham purchase surveyor, for instance, described the terrain, the the government agents, and published their impressions. weather, the housing and the crops very matter-of-factly, drew the portrait Private or official descriptions of regions visited and foreign cultures of an old French hunter married to an American Indian woman, favourably are often sources of useful information about their subject. They are also commented on the politeness of the inhabitants, gave a thumbnail sketch usually good sources of information about their authors: unwittingly, the of the settlement history and continued his journey after two paragraphs ! latter reveal their expectations, values and prejudices. Travelogues and He could have been describing any other Maine pioneer settlement. official reports can thus be good windows into the mindset of a group or of The travellers indifferent to the ethnicity of the inhabitants were not an era. The St. John Valley accounts are no exception. They reflect shifts bad observers—far from it. They gave precise descriptions of the land of opinion over time; later authors were more likely to be conscious of the scape and the fauna, and in the case of the pleasure travellers, of their own linguistic, religious and cultural differences between them and the people adventures and of the problems they encountered on a still fairly difficult they described. Although British and American accounts both evolved to and rugged route. One must conclude that they did not dwell on the issue wards greater ethnic consciousness, if one can use a very twentieth century because they did not think it was important. They took it for granted that term, they nonetheless differed in their vision of the French. The American the world was made of all sorts and accepted it with equanimity. travellers and commentators seemed much more influenced by what they Two early observers, though, stand out from this group. They noticed. had read beforehand about the people they were encountering. They were One thought the French were excitingly exotic; the other was slightly ill at much more inclined than the British were to stereotype, to moralize, and to ease, and, one may surmise, vaguel.yconcerned. The first gentleman was deplore the fact that the St. John Valley residents were not clones of them an eighteen-year-old lieutenant in the 104th foot regiment of New Brunswick. selves. And unfortunately, the Americans did not always take their clues A native of Jersey, he had arrived in British North America shortly after the from authors like Bancroft and Longfellow, who viewed the French outbreak of the War of 1812; his regiment was sent to the Canadas the favourably, but often took them from other authors who didn’t. The differ following winter. Lieutenant John Le Couteur kept a diary, and sketched the ences between the American and the British accounts highlight different sceneries on his way.5 He stayed less than two days in the upper St. John attitudes towards the Other in general, and ethnic minorities in particular. Valley, but kept his eyes open and chatted with the priest. His description is The earlier travellers through the St. John Valley were not unduly the first example of a trend which gathered subsequent strength: the equa concerned with the inhabitants’ Frenchness—when they noticed it at all. tion of the St. John Valley “Acadian” settlement with the Arcadia of antiq Patrick Campbell, John Mann and Lieutenant Coke, three tourists who trav uity.6 He describes the French inhabitants as settled in “peaceful retire elled through the St. John Valley between 1791 and 1832, for instance, ment,” their habits and manners as “simple and kind.” occasionally referred to the fact that their guide, boatman, or landlord was The settlers grew enough in summer to be able to spend the a Frenchman, but nothing in their narrative winter in “mirth and friendly allows the reader to conclude intercourse.” Le Couteur explicitly made the parallel with the ancient world, they had visited a French settlement.2 Some visitors not only did not “see” asserting that “this is the only Arcadia now existing in the world.”7 68 Craig / Cultural Face-Off 69
Le Couteur was a rather sentimental young man, prone to idealize all Le Couteur, who equated the Madawaska settlement with the Arcadia and sundry (especially the young ladies he met). The realization that the of ancient times, and Fisher, who set off the French as a “race” apart and St. John Valley settlers were different may not inevitably lead to such effu hinted that emulation of the English could only improve their way of life, sive and drippy statements, though. Peter Fisher, the first historian of the heralded two trends which came to characterize American descriptions of Province of New Brunswick, and subsequent author of an almanac aiming the Madawaska French in the later part of the century. One of those trends at enticing immigrants to come to the province, was obviously unsettled was strengthened by an opportunistic reading of St. John Valley history by what he found. And yet, he had little negative to report. His 1825 His- during the boundary dispute, and by the publication of Longfellow’s ton ofNew Brunswick5 describes a flourishing settlement growing signifi Evangeline. The other was reinforced by the practical problems of inte cant surplus. and trading it in Fredericton. So does his 1838 Notitia.9 Both grating the St. John Valley into the Maine body politic. texts mention the politeness of the inhabitants (everybody, even ill-dis The first Americans to reach the upper St. John Valley after Park posed visitors, commented on the St. John Valley people’s politeness and Holland and leave accounts of their journeys were the officials sent by the kindness to visitors). The Notitia, published at the peak of the boundary State of Maine in the 1820s and 1830s. They took note of the inhabitants’ dispute, asserts that the settlers were “warmly attached” to the British gov Frenchness, but probably would not have wasted much ink over it had they ernment. Like Le Couteur, Fisher found the Madawaska French peaceful not been able to use it to bolster Maine’s claim to the territory. They pre and contented, leading an orderly life. Crime was unknown among them sented the Madawaska French as Acadians who had been evicted from and they had had no need for magistrates until traders and other strangers their settlements on the lower St. John when the loyalists had arrived,and settled among them. So far. Fisher was describing the Madawaska French who had deliberately resettled above the Grand Falls because they knew in practically the same terms as Le Couteur, less the teen-age sentimental the region was not under British jurisdiction. Their presence then was proof ity. All these praises make the conclusions of both his descriptions surpris that the British claim to the disputed territory was a sham: the upper St. ing. The description in the History of New Brunswick ends by stating: John Valley, and therefore the entire disputed territory was, and had al ways been, American. The men are about the middle size, generally spare built and The first of those state officials was the party of George W. Coffin, active; the women, on the contrary, are very stout and short. who had been sent to the disputed territory in 1825 to investigate the ac They are very lively and hospitable, but very slovenly in their tivities of the Provincials.t2 They were allowed to grant bona fide set house and cookery. In short, they appear a different race from tlers up to 100 acres. Their local guide and informant was John Baker, an the English. A stranger going above the falls finds himself sud American lumberer and miller originally from southern Maine. Baker told denly among a new race of people, different in their language, the visitors that the French inhabitants were very desirous to become part religion, habitations and manners)° of the United States, and the two officials reported that the French settlers themselves had expressed such a desire. They also discovered they had His opinion had not improved much by 1837, The French were still a neither the time nor the authority to issue grants to the Madawaska settlers, breed apart, but one that intercourse with the English was improving. Local who were too numerous, and usually occupied more than 100 acres. The housing, for instance, still did not meet Fisher’s standards, but fortunately rest of their description of the French is mostly matter-of-fact: the families (in his eyes) “within a few years, some of them have begun to imitate the were large; the inhabitants were “very industrious, civil and hospitable English in constructing frame houses, which is making a great improve people, and well deserving of the fostering care ment on the face of the country.”” of government.” Their agriculture was flourishing, and they grew the best potatoes the two men 70 Craig / Cultural Face-Off 71
had ever seen, despite the fact that their farming skills were not up to the that the Madawaska French belonged to a different branch of humanity visitors’ standards. They were not, noted Coffin, “what we should call good altogether. Kavanagh kept a journal of the expedition, Later, the two men husbandmen.” He was also at a loss at finding a frame of reference which presented the governor with a formal report of their findings. could have allowed him to understand the community he was visiting. For Kavanagh’s journal’6 is packed with detailed information about the lay lack of anything better, he equated the French with a tribe of white Indians; of the land, the soil, the climate, the state of the roads, the means of convey when his party met Simonet Hebert, a prominent local citizen, he referred to ance, accommodation en route, forms of land ownership, crops and other him as the “grand Sachem of this French settlement.” Like Fisher, he may economic activities, and religion. He found the land fertile, the people indus have thought the French were a “race apart.”. trious and peaceful, and the housing primitive (too many log houses, not Coffin was followed three years later by Charles S. Davies, who was enough American frame houses). Deane and he were almost always well- appointed by the state to investigate British “aggressions.”13 Davies seems received, although the settlers were worried that the Americans might evict to have been the first to articulate the theory that the St. John Valley French them if the boundary dispute was settled in their favour. were refugees from the British colonies. Davies described them as “French Kavanagh’s journal also contains a brief narrative of the history of the Neutrals” (the term that the American colonies had used to refer to the Madawaska people which casts the British in a bad light: Acadian deportees in 1755), “who had been expelled from their farms and improvements on the establishment of the province of New Brunswick; After the cession of Canada to Great Britain in 1763, they estab and who have been joined from time to time by their countrymen from lished themselves at what they called the Parish of Ste. Anne, Canada, who have not chosen to continue under the government estab now Fredericton. In 1784, they had made considerable improve lished on its conquest.”4 ment, had cleared up land, built houses and raised stock. But their lands were divided among the soldiers British Davies’s account flies in the face of existing evidence. It ignores the of a regi ment commanded by one Lee. They remonstrated and as an act fact that a non-negligible number of Fredericton Acadians had received of special favour they were allowed to retain 200 feet square of grants on the lower St. John from the New Brunswick government, that the land around their dwelling houses. They refused this boon and rights of all occupants—including Acadian occupants—to sell their im again started for some other settlement.’7 provements to whoever took over their land for whatever reason had been reasserted by the governor in council, and that many of the Madawaska This account is not false, but its use is very misleading. Deane and settlers had sold a grant or some improvements before—or even after— Kavanagh picked up one incident, and presented it as representative of the taking land at Madawaska.’5 The lower St. John Acadians may have been British treatment of the Acadians, which it was not. particularly dissatisfied with the massive arrival of the loyalists in the area, The information contained in the report to the governor is more de but as a group, they had not been treated worse than anyone else. tailed.’8 First, it briefly describes each holding (name of occupant, length of Three years later, the Maine government sent another two agents, occupation, extent of improvements, etc.), and notes that most of the set John G. Deane and Edward Kavanagh, to the St. John Valley, to ascertain tlers were from French Canada. Secondly, it was followed by a lengthy the claims of the settlers to the land they occupied. The governor was very description of the area, its geography, soil, climate, hydrography, and fauna, careful in the choice of his envoys. Edward Kavanagh was a Catholic; he and of its people and their activities. Three pages denounce British tres had attended school in Québec, and could speak French fluently, and, per passes. Like Kavanagh’ s journal, the report is very matter-of-fact, and con haps for this reason, there is no suggestion in the writings of the two men veys a positive image of the inhabitants who are “inoffensive and obliging people who live in peace with each other.”9 The settlement is also de R. Craig / Cultural Face-Off 73
knowing the terms of our treaty with Great Britain and being as economically The report with recommenda scribed prosperous. ends a familiar with the geography of the country, considered as with tion concerning the best way to introduce American laws and usage in the out the bounds of English jurisdiction. Here, after the lapse of settlement. half a century, they feel anew the rod of the oppressor. They are The historical narrative contained in the journal had also been modi a frugal, industrious, pious, and amiable people, among whom fied to toe the party line as defined by Charles Davies. The inhabitants now vice, immorality, crime and contention are unknown. They are have become: governed by the simple principles of natural justice, settling their affairs without the aid of the civil code of courts or of lawyers. descendants of the ancient Acadians, who were driven from their How unfortunate that they are disturbed by the footsteps of farms by the introduction of the Refugees and the Laws of the modern civilization.22 province. They abandoned their farms to the British and sought a refuge in a place that they believed the British had no right to This text completely obliterated the French Canadian ancestry of the exercise jurisdiction. They understood where the lines of the Madawaska settlers. They were now all Acadians. And “Acadians” and province were, and the old inhabitants described the lines cor “Arcadians” were synonymous, as in Le Couteur’s narrative. Deane and recth according to the treaty of 1783. They remained some Kavanagh, being rather practical men, had not imagined an “Arcadia” on times undisturbed, but were finally induced to take deeds of their the banks of the St. John River! But the Republican Journal writer, who land, hut no other acts ofjurisdiction seemed to have been exer very likely had never set foot in the disputed territory, had no difficulty cised over them for many and very few years, acts before the romaniicizing the settlement he hadheard about. On the one hand, the administration of Governor Douglas, who was very active in Madawaska settlers were described in prelapsarian terms; they were the extending the British usurpation.2° “natural men” of eighteenth century philosophers, guided by the innate goodness of human hearts, and uncorrupted by the deleterious influence of This was inaccurate, too. The French had petitioned the New civilization. On the other hand, they were doomed: sooner or later, they Brunswick government for grants; they had voted at elections; they had would move from the Golden Age to the modem one. Their present exist received the provincial bounty on bread grain grown on new land. And the ence was not the only aspect of their life that was romanticized. So was province had appointed some of them to the positions of Parish officers, their history. The Madawaska Acadians were described as a people re Justice of the Peace and Militia officials.21 But this narrative strengthened duced to a wretched state and hounded around the wilderness by the cruel the American claim to the disputed territory, and was promptly adopted by British. And the narrative was replete with heart-tugging images and ex Mainers if one is to believe some newspapers of the time. December of In pressions. 1831, for instance, the Republican Journal (Belfast, Maine, and Demo As long as this version of Madawaska history was the dominant one, crat despite its name) wrote: the Americans were more likely to treat the French with sympathy. Aca dian history neatly paralleled the basic plot line of the melodramas so popu About the close of the American Revolution, they [the lar at the time, and which opposed an arch-villain totally devoid of re Madawaska French] were discovered by their old enemy, the English, and their lands were granted by the British Crown to a deeming qualities, and a pure, innocent, and helpless heroine who pas band of American refugees. The poor Arcadians [sic], driven sively suffered at his hands. They could also stage a pure and fearless hero once more from their homes and reduced to beggary, plunged who rescued the damsel in the last act. The British were the villain, the again into the wilderness, an hundred and seventy miles from Acadians the virginal heroine, and the Americans the hero into whose arms Fredericton, and occupied their present position, which they, they had run for protection! 74 RiJ, Ri Craig / Cultural Face-Off 75
In addition, educated New Englanders knew about the “real” Acadians. Amid all the apparent hardship of their condition, they exhibit Volume 4 of George Bancroft’s History of the United States, published in a vivacity, cheerfulness and buoyancy characteristic of the na 1852, contained an account of the Grand Derangement very favourable to tion from which they sprung. Their winters are devoted almost the Acadians; Bancroft’s narrative had to have been made public earlier entirely to amusements, of which the most favorite are horse because the Republican Journal concluded an article on the Madawaska racing and dancing. A house is thought little of which does not French in the following terms in 1843: have one room large enough to accommodate a dancing party. Possessing in abundance all the necessaries, and according to their standard, all the comforts of life, and enjoying good health, Such is a brief picture of the conditions of this remnant of those they are content with the present and careless of the future. They unfortunate Acadians whose cruel expulsion from their ancient ordinarily attain old age.25 homes in Nova Scotia has been immortalized by the pathetic eloquence of Bancroft. May they receive from us that kindness and protection which are due to their own simple virtues, and to The author may have thought he was sympathetic and understanding; the misfortunes of their ancestors, he was after all the one who referred his readers to Bancroft, and pleaded for the welcoming of the Madawaska people into the Maine family. None Bancroft had drawn what he saw as obvious parallels between the theless, his text reveals a great deal of ambivalence: the French were alleg fate of the Acadians and the one of the American colonists: both had been edly not good farmers, and were satisfied with a subsistence agriculture, the victims of British oppression. Now their descendants were seemingly which in a country so relentlessly devoted to “progress” was a damning seeking to join the southern republic. How could the Americans turn their statement, not a compliment. Instead of working hard to improve their lot, backs on this small people? Ideological consistency required that they be the French were enjoying life! And worse, they were engaging in pastimes adopted into the family. that Puritans had always considered sinful, like dancing, and gambling on The problem, though, was that the fair damsel could never be as fair horses. They were improvident, “careless of the future.” These traits were in real life as in her rescuers’ imaginations. Bancroft’s Acadians were brave genetic (“characteristic of the nation from which they sprung”). and gallant and admirable—and gone forever. One could not conflate his Mainers were beginning to understand that deciding, out of romantic heroic description with reality, The St. John Valley Acadians were very enthusiasm, republican generosity, or anti-British resentment, that the French real—and had become citizens of Maine. Even in 1843, the Republican deserved the protection and sympathy of the American Republic, was an Journal, usually rather positive albeit a bit maudlin, found the Madawaska easy thing. Dealing with the practical problem of integrating this group into French wanting in many respects: the existing society was much more difficult. What was going to be the place of the newcomers in American ‘society? What kind of citizens were The people live chiefly by agriculture. . Their husbandry is they going to be? Until the treaty was signed, Mainers seemed to have rude; their implements poor; and their breeds of cattle, sheep taken for granted that the French would integrate into American society and hogs of the worst description. Their chief crops are wheat, without major difficulties. Nonetheless, they assumed that the French were barley, oats, potatoes and grass. . . Their houses are most fre quently built of hewn timber: sometimes of logs, and sometimes suffering from obvious handicaps, as they had until then been living in igno they are shingled or clapboarded. They are warm and comfort rance of what was perceived as the proper rules of a free society. Land able. There are a few grist mills, of an inferior description. They agents who had opportunities to make longer than average stays in the area buy and sell but little, producing nearly everything they con were worried at the French lack of experience with the American system sume, and hardly anything more.24 Their trade, such as it is, is of government and with the American legal system. Deane and Kavanagh with Fredericton and Quebec, principally with the latter place.
indolent. 33 and prising
unenter superstitious,
ignorant, also but and hospitable, congenial, ful,
task. 3 ° arduous an be would French the
assimilating
as cheer its
inhabitants normally on ing French-speaking Canada described
and
integrating
feared Journal, Republican the like though,
Others
travel focus and literature by its Guidebooks authors. popular Canadians
a of the picture with negative, and French century consistent, nineteenth
them. 29 in participation proper for themselves to fit
the
had American
through of half first provided the been public The endeavour
more the a consequence as and of citizens obligations
sacred the
met. realize they will sooner the people, the by ernment
gov a of administration had they the Acadians idealized than opinion impartial never pre-deportation public and just the on attendant ings
bless
and
benefits of the a knowledge to American century in much nineteenth lower ranked French Canadians ment. brought are they ever,
how
speedily, more The importance. considerable some a of was develop negative French with but the Canadians. This Acadians, the task
a
is
notions
conceived
former their in change a perfect effect to settlers The more with not more frequently were vanished. and identified,
the the with the Acadians settlers to need equate 1842, Madawaska political
that: settlement,
the
to
appointed Maine superintendent in the for treaty Once signed was “progress.” potential Webster-Ashburton
first the
like
believed,
undoubtedly
They arise. might that problem any of to the and their doubts cast serious about Americans abilities intellectual
care take
easily
would
schools English believed officials itiany Initially, tism. of the refusal The French iii cultural to led their cooperate assimilation
despo
against
freedom of bulwark a as viewed Yankees the to read to write and learn French, English. 32 not government
of
agencies
numerous the adopt and habits their change to learning, in book point to children and had it their sent they was when school, French the
citizenry, American the into integrated be to that of in very were lukewarm public support their They schools. believed saw little Mainers
taught. 28 be would they town the in conducted language and empty on meetings land, squatted French, English the where schools
especially schools, and charters municipal They the were assimilate. of in adoption their selective system: magistrates, American roads, of the lack
about
concerned also were officials to Later French the Contrary unwilling expectations, to concerns. die proved out or pressing most the were
these eyes,
their In future. near the and in by ments, as abiding and laws county a customs, progress. extra-local as organized be area the that
recommended also They English, in order and schools. preserving formal and docu through written institutions Peace the of Justices for as well as
the deeds,
of of registry standards local justice saw their equity, and courts, and business conducting roads, fQr need the listed specifically Kavanagh
to and
own their running Deane
affairs in and French, verbally informally, following problem. a as them among agencies government formal
was ently of with. 3 ’ complied the It the
then, is lack
doubtful, French, that accustomed mentioned agent land Each land. 27 conveying and acquiring of
ing
the priest, the heard
a
and rendered contestants way decision appar
which “irregular” their by and laws, American of ignorance their by English,
through grievances their
a or of three panel arbitration:
includ two people,
speak to
French the of inability the by frustrated were treaty 1843 of the
from Maine or
from New whether that Brunswick, stated French the solved
terms the under land of grants issue to appointed commissioners The
in sible, the calling of a arm as English the only law last
resort.
Observers,
vulnerable. and deficient some way
of as settling habit the oped
of
on many their problems as their
pos own
in
was one written the of authority the on than rather word spoken the of
the
seat
150 (more county than
1833), the until
miles
had French
devel
force
the upon resting society a eyes, their in that, impression
lingering the
ning
Owing affairs. own to their
distance the the between and settlement
report
their reading from gets One problems. 26 apparent of
a
minimum
with
some had French experience
with
and were self-government run already
contracts verbal by or transferred sold and deeds,
of
absence
the
despite
and
even
aspects of legalistic
they overlooked democracy, the fact the
that
respected was property landed that
discovered
they
when
amazed also were
they less properly were
By trained. and
schooled
formal the emphasizing
They democracy. England
of
New
apparatus
cumbersome
rather out
the
Mainers not did the believe
French
fit were for
un
self-government
with
survive could society orderly stable, apparently an that surprised were
/ Craig Cultural Face-Off 77
R’J 76
The French
instinct. of
repression a
for called ideal new The
gressing.”
many
prejudices, and passions his
by
ruled be
only can
man
uneducated
pro is
around all
while
stationary
to remain content
people,
unenterprising
an that
assumption the Under neighbours.
Anglo-Saxon
their to
suspect
improvident,
“light-hearted,
were
French The
acquisitiveness. and
ousness
the French
rendered schools English-speaking
for
enthusiasm
of
lack
Their
industri emphasized ethic
work
The
Protestant
XIV.”
Louis of
days
the
censured.
but at, smiled be to longer no
was
carelessness
Childlike
them.
since intact almost
“retained
France,
of
peasantry
the of
habits the sharing
of most of
accused be to beginning
were
counterparts,
Canadian
their like
as
described were
French
the
and superstitions;
traditions of
shackles
the
French, Madawaska the 1850s, the late
By
unworthinesses.
other and
sion,
of
free to be
wanted men
ideology
liberal-capitalist The new
ethic. work
repres instinctual of lack uselessness, shiftlessness,
laziness,
vices:
many
Protestant to the
adhering the individual
of the
anti-portrait was
French the
of cause and companion the century nineteenth the
for was
Improvidence
of
portrait
the
editors’
reality, of
description an accurate than
Rather
improvidence. of but virtue, Spartan of not reflection, a as viewed
was
ones. 39
England New many than
productive more were
taste of Simplicity as well. characteristics less-than-desirable
displaying
farms
Madawaska 1860, In
story.
different a very tell censuses
agricultural
one but “race,” distinct a only not becoming were French the 840s,
1
the
the farmers, being
poor
French for
the As river. the
fronting strips,
narrow
in But an Anglo-Saxon. from different innately was Frenchman a that
hint
long, farm in layout,
Canadian
French typical by
the
fooled been had
editors
no been had there Americans, the to known been have even not may
work
The
than
average. 38
larger much they were
unless
their holdings,
vided
whose of Fisher, Peter exception the With Americans. Anglo-Saxon from
di
French seldom
Madawaska The
for cultivation.
unfit is
clearing been
indistinguishable be would English, learn to convinced be could they if
have
the should French
forest The of the phenomenon.
instance
another
French, the education, through removed was disability this Once institutions.
be
to
is likely this
and
votes, of sellers as the
native-born by
stereotyped
republican American with unfamiliar a people as French Madawaska the
were citizens but naturalized
or disproved, be
proved cannot accusation
described had visitors Previous attitude. new altogether an was This
first The poor farmers. 37 being of and their children, among holdings their
this model. follow
to divide the preferring forest,
clear not they did
because spirit pioneer
ing
to began French Madawaska the of descriptions American Many tiveness.
lack and of bidders,
the highest to vote
their selling
of other things,
among to acquisi commitment Puritan of devoid and hard work, to merriment ring
were
accused, settlers
The Madawaska but sympathetic.
anything
were people” prefer a as “fun-loving emerged Canadians French The appeared.
the about French
Comments and immigration. area
encourage the mote
“race” the French of the characteristics about notions Preconceived lic. 35
to a pro This
junket was
Maine. part of
the northern to
travelled state
the
the Repub in transplanted when even torpor, their shake to as unable ans
in major the
papers of editors the 1858, the
In fall
of the press. from
came
Canadi French the presented Irving by Washington novel a instance, for
to image
the
French blow most damaging the
though, large, and
By
1838, In l840s. by the disfavour into fallen had notion latter This group. 34
process.
democratic any cultural of of members men free make would they as men, free them
the of
ignorance assumed their and the neglect French,
northern
nignly make would institutions Free customs. World Old in them imprisoned who
be Officials no
longer
could with. reckon to
a force political was it state, Church, Popish the and crown the British of tyranny the double to jected
in for
the its
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were of other members usually perceived had Americans 1830, Before disfavour.
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/ 79 Face-Off Craig Cultural / 8 1 80 Rf: Craig Cultural Face-Off
Lanman’s is by far the most unpleasant narrative because the reader were “more fond of the fiddle than the hoe.” They were also too prolific. gets a strong feeling that all those disdainful comments were gratuitous. They were almost always described as people having too many children.4° Lanman put people down to highlight his superiority. On the other hand, This exerted a strange fascination for the Americans, fascination coupled with explicit or implicit disapproval. Properly civilized people were not state officials, and even Ellwell to a certain extent, were genuinely wor supposed to make children for the fun of it. This was a sign of lack of self- ried. Lanman does not seem to have been: the people he encountered were restraint. The French reproduced as uncontrollably as animals, and had not in his eyes such fools that they were irrelevant. yet learned how to control their instincts and delay gratification. Improvi This outright negative attitude was one side of the coin, The romantic dence and high fecundity were therefore two aspects of the same problem, qualities of the Acadian past continued to attract attention, and were widely which at one point were used to explain the alleged poverty of the French. disseminated after the publication of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem, This sort of statement circulated freely among the editors, and was Evangeline, in 1847. Maine people quickly realized that some of the printed in several major papers after the completion of the editors’ trip to “Evangeline people” were living in their back yard. Some hardy travellers northern Maine. No wonder that by the third quarter of the century, offi even went north to visit those picturesque characters, and Harper’s Monthly cials were delivering alarmist speeches about the need to Americanize the Magazine published an account of stich a journey.45 The author, Charles French. By that time, the French were described as ignorant and supersti Hallock, referred to Madawaska as the “land of romance,” and praised the tious, too stupid to realize how blessed they were. Their traditions and cus civility, simplicity and virtue of the inhabitants. The account explicitly toms were also attacked, in addition to their language and lack of know refers to the poem. Stepping inside one of the houses, a member of the ledge of principles of government.4’ author’s party “contemplated the huge Canadian stove, six feet high, that men Mainers writing for their countrymen denounced the “French stood in the partition wall, so as to warm both rooms .. . then he looked at ace” at length. When they wrote for an outside public, Americans did not the loom and the spinning wheel, and thought of Longfellow’s Evange need to be so alarmist, and the Madawaska French became mostly objects line; at the antique chairs and the bedsteads set into the walls like berths.”46 of ridicule. Charles Lanman, a sportsman and author of several books on What made him think of Evangeline was an activity New England women the less-settled parts of North America, took a trip from New York to Bos had by that time abandoned, for him a throwback to the past—the manu ton through Québec, Labrador and Maine in the late 1 840s, which took facture of homespun. Valleys.42 He described the him through the Témiscouata and St. John Hallock’ s text is an odd mixture of detailed and direct observations Canadians as a miserable and barbaric bunch. As for the St. John French of material culture and habits that ring true, like his description of houses Valley Acadians, they had “degenerated into a more ignorant and miser with front porches where “the family sit at evening and receive the calls of able people”43 than the French Canadians, whom they closely resembled in their neighbors who come in boats,”47 and of comments, visibly shaped by appearance and customs. He described the two groups in the same terms; the reading of the poem, passing as observations about the mores and val their main business was popery, drinking, cheating their neighbours, barely ues of the people. Hallock and his friends attended a local wedding and the making a living from tilling the soil and “fleecing the strangers to perfec ensuing dance. One gets lingering tion.” He went to Mass at St. Basile, and found the congregation “com a feeling that this is what Gabriel and posed entirely of Acadians decked in the most ridiculous gew-gawish dresses Evangeline’s wedding would have been like, had it taken place. The whole imaginable.”44 After the service, the men spent the rest of the day racing affair exudes a childlike innocence, and is uncontaminated by outside in horses, and the swiftest belonged to the priest. Lanman did not comment fluence; the bride is a “rosy-cheekect maiden” wearing “kirtle and petti on the activity, but neither Englishmen nor New Englanders would have coat, guiltless of hoops.” found it an appropriate way to spend the Sabbath r
82 R::J Rr Craig I Cultural Face-Off 83
Evangeline’s success even influenced some government officials. in a retrograde feudalism and in popery. Neither belonged to the modem The land agent who investigated the claims of the settlers on proprietors’ world which swirled around them and passed them by. The Acadians were land in 1874 described the mores and high standard of morality of the French too good to live in it, and the French Canadians not good enough. in words plagiarizing the poem. He also dwelt at length on the quaintness of What about the British? They were not attempting to build the per the French, describing their houses in these terms: fectly free society in North America, and therefore cultural, linguistic and religious differences should not have threatened them unduly. And indeed, They have queer looking cottages with windows that open and from the 1840s onward, British visitors to the St. John Valley noticed that shut like doors, their roofs and piazzas being broken, projected, the inhabitants were different from themselves, but they neither denounced picturesque, and often ornamented with trellis, cornice and fan ciful adornments, so that their solid homeliness is often fringed the situation as dangerous, nor idealized the Acadians as the lost tribe of with elegance.48 Arcadia. This did not mean that the British thought the French were their equals. They often suggested the French were not as “advanced” as could The only real difference between this description and Lanman’s “gew be desired and occasionally hinted that the example of the British would be gawish” fashion is that the latter is intended to be sympathetic. Both are profitable for them. Literature, even popular literature like travelogues, really very condescending. did not seem to have provided them with a frame of reference either. When visitors equated the Madawaska French with Acadians, they Three British men left particularly detailed accounts of the Madawaska depicted them not as a drag on the progress of civilization, but as a counterfoil territory in the 1840s and 1850s, and another one did the same in the 1870s. to the modem world. Our 1874 land agents concluded that: Edmund Ward, born in Nova Scotia at the end of the eighteenth century of loyalist parents, was a printer, journalist, and deputy agent for immigra We would say for the people of Madawaska that, with their primi tion in New Brunswick in 1840. His book on the St. John River was in tive style of living, they enjoy the priceless blessings of health, tended to attract settlers.5° Abraham Gesner, another Nova Scotia-born which more than compensate for the absence of modern luxu son of loyalists and a contemporary of Ward, studied medicine, surgery and ries, and are doubtless much happier than millions who live in geology in London. He is known as the inventor of kerosene. He left an rich mansions and roll in luxury.49 other detailed account of New Brunswick for the benefit of immigrants.5t Finally, The St. John Valley Acadians, like Bancroft’s and Longfellow’s pre James Finlay Weir Johnston was a Scottish agricultural chemist deportation people, provided the Americans, caught in the compulsory and mineralogist. He was invited by the New York State agricultural soci march toward progress, with a psychological refuge. Somewhere, in re ety to come and visit their part of the United States in the late 1 840s, and to mote and isolated valleys sheltered by “the forest primeval” survived some report on its capacity to support agriculture. Some New Brunswick pro remnants of a past steeped in rustic and tranquil felicity, frozen in time and moters, hearing of his journey, convinced the lieutenant governor of New untouched by the world around them, guiltless not only of hoops in their Brunswick to finance his investigation of the agricultural capability of their skirts, but of any trace of modernity. province.52 Two of those men were thus scientists of repute, and two were This “frozen in time” theme was common to descriptions of the provincial propagandists. They were particularly concerned with describ Madawaska French as Acadian and as French Canadian. Most post-1840 ing in detail the natural environment of the province, the settlements, and American writings about Acadians and French Canadians shared this fea the type of agriculture practiced, in order to encourage immigration. Com ture. Acadia was Arcadia, or the Garden of Eden; French Canada was stuck ments on the people encountered were secondary to their purpose. o evew o t RIvereVue ivi8re Craig / Cultural Face-Off 85
Edmund Ward depicted the French as “composed chiefly of Acadian Ward and Gesner, then, described the St. John Valley in very similar French,” and as a “harmless and inoffensive people, who pay implicit obe terms. So did J. F. W. Johnston. Johnston published two books as a result dience to their clergymen.”53 They had beenjoined by impoverished French of his North American peregrinations. Notes on North America contains Canadians who had since achieved a fair measure of success, and by a few descriptions of the communities encountered. Johnston’s Madawaska Scots and Irish, Several of the French settlers were substantial farmers, French are a mixed and divided community. The old Acadian French were who supplied the nearby lumber camps with oats and hay.54 “fine, industrious men.” The Lower Canadians were “represented by the Similarly, Gesner’s Madawaska settlers were a mix of French Cana English settlers as a ‘miserable’ set.”62 Johnston believed this prejudiced dians and Acadians, sprinkled with a few Provincials and Americans.55 view stemmed from the poverty of the recent French Canadian immigrants. Some of their ancestors were Indians, which explained their distinctive The St. John Valley soil was of excellent quality, the crops beautiful, al appearance—they were dark-haired and dark-skinned. Their everyday style though some of the French Canadian settlers “appeared to be both needy of dress was distinctive too, and Gesner attributed it to the old French and indifferent cultivators.” The stock left a lot to be desired, on the other peasantry.56 The men were still wearing their hair in queues (an eighteenth, hand.63 but not a nineteenth century fashion). They were “remarkably moral, or Johnston’s description conveys an overall impression of prosperity. derly and frugal” and “passionately fond of music and dancing.” After He was not entirely satisfied though. Upper and middle St. John Valley Mass, the remainder of the day was spent racing horses or canoes, dancing settlers all the way down to Woodstock, whatever their ethnic origin, had and card playing.57 Agriculture was very productive, and the crops beauti abandoned the cultivation of wheat and replaced it with buckwheat. This ful,58 despite an imperfect system of tillage and a “lack of agricultural en would not do, because buckwheat grew too easily and with too little effort. terprise seldom seen among English settlers.”59 “It is a prelude of evil,” declared Johnston, “when a kind of food which Gesner’s French, then, were nice, polite, moral, congenial people. Un requires little exertion to obtain it becomes the staple support of a people. fortunately, they were also unambitious, unenterprising, unacquisitive, and They are sure to become indolent and careless of further comfotts.” Easy pleasure-loving. Gesner was not sure how to explain the Madawaska set growing crops made lazy men. tlers’ behaviour. On one hand, he attributed it to their cultural heritage, and Yet, in the same breath used to denounce buckwheat as not requiring to some innate conservatism only slowly eroded by the example the of En enough effort on the part of the farmer, Johnston denounced it for requir glish. “It is scarcely possible,” he added, “to wean them from the customs of ing too much from the farmer’s wife. Wheat could be turned into bread their forefathers, and improvements in the system of agriculture are very which kept for several weeks. Buckwheat had to be prepared for every slow introduced among them.”6° Whatever he encountered that was unfa meal. Johnston believed the farmers’ wives had better things to do with miliar, like the outdoor clay oven and the well-pole, he identified as not only their time than to cook! And constant cooking disturbed the order of the typically French, but as inherited, unchanged, from the seventeenth century! kitchen.65 But in other parts of his book, he described the rest of New Brunswick Johnston described in detail the activities of only two farmers. One settlers in terms that were not significantly different. The typical New was an M. Cyr, who owned 350 acres, twice the local average. The other, Brunswick farmer was one who raised abundant crops, but preferred eating Captain L. Coomb, possessed 1025 acres.67 Johnston obviously believed them to taking them to market where he could fetch a handsome price. New that anything short of English-type estate agriculture was primitive and Brunswickers, whether French or British, were unpolished, but hospitable unworthy of notice. This type of agriculture was rather uncommon in North and fond of a good story or a good tune, and not commercially minded.6’ America, where farms were operated solely with a family labour force. Europeans tended to disdain those small family farms and the form of ag 86 RJ? Craig / Cultural Face-Off 87
riculture they practiced. Europe was land-poor and labour-rich: there was cheap communication with existing markets. Lugrin recommended a rail not enough land for all would-be farmers, and the fact that the elite mo way connection to solve this problem.7’ Lugrin’s position was thus very nopolized most of the existing land did not help. The elite were thus able to similar to that of the Americans in the 1 830s and early 1 840s. hire the landless for a pittance, and European agriculture was intensive, Lugrin also described the ethnic make-up of the county. The four investing much labour and fertilizer into production. The resulting yields western civil parishes were inhabited by a mix of French Canadians and were, not surprisingly, twice as high as in North America. In early nine Acadians. As a group, they clung “tenaciously to their old manners and teenth century North America, where land was abundant, and thus cheap, customs.” They were devoid of obvious character flaws, and “though not the majority of families could secure a holding. But labour was scarce and very enterprising, are tolerably industrious and economical.”72 Lugrin noted thus expensive. Not being able to intensively cultivate their fields, North that they were beginning to feel what he believed was the favourable influ American farmers compensated for the low yield by putting more acreage ence of the English with whom they were in daily contact. Public, non- under cultivation. Europeans almost never understood that the American confessional schools would complete their transformation. land and labour markets were the reverse of the European ones, and con As for private British travellers, they remained blissfully unconcerned demned North American farmers for not using the practices and techniques by the St. John Valley Frenchness. They were usually aware of it, some of their European counterparts. Johnstân was one example of this attitude. even dwelling on it at length, but cultural differences were in their eyes New Brunswickers did not know how to farm. Their land was “generally another tourist attraction, not a problem. And none made reference to ill-treated—the take-all-and-give-nothing system being pursued, partly from Evangeline. Either the poem was not read in the British Empire and even ignorance and partly from idleness.”68 in New Brunswick, or the British did not equate contemporary Acadians The last scientific description of the Madawaska settlement in the with fictitious ones.73 period that interests us was penned by Charles Lugrin, the Secretary of the What are all those accounts telling us? If we strip them of their mor Agricultural Board of New Brunswick and author of several promotional alizing slants and opportunistic constructions of history, they convey very volumes on New Brunswick, In 1872, he presented the provincial legisla similar information about the Madawaska settlers. The upper St. John Val ture with a report on Victoria County, which included the New Brunswick ley was a prosperous settlement, blessed with a flourishing agriculture, Madawaska as well as several civil parishes below the Grand Falls.69 Lugrin engaging in some lumbering and shingle-making on the side, but a bit old- provided the legislators with a detailed description of the crops, soils and fashioned, especially when it came to clothing and housing styles. Serious farming techniques prevailing in the area, identifying what was specific to crimes were unknown among them, and they kept a nice balance between each group. The Irish produced excellent potatoes. The French grew large work and leisure, profit-making and social activities. They were polite, amounts of peas, some flax, and “were expert in weaving good, strong, and hospitable and gregarious. The women were very busy with large families durable linen.”70 Victoria County agriculture was not as good as Lugrin and textile production, among other things, and had little time for “home wished it was. He partly blamed the deleterious influence of the lumber making.” Madawaska houses probably looked more like workshops than trade, not the inhabitants’ ethnicity, for this state of affairs. The lumber Victorian parlours. trade and shingle-making provided farmers with opportunities of making Early visitors seem to have been able to see what was in front of “easy” money and lured them away from their fields, which were conse them. Their accounts of the Madawaska settlements were normally de quently neglected. The second cause behind the underperformance of scriptive, and abstained from moralizing. Initially, the Americans were Victoria County agriculture was also independent of ethnicity: the lack of neutral as well, even if they manipulated the Madawaska history for their S8 R R? Craig I Cultural Face-Off 89
own ends. They soon became very ethnically conscious, or, in the terminol Anglo-Saxon racialism prevailed in Britain as well.75 It seems to have ogy of the time, “racially” conscious. The French were different; they were had limited impact on the travellers’ views of the Madawaska French, different because they belonged to a different “race” though. British visitors eventually took notice of the settlement’s Until about 1815, Americans took for granted that their society was Frenchness. They believed the French were socially and technically very the best in the world because their institutions were superior to all others. conservative, and incapable of evolving on their own—hence the tendency Any people of European descent, no matter how steeped in barbary, could to see anything different as a throwback to a stereotypical seventeenth cen progress to the standard of the Americans if they enjoyed similar free insti tury “French peasant” culture, or even to an earlier one. But the British tutions. They were one unique race, improvable and inevitably destined to never expressed any doubt evolution would take place as the French mingled progress. It was the duty of the most advanced members of the human race with English-speaking people. And at times, one cannot even be sure that to illuminate the path for their less fortunate brethren, Indians, among oth the British authors’ sense of superiority stemmed from ethnic conscious ers, would become “civilized” under the benevolent wardship of the Ameri ness. Their lumping the Madawaska French in the same bag as the rest of cans. By 1850, this vision had been replaced in the minds of most by Anglo- the rather backward and not very hard-working New Brunswickers sug Saxon racialism. Mankind was made of different races, some inherently gests that class could explain their attitude as much as ethnicity. superior to others. The outward sign of a superior race was its English- or Why such differences between British and American views? The American-type institutions, its individualism, and its acquisitiveness. Races Americans were conducting a Grand Experiment in North America; they which displayed different institutions or a lack of entrepreneurial spirit were building the prototype of the democratic society. For the experiment were not only inferior, but likely to be unimprovable. They were either to succeed, all had to share the same values and the same ideology. Cul doomed to extinction, like the Indians; to subjection, like the Blacks; or tural and linguistic differences and Catholicism seemed to threaten this they needed the guidance of the Anglo-Protestant. Between 1815 and 1850, cultural and ideological homogeneity. They had to be obliterated, or museified. the two ideologies coexisted, one gradually replacing the other, without com The British were not conducting any experiment. Their society was, and pletely eliminating it.74 had always been ethnically very diverse; English, Welsh and Anglo-Normans, The American perception of the French fit into this framework. People Cornish and Manx, Scots and Irish shared the British Isles, and had very who were different were, almost by definition, inferior. Inferior people little in common. The Islands were equally diverse in terms of religion, with burdened the Americans in their march to progress. The St. John Valley Catholics in the Highlands and in Ireland, Presbyterians in the rest of Scot people were different; therefore they were a threat to the American experi land, Protestant dissenters in Wales, and an Anglican Church divided be ment, and had to be eliminated through assimilation. The more nostal tween the quasi-Catholic High Church and the very Calvinist Low Church. gic—or the more romantic—Americans were willing to tolerate small pock The only thing Britain asked of all her constituent people, the glue that kept ets of difference in remote areas, where they were not likely to contami everything together, was allegiance to the Crown. By the end of the seven nate anyone. An Acadian reservation in Northern Maine was therefore ac teenth century, attempts at institutionalizing religious conformity had been ceptable. No matter how sympathetic Longfellow may have been towards abandoned. Subsequently, ideological or cultural conformity was neither re the Acadians, he did no favour to their descendants, who could find accep quired nor sought. And being French and Catholic in an empire which soon tance only if they lived up to the expectations the poem raised, one of included India, most of East Africa, and part of the Arab World was which was their being living fossils. The St. John Valley French could not being very exotic. either remain trapped in the past and be admired by some, or step into the present, and be vilified. 90 Ri, Ri Craig / Cultural Face-Off 9 1
Notes being a Diary ofa Winter’s Routefrom Halifax to the Canadas, London, 1829: 63-136). Head made his trip in 1815. 5. Donald E. Graves, The War of 1812 Journal of Lieutenant John Le Couteur, “British,” in the context of early nineteenth century North America was a rather 1 04th Foot: “Mer,y Hearts Make Light Days” (Carleton UP, 1993) 99. vague term. It could refer to the British from Britain, but also to his or her 6. Arcadia was a region of ancient Greece considered to be a rural paradise. The majesty’s subjects in British North America, which was all of Britain’s term has since been used to refer to an idealized rural community characterized possessions in North America. Until 1867, the term “Canada” applied only to by innocence, peacefulness and simplicity. present day Québec (Lower Canada) and Ontario (Upper Canada). New 7. Graves 99. Brunswickers were not “Canadians”; they were often referred to as 8. Peter Fisher, History ofNew Brunswick (1825; St. John: Province of New “Provincials” by European British and by Americans. In this paper, the term Brunswick and W. Fisher, New Brunswick Historical Society, 1921) 52-57. “British” is used in its nineteenth century meaning, and refers to British subjects 9. Peter Fisher, Notitia ofNew Brunswickfor 1836, and extending into 1837, of European or North American extraction. comprising Historical, Geographical, Statistical and Commercial Notices of the 2. Patrick Campbell, Travels in the Interior Inhabited Parts ofNorth America in Province by an inhabitant (St. John, 1838). the Year 1791 and 1792 (Edinburgh, 1793: 80-110); John Mann, Travels in 10. Fisher, History 53. North America, Particularly in the Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada and 11. Fisher, Notitia 98. New Brunswick and in the States of Maine, Massachusetts and New York 12. George W. Coffin, Journal of George W. Coffin, Massachusetts Land Agent, (Glasgow, 1824. Reprinted in Fredericton in 1978: 36-41); Lieutenant E.T. Journey up to the St. John River, September and October 1825 (Maine State
Coke, A Subaltern’s Furlough: Descriptive of Scenes in Various Parts of the Archives, Land Office Records). - United States, Upper and Lower C’anada, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia 13. Charles S. Davies, Report of Charles S. Davies, esq., Agent Appointed by the during the Summer and Autumn of 1832 (London, 1833: 349-364, in Early Executive of the State of Maine to Enquire into and Report upon Certain Facts Travellers in the Canadas, 1791-1867, selected and edited with an introduction relating to Aggressions upon the Rights of the State, and of individual Citizens by Gerald M. Craig, Toronto, 1955:97-110). thereof by Inhabitants of the Province ofNew Brunswick (1828). 3. According to American Memoranda, by a Mercantile Man during a Short 14. Davies 15. Tour in the Summer of 1843 [James Lumsdenj (Glasgow 1843): 15. The petitions and land grants are in the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick, RS1O8, Land Petitions and Application Books: Microfilm Reel Along the Madawaska River the country is principally settled F1024, Petition of Augustin Leblanc and others to Governor Parr of Nova by a class of the poorest Irish squatters I ever saw: if an acre or Scotia, 24-11-1784; Reel F1025, Petition of Amand and Francis Cormier, 5-4- two of potato ground is cleared, it is all the poor creatures seem 17 85; Reel F 1029, Petition of Augustin White and other French inhabitants, 10- to care for; and their chief means of subsistence is derived from 3-1785; Reel F1032, Memorial of French settlers, 28-6-1786, and Petition of occasional employment in assisting the lumberers on the tiver. Francis Violet, 28-08-1786; Reel F1033, Petition of Arthur Nicholson 6-4-1786 From Témiscouata Lake to Little Falls, you scarcely see a re and 16-7-1787, and Petition of J.B. Cormier, 1787, and Petition of Benjamin spectable habitation. With the exception of two or three small Davis et al., 25-5-1787, and Petition of J. B. Cir et al., 1-6-1787, and Petition of farm houses, there are nothing but log huts and miserable dwell- Charles Lambert, 20-4-1787, and Petition of Joseph and Marie Cormier, 20-6- ings. 1787; Reel F1034, Petition of Richard Vandenburgh, 1787; Reel F1035, Petition of John Martin et al., 1-7-1788, 31-7-1788 and 10-10-1788; Reel F1036, 4. The Surveyor of the Bingham Purchase, Park Holland’s story is told in Life Petition of William Lockyer, 5-2-1789; Petition of Joseph Thibodo et al., 21-12- and Diary (Bangor Historical Society); Another traveller who did not think the 1789, and Petition of Joseph Sear 26-8-1789 and 14-11-1789; See also: Raoul St. John Valley’s ethnic make-up deserved more than a passing mention is Dionne, La colonisation Acadienne au Nouveau Brunswick 1760-1860, (Monc George Head, esq. (Forest Scenes and Incidents in the Wilds ofNorth America, ton, Chaire d’&udes acadiennes, 1989), The land sales between Lower St. John Cultural Face-Off 93 92 R1 Ri Craig /
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38. This is evident when one compares the cadastral and survey maps of this 60. Gesner 333. area at different points in time. 61. Gesner 334. 39. Beatrice Craig,
41 . Accordina to the Report of the Commissioners on the Settlement of the 65. Johnston 81. Publick land of Maine (Augusta: Sprague-Owen and Nash, 1870): 66. Johnston 72. 67. Johnston 68. A colony of over live thousand souls is within our borders, ig 68. Johnston 70. norant, superstitious, and foreign in language, tradition and cus 69. Charles S. Lugrin, Victoria County (Appendix to the Journal of the House of tom. Dwelling in the garden of the state, they are the poorest of Assembly of New Brunswick) 1872. its inhabitants, What is to be done with them? We must Ameri 70. Lugrin xi. canize them: and this can be accomplished only through educa 71. Lugrin xiii. tion. (22) 72. Lugrin vii. 73. Early historian C.L. Hatheway’s book contains absolutely no comment about 42. Charles Lanman, Adventures of an Angler in c’anada, Nova Scotia, and the the ethnic make-up of the Madawaska settlement (The History ofNew Brunswick United States (London, 1848). from its First Settlement, Containing a Geographical Description of the 43. Lanman 234 Province, Fredericton, 1846,43-47). Tourist Campbell Hardy, Lieutenant in the 44. Lanman 236. Royal Artillery, tried to turn his attempt at getting food from people who spoke 45. Charles Hallock, “Aroostook on the Madawaska,” Harper’s Monthly no more English than he did French into an amusing anecdote (Sporting Magazine 27 (1863): 688-98. Adventures in the New World, or Days and Nights of Moose Hunting in the Pine 46. Hallock 696. Forest ofAcadia, vol. 1, London, Hurst and Blackett, 1855, 138). William Thomas 47. Hallock 695. Baird, who had visited the Madawaska settlement in 1838 gives a purely descrip 48. Report oft/u’ Commissioners on Claims of Settlers on Proprietors’ Land 6. tive account, and mentions that young men from the New Brunswick elite used to 49. Report of the Commissioners on Claims of Settlers on Proprietors’ Land 7. board with Madawaska families to learn French (Seventy Years ofNew Brunswick 50. Edmund Ward, An Account oft/ic St. John and its Tributary Rivers and Life: AndAutobiographical Sketches, St. John, 1890,54, 89-94). Isaac Lakes (Fredericton, 1841) 84-89. Stephenson, who lived in the vicinity of Woodstock before moving to Wiscon 51. Abraham Gesner, New Brunswick with Notes for Emigrants 178-81. See also sin, also makes no comment about the Frenchness of the upper St. John Valley 2 12-5, 224-9, 332-5, 378-88 for soil, climate, currency, pioneering, etc. settlers in his memoirs (Recollections ofa Long Life, Chicago, 1915, 1-56). 52. James Finlay Weir Johnston, Report on the Agricultural Capabilities of the 74. Reginald Horsman, Race and Manifest Destiny, The Origins ofAmerican Province of New Brunswick (Second Edition. Fredericton, 1850); and Chapter 3 RacialAnglo-Sa.sonism, (Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1981), especially chapters 3,5, of James Finlay Weir Johnston’s Notes on North America (1851) 67-82. and 6. 53. Ward 87. 75. Horsman 62-77. 54. Ward 88. 55. Gesner 180. 56. Gesner 332. 57. Gesner 333. 58. Gesner 180, 333. 59. Gesner 180.