Society in New France was moulded by three things: the environment of the colony, the institutions and culture brought from France by the colonists, and certain institutions of the mother country that were conspicuous by their absence. By the early 1700s, after a century of war and desperate struggle against a hostile environment, a society had finally emerged that in many ways mirrored that of France, but in other ways was unique.
A Hierarchical Society
This society was hierarchical status ordered with the highest status accorded to the senior officials and the officer corps of the colonial regular troops. Many of this group were members of the nobility and those who were not, aspired to be. All of them accepted the social values of the aristocracy and tried to live by them. Wealth was regarded as a means to achieve this end, not as an end in itself. It was the spending of money, rather than its accumulation, that was important. This attitude spread to the lower ranks of society, and the Canadian people as a whole were notoriously profligate, spending their money as fast as or faster than they acquired it on clothing, expensive furnishings, and lavish entertainment.
Strengthening these aristocratic attitudes was the dominant role played by the military in colonial life. The administration was organized along military lines; the governor-general and the local governors were invariably officers, usually in the navy. The leading families strove desperately to have their sons commissioned in the colonial regular troops, and every Canadian male between the ages of sixteen and sixty had to serve in the militia. It was military valour, rather than material wealth, that was most esteemed in a man.
An Affluent Independent People
Another dominant character trait of the Canadians, particularly in the lower social ranks, was a fierce spirit of independence. Several factors contributed to this psychology. For one thing, the Canadians were relatively more affluent than their counterparts in France where, in the seventeenth century, the mass of the peasantry existed at the bare subsistence level and, all too frequently, below it. There, as a result of frequent famines, the death rate equalled that of birth, and the population failed to grow. In Canada the seigneurial system of land tenure, which was designed to get the maximum amount of land settled in the minimum time and which the authorities closely regulated, guaranteed that any family willing to work could have up to 200 acres of land on payment of nominal dues to the seigneur. These payments amounted to only 10 to 15 percent of a farm's produce. In addition, the church tithe was only 1/26th of the wheat produced, half the usual rate in northern France. The habitants were permitted to hunt and fish on their land, had ample supplies of fire-wood and, for a small fee, could graze their cattle on the seigneurial common. Some seigneurs did not bother to press their censitaires for these dues, regarding them as not worth the trouble. Another factor which contributed to financial independence and modest affluence was the absence of taxes in the colony. Whereas in France taxes and dues of one sort or another took 30 to 50 percent of a peasant's income, in Canada the only taxes levied were import duties on wine, spirits and tobacco, and export duties on beaver pelts and moose hides, and these last were removed in 1717. The authorities accepted that the militia duty of the Canadians and the heavy casualties they suffered in the colonial wars placed the imposition of direct taxes out of the question.
Geography also contributed to this independent spirit. From the granting of the first seigneuries in the early seventeenth century, the land was apportioned in long narrow strips running back from the St. Lawrence. The river was the main highway, linking the regions within the colony and the colony with the rest of the known world. Everyone, therefore, desired land with river frontage, and the farm houses were built along the river banks. By the eighteenth century, all the land from below Quebec to the western tip of the island of Montreal was settled. Every few hundred yards was a farm house; and there was a church, a seigneurial manor house, and a mill every few miles. Late in the seventeenth century, the Crown tried to establish new settlements in the form of villages to provide greater security from Iroquois attack and to allow the royal authorities to keep a close eye on the habitants, but the settlers would have none of it. They insisted on their strip farms, with adequate elbow room between them and their neighbours. Independence and freedom were more important to them than security, and many of them paid for it with their lives.
In the early years of settlement life was harsh, but by the eighteenth century, with the land cleared and under cultivation, the habitants were relatively well-off. The original log homes were replaced by whitewashed steep-roofed stone houses, often with walls two feet thick. The architectural style reflected that of northern France; the steep roof, although covered with boards or shingles, was dictated by the pitch required for the earlier thatch roofs to shed water. In the eighteenth century a peculiarly Canadian feature was developed: the roof line was modified to give a sweeping wide eave extending some three feet beyond the walls, which provided shade in the hot summers, yet allowed the low winter sun to strike the windows. Until the early years of the eighteenth century, for the habitants and town artisans, a house of two rooms with an open fireplace in the centre had to suffice. One room was used for cooking, eating, and leisure, the other for sleeping. When square iron stoves manufactured at the Forges de Saint-Maurice near Trois-RiviΦres came into use, more rooms could be heated in winter, and what had been attic storage space was converted into bedrooms. Some of the wealthier families imported expensive tiled stoves from Holland that were objects of beauty in a well-furnished salon.
The habitant farm was almost a self-sustaining independent economic unit. The habitant families raised all their own food, wove coarse durable garments from their own sheep, took their own hides to a local tanner and then made their own shoes and moccasins. They fashioned most of their farm implements themselves and made much of their own furniture from the readily available and easily worked white pine. These were jacks-of-all-trades who had need to purchase little more than glass for windows, metal for smithying, metal goods such as kitchen ware, tools, fire arms, glassware, pottery, cutlery, and imported luxury items such as fine clothes for wives, wine, eau de vie, coffee, chocolate, playing cards, and clay pipes by the gross. The sale of surplus produce at the three urban centres, Quebec, Montreal and Trois-RiviΦres, provided enough cash to pay for these goods. Thus twenty to thirty ships a year sufficed to import the colony's needs, and much of their cargo was destined for the fur trade. Cloth, wines and spirits, china and glassware were the main items. When an external market for farm produce appeared, Louisbourg in the 1720s being the only viable one, the habitants were quick to respond and wheat production increased, but crop failures frequently obliged the colonial authorities to import grain. One item raised to excess - according to the authorities - was spirited horses. Every man and boy had his own horse kept not to work the land, but for pleasure. The governor and intendant complained that these horses ate the fodder that would have allowed greater cattle production. Such a condition would have been impossible in Europe where only the wealthier peasants owned even a work horse. It was another sign of Canadian affluence.
All in all, the Canadian habitant enjoyed a much higher standard of living than the vast majority of Europeans. He was better housed, clothed and fed. Whereas most Europeans went to bed at night hungry and in winter, cold, existing as they did on coarse bread and vegetable soup, the Canadians had ample supplies of meat, fish, milk, butter, fresh fruit and vegetables in season, and each consumed a pound and a half of nourishing wheaten bread per day. In fact, they were likely better fed than most North Americans today who consume packaged, denatured foods. As a result, within a few generations the Canadians were better physical specimens than Europeans; more children survived to a marriageable age - and the population doubled every generation.
Social Life Social life in the countryside revolved about the parish church. It was at mass on Sunday that the women showed off their fine clothes and the men their horses, although the authorities sought to ban the men's pernicious habit of adjourning to the local tavern the moment the cure began his sermon. Public announcements were made from the pulpit or after mass at the church door. It was here and in Church processions that social status was plainly evident. The seigneur and his family occupied the place of honour in the first pew, received communion first, and the seigneur was eventually buried beneath the church floor. After him came the lesser local notables, the capitaine de milice ("captain of the militia"), officers of the local law court, and the church-wardens. Fierce disputes waged in the early years over who should have precedence finally had to be referred to the King for settlement. The church pews were rented on an annual basis and held by families for generations. Occasionally one would fall vacant whereupon it was put up for public auction, offering the ambitious an opportunity to enhance his position by acquiring the pew at an exhorbitant price.
As well as providing the necessary religious services, the parish church also satisfied the people's aesthetic needs. Unlike the bleak chapels of the puritan English colonies, the churches of New France were richly decorated. The interior stone walls were panelled and vaulted with wood, painted cream colour, and embellished with intricate gilded carving. The altars and pulpits were executed in the ornate baroque style. These decorations, together with the vestments of the priest, the sterling silver altar vessels, the odour of incense, the singing of the choir, offered a feast to the senses. Here the rich visual and spiritual tradition of European civilization was manifest, reminding the colonists of their heritage.
In the three towns the social structure was, of course, much more elaborate than in the rural areas. Economically, they were small metropolises serving, and living off, the surrounding hinterland. They were the seats of civil and military administration, of justice, and of the church, and there the officials of all these institutions resided. So too did the colony's merchants and many of the seigneurs. To provide the goods and services they required, a thriving artisanate developed. The building trades provided masons, carpenters, joiners and glaziers. Tailors served not only the townspeople but also provided the European-style clothing that the Indians desired; hence it became a staple of the fur trade. So too did small silver ornaments, the manufacture of which became a bread and butter item for the silversmiths of Montreal. Dress makers and wig makers were kept busy copying the latest Parisian styles. Gunsmiths and locksmiths, blacksmiths and tanners, shoe makers and cabinet makers, tinkers and chimney sweeps, swelled the urban populations which depended on the services of butchers, bakers, tinkers, fishmongers, and retail shop keepers who had to stock all manner of goods, some imported, but most of local manufacture. At Trois-RiviΦres the Forges de Saint-Maurice produced iron for the blacksmiths and farriers, also stoves, pots and pans, plowshares and cannon balls. Also at Trois-Rivieres were manufactured the birch bark canoes for the western fur trade; and all along the river, small boat yards built the sturdy schooners that transported French and West Indian goods from Quebec to Montreal, wheat from Montreal to Quebec, and wheat, flour and timber to Louisbourg whence it was transshipped to the West Indies. These urban populations also provided a market for the surplus farm produce of the habitants in the surrounding areas. Each town had its market place where the habitants set up their stalls, and a strictly enforced regulation forbade innkeepers to buy the best of the produce before the rest of the populace had had a chance to purchase their daily needs.
Education
In addition to performing the usual religious functions, the Church was responsible for the education of the colonists. Nuns were in charge of the hospitals and the alms houses that cared for orphans, the indigent aged, those suffering from incurable diseases, and girls of loose morals whom the authorities ordered confined. Male offenders received harsher punishment. Many families had private contracts with doctors, and the poor were cared for in the hospitals without charge. Poverty was only occasionally a problem since every family was required by law to care for its own, but when an economic crisis occurred, the Crown agencies intervened. In short, the colony was close to a welfare state.
In the eighteenth century, throughout Europe and its various colonies, few people were literate. The mass of the people had neither the inclination nor the means to obtain an education. The quill pen was difficult for children below the age of ten to twelve to master as it required considerable manual dexterity to sharpen and split, let alone write with. Furthermore, instruction began in Latin, and only later were lessons given in French. Children of school age were needed to perform essential chores on the family farm. Schooling was, however, available for those families who desired it for their children. At Quebec, boys could receive their primary education at the Petit SΘminaire, and at Montreal the Sulpicians had a similar school. Although it was hoped that they would go on to take holy orders, few did. Higher education was provided by the Jesuits at their CollΦge in Quebec. The Jesuits also staffed a school of hydrography to train pilots and navigators. A law school was eventually established to train future judges, but for advanced training, candidates had to go to the Sorbonne and then be admitted to the Bar of Paris. Girls were educated by the Ursuline sisters, the main aim being to inculcate good manners and social poise. Very often the female was the only literate member of the family. In the rural areas, the Sisters of the Congregation of Notre Dame maintained schools for girls, and the parish priests gave rudimentary schooling to habitant boys.
Another deterrent to most education was the severe regimen of the schools. At the Petit SΘminaire, which admitted boys at the age of twelve, the students had to rise at 4:00 a.m. in summer and 4:30 a.m. in winter. They were kept either in class or at prayers until 6:00 at night. The most rigorous asceticism was the order of the day. Students wore a uniform, cut their hair short, and ate spartan meals which barely provided for good health. Bathing was suspect and allowed only once a fortnight, except by special permission. In the early years few students remained for long. Of the first 200, 135 quit after one or two years. Those boys who persevered and were intelligent enough received an education from the Jesuits as fine as they would have received in Europe. Since the facilities were limited, standards had to be kept high.
Another source of education was the apprentice system. In Europe, master craftsmen charged fees to train apprentices, and guild regulations ensured that few rose to the rank of master; most spent their lives working as journeymen for wages. In Canada, however, labour was always in short supply. A master craftsman in order to obtain help had to train apprentices free of charge, and house, feed, and clothe them as well. Once trained, an apprentice would borrow money to set up shop for himself, but first he had to obtain permission from the authorities who would not allow more craftsmen to enter a trade than were needed to meet the demand for their services. It sometimes took them years to pay off the debt incurred to open a shop, but the Canadians preferred this to working as a servant for wages. They insisted on being their own masters.
The quality of work done by many of these craftsmen was high. This was particularly true of silversmiths and wood carvers. Silver coins brought into the colony to pay the military quickly disappeared from circulation. The habitants melted them down, then had the silversmiths make them into bowls and table ware. Since there were no banks for the deposit of surplus funds, this was one way of preserving assets in liquid form and making use of them at the same time. In addition, small silver ornaments were much in demand for the Indian fur trade. Woodcarvers produced excellent work for the churches and sailing ships. Cabinet makers produced some fine furniture, but the wealthier families imported their home furnishings, including Venetian glass and porcelain table ware from France.
Montreal: Frontier Town
One curious economic division in the colony appears to have been determined by geography. The ocean tide which was over 17 feet at Quebec dwindled to nothing at Trois-RiviΦres. Below that small town, within the pull of the tide, the habitants served as crewmen on the fishing and sealing expeditions in the Gulf, or on ships transporting supplies to and from Louisbourg, the West Indies and France. In war time, French privateers put in to Quebec to take on a crew; Canadian sailors were considered more bellicose, much better fighters, and were paid higher wages than French sailors. Above Trois-RiviΦres, the habitants looked up river to the west. It was the men from this region between Trois-RiviΦres and Montreal who manned the canoes of the western fur brigades. Most of them went out in the spring and returned in the fall, but a sizable number remained away at the distant posts or in the Indian villages for years at a time. When these men returned, they brought the western frontier to all the houses in the upper colony, and it gave to Montreal a character all its own. Here too were stationed the bulk of the colonial regular troops, and farms round about still bore the scars of the Iroquois wars. The churches of the Recollets, the Jesuits, the Sulpician seminary, and the Ursuline convent were a reminder that the town had been founded as a mission settlement to convert the Indian.
In the seventeenth century, the Montreal authorities had embarked on an ambitious town planning scheme. Streets were laid out on a grid pattern and in the eighteenth century the log palisade was replaced by a stone wall that completely enclosed the town. To prevent fires spreading, the law required houses in all three towns to be built of stone, with the end walls projecting some two feet above the roof line. Similarly, attic floors had to be of flag stones so that if the roof caught fire, it could not spread lower. Chimneys had to be swept at frequent intervals, and fire fighting equipment maintained at all street corners. Conflagrations such as those that destroyed half of Montreal were the people's worst fear.
By the eighteenth century, most of the houses had glass instead of parchment in the windows, with painted iron shutters for protection. Artisans had their work shops on the ground floor, with living quarters above or along side. All the buildings were aligned at the edge of the wooden sidewalks, allowing sizable gardens, orchards and stables at the rear. The homes of the wealthier merchant fur traders were commodious and well furnished, and many of the seigneurs maintained houses in the town. Twenty-five percent of the colony's population were urban dwellers, compared to little more than fifteen percent in France.
Between the town wall and the river was the common where cattle were grazed and the Indians camped on their frequent trips to confer with the governor. Across the river and at the western end of the island were the villages of the Mission Indians who had been converted to Christianity. The influence of these tribesmen was very apparent throughout the colony and more particularly at Montreal. The Canadian women, for wear about the house or farm, had adopted the Indian style of dress, which startled visitors from Europe since it barely reached their knees. In winter garb it was difficult to tell Canadians and Indians apart except that the Canadian habitants wore their hair in a pigtail. Several of the French officials and army officers complained that the Canadians had imbued the spirit of the Indians, being proud, independent, profligate, headstrong and lazy; but also, like the Indians, tough, expert marksmen, stoical, able to undertake incredible voyages, and as a result, guerrilla fighters without peer.
All these factors contributed to make Canadian society different from that of France. There were no very rich people in the colony, no chateaux of the Loire along the banks of the St. Lawrence. The relative affluence of the people which resulted from free land and the absence of taxation, the military tradition inculcated in war, the military ambitions of the seigneurial class together with the long voyages to the western interior with the fur brigades or to the Atlantic with fishing and trading barques, the influence of the Indian nations, the isolation of the colony, the harsh climate: all these things helped make the Canadians what they were.
