Thanks For Coming!

I decided to make this website to help orient everyone in our group so we are on the same page, and to provide everyone with research resources.  I include excerpts that I find informative about what we are learning and provide links to pages that apply to us!  Don't bother researching any longer!  This is the one stop place for our group!

Our group includes:
Connor M., Marko N., and Mr. Terrance Ku.  Oh!  I almost forgot!  Don't forget about the royal decree-er and owner of the official royal decree chair, Evan F.

If anyone wants anything researched, then just email me at thebigguyconnor@gmail.com or we can talk about it at school.

Seigneuries

The lands were arranged in long strips, called seigneuries, along the banks of the Saint Lawrence River. Each piece of land belonged to the king of France and was maintained by the landlord, or seigneur. The seigneur divided the land further among his tenants, known as censitaires or habitants, who cleared the land, built houses and other buildings, and farmed the land. The habitants paid taxes to the seigneur (the cens et rentes, or "cents and rents"), and were usually required to work for their seigneur for three days per year, often building roads (the onerous corvée). The seigneurial system was introduced to New France in 1627 by Cardinal Richelieu.

I also found another diagram showing how seigneuries were divided here. 

All of the food that habitants ate came from New France because the cost of importing food that could not grow in New France was so high.  Being a farmer was very hard, and all of the habitants that were men were usually farmers.  Crafts and tradesmen were valued, and there were not that many of them.  If you had a skill then you'd probably be better off.

Some food that the habitant gathered was wild such as blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, currants, blackberries and plums. All other food was grown on the family farm. A farm grew corn for the animals and wheat for making flour and bread. Farmers raised chickens and ducks for eggs and meat. They raised cows for cream, butter and cheese. The farmer's grew fruits and vegetables especially turnips, cabbages, onions, leeks and beets.

If a habitant wanted meat, then he had to hunt it himself.

Blacksmiths

The people on the siegneuries relied on blacksmiths to make metal tools for themselves. 

Link to Wikipedia article on blacksmiths

 

With forge and anvil, hammer and tongs, blacksmiths made agricultural tools for farmers and iron rims for wheelwrights.

 

Forging means 'sculpting' and is the process of shaping the metal.

Blacksmiths use hammer and anvil at times, but generally use many other tools that they have.

 

They way that blacksmiths work is that first they take the metal and heat it up in their 'forge' or 'smithy' (an oven) until it is soft enough to be bent and and to be workable with hand tools like a hammer and a chisel.

 

The techniques of blacksmithing may be roughly divided into forging (sometimes called "sculpting"), welding, heat treating, and finishing.

 

Welding is the joining of metal of the same or similar kind such that there is no joint or seam: the pieces to be welded become a single piece.

 

Prior to the industrial revolution, a "village smithy" was a staple of every town. Mass production techniques have reduced the marketplace for blacksmith work except in Africa, India, Southeast Asia, and South America where large numbers of artisans continue to do traditional work. In more industrialized regions, an increasing demand for custom metalwork has given rise to a new breed of smiths commonly known as Artist-Blacksmiths. In recent years the forging of stainless steel has given rise to a fresh approach to architectural blacksmithing.

 

Other Interesting Things

 

The word smith is cognate with the somewhat archaic English word, "smite", meaning "to hit" or "to strike". Originally, smiths practiced their crafts by forming metal with hammer blows.

 

There are also many types of smiths including:

• an arrowsmith forges arrow heads
• a blacksmith works with iron and steel;
• a bladesmith forges knives, swords, and other blades;
• a coppersmith, or brownsmith, works with copper
• a fendersmith makes and repairs the metal fender before fireplaces, protecting rugs and furniture in mansions and fine estates, and frequently cares for the fires as well.
• a goldsmith works with gold.
• a gunsmith works with guns.
• a locksmith works with locks.
• a pewtersmith works with pewter.
• a silversmith, or brightsmith, works with silver.
• a tinsmith, or tinner, works with light metal (such as tinware) and can refer to someone who deals in tin.
• a swordsmith is a bladesmith who forges only swords.
• a whitesmith works with white metal (tin) and can refer to someone who polishes or finishes the metal rather than forging it.

The ancient traditional tool of the smith is a forge or smithy, which is a furnace designed to allow compressed air (through a bellows) to superheat the inside, allowing for efficient melting, soldering and annealing of metals. Today, this tool is still widely used by blacksmiths as it was traditionally.

Other Links

The bold links are the ones I find very interesting.

 

http://www.civilization.ca/hist/canp1/ca06eng.html - Interesting site on New France - browse more than the first page that you come to when you click on the link - this site has quite a bit of information!

 

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=Montreal,+Quebec&ie=UTF8&ll=46.62327,-71.955986&spn=0.107285,0.302467&t=k&om=1 - Arial view of land where seigneurs were.

 

http://www.blacksmithsjournal.com/archives/ - Things that Blacksmiths do.

 

http://www.blacksmithsdepot.com/ - Where Blacksmiths get their tools - check out what they look like.

 

http://www.baba.org.uk/ - The British Blacksmith Association's website

 

What's even more interesting is that there's a whole blacksmiths  association for ontario:

http://www.ontarioblacksmiths.ca/ 

 

www.wikihow.com/Do-Blacksmithing - Very Interesting!!!

 

http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0007270 - More New France information you might find interesting.

 

http://www.mcq.org/seminaire/english/chap4/4-0.htm - the "Last Seigneurs of New France" website

 

http://collections.civilisations.ca/gene/fr_preme.html - Geneology website... INTERESTING!!

 

About Our Group's 'Family'

People in our Family

Pierre Radisson (father/Evan), Lucida Radisson (mother/Connor), Phillip Radisson (son/Terrance), Marco Radisson (son/Marko).  Pierre is 37, Lucida is 33, Phillip is 15, and Marco is 12 years old.

Our family's most important possesions

Pierre is a blacksmith, so our family owns a store.  Only Phillip and Marco farm enough to pay the taxes.  Our family relies mostly on livestock as a source of food.  Since we craft tools and weapons, we must have the necessary tools to make them, and that is why our tools are so important to us.

Activities / What we do

For a living, our family farms and forges (see the blacksmithing section above) tools.  Our family only plants enough crops to pay taxes, so because of that, we rely on our livestock for food.

We have 30 chickens and 15 cows for a lot of milk and eggs.  At our store we repair and create tools and weapons, and in return we get food.  When food is scarce, Pierre and Phillip go hunting, and Marco goes fishing.

My Specific Duties / Other Information

Everyone has to complete this section themselves.

Meetings Coming Up...

I will list any information about upcoming meetings when given.  We are planning to meet at Marko's house on monday. 

If you need directions to his house, email me at thebigguyconnor@gmail.com.

Hopefully you recieved the email from Evan on what we need done for when we go to Marko's on monday!  See You There!

The End

Thanks for visiting the website!

My self -evaluation is posted here.