French Canadian Migration

The rapidly industrializing United States offered opportunities to young French Canadians. New factories, especially cotton mills, were opening in the New England states (Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Maine, Rhode Island and Connecticut) and required large amounts of unskilled labourers. These factories offered higher wages than those in Canada. The geographic proximity to Canada was another factor that led to many French Canadians emigrating to the United States. Not only were the New England states close to Lower Canada, but a major technological change helped facilitate this migration.

Railways were an important part of industrialization. Railways linked the countryside to cities and cities to other cities, which made trade and communication easier. Montreal was quickly linked with American ports because even though Montreal was a port city, the St. Lawrence froze in the winter, but American ports could be accessed year round. These railways also made it easier for people to move to the United States in search of work.

The migration of French Canadians to New England was not a small or short phenomena. Indeed, it represented a mass migration of people, over a long period of time. It has been estimated that in a period of ninety years, from 1840 to 1930, around 900,000 French Canadians moved to the United States in search of work! They established French Catholic neighbourhoods, called Little Canadas, in cities like Lowell, Massachusetts; Manchester, New Hampshire; and Lewiston, Maine. A particular dialect of French called New England French continues to be spoken in parts of the region today.

Colonization

Initially there was not much concern about the emigration of thousands of people to the United States. Despite the migration, the population continued to increase. Elites looked down upon the emigrants whom they saw as lazy and weak. Some nationalists even saw the emigration as an opportunity to increase the French Canadian nation into the United States and increase the Catholic presence in America.

However, as the 19th Century progressed, elites, nationalists and the Catholic Church became more and more concerned about the continued migration of people and the establishment of vibrant French communities in New England. Businessmen realized that the loss of agricultural and industrial workers to New England threatened the sustainability of factories in Canada. Nationalists were worried that despite the establishment of Little Canadas in New England, that eventually they would be assimilated into American society. The Clergy (many who were also nationalists) were afraid that industrialization along with the growing settlement of English speaking Canadians in parts of Lower Canada (later Quebec) were imperilling the French Catholic nation.

The solution was a back to the land movement. Often supported by the federal and provincial governments, the clergy promoted colonization of the Laurentians, Laurentides and other regions north of the St. Lawrence as a purer way of life than that of the cities or the United States. They were aided by government promises of land and with the construction of new railways.

The main proponent of this colonization movement was Curé Antoine Labelle of the parish of St. Jerome. The priest was concerned about the growing number of protestant settlers arriving to the northwest of Montreal. His grand scheme was to build a railway from Montreal to St. Jerome and then west through the Outaouais and up to Temiskaming. Under his leadership, he did bring around 5000 settlers to the area, but his efforts did little to stem the tide of migration to the United States. One often unmentioned consequence of this colonization movement is the effects on the indigenous people who tried to maintain a traditional way of life on the land. Faced with the loss of hunting grounds, the Algonquian peoples sent a number of petitions to the government asking for the protection of the land guaranteed under the Royal Proclamation of 1763.