The Franco-americans of New England

by Roby, Yves

• ISBN13: 9782894484005
• ISBN10: 2894484003
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-05-01
• Publisher: McGill Queens Univ

Summary

Between 1840 and 1930, approximately 900,000 people left Quebec for the United States and settled in French-Canadian colonies in New England's industrial cities. Yves Roby draws from first-person accounts to explore the conversion of these immigrants and their descendants from French-Canadian to Franco-American. The first generation of immigrants saw themselves as French Canadians who had relocated to the United States. They were not involved with American society and instead sought to recreate their lost homeland. The Franco-Americans of New England reveals that their children, however, did not see a need to create a distinct society. Although they maintained aspects of their language, religion, and customs, they felt no loyalty to Canada and identified themselves as Franco-American.Roby's analysis raises insightful questions about not only Franco-Americans but also the integration of ethno-cultural groups into Canadian society and the future of North American Francophonies.

Author Biography

Yves Roby is with the faculty at Laval University.

Table of Contents

List of Tables	xiii
Acronyms and Abbreviations	xv
Acknowledgments	xvii
Introduction	1	(6)
Leaving for the ``States'' (1840--1900)	7	(22)
Before 1860	8	(3)
From 1860 to 1900	11	(1)
The Quebec countryside and emigration	12	(2)
Urban centers and emigration	14	(1)
The Acadian emigration	15	(1)
A fascination with New England	16	(2)
Characteristics of the migratory movement	18	(3)
The Little Canadas	21	(8)
In the Eye of the Beholder (1865--1900)	29	(44)
Turncoats or missionaries?	30	(23)
Foreigners or Americans?	53	(20)
The Elite and a Changing Reality (1865--1900)	73	(44)
``They did not leave the homeland, they brought it with them''	74	(12)
The Little Canadas: an arena where the forces of change and the status quo clashed head-on	86	(12)
The elite caught between the dream and the reality	98	(19)
The Emergence of a Radical Discourse (1865--1900)	117	(36)
Two opposing views	118	(21)
``The Irish clergy [ ... ] appears to feel nostalgia for oppression''	139	(14)
Progress, Crisis, and the Seeds of Dissension (1901--1914)	153	(70)
Progress and jubilation	154	(7)
Demographic changes and uncertainty	161	(6)
The fight against the ``Irish'' Episcopate: new strategies	167	(21)
Discourse on change	188	(35)
Radicals and Moderates: The Rupture (1914--1929)	223	(70)
The sacred union to defy full-fledged Americanism	224	(17)
The Sentinellist unrest and the rupture between the moderate faction and the radical militancy	241	(28)
The struggle against Anglicization and Americanization: a deeply divided elite	269	(24)
``A National Renasence'': Between the Dream and the Reality (1929--1939)	293	(72)
The Great Depression	295	(18)
Major changes	313	(6)
A community completely transformed	319	(7)
The elite and survivance	326	(23)
Reconciliation	349	(16)
``Isolationism... or the Open-Door Policy'' (1939--1956)	365	(70)
The Franco-Americans and the Second World War	367	(29)
The Franco-American centennial (1949)	396	(25)
Thomas-Marie Landry, o.p., at the third Congress of the French Language (1952)	421	(8)
Isolationism. . . or the open-door policy?	429	(6)
The Elder Generation Stands Down (1956--1976)	435	(64)
Traditional Franco-America collapses	436	(47)
Conflicts between generations?	483	(2)
Isolationism or the open-door policy?	485	(14)
Epilogue	499	(20)
In pursuit of Father Landry's dream	500	(9)
``Survivance is dead in the Little Canadas''	509	(4)
The last handful	513	(6)
Bibliographic Guidelines	519	(8)
Onomastic Index	527	(8)
Toponimic Index	535	(6)
Subject Index	541