A People's History of Quebec Quotes

“The Seven Years’ War only began officially in 1756, but war had already been raging in North America for two years. People in the English colonies saw the “reduction of Canada” as a necessity. Different names are used to qualify that war depending on which side people or their ancestors were on. For Europeans and English-speaking Canadians it is known as the “Seven Years’ War,” for the inhabitants of New France, now Quebec, it is known as the “Guerre de la conquête” or “War of Conquest;” and for the people of New England, and eventually all of the United States, it is known as the “French and Indian War.” Winston Churchill would later call it the “First World War.”
― Jacques Lacoursiere, A People's History of Quebec

“They frowned even more upon the charivari, which had been banned throughout the Catholic world in the 16th century under penalty of excommunication. In New France charivaris became popular in the 1680s. People would make a hullabaloo to protest a wedding or widowhood that was too brief, or to oppose marriage of a bride and a groom who were too far apart in age. Very often the only way to stop a charivari was to pay off its organizers.”
― Jacques Lacoursiere, A People's History of Quebec

“By the end of the 17th century, men and women living permanently in Canada had become much different from the people of France, and it was the colonial administrators and visitors who first observed the differences.”
― Jacques Lacoursiere, A People's History of Quebec

“In a book published in 1664, the Governor of Trois-Rivières Pierre Boucher wrote: “People travel over the snow using a type of shoe made by the Savages known as ‘raquettes’ or snowshoes, and they are very helpful.” Canoes also become necessary for navigating the rivers and lakes. The coureurs de bois could never have developed the fur trade without using canoes and snowshoes.”
― Jacques Lacoursiere, A People's History of Quebec

“Those who decided to settle down in the Canadian part of New France, namely the St. Lawrence Valley, began to identify themselves as being different from French visitors. They became “Canadois” or “Canadiens.” Research by historian Gervais Carpin indicates that the new identity slowly appeared in the 1660s. These “Canadiens” preferred to be called “habitants” instead of “paysans” or peasants as they were in France.”
― Jacques Lacoursiere, A People's History of Quebec

“The French sailed upriver as far as Stadacona, later to be called Quebec. Stadacona was at the heart of a region known as the “Kingdom of Canada,” with “Canada” being a place name of Iroquoian origin meaning a village or group of houses. After a brief visit to the large Aboriginal town of Hochelaga on the island of Montreal, Cartier and his men settled in to face the rigours of their first North American winter. Early in May 1536 before weighing anchor for France, he erected another cross with the French coat of arms and the Latin inscription, “François I reigning by the grace of God, King of the French.” This was in fact a second claim to possession of the land.”
― Jacques Lacoursiere, A People's History of Quebec