Guyleine Spencer looks dally life in New France in the 17th century1608 had the appearance of aminiature European town. It con-sisted of three timber buildingstwo stories in height and a court-yard with a watchtower, sur-rounded by a galleried woodenwall, a moat and a drawbridge.The buildings boasted glazed win-dows from France - a far cryfrom the log cabin many imaginewhen picturing early Canada.

By the end of the century, Que-bec had developed into a bustlingseaport of nearly 2,000 citizens. Itwas a two-tier town in more waysthan one. In the narrow, twistylanes of the Lower Town, squeezedbetween the river and the cliff,merchants, inn-keepers, soldiers,

prostitutes, artisans and generallaborers worked and lived cheek-by-jowl. Meanwhile, on the cliffabove, powerful institutions linedthe straight broad streets of theUpper Town - the Bishop's place,

Samuel de Champlain's Geographic Map of New France, from 1613.

History Magazine ® June/July 2008 7

THE CITY OF QUEBEC will celebrateits 400th birthday in 2008. Whatwas life like in the capital of NewFrance during its first century?

The textbooks that many of usrecall from childhood depictedNew France as a world populatedby romantic coureurs-de-bois (furtraders) and fun-loving peasants.The inhabitants seemed to havejust stepped out of a painting byCornelius Krieghoff. AlthoughCanada of the 1600s did includefur-traders and farmers, the citi-zens of its main town lived a lifethat was urban and even, on occa-sion, urbane.

European-style townIn the 17th century, Quebec wasthe capital of France's empire inNorth America and it echoed theambitions, tastes and customs ofits parent country. Even the firstfort built by Champlain's crew in

the cathedral, the colleges and con-vents, the Chateau Saint-Louis -along with some of the homes ofthe wealthy. Stone fortificationsencircled the elite.

A steep track linked the twolevels. Streets in both sections wereunpaved and flooded in the springand blocked by snow in winter.Despite official injunctions, cowsand pigs escaped from back court-yards and roamed freely. Speedinghorses threatened the safety ofpedestrians who had to pinch theirnoses as they picked their waythrough piles of rotting rubbish.The government prevailed uponpeople not to throw rotting foodand human and animal waste intothe streets, but to no avail. Startingin 1694, a cart went around once aweek to remove garbage and take

it to the dumps (one on each levelof the town). However, the cartscouldn't get through in the winter

because of the snow, and even ingood weather, the removal servicewas unreliable.

People threw waste into theriver. No one worried about waterpollution but authorities believedthat the stench in the streets fromthe rotting garbage and the animalwaste caused sickness. In 1673, thegovernment ordered all newhome-builders to install latrines.

Private houses varied in sizeand style. Those of the poor were

the church facing the square. Here,blasphemers, drunkards and thosewho missed mass on Holy Dayspaid for their sins.

PopulationWhen Champlain founded QuebecCity in July 1608, he brought withhim 28 settlers. Twenty years later,

the colony still numbered only 70

permanent residents, almost allmen. For more than half a century,New France was managed by a

series of fur-trad-ing companies

ith scant inter-est in settlement.The flow ofimmigration

remained glacialuntil 1663, whenLouis XIV, King

Lawrence, but some staved toswell the population of the capital.The government gave each couple

a dowry of livestock and a smallamount of cash. Baron de La Hon-ton, a visitor during this period,remarked that the most popularwomen were the plumpest. Thebachelors, he claimed, wantedhardy wives who would be able toshoulder their share of the work -or perhaps, as he noted wryly,more than their share".

As for the male immigrants,many were craftsmen or semi-skilled laborers from France'scities. Very few were farmers. Fre-quently they signed up for three-year contracts as engages. Theyworked for merchants and civicand religious leaders, unloadingships, constructing buildings and

Left: Samuel de Champlain, undated. Right: Even though the majority of the Filles du Roi were of humble origin, theterm used to describe them inspired some artists to paint them in the dress and attitudes of ladies of the court, as this

painting by Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale shows.

often of wood, one story and con-tained one or two rooms at mostand one chimney. The wealthylived in European-style stone man-sions decorated with tapestries, sil-ver candlesticks, paintings andengravings imported from France,as well as objets d'art created bylocal craftsmen.

Both the upper and lowertowns had their own publicsquares that served as marketstwice a week. In Lower Town, thiswas the Place Royale, a busy spotwhere friends could stop and chat,public notices were posted andcrowds gathered to watch theoccasional hanging. From 1636 on,a shackle and rack sat in front of

of France, took over direct rule andencouraged colonization. By 1700,the population of the town hadquadrupled.

The Filles du Rai were the mostfamous immigrants of the era. The"Daughters of the King" were socalled because most of them wereorphans raised by the French state,which was embodied by the king.More than 700 women, most underthe age of 25 years, came to NewFrance between 1663 and 1673. Theauthorities, assisted by the nunswho chaperoned the women,arranged their marriages within afew weeks of arrival. Many of thenew couples immediately left tofarm their holdings along the St.

working on plots of land. Half ofthem returned permanently toFrance when their contract ended.

Although the town was pre-dominantly French, the populationincluded Native people, .Africanslaves, English-American prison-ers, Scots and Irishmen. In 1668,Mother Marie de l'Incantationdescribed those who had justarrived on the ships as "mixedmerchandise. There were Por-tuguese, Germans, Hollanders,and other (men)... also Moorish,Portuguese and French women...The first woman to marry was theMoor, who wed a Frenchman."

8 History Magazine - June/July 2008

Power and OrderThe people of Quebec City lookedto the administrators of the colonyand the religious leaders forauthority. Although these twopowers occasionally came intoconflict, usually they worked inharmony.

The colony had imported itslegal system, land holding rulesand mode of government directlyfrom France. No police existed butwhen a crime was committed, themilitary tracked the suspect. As inEurope, officials resorted to tortureduring interrogation. Punishmentfor crimes could include seizure ofproperty, exile or, in extreme cases,the death penalty. Hanging was themost common method of execution.

One of the most important jobsof the administrators was to pro-vide security for the city and partof this was managing the colony'srocky international relations withthe Iroquois and the English. In1669, Louis XIV ordered the Gov-ernor to set up a militia. Able menfrom 16 to 60 years provided notonly unpaid service but their ownweapons, clothing and food. Dur-ing the war with the Iroquois inthe 1660s, France sent 1,300 regulartroops to Quebec. After the war,around 400 of the soldiers chose toremain in the colony.

The Church arrived early inQuebec - the Recollets in 1615,the Jesuits in 1625 and the Ursulinenuns in 1639. There was no "WildWest" period in New France. Reli-gious leaders cared for the souls ofthe community, punished trans-gressors, attempted to convert theHuron people to Catholicism andFrench ways of living, and pro-vided. health care, shelter andschooling to citizens.

Making a LivingThe economy of New France wasbased on fur, but the townspeopleof the capital weren't all coureurs-de-bois. Quebec attracted shopowners, artisans, servants and gen-eral laborers. Its port was the mostimportant in the colony. Ships withgoods for the whole colonystopped here. Merchants fromMontreal and Trois-Rivieres cameto Quebec to conduct business.Spin-off industries, such as ware-

houses, shops, inns and taverns,sprang up near the port.

In construction, the years from1690 to 1697 were buoyant; theking spent 180,000 livres on thefortifications alone. Carpenters,

stonemasons, tanners, armourers,bakers and butchers plied theirtrades. Apprenticeship usuallylasted three years; a child livedwith his master while he learnedthe business.

Wealthier citizens often com-plained that servants were in shortsupply. When they did obtain helpin their homes, it was usually a girl

aged between four and 13 yearsold. It was difficult to attract daylaborers too, because land wascheap, and able young men pre-ferred to farm for themselves.

Slavery was a fact of life in asociety that mingled brutality

with gentility. The Frenchbought Pawnee prisoners ofwar and slaves of African originas much for status as for house-hold work.

Caring for the UnfortunatesTown officials banned begging

:ore than once during the 17thcentury, but they didn't turn ablind eye to the needy. In 1688,he town officials established an

Office of the Poor andappointed advisors whoreviewed applications for aid.

ey hired two women to gorom door to door asking for

alms in money or in kind. Manyof the people they served were

weft: The Jesuits Welcomed by theRecollets, 1625. Below: Arrival ofthe Ursulines and the Sisters ofCharity in New France by SisterMarie-de-Jesus.

widows with children. Officialsgave out bushels of wheat, quartsof milk or small amounts of cash,depending on need. They arrangedapprenticeships for orphans andfound jobs for able-bodied men.They opened a small shelter. TheOffice of the Poor was not a newidea; some French seaports hadthem as early as 1626.

History Magazine - June/July 2008 9

In 1693, the H6pital-General,an almshouse, opened. In thebeginning, it housed the marginal-ized, although later it expanded toserve as a hospital for the generalpublic. Able-bodied beggars weresent here to work on the farm andto care for people with disabilitiesand mental illnesses, and elderlypeople who were unable to carefor themselves.

School DaysBoys and girls in Quebec went toseparate schools. Childrenattended primary school until theage of 12. The Jesuits opened a pri-mary school for boys in the UpperTown in 1635, and in 1639, theUrsulines opened a school forgirls. Children learned to read (inLatin at first), to write and tocount. Girls also studied comport-ment and needlework. Priests andnuns ran the schools and religionwas a large part of the curriculum.

Although the schools weredivided by gender, there was noethnic separation. Published letterswritten by nuns and priests referto students of Huron and Africanorigin.

In the 1600s, higher educationwas for boys only. The Jesuitsoperated a trade school for cabinetmakers, sculptors and gilders. Inaddition, their college, NorthAmerica's first classical college,trained boys destined for the pro-fessions. It involved three years ofletters and grammar and one eachof humanities and rhetoric, thentwo years of philosophy for thoseplanning to enter religious orders.

Fees for full-time boarding stu-dents equaled a skilled worker'sannual salary, but bursaries wereavailable. The fees helped the insti-tutions cover the costs related tothe day-school, which was free.

Health CareNuns cared for the sick in hospi-tals that treated all walks of society

and every type of illness, physicaland mental. Wards housed theinsane, the alcoholics, the intellec -tually disabled and even thosewho were supposedly "possessedof the devil".

Doctors were rare, but resi-dents relied on other practitioners.

10 History Magazine ® June; July 2008

Barber-surgeons treated wounds,removed tumors and dead fetuses,and performed bleedings andpurges. Midwives attended birthsand also acted as early socialworkers, as they often had to findwet nurses for orphaned or aban-doned babies.

Epidemics took many lives. In1685, the nuns looked after 300patients suffering from typhus andscurvy. The sick filled the hospital,barns, chicken coops and tents.During the years 1687- 1688, smallpox devastated the town. Shipsfrom France often brought infec-tion; officials soon learned to quar-antine them and disinfect themwith tar smoke.

The French adopted Nativeremedies like spruce gum, whichmade a syrup for colds and beaverkidneys for the treatment of ner-vous conditions.

Family LifeAlong with immigration, a highbirth rate fuelled the growth inpopulation in the last quarter ofthe century. Today's birthrate inCanada is roughly 11 births per1,000; back in the 17th century,New France's was five times thisrate. Women tended to marryyoung and have babies every twoyears until menopause. About onein five babies died in their firstyear. Widows remarried quickly.

The state paid a baby bonus tofathers with more than 10 children.Encouragement was hardly neces-sary though; in a time before pen-sion plans of any sort, peoplewelcomed children as futuresources of labor and support.Abandoned infants soon foundhomes. When couples grew too oldto work, the family would hold ameeting before a notary anddecide who would take care of theparents and how much each sib-ling would contribute. In the rarecases where the children failed toprovide for their parents, officialsenforced support.

LifestyleTownspeople ate moose, caribouand venison and many kinds ofbirds - bustards, duck, pigeons,partridge, snipe and teal. Store-houses or icehouses kept the meat

and milk frozen in winter. Fish andeel were common, especially dur-ing Lent. A popular dish was piecetourtiere, a poultry pie. Bread wassuch a large part of the diet thatthe government imposed pricecontrols during times of shortage.in 1636, it was estimated that theaverage workman ate two or threeloaves of wholemeal bread a week,each loaf weighing six or sevenpounds. Maple sugar did not comeinto fashion until the Englishadministration. From 1634 on, thecity had a brewery

The wealthy imported cheese,sweetmeats, lemons, oranges,olives, figs, spices, sugar, molasses,wine and brandy from France. Nodoubt many of these delicaciesappeared at the Governor's ele-gant parties on New Year's Eve.Gift-giving was a popular traditionduring this festival; in 1646 theJesuit Relations records some ofthe gifts exchanged that year - asmall book, a telescope, two piesand a holy picture done in enamel.The books came from France, asthere was no printing press in thecountry at the time. Books wererare and prized. The Jesuit Collegeowned the largest collection andtheir library operated as a readingroom for the town.

Another festive occasion, moreexciting even than New Year's,was the arrival of the first shipsfrom France every spring. Theships brought friends and family,intriguing strangers, longed-forletters and treasures, like the latestfashions from Paris. Old-timersand new arrivals celebrated withparties, outings by caleche (a typeof early two-wheeled carriage) orcanoe, picnics and card games.

Some newcomers warrantedgreater acclamation than others.When the Governor d'Argessonarrived in 1648, locals wrote andstaged a play. The dialogue wasmulti-lingual: French, Huron andAlgonquin. On other special occa-sions as well, audiences enjoyedplays, ballets and readings in Greekand Latin. In such ways, the towns-people could pretend that theywere in the heart of Paris; for a fewhours at least, they kept the wilder-ness around them at bay.

RAM

Quebec City in the 1600sHIS30S

1. Explain the pun in the following quote, "The citizens of its main town lived a life that was urbanand even, on occasion, urbane."

2. How is Champlain's fort built in 1608 described?

3. If Quebec is so far inland, how can it lay claim to being "a bustling seaport"?

4. What architectural evidence would convince you that wealthy people lived atop the cliff whilethe lower classes lived along the river at the base of the cliff?

5. How did the square serve the community?

6. As long as the fur trading companies ran the settlement, very little population growth occurred.Why did it remain so small under this form of government?

7. T; ie king was so anxious to increase the colony's population that he sent over "les Filles de Roi".Why was an increase in the population in the colony so vital to the king?

8. Contrary to popular belief, the French were not the only settlers in the colony. Describe theethnic mix of the colony.

9. Each seigneur (landlord), noble or person of wealth could buy a commission in the Frenchmilitary. They did, however have to raise their own militias. What disadvantage(s) were there tocommanding a militia? What was/were the advantage(s)?

10. How did the wealthy rationalize the taking and keeping of slaves?

11. Compare the care and treatment of the poor in New France to the care and treatment of the poorin Canada today.

12. How do the educational opportunities given to the boys and girls reflect the society in which theywere raised?

13. What was the value of children within the New France society generally, and the familyspecifically?