Life in New France

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Life in New France

• Alanna, Megan, Leasa

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Contents

• Seigneuries
• The Habitants
• Early towns
• Roles of Women
• Old vs. New France

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SeigneurieS

• Seigneuries are lands arranged in long narrow
  strips
• They were located along the banks of the St
  Lawrence River
• All the land was
  owned by the King
  of France, but
  
  maintained by a
  landlord or
  SEIGNEUR
  (pronounced seg-nuur)

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St Lawrence River

• 67 Seigneuries were around the St. Lawrence River
  between 1634 and 1633.

They Lived Here!
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Things the Seigneurs had to do

• Some of the responsibilities of a seigneur were
  to
• Pay the King money for land and taxes
• Provide habitants with land to work and live on
• Organized recreational activities on the common
  land for the habitants in their spare time

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They Built

• Mill for the habitants to use
• Churches for the people to worship in
• A court house in his lot for his habitants to
  solve their problems and disputes

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Feudal system VS Seigneural system

• In the European feudal system, the lord could
  fine the workers
• In the Seigneural system, only the Intendent who
  was appointed by the king had the power to fine

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Habitants or Tenants

• Each seigneur divided his land among habitants
• The habitants paid taxes to the
  seigneur called cens.
• Habitants were required to work
  for their seigneur 3 days a year,
  often building roads
• The habitants would divide
  their land for their children
  once they had families of
  their own

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Things they did

• The Habitants did 5 main things. They would
• 1. Clear the land,
• 2. Build houses and other buildings,
• 3. Farmed the land for the lord
• 4. Built roads and
• 5. paid rent to the seigneur (gave the seigneur
  some of their flour).

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HOW THE HABITANT LIVED

• The habitant lived like the seigneur. The home
  was the same and the daily fare.
• Becoming a seigneur was simple, just by saving
  enough money.
• People took the social rank seriously, though the
  life pattern didnt change. Work would still be
  the same.
• However, to be a seigneur was always an honor,
  for the manor-house was the social centre of
  every neighborhood.

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The Housing -- Seigneurs

• The manor-house was not a mansion. It was made of
  stone. Simple, but comfortable.
• There were 3 or 4 rooms on the ground floor.
• The furniture often came from France, and its
  quality gave it the sense of importance.

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The Habitants home

• The habitants houses were also of stone or
  timber. There were narrow structures, heavily
  built, and low.
• The houses stood very near the roadway, with
  scarcely ever a grass plot or single shade tree
  before them.

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Farm products that were abundant

• wheat, corn, peas, vegetables and milk were a
  huge part of their diet. Habitants grew most of
  the food they ate.
• Farms often had different types of animals
  oxen, chickens, pigs, goats, and cows. 
• Mills were incredibly important for grinding
  wheat and corn.

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Luxuries

• The wealthiest of the habitants even had ice
  creamwhich was unheard of in old France
• Free time was also a luxury, one that was not
  wasted.
• They would use free time for recreational
  activities

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Regular things they did

• Smoking was a regular in New France
• The men of New France smoked a great deal, and
  the women sometimes followed their example.
• Children learned to smoke before they learned to
  read or write.
• Tobacco was grown in the colony, and every
  habitant had a patch of it in his garden

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Early towns

• Only a small part of the population lived in the
  towns.
• At the beginning of the eighteenth century the
  census showed a total of 16,417 people in New
  france
• Less than 3000 were in the three main towns
   Québec, Trois-Rivières, and Montréal

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Quebec and Montreal

• Quebec, the capital and largest town, had a
  population of about two thousand in 1700 and grew
  to more than five thousand by mid-century.
• Montreal rapidly developed
  into the
  second largest
  town in large part because
  it
  became the center of the
  fur trade.

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Town Life

• Merchants located their
  buisness places near the
  waterfront in the Lower Town
• The rich and the church were
  located in the Upper Town.
• Most of the houses were made
  of stone because of many
  house fires with
  wood ones
• Most of the buildings were
  lodgings, because most of
  the population was
  renting rather than
  owning homes because of high cost

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Disadvantages of towns

• Garbage was thrown into the streets
• The dirt streets were narrow and bustling with
  people and animals.
• In the heat, they turnedincredibly dusty
• After a heavy rain they turned into mud bowls.
• There was considerable violence, fire, and theft.

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Transportation

• Transportation within New France was very limited
• The water highway, the St. Lawrence River and its
  tributaries, provided the best transit system.
• The aboriginal peoples taught the French about
  the use of birch bark canoes, and they became
  greatly used in 3 out of 4 seasons. In winter
  they used snowshoes

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Roles of Women

• In 1633 half of the Seigneuries of New France
  were managed by women. This is when the
  immigration peaked, from around 1630-1662
• The seigneruies were run by women because they
  were more literate, and
  women could inherit their
  husbands land if he died,
  taking it for their own
• They still did all the
  things that you would
  expect a woman to do

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Womens Jobs

• Women were more literate then the men, so they
  handled all the business side of things,
• They did the housework , sewing, cooking, and
  washing
• They were responsible for the education of their
  children.
• They worked in the fields and gardens beside
  their homes alongside their husbands as well.

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First women in New France

• When people first arrived in New France, there
  were very few women.
• Some of the first women there were (Marie Anne)
• Louise de Ramezey and Marie Lincarnation

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Marie Lincarnation

• Marie de L'incarnation was named Marie Guyart
  when she was born in Tours, France on October 28,
  1599. 
• Her father was a successful baker,
  and her mother was of noble
  birth. Because of
  this, she was able to get a
  proper education.
• Marie married a silk worker in 1617,
  but he died two years after their
  marriage,
  leaving her to care for her 6 month old son
• She also took responsibility for her
  brother-in-laws carrier buisness, because she
  had remarkable buisness skills.

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Maries religious life

• At the age of 27, she decided to join the
  Ursulines, (more commonly known as nuns) a Roman
  Catholic order for pious women
• She left her son in the care of her sister, and
  became a nun in 1633
• When she became a nun, she changed her name to
  Marie Lincarnation

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Marie Sails to New France

• On May 4, 1639, she sailed to New France after
  God told her to in a dream.
• All of her fellow nuns sailed there
  as well.
• The nuns had built a huge convent
  under Maries leadership
• Here they trained other young women
  to be nuns. Taught some
  native girls as well.
• Marie died after being in New France about 30
  years.

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Louise de ramezey

• Louise de Ramezey was born on July 6, 1705, in
  New France. She was born into a noble family, as
  daughter of the governor.
• She was educated in the convent that Marie
  Lincarnation had founded, so she was single all
  her life
• Her father died in 1724, and
  she slowly began to become
  involved in the buisness side
  of the
  family.

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The Sawmill

• One thing that really grabbed
  her attention was the sawmill that her
  father had built on the Huron River
• The sawmill took
  the rich timber
  of the
  Richelieu
  River and Lake
  
  Champlain area,
  and was turned into
  lumber for
  French
  ships at Quebec.
• In 1745, she opened a new sawmill on the
  seigneury of Rouville with Marie-Anne Legras

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Other Facts

• She died on October 22, 1776
• She loved New France so much that she stayed
  there even after most of the nobles fled to Old
  France, including her brother, because the
  British defeated them in Quebec

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Filles de roi

• There were a lot more women in 1663, when young
  women were given free passage to New France, and
  provided with a dowry. Some were shipped out as
  young as 12.
• These women were know as filles de roi
• The women were expected to bear and raise
  children in the colony
• They also had to do the housework, both in the
  house, and in the garden

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Unusual things they did

• Some women were in charge of political afairs
• Others were part of the military
• They had some of the same responsibilities as the
  men
• Some of them owned their own properties

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But their power wasnt unlimited

• Married women couldnt be sued or sue other
  people. Not being sued was good, but they
  couldn't sue others, no matter how much they
  wanted or needed to.
• They couldnt dispose of
  any of their husbands
  property either, unless
  they had
  the husbands permission.

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Old vs New France

• women did things that they never did before, like
  running businesses, which never happened in Old
  France
• Women could own things that never wouldve been
  possible before
• Towns were smaller in New France than in Old
  France

WOMENS RIGHTS!
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Old vs. New France cont.

• In New France the Habitants could have free time,
  and the rich could even have ice cream!
• In New France their obligations were few in
  number, and weren't burdening , unlike in Old
  France
• New France had better roads than Old France,
  incredibly better!
• New France was in Quebec, known to them as the
  new world, and old France was in actual France

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Old vs. New France cont.

• New France was in Quebec, known to them as the
  new world, and old France was in actual France
• New France was a lot more different than Old
  France
• It changed France in itself a ton, for the better

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• Any Questions?