History of the Franco-Americans
[1] During the period of French colonization in the Americas (1534–1763), France divided up all of its land into five territories; Canada(Providence of Quebec), Acadia, Hudson Bay, Newfoundland and Louisiana.
[citation needed] Having arrived in New Amsterdam, Huguenots were granted land directly across from the Manhattan settlers on Long Island for a permanent settlement and they also settled near the harbor Newtown Creek, they were the first Europeans to live in Brooklyn, then known as Boschwick, and today the neighborhood known as Bushwick.
Though emigration from Quebec had begun much earlier, this phase started around 1840, reached its highest levels from the U.S. Civil War to the 1890s, and ended with the Great Depression in the 1930s.
At the same time, French Canadians became more aware of American opportunities through the press, growing transportation and communication networks, and family members and neighbors who ventured abroad for short periods.
Ultimately, despite efforts to stanch the flow of people and to repatriate migrants, approximately 900,000 French Canadians settled permanently south of the border.
In the middle of the century, many French Canadians moved to northeastern Illinois, establishing such communities as Bourbonnais, St. Anne, St. Georges, Papineau, and L'Erable.
Destinations included Cohoes in New York; Lewiston in Maine; Fall River, Holyoke and Lowell in Massachusetts; Woonsocket in Rhode Island; and Manchester in New Hampshire.
Initially reluctant to support organized labor and industrial pressure tactics, Franco-Americans joined unions in ever-rising numbers in the early twentieth century.
[17] To protect their identity and help preserve the fabric of traditional French-Canadian community, the migrants established their own Roman Catholic institutions, parish schools, fraternal and benevolent societies, and newspapers.
[18][19] French Canadians were visible in the significant labor they contributed to the industrial economy, their clashes with the Irish during strikes and Church controversies, their annual parades, and their presence as fictional characters on stage and screen.
In addition to innumerable municipal officials and state legislators, Franco-Americans served as mayors of Woonsocket, Lewiston, Manchester, Fall River, Lowell, and many more communities.
In the early twentieth century, Aram Pothier and Emery San Souci became governors of Rhode Island and Felix Hebert was elected to the U.S. Senate.
In Massachusetts, Hugo Dubuque won an appointment to the Superior Court and Henri Achin was pro tempore speaker of the state House of Representatives.
[20] Franco-Americans are known for their significant contributions to the arts (Lucien Gosselin); entertainment (Frank Fontaine, Robert Goulet, Eva Tanguay, Triple H, Rudy Vallée); industry (the Aubuchon family, Joseph Chalifoux, Yvon Chouinard, Joe Coulombe, the D'Amour family, Tom Plant); literature (Will Durant, Will James, Jack Kerouac, Grace Metalious, David Plante, Annie Proulx); law and political analysis (Robert Desty, E.J.
Dionne); religion (Charles Chiniquy, Louis Edward Gelineau, Odore Gendron, George Albert Guertin, Ernest John Primeau); sports (Joan Benoit, Jack Delaney, Leo Durocher, Nap LaJoie); and technical innovation (John Garand, Louis Goddu, Cyprien Odilon Mailloux).
