New france history games

The violin music heard at the Ursuline convent delighted Aboriginal women. The many ceremonies organized by the clergy included songs, music and hymns for every station along a procession route. Music was not heard solely in military and religious settings; a selection of estate inventories reveals that about fifty people owned musical instruments.

Three-quarters of them were prosperous merchants or individuals involved in commerce in one way or another. Merchant Raymond Dubosc had close to of them in his inventory in Some high-ranking officials, military officers and artisans also owned musical instruments. Singing played an important role in the lives of Canadian colonists, who often sang at the dinner table. In court archives, one regularly finds reports of colonists or Aboriginal people singing in the streets, often while drunk.

The archives also contain reports of soldiers sitting in taverns copying songs into songbooks. Since such information is often drawn from records of trials related to the forgery of orders to pay , the transcription of songs was no doubt a means of covering up illegal acts.

Apart from Menuets chantants and Clef de chansonniers, two volumes listed in some inventories, it is hard to tell what drinking songs or more serious melodies were sung by colonists. In , during a trial for the forgery of orders to pay, a witness who lived on Rue St-Paul, in whose home the two defendants were boarders, testified that he had seen one of them, soldier Guillaume Jacques Wouters, known as Duchateau, writing a song with four couplets.

In New France, songs were frequently satirical in nature and could necessitate apologies, or lead to fines and, sometimes, punishment in an iron collar in the public square. The ones who benefited the most from this amusing affair were the judges, clerks, bailiffs and notaries. The signs placed in front and behind him read: Auteur de Chansons songwriter.

Dance, like theatre, was a form of entertainment that was always subject to disapproval by the Church. The first references to dance in the colony appear in the context of a wedding, that of a soldier named Montpellier and the daughter of Charles Sevestre.

The previous year, two violinists played at a wedding reception at the home of Sieur Couillard. Those violinists most likely accompanied a few dancers, since dancing was quite popular at weddings in France. His successor, Monseigneur de Saint-Vallier, never missed an opportunity to denounce dances and balls as offences against decency. The few pastoral letters he issued in forbade these and other forms of entertainment on Sundays and feast days. Despite the censure of the religious authorities, dancing continued to be enjoyed in New France.

According to him, Louisiana was the land where people danced the most. The members of the working classes did not all dance the minuet, but they enjoyed kicking up their heels in a contredanse. In , soldiers and inhabitants of La Prairie Saint Lambert got together to eat, drink and dance on the days meat was allowed. On November 14, , Samuel de Champlain and Jean de Biencourt de Poutrincourt returned from an exploration of the coast.

They were welcomed in Port-Royal, Acadia, with a performance of Muses de la Nouvelle-France, featuring characters from Greek mythology. Neptune, with long hair and beard, held a trident and was seated in a chariot pulled over the waves by six Tritons. The author of the show, Marc Lescarbot, most likely also composed the music. When the next theatrical performances were presented, New France already had its first governor, Charles Huault de Montmagny. He never missed an opportunity to organize festivities, both to amuse the colonists and captivate Aboriginal people.

Indeed, religious ceremonies and processions were often followed by profane festivities. Cannon and musket fire, as well as fireworks, made a strong impression. The Jesuits had their works performed by their students. In addition to the Passion play in Latin, they presented dramas in five acts that always had moralistic themes.

The Ursulines also staged short moral and religious dramas called pastorals. In those educational settings, theatre was not used to train actors; it was, rather, a memory exercise, and helped students prepare for public speaking and learn how to present themselves in public.

It goes without saying that female characters were forbidden in the plays presented in schools for boys. The tragedies of Racine and Corneille were meant to edify the audience and convey a moral, since the public identified with the heroes. With comedies, it was altogether different.

In France, the Jansenists strict Catholics who favoured rigorous abstinence wanted to ban comedy, since it stirred the passions, particularly those of the flesh. Tartuffe , act IV, scene v, lines — Monseigneur de Saint-Vallier issued pastoral letters against comedies, and when he instructed priests to preach against impious speech, he was targeting the freethinking Mareuil, whose remarks were sometimes considered blasphemous.

Mareuil protested, and the matter was brought before the Conseil souverain. He was subsequently arrested and sent back to France on the last vessel to leave in Monseigneur de Saint-Vallier managed to cancel the presentation of Tartuffe by spending about a hundred pistoles, and then he, too, went to France. Upon his return to the colony, he took up the battle against impious entertainment with renewed zeal. In a general pastoral letter dating from , the bishop included a series of activities and places that were off-limits to clerics: shows; balls; assemblies; banquets; fairs; markets; inns, taverns and other places where alcoholic beverages were offered; trials; games of chance, court tennis or boules in public places; and even hunting.

The Ursulines got around the restrictions by presenting mythological and bucolic sketches. In , a man named Montmorency, likely a soldier, was paid 20 livres to give a puppet show that was presented from Epiphany to the end of Lent.

There were no printing presses, bookstores or public libraries in New France. Yet, books were present in the life of the inhabitants and circulated within the colony. Religious communities and schools used them for cultural and educational purposes, while professionals viewed them as tools or a form of entertainment.

A sampling of 2, estate inventories dating from to gives us a fairly accurate idea of the presence of books in homes. Despite the absence of printers and bookstores, close to people owned books, for a total of about 8, volumes.

Books were found at all levels of society, but more so among the more educated classes and older people. Prosperous merchants owned a quarter of the libraries inventoried. Books were very important to State officials and members of the clergy, who had the largest libraries.

That was the case in libraries belonging to unskilled workers, such as domestics and most artisans. Only three libraries contained more than 1, books. Sabatier noted that the book was worth the trip, and he invited Verrier to lend it to others who, in turn, would tell him which books they would like to receive.

Books were not found only in medical circles and among high-ranking officials. There are some amusing facts related to books. Valin refused to return them, claiming that he had not yet finished reading the third book. Nine hundred works were sold for a total of about 9, livres tournois. While the Marquis de Montcalm purchased only one volume at the auction, a soldier known as Tremble-au-Vent bought six.

Some titles, especially dictionaries, fetched up to or livres. The person who spent the most at the auction — livres — was a man named Robin. A notary called Panet spent almost as much, livres tournois. Inflation no doubt accounts for the high prices. However, investing in books meant that less money was available for the purchase of other goods, such as food.

What titles were found in libraries? It was no doubt popular because some editions were well illustrated, but especially because it presented the rules one had to follow to lead a good Christian life, including daily prayers and meditations in preparation for the sacraments.

In a society where the military played an important role, the virtual absence of military codes is surprising. The governors were perhaps right in saying that Canadian officers knew nothing about basic military discipline. Among the works of historians and geographers, those that dealt with the history of France and North America were the most numerous. Biographies of French politicians and accounts of travels in North America confirm the popularity of French works.

Treatises on the continents, both geographical and historical, allowed certain readers to discover the four corners of the globe and provide evidence of an openness to the outside world. About ten inventories also featured musical works.

Literature appears to be the most varied category, with close to authors. Proponents of classical and contemporary literature, poets, social and political critics, letter writers, philosophers and religious writers — all the great names of French literature from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries were found on the shelves of colonial libraries. The presence of primers and dictionaries also attests the interest of the early settlers in self-education and the art of writing.

Lastly, the novels and poetry are indicative of the need for distraction. Intended primarily for the working class, they included primers and almanacs. Even their titles have often failed to survive, but those that do indicate topics ranging from education to religion, entertainment, gardening and medicinal preparations.

Among the more formal books, about forty were penned by authors who were anti-establishment to varying degrees. Seigneurs ran the seigneuries. A roture was one of the many strips of land that made up a seigneury.

Each roture was farmed by a different family. A seigneur was not required to provide a worker with a store because the worker would have brought his own tools from France and the workers would be growing their own food.

Habitants were families who worked on their roture. An habitant had to pay annual rent "cents et rents" to the seigneur. A whole family would work on one roture. The women would cook and make clothes. The men would work in the field. They would leave the seigneury and set out into the wilderness to trade with the Natives. They were often not the most pleasant of people. They were often drunk and had wild parties.

They were also not very kind to the Natives. They would trade a dollar of goods for a pelt that they could sell for ten dollars. They often had heart attacks because of the heavy packs they carried on their backs. The government didn't like the "coureurs des bois" because they thought that their way of life went against their religious beliefs.

The government made the "coureurs des bois" buy licences to trade and fined them heavily if they were caught trading without a licence. Most traders disregarded this regulation and continued to trade without licences.

Cartier was the first explorer of New France and went on three voyages down the St. He tried to start a settlement upstream from Stadacona Quebec City but it failed when after a harsh winter and scurvy killed most of the men and rest decided to leave. Land Records. Miscellaneous Resources. Mississippi Valley. Notary and Court Records. Parish Records. River Raisin - Monroe. Slavery in New France. Introduction: Although Jacques Cartier was the first explorer documented to have explored the Gulf of the St.

Lawrence in , and "discovered" the St. Lawrence River in , continuous occupation of New France did not occur until the 17th century. While some people prefer to study the history of their ancestors and their culture working backwards in time, we feel that if you study the history of New France starting with the 17th century you will have a greater understanding of not only our shared history but of the historical events that greatly influenced our evolving culture.

The lives lived by our ancestors was also influenced by where they lived at a particular period of time as well as their occupations. In other words, if you focus too much on the stories about French-Canadian culture or Native culture learned from your parents, grandparents, or great grandparents without reading about their history, you may make assumptions about their culture that are not supported by historical records. See: About us genealogiequebec.

Fichier Origine - this database provides researchers with information about our ancestors in France. The information may include images of the immigrant's baptism, information regarding their parents, and in some cases, their grandparents. The link for searching the databse can be accessed here: Fichier Origine.