Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

A Boston newspaper in 1889 described French-Canadian immigrants in this way: “They are kept a distinct alien race, subject to the Pope in matters of religion and of politics. Soon…they will govern you, Americans.” They spoke a foreign language. They followed the Popish religion. They were mysterious and threatening to some.

Author David Vermette began researching Francos in Brunswick, Maine, where his ancestors settled. He then expanded his focus to all of New England. His book, A Distinct Alien Race, is a culmination of that research. We are taken on a journey through the unsanitary conditions of cramped tenement housing to the long workdays in the mills. We learn the push/pull factors that lead to the massive migration of French-Canadians from Quebec to New England. And through the presentation of the four themes of industrialization and its discontents, cross-border immigration, the nature of US citizenship, and fear of “the other,” we come to understand the nature of our ancestors’ immigration experience.

For links, see the show notes at http://maplestarsandstripes.com/76.