The Quebec Act of 1774: Transnational
Contexts, Meanings, and Legacies
1774 : L’Acte de Québec. Contextes
transnationaux, interprétations et héritages
An international conference organized by the French
Atlantic History Group and the Omohundro Institute of
Early American History and Culture, in partnership with
Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ),
with support from the Social Sciences and Humanities
Research Council of Canada, the French Atlantic History
Group, and the University of Montreal.
Colloque international organisé par le Groupe d’histoire
de l’Atlantique français et l’Omohundro Institute of Early
American History and Culture, en partenariat avec Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ), avec
le soutien du Conseil de recherches en sciences humaines du Canada, du Groupe d’histoire de l’Atlantique
français et de l’Université de Montréal.
Grande Bibliothèque de BAnQ • 475, boulevard De Maisonneuve Est, Montréal
Before 10:00 a.m., please use the entrance for BAnQ
personnel on Berri Street.
PROGRAM
PROGRAMME
All sessions will take place in the auditorium of the
Grande Bibliothèque.
Toutes les séances se tiendront dans l’auditorium de la
Grande bibliothèque.
Friday, October 4
Vendredi 4 octobre
8:30 a.m.Registration, coffee, and pastries,
Room M. 450.
.
9:00 Welcoming Remarks
Guy Berthiaume, Président-directeur
général, Bibliothèque et Archives
nationales du Québec
Karin Wulf, Director, Omohundro Institute
of Early American History and Culture
Nicholas Dew, McGill University
8h30Inscription, café et pâtisseries seront
disponibles dans la salle M. 450.
9h00 Mots de bienvenue
Guy Berthiaume, Président-directeur
général, Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec Karin Wulf, Director, Omohundro Institute of
Early American History and Culture
Nicholas Dew, McGill University
9:15 Session 1: Constructing Frameworks
9h15 Séance 1 : Les contours d’un événement
Chair: Louis-Georges Harvey,
Bishop’s University
Président : Louis-Georges Harvey,
Bishop’s University
Narrating Quebec: The Quebec Act in the
Writing of the American Revolution
Jacqueline Reynoso, Cornell University
« Whate’er is best administer’d is best » :
l’Acte de Québec et la réformation de l’Empire
dans l’Amérique britannique
Douglas Bradburn, The Fred W. Smith
National Library for the Study of George
Washington at Mount Vernon
“ Whate’er is best administer’d is best”: The
Quebec Act and the Reformation of Empire
in British America
Douglas Bradburn, The Fred W. Smith
National Library for the Study of George
Washington at Mount Vernon
The Quebec Act and the Canadians: The
Myth of the Emancipatory Moment
Donald Fyson, Université Laval
1
Avant 10 h, prière d’utiliser l’entrée de la rue Berri réservée
au personnel de BAnQ.
aconter le Québec : l’Acte de Québec dans
R
les récits sur la Révolution américaine
Jacqueline Reynoso, Cornell University
’Acte de Québec et les Canadiens : le mythe
L
du moment émancipateur
Donald Fyson, Université Laval
10:45Break
10h45Pause
11:15 a.m.–12:15 p.m.
Session 2: The Law
11h15 Président : Alexandre Dubé,
Washington University in St. Louis
Chair: Alexandre Dubé,
Washington University in St. Louis
Choosing between French and English
Law for Quebec, 1769–1774
Michel Morin, Université de Montréal
Choisir entre le droit français et le droit
anglais pour la province de Québec,
1769 – 1774
Michel Morin, Université de Montréal
“Consistent with their allegiance to His
Majesty”: Redefining Loyal Subjects in
1774
Hannah Muller, Harvard University
« Consistent with their allegiance to His
Majesty » : repenser la vision des sujets
loyaux en 1774
Hannah Muller, Harvard University
12:15 Lunch on your own
12h15 Repas libre 14h00 Séance 3 : L’administration
2:00 Session 3: Colonial Administration
Chair: Sylvie Dépatie, Université du
Québec à Montréal
The Roman Catholic Church in the North
Atlantic Area in the Age of the Quebec
Act: The Québec-London Context,
1763–1776
Luca Codignola, University of Genoa
The Quebec Act and the Laurentian
Seigneurial Regime: Putting the
Recognition into Perspective
Alain Laberge, Université Laval
3:30Break
4:00 Session 4: Aspects
Geography
géographiques/
Chair: Laurent Turcot, Université du
Québec à Trois-Rivières
coloniale
Présidente : Sylvie Dépatie,
Université du Québec à Montréal
L’Église catholique dans l’espace nordatlantique à l’époque de l’Acte de Québec :
le contexte Québec-Londres, 1763 – 1776
Luca Codignola, University of Genoa
’Acte de Québec et le régime seigneurial
L
laurentien : la mise en perspective d’une
reconnaissance
Alain Laberge, Université Laval
15h30Pause
16h00 Séance 4 : Aspects géographiques
Président : Laurent Turcot,
Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières
es nouvelles frontières de l’Empire : les
L
réponses atlantiques à la géographie de
l’Acte de Québec
Jeffers Lennox, Wesleyan University
The Empire’s New Borders: Atlantic
Responses to the Quebec Act’s
Geography
Jeffers Lennox, Wesleyan University
Completing the Map of America: Indian
Polities, Interior Colonies, and the Geographic Impact of the Quebec Act
S. Max Edelson, University of Virginia
chever la carte de l’Amérique : les réA
gimes indiens, les colonies de l’intérieur, et
l’impact géographique de l’Acte de Québec
S. Max Edelson, University of Virginia
17h00 Réception
5:00 Reception
Samedi 5 octobre
Saturday, October 5
8h30Inscription, café et pâtisseries seront
disponibles dans la salle M. 450.
8:30 a.m.Registration, coffee, and pastries,
Room M. 450.
9:00
Session 5: The Quebec Act
Nation Territorial Issues
and
First
Chair: Jean-François Palomino, BAnQ
2
Séance 2 : Les aspects juridiques
Conference Address by Alain Beaulieu,
Université du Québec à Montréal
9h00
Séance 5 : L’Acte
de Québec et la
question territoriale autochtone Président : Jean-François Palomino, BAnQ
onférence d’Alain Beaulieu, Université du
C
Québec à Montréal
9:45Break
10:00 Session 6: The Quebec Act
British Empire
and the
he papers in this session will be
T
precirculated to registered participants.
Chair: Elizabeth Elbourne,
McGill University
Legacies of 1774: The Politics of Imperial
Reform in Quebec, Ireland, and India Heather Welland, Wake Forest
University
Rethinking Ireland and Empire: The Quebec Act and the Heterogeneous Empire
Aaron Willis, University of Notre Dame
he Quebec Act and Britain’s PanT
Imperial Program of Legal Pluralism
Christian Burset, Yale University
Catholic Relief and Popular Patriotism
in the British Atlantic
Brad Jones, California State University,
Fresno
12:00–1:30 p.m.Lunch on your own
ession 7: Gender, Politics, and
S
Identity
1:30
Chair: Pierre Tousignant,
Université de Montréal
1774: From the Quebec Act to the Call of
the Enlightenment
Bernard Andrès, Université du Québec à
Montréal
For a Reasonable Assimilation: A Study of
the Petition and the Report of French
Subjects to the Count of Dartmouth,
Secretary of State for America, December
1773
Anne Trépanier, Université de Carleton
Foppish Canadians and Manly Britons:
Civic Humanism and the Texture of
Political Language in the Age of the
Quebec Act, 1774–1809
Nancy Christie, University of Western
Ontario
This Sr is the
Meaning of the
Quebec Act.
1774—The Year of the Bastard: The Politics of Paternity and Legal Métissage in Quebec, the Pays d’en haut, and
Louisiana
Jay Gitlin and Karen Marrero,
Yale University
3:30Break
4:00 Concluding Remarks
Chair: François Furstenberg
Denys Delâge, Université Laval
Jack Greene, Johns Hopkins University
7:00Dinner. Restaurant Laloux 3
9h45Pause
10h00
Séance 6 : L’Acte
britannique
de
Québec et l’Empire
Les textes de cette séance seront diffusés à
l’avance pour les participants inscrits.
Présidente : Elizabeth Elbourne,
McGill University
éritages de 1774 : la réforme de l’Empire
H
au Québec, en Irlande et en Inde
Heather Welland, Wake Forest University
epenser l’Irlande et l’Empire : l’Acte de
R
Québec et l’Empire hétérogène
Aaron Willis, University of Notre Dame
’Acte de Québec et le programme
L
pan-impérial de pluralisme légal
Christian Burset, Yale University
’aide catholique et le patriotisme populaire
L
dans l’Atlantique britannique
Brad Jones, California State University,
Fresno
12h00Repas libre
13h30
Séance 7 : Genre,
politique et identité
Président : Pierre Tousignant,
Université de Montréal
1774 : de l’Acte de Québec à l’appel des
Lumières
Bernard Andrès, Université du Québec à
Montréal
Pour une assimilation raisonnable : étude de
la pétition et du mémoire des sujets français
au comte de Darmouth, secrétaire d’État pour
l’Amérique, décembre 1773
Anne Trépanier, Université de Carleton
Coquets Canadiens et Britanniques virils :
l’humanisme civique et la trame du langage politique à l’époque de l’Acte de Québec,
1774 – 1809
Nancy Christie, University of Western
Ontario
774 — L’Année du bâtard : la politique de la
1
paternité et du métissage legal au Québec,
aux Pays d’en haut et en Louisiane
Jay Gitlin and Karen Marrero,
Yale University
15h30Pause
16h00 Mots de conclusion
Président : François Furstenberg
Denys Delâge, Université Laval
Jack Greene, Johns Hopkins University
19h00 Banquet. Restaurant Laloux
Sunday, October 6
10:00a.m. Brunch and tour, Pointe-à-Callière
Museum
10h00
Dimanche 6 octobre
Brunch et visite, Musée Pointe-à-Callière
Image credits
Page 1: Banner, left to right • Detail, Bust of a Mohawk on the Grand River, by Sempronius Stretton,
1804. Aquarelle on paper. Courtesy, Library and Archives Canada, acc. no.1990-336-1.13V. • Detail, Plan
of the Town & Fortifications of Montreal, or Ville Marie in Canada, 1760. Courtesy, McCord Museum,
acc. no. M21768. • Detail, Costume of Domiciliated Indians of North America, by George Heriot, London,
1807. Print. Courtesy, Library and Archives Canada, acc. no. 1989-479-5. • Detail, Medal and wampum
(verso). Eastern Woodlands and English, ca. 1763–1789. Silver, shell beads, and plant fiber. Courtesy,
McCord Museum, acc. no. M5932. After 1763, the British used George III silver medals, like the one pictured here, in Indian alliance negotiations. The king appears on the other side. The medal is attached to
white and purple wampum. • Detail, French Habitation in the Country of the Illinois by Tardieu l’ainé. From
Georges Henri Victor Collot, A journey in North America, containing a survey of the countries watered by
the Mississippi, Ohio, and Missouri . . . Atlas (Paris, 1826), plate 21. Courtesy, The John Carter Brown
Library at Brown University. • Detail, Sir William Johnson, Major General of the English Forces in
America, engraved by Charles Spooner after a portrait by T. Adams (London, 1756). Mezzotint. Courtesy,
Library of Congress. • Detail, A Man and Woman of the Ottigaumies, from Jonathan Carver, Travels
through the Interior Parts of North America, in the Years 1766, 1767, and 1768 (London, 1781), plate 2,
opposite p. 228. Courtesy, Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. • Detail, The British Colonies in North America engraved by William Faden. From William Faden,
The North American Atlas . . . (London, 1777). Faden’s map shows the full extent of the province of
Quebec as defined by the Act in 1774. Courtesy, the Library of Congress. • Jean-Olivier Briand, attributed
to Louis-Chrétian de Heer. Portrait in oil, ca. 1788. Courtesy, Musée de la civilisation, collection du Séminaire de Québec, 1991.3883. Photography: Nicola-Frank Vachon—Perspective. Briand (1715–1794), a
native of France, was the Catholic bishop of Quebec at the time of the Quebec Act. Left margin, top •
Joseph Fayadaneega, called the Brant, the Great Captain of the Six Nations, engraved by John Raphael
Smith after a portrait by George Romney. Mezzotint. [London], ca. 1776. Courtesy, Library of Congress.
Center • Wampum belt. Aboriginal, Eastern woodlands, eighteenth or nineteenth century. Shell beads,
hide, and fiber; 9 by 85½ cm. Courtesy, McCord Museum, M1912. Research by Carolyn Gilman, National
Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution, notes that the Covenant Chain design was used
throughout the west to represent friendship. Left margin, below • Detail, Medal and wampum (verso).
Courtesy, McCord Museum, acc. no. M5932.
Page 2: Top bar, left to right • Detail, The Theatre of war in North America with the roads and tables,
London: Robt. Sayer and Jno. Bennet, 1776. BAnQ, G 3300 1776 S2 CAR. Courtesy, Bibliothèque et
Archives nationales du Québec, with special thanks to Jean-François Palomino. Mr. Palomino notes that
descriptive text beneath the map (not visible here), mentions boundary changes made in 1774: “An act
of parliament, Passed in 1774, Has removed the northern and western limits of the Province of Quebec,
its jurisdiction Adding to all the lands comprised between the northern bounds of New York, the western
line of Pennsylvania, the Ohio, the Mississippi, and the southern boundaries of Hudson’s Bay Company.”
• Detail, A New Map of North America From the Latest Discoveries, 1778, from Jonathan Carver, Travels
through the Interior Parts of North America in the Years 1766, 1767, and 1768 (London, 1781), opposite
Introduction. Courtesy, Special Collections, John D. Rockefeller Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation • Detail, A Man and Woman of the Ottigaumies, from Ibid. Left margin, top • Detail, Sir William Johnson, Major General of the English Forces in America . . . Courtesy, Library of Congress. Center • Detail,
Jean-Olivier Briand. Courtesy, Musée de la civilisation, collection du Séminaire de Québec, 1991.3883.
Below • Detail, A Perspective View of Quebec drawn on the spot. (ca. 1750–1770).
James Hulett, engraver. Courtesy, Library of Congress.
Page 3: Top bar, left to right • Detail, The Mitred Minuet. Engraving, created/published [May 1, 1774].
Courtesy, Library of Congress, British Cartoon Prints Collection. Four Anglican bishops are pictured here,
dancing around a copy of the “Quebec Bill,” which lies at their feet. Lord Bute plays the bagpipes on the
left, in the company of Lord North and another unidentified minister, with the Devil hovering over them.
• Detail, A Perspective View of Quebec drawn on the spot. (ca. 1750–1770). James Hulett, engraver.
Courtesy, Library of Congress. • Detail, Virtual Representation, 1775. Print. Courtesy, Library of Congress, British Cartoon Prints Collection. The backdrop for this cartoon shows the Catholic city of Quebec
atop a cliff on the left and the “English Protestant town of Boston” in flames on the right. The characters
in the foreground are Lord Bute, who is wielding a blunderbuss at an American colonial man, while the
bewigged member of Parliament standing between them points at the American and says to Bute, “I give
you that man’s money for my use,” and the American asserts, “I will not be robbed.” A Frenchman with a
raised sword stands behind a monk who holds a gibbet and a cross, and on the right, a blindfolded Britannia totters on the edge of “The pit prepared for others.” Left margin, top and background • Details,
America in Flames, (London, 1774). Print. Courtesy, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, acc. no. 1960-51.
Below • This Sr. is the Meaning of the Quebec Act (London, Aug. 17, 1774). Etching. Courtesy, The John
Carter Brown Library at Brown University.
4
Page 4: Top bar • View of Quebec from Grant’s Wharf, ca. 1793. Aquarelle on paper. Courtesy, Library
and Archives Canada, acc. no. 1989-470-1R. Left margin • Detail, A Topographical Plan of that part of
the Indian-Country through which the Army under the Command of Colonel Bouquet marched in the year
1764, by Thos. Hutchins Asst. Engineer. Frontispiece from William Smith, An Historical Account of the
Expedition against the Ohio Indians, in the year 1764 . . . (Philadelphia, 1765). Courtesy, The John Carter
Brown Library at Brown University. Carolyn Gilman, National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution, notes that the cartouche at lower right depicts a council on the Muskingum River with the
Delaware, Shawnee, Huron/Wendat, and western Seneca to settle Pontiac’s War.