LIFE
IN
NEW FRANCE
Alanna, Megan, Leasa
Contents
Seigneuries
The
Habitants
Early towns
Roles of Women
Old vs. New France
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)

ST LAWRENCE RIVER
 67
•
Seigneuries were around the St. Lawrence
River between 1634 and 1633.
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

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

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

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

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).

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 didn’t 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.
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.

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.

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.
LUXURIES
The wealthiest of the habitants even had ice
cream…which 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

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

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

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.
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

DISADVANTAGES
OF TOWNS
Garbage was thrown into the streets
 The dirt streets were
narrow and bustling with
people and animals.
 In the heat, they turned
incredibly dusty
 After a heavy rain they
turned into mud bowls.


There was considerable violence, fire, and theft.
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

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
WOMEN’S 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.
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 L’incarnation

MARIE L’INCARNATION




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,
he died two years after their marriage,
leaving her to care for her 6 month old son
but
She also took responsibility for her brother-in-law’s
carrier buisness, because she had remarkable buisness
skills.
MARIE’S



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 L’incarnation
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 Marie’s 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.

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
L’incarnation 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.

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

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

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
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

BUT
THEIR POWER WASN’T UNLIMITED
Married women couldn’t 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 couldn’t dispose of
any of their husband’s
property either, unless they
had the husbands permission.

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 would’ve
been possible before
 Towns were smaller in New France than in Old
France

WOMEN’S RIGHTS!
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

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

Any
Questions?