Lower Canada Rebellion

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Lower Canada Rebellion

Flag used by the Patriotes between 1832 and 1838
Date 6th November 1837 - 10th November 1838
Location Quebec
Result Total defeat of the Patriote rebels, unification of Upper and Lower Canada in the Province of Canada.
Belligerents
Flag of the United Kingdom United Kingdom
Loyal volunteers		 Flag of the United States United States
Patriotes


Commanders
John Colborne
Charles Gore
Lewis Odell
John Scriver
George Augustus Wetherall		 Thomas Storrow Brown
Jean-Olivier Chénier  †
Robert Nelson
Wolfred Nelson
Ferdinand-Alphonse Oklowski
Louis-Joseph Papineau
Strength
United Kingdom 1,380, rising to 10,000 by mid-1838

Canada 23,000
Total: 33,000

 Patriotes 4,100 (estimate)

United States 25,000-40,000 [1]
Total: ca. 30-44,000
Casualties and losses
British Empire:
32 combat deaths
47 wounded

Total: 79

 Patriotes
73 combat dead,
1,600 wounded or taken prisoner
29 executed for treason
58 deported to Australia

Total: 102 killed or executed, 58 deported, remainder released after the rebellion
 
Patriotes Rebellion

The Lower Canada Rebellion is the name given to the armed conflict between the rebels of Lower Canada (now Quebec) and the British colonial power of that province. Together with the simultaneous Upper Canada Rebellion in the neighbouring colony of Upper Canada (now Ontario), it formed the Rebellions of 1837.

Contents

[edit] History

The rebellion of Lower Canada continued in 1838 and is often called Les rébellions de 1837-38 in Quebec. The actions of the rebels resulted in the declaration of martial law and a first armed conflict occurred in 1837 when the 26 members of the Patriote movement who had been charged with illegal activities chose to resist their arrest by the authorities under the direction of John Colborne. In 1838, two major armed conflicts occurred when groups of Lower Canadian Patriotes led by Robert Nelson crossed the American border in an attempt to invade Lower Canada and Upper Canada, drive the British army out and establish independent republics.

These events are often misreported[citation needed], which moves the attention away from three decades of political battles between the Parti patriote of James Stuart and Louis-Joseph Papineau, which was seeking responsible government for the colony, and the unelected British Executive and Legislative Councils in the former French colony, which were dominated by a small group of mainly businessmen known as the Château Clique, the equivalent of the Family Compact in Upper Canada.

The movement for reform took shape in a period of economic disenfranchisement of the French-speaking majority and working class English speaking citizens. However, the rebellion was not about language but centered on the unfairness of colonial governing as such, many of the leaders and participants were English-speaking citizens of Lower Canada. In banking, the timber trade, and transportation, Anglophones were seen as disproportionately represented. However, the Roman Catholic church discouraged French-Canadians from commercial activities, asserting it was God's will that they remain an agrarian society. (Out of 775 identified rebels from Lower Canada, 388 were farmers.) At the same time, some among the Anglophone business elite were advocating for a union of Upper and Lower Canada in order to ensure competitiveness on a national scale with the increasingly large and powerful economy of the United States. The unification of the colony was a plan favoured by the British-appointed governor, George Ramsey, Earl of Dalhousie. The reaction was a growing sense of nationalism among English and the French-speaking citizens, which solidified into the Parti canadien. (After 1826 called the Parti patriote.)

In 1811, James Stuart became leader of the Parti Canadien in the assembly and in 1815, reformer Louis-Joseph Papineau was elected Assembly speaker. The Assembly, while elected, had little power; its decisions could be vetoed by a legislative council and the governor appointed by the British government. Dalhousie and Papineau were soon at odds over the issue of uniting the Canadas, and Dalhousie forced an election in 1827 rather than accept Papineau as speaker. Sympathizers to the reform movement in England had Dalhousie forced from his position and reappointed to India. Still, the legislative council and the assembly were not able to reach a compromise, and by 1834, the assembly had passed the Ninety-Two Resolutions, outlining its grievances against the legislative council. At that point, the Patriote movement was supported by an overwhelming majority of the population in all origins.

Later in 1834 the Parti Patriote swept the election with more than three-quarters of the popular vote. However, the reformers in Lower Canada were divided over several issues. A moderate reformer named John Neilson had quit the party in 1830 and joined the Constitutional Association 4 years later. Papineau's anti-clerical position alienated reformers in the Catholic Church, and his support for secular rather than religious schools made him a powerful enemy in Bishop Jean-Jacques Lartigue. Lartigue called on all Catholics to reject the reform movement and support the authorities, forcing many to choose between their religion and their political convictions.

However, Papineau continued to push for reform. He petitioned the British government to bring about reform, but in March of 1837 the government of Lord Melbourne rejected all of Papineau's requests. Papineau then organized protests and assemblies, and eventually approved the paramilitary Société des Fils de la Liberté during the Assemblée des six-comtés.

Papineau escaped to the United States, but the rebels set themselves up in the countryside, and, led by Wolfred Nelson defeated a British force at Saint-Denis on November 23. However, the British troops soon beat back the rebels, defeating them at Saint-Charles on November 25 and at Saint-Eustache on December 14. Saint-Eustache was then pillaged and ransacked. On December 5th, martial law was declared in Montréal.

When news of the arrest of the Patriote leaders reached Upper Canada, William Lyon Mackenzie launched an armed rebellion in December of 1837. In the mean time, filibusters from the United States, the Hunter Patriots, formed a small militia and attacked Windsor, Ontario to further support the Canadian Patriots. These revolts were quickly put down. The following year, leaders who had escaped across the border into the United States raided Lower Canada in February of 1838, and a second revolt began at Battle of Beauharnois in November of the same year. This too was crushed by the British.

Meanwhile, Britain had dispatched Lord Durham to investigate the cause of the rebellion. His report recommended that the Canadas be united into one colony (the Province of Canada) so as to assimilate the French-speaking Canadiens into the culture of the British Empire. However, he recommended acceding to the rebels' grievances by granting responsible government to the new colony.

[edit] Aftermath

Following the military defeat of the Patriotes, Lower Canada was merged with Upper Canada under the Union Act and the Canadiens became a minority in the new political entity. Eight years after the Union, a responsible government was set up in the united Province of Canada. The great instability of this new regime (see Joint Premiers of the Province of Canada) eventually led to the formation of the Great coalition, and another major constitutional change, the Canadian Confederation of 1867.

The rebellion of the Patriotes Canadiens of Lower Canada is often seen as the example of what might have happened to the United States of America if the American Revolutionary War had failed. In Quebec, the rebellion (as well as the parliamentary and popular struggle) is now commemorated as the Journée nationale des Patriotes (National Patriotes Day) by the use of the Canadian Statutory Holiday, Victoria Day. It has become a symbol for the contemporary Quebec independence movement and to a lesser extent a symbol of Canada's fledgling Republican movement.

[edit] Leaders

[edit] References

  1. ^ Andrew Bonthius | The Patriot War of 1837–1838: Locofocoism With a Gun? | Labour/Le Travail, 52 | The History Cooperative

[edit] Further reading

[edit] Works, Thesis

  • Sossoyan, Matthieu. (1999) The Kahnawake Iroquois and the Lower-Canadian Rebellions, 1837-1838, Montréal: Université McGill, Anthropology Master Thesis on line
  • Greer, Allan. (1993) The Patriots and the People: The Rebellion of 1837 in Rural Lower Canada, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 385 pages ISBN 0-8020-6930-4
  • Elinor Kyte Senior (1985) Redcoats and Patriotes: The Rebellions in Lower Canada, 1837-38, Ontario: Canada's Wings, Inc., 218 pages ISBN 0920002285
  • Beverly Dawn Boissery. (1977) The Patriote Convicts: A Study of the 1838 Rebellion in Lower Canada and the transportation of some participants to New South Wales2 volumes (doctoral thesis in philosophy)
  • DeCelles, Alfred D. (1916) The "Patriotes" of '37 : a chronicle of the Lower Canadian Rebellion, Toronto: Glasgow, Brook & Co., 140 pages [translated by Stewart Wallace]

[edit] Private Letters, Journals by Patriotes

  • Lepailleur, François-Maurice. (1980) Land of a Thousand Sorrows. The Australian Prison Journal 1840-1842, of the Exiled Canadien Patriote, François-Maurice Lepailleur. Translated and edited by F. Murray Greenwood. University of British Columbia Press, Vancouver. ISBN 0-7748-0123-9.
  • Ducharme, Léandre. (1944) Journal of a political exile in Australia, Sydney: D.S. Ford Printer, 79 pages

[edit] Public Writings by Patriotes

[edit] Public Writings by British Radicals

[edit] Foreign Coverage of the events

[edit] Fiction

  • Soderstrom, Mary. (1998) The Words on the Wall: Robert Nelson & the Rebellion of 1837, Ottawa: Oberon Press, 230 pages ISBN 0778011046

[edit] In French

[edit] Works, Thesis

  • Labonté, François. (2004) Alias Anthony St. John : les Patriotes canadiens aux États-Unis : décembre 1837-mai 1838 : première partie, Sainte-Foy: Presses de l'Université Laval, 297 pages (ISBN 2-7637-8139-X)
  • Laporte, Gilles. (2004) Patriotes et Loyaux : leadership régional et mobilisation politique en 1837 et 1838, Sillery: Septentrion, 414 pages (ISBN 2-89448-382-1)
  • Filteau, Gérard. (2001) Histoire des Patriotes, Montréal: Éditions du Septentrion, 3 volumes (original edition of 1938 and augmented in 1975)
  • Boileau, Gilles. (1998) 1837 et les patriotes de Deux-Montagnes : les voix de la mémoire, Montréal: Méridien, 200 pages (ISBN 2-89415-235-3)
  • Lacoursière, Jacques and Vaugeois Denis (ed.). (1987) Courte histoire des patriotes de 1837-1838 : synthèse, Saint-Denis-sur-Richelieu: Comité de la fête des patriotes Saint-Charles & Saint-Denis, 16 pages
  • Clément, Micheline. (1986) Le discours patriote : égalitarisme agraire ou projet de démocratie de petits producteurs, Sainte-Foy: Université du Québec
  • Parent, Francine. (1984) Les Patriotes de Châteauguay (1838) Montréal: Université de Montréal (Master Thesis in History)
  • Rochon, Paul. (1987) 1837 : la petite histoire des Patriotes, Montréal: Éditions du Taureau, 283 pages (ISBN 2980084506)
  • Richard, Jean-Baptiste. (1938) Les Événements de 1837 à Saint-Denis-sur-Richelieu, Saint-Hyacinthe: Société d'histoire régionale de Saint-Hyacinthe, 47 pages
  • David, Laurent-Olivier. (1884) Les Patriotes de 1837-1838, Montréal: Eusèbe Senécal & fils, imprimeurs-éditeurs, 297 pages
  • Carrier, Louis-Napoléon. (1877) Les événements de 1837-38 : esquisse historique de l'insurrection du Bas-Canada, Québec: Imprimerie de l'Evénement, 194 pages

[edit] Essay

  • Ippersiel, Fernand. (1990) Les Cousins ennemis : Louis-Joseph Papineau et Jean-Jacques Lartigue : essai, Montréal: Guérin littérature, 254 pages (ISBN 2760124061)

[edit] Private Letters and Journals by Patriotes

  • de Lorimier, Chevalier. (2001) 15 février 1839 : lettres d'un patriote condamné à mort. edition prepared by Marie-Frédérique Desbiens and Jean-François Nadeau, Montréal: Comeau & Nadeau, 125 pages (ISBN 2-922494-45-4)
  • Aubin, Georges. (2000) Au Pied-du-Courant : lettres des prisonniers politiques de 1837-1839, Montréal : Comeau & Nadeau, 457 pages (ISBN 2-922494-19-5)
  • Aubin, Georges and Blanchet Renée. (2001) Correspondance, 1805-1854 / Rosalie Papineau-Dessaulles, Montréal: Éditions Varia, 305 pages (ISBN 2-922245-52-7)
  • Blanchet, Renée. (1997) Julie B. Papineau. Une femme patriote : correspondance, 1823-1862, Sillery: Septentrion, 518 pages (ISBN 2-89448-096-2)

[edit] Public Writings by Patriotes

  • Aubin, Georges. (1998) Robert Nelson : Déclaration d'indépendance et autres écrits, 1832-1848, Montréal: Comeau & Nadeau, 90 pages (ISBN 2-922494-00-4) [translation by Michel de Lorimier and Renée Andrewes]
  • Papineau, Louis-Joseph. (1839) "Histoire de l'insurrection du Canada", in Revue du Progrès, Paris, 35 pages (various other editions)

[edit] Fiction

  • Dupéré, Yves. (2006) Les derniers insurgés : roman historique, Montréal: Hurtubise HMH, 451 pages (ISBN 2-89428-871-9)
  • Séguin, Robert-Lionel. (2006) Le dernier des Capots-Gris : roman ; suivi de, Souviens-toi : méditations sur 1837, Notre-Dame-des-Neiges: Éditions Trois-Pistoles, 211 pages (ISBN 978-2-89583-141-9)
  • Blanchet, Renée. (2000) La chouayenne : récits de 1837-1838, Montréal: Éditions Varia, 185 pages (ISBN 2-922245-30-6)
  • Lachance, Micheline. (1995) Le roman de Julie Papineau, Montréal: Éditions Québec/Amérique, 2 vol.
  • Caron, Louis. (1982) Les Fils de la liberté : roman, Montréal: Boréal express, 2 volumes
  • Daveluy, Marie-Claire. (1940?) Le Richelieu héroïque : les jours tragiques de 1837, Montréal: Librairie Granger frères limitée, 250 pages
  • Achard, Eugène. (1926) La Fin d'un traître : épisode de la révolte de 1837, Montréal: Bibliothèque de l'Action française, 60 pages
  • de Roquebrune, Robert. (1923) Les Habits rouges : roman canadien, Paris: Éditions du Monde nouveau, 280 pages
  • Verne, Jules. (1887-88) Famille-sans-nom, 427 pages (numerous editions)

[edit] See also

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[edit] External links