| Reviews / Comptes Rendus | Labour/Le Travail, 54

Reviews / Comptes Rendus

Jean Lamarre, The French Canadians of Michigan: Their Contribution to the Development of the Saginaw Valley and the Keweenaw Peninsula, 1840–1914 (Detroit: Wayne State University Press 2003)

"[T]HE MOBILITY of the French Canadians was a fundamental trait that demands examination if the continuity of the Quebec identity is to be fully understood." (7) Jean Lamarre examines this mobility in his study of the migration of French-Canadians from Quebec to the lumber and mining industries of Michigan during the second half of the 19th century, bringing to light a migration story that differs from the classic Quebec New England model. He provides evidence that a triangular migration pattern existed among Quebec, New England, and the Midwest, and that the French-Canadians who followed this route "were rarely the powerless victims of a shifting economic context, but that they always, with varying degrees of success, attempted to adapt by using their life and work experience and their sense of family solidarity to the best of their ability." (160)

The French Canadians of Michigan is a compact and well-organized volume in four chapters. The opening chapter provides the backdrop against which French Canadians made the choice to immigrate to the United States. The second chapter informs the reader about the Saginaw Valley, a lumber region, and the Keweenaw Peninsula, with its mining industry. The final two chapters discuss the French Canadian migration to these two regions and the impact of these immigrants in both the lumber and mining industries. To supplement his narrative Lamarre includes tables providing statistics on population growth, socioeconomic profiles, employment trends, birth origins, ethnic profiles, and lumber and copper productivity.

The early 19th century in Quebec was marked by economic hardship. Lack of enough arable land in the St. Lawrence Valley to meet the needs of a large rural population as well as declining wheat production forced many farmers who had been self-sufficient to sell their farms and move. Some bought land in the Eastern Townships, while others migrated to the United States, settling in the agricultural regions of the northeast. When the agricultural sector in Quebec and the American northeast could no longer support them, they migrated to the Midwest where fertile farmland could be found. French-Canadians who were unable to buy land sought local employment as farm labourers or lumbermen. As this growing proletariat found it difficult to find work in Quebec, they migrated to the textile and shoe factories of New England, or to the lumber industry, where they already had experience. Later, as pine stands were depleted and the lumber industry moved west, French-Canadians followed the westward migration pattern to Michigan. This migration to Michigan was not an unusual choice. The fur trade that had built up Quebec in the 17th and 18th centuries had gradually extended west to the Great Lakes, and French-Canadians had followed, establishing semi-permanent settlements to sustain the trade. As Lamarre explains, "Migration to this region was therefore never considered an expatriation, but rather a relocation within a French Canadian sphere — to which the territory of Michigan belonged." (27)

Large French-Canadian communities grew up in the Saginaw Valley and the Keweenaw Peninsula of Michigan over the second half of the 19th century. Both regions were developed by entrepreneurs, exploiting the lumber resources in the Saginaw Valley and the copper ore on the Keweenaw Peninsula. French-Canadian farmers had already been migrating to the Saginaw Valley. They were joined by lumber workers from Quebec and the Northeast who had been recruited because of their experience. At about this time, copper was discovered in northern Michigan. Mining and lumbering went hand in hand, as mining regions had to be cleared of timber before the land could be mined, and lumber was used to build the mining infrastructure and company settlements. French-Canadians worked in the lumber sector of the mining industry and later directly in the mines. Both these industries grew after the Civil War, then slumped during the depression of 1874, and once more gained momentum until they were hit by workers' strikes in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

These two French-Canadian regions followed different acculturation patterns. The French Canadians who followed the lumber industry to the Saginaw Valley were confident in their skills and easily integrated into that industry as well as the sociopolitical framework of the valley. The weak leadership of the Church and the divisive issue of the annexation movement turned the French Canadians away from traditional authority to seek out other ways of improving their lives, notably through obtaining citizenship and becoming involved in political life. On the Keweenaw Peninsula, however, French Canadians remained more culturally in-sulated. They initially worked in the service and skilled-labour sectors that supported the mining industry, and later worked in the mines. They preferred small company villages rather than larger mining towns. They were less integrated into the social structure of the peninsula than their Saginaw Valley counterparts, and when economic and social conditions declined following the depression of the late-19th century and the nine-month strike in 1913, many returned to Canada.

Lamarre examines different migration models to Michigan: from Quebec to New England then west toward the Mid-west; from French-Canadian enclaves already established in the Great Lakes region further north to Michigan; and from Quebec directly to Michigan. These were not one-way routes. Using marriage and birth records, Lamarre follows French-Canadian families in their travels as they sought farmland and employment opportunities, sometimes backtracking and even returning to Quebec. He analyzes the changing demographics, the substantial increase in the French-Canadian population relative to the rest of the population in the latter part of the 19th century, the number of French-Canadians seeking United States citizenship, and the increase in second-generation French-Canadians in the United States who lived in Michigan.

In addition to providing a close study of population and economic changes, Lamarre offers a look at the growth of French-Canadian political and social institutions in Michigan, particularly the role of the Church and social service organizations. Some of the subjects that he touches upon would be interesting to see developed further. He discusses the French-language press, although he states in his notes that this is an area in which research is limited. Nevertheless, he offers an interesting glimpse of this industry and of the many French-Canadian newspapers that were established, then quickly went out of business. These papers dealt primarily with single political issues and Canadian news; "[c]haracterized by short lives and limited circulation, such papers often kept their readers better informed about news in their home country than about the life of the community they ostensibly served." (87)

Lamarre supports his migration hypothesis with demographic tables of population patterns as well as thumbnail sketches of French-Canadian migrants and the routes they followed. In his conclusion he states that the triangular migration route needs more study. But he has done an excellent job establishing a firm basis for further research. This concise history is not lacking in research and careful attention to detail. A bit of fleshing out of the immigrants beyond their statistical description would enhance the narrative, but it stands firmly on its own. Whether one is interested in labour, migration patterns, French-Canadians, or Michigan, The French Canadians of Michigan is a history that offers a detailed look at two specific regions and will appeal to many.


Wendy Henerlau University of Maine, Orono

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