Prelude to the “Great Hemorrhage”: French Canadians in the United States, 1775-1840

Abstract

ABSTRACT Historians have traced the mass migration of French Canadians from the St. Lawrence River valley to the United States between the Civil War era and the Great Depression; to a lesser extent, scholars have also studied outmigration in the 1840s and 1850s. Closer scrutiny of available evidence suggests, however, that the roots of Lower Canada’s great demographic hemorrhage lie in the early decades of the nineteenth century. As cross-border infrastructure and commerce developed, French Canadians explored new opportunities in the northeastern United States and Great Lakes region. Demographic estimates, signs of an agricultural crisis, and contemporary sources all point to a migratory pattern that anticipated the grande saignée. Further research of this kind stands to change how scholars view not only French-Canadian mobility, but the extent of continental integration prior to the advent of railways.