Beautiful Losers: The French in North America, 1500-1850

3 units

Adventurous fur-traders, fun-loving carnival-goers, magnanimous noblemen, simple but goodhearted Catholic peasants: the portrait of the French in the Americas rarely goes beyond these time-honored stereotypes. The French have usually been treated as quaint remnants of a bygone age, vanquished first by the British army and then by the march of modernity. This course seeks to rescue these historical actors from the typecasting to which we often condemn them. Through this examination of the French presence in the Americas, we will rethink and revisit the familiar stories of British North America: stories of slavery, commerce, property, piety and migration. The contrasted differences will also allow us to reflect on the nature of colonialism and question some ready-made understandings about colonial British America and the Early Republic.