When a million French Canadians crossed the border from Quebec into the United States between 1840 and 1930, they were cast as foot soldiers in an alleged Roman Catholic plot. Many were seeking work in New England’s textile industry.
“The French number more than a million in the United States…. They are kept a distinct alien race, subject to the Pope in matters of religion and of politics. Soon…they will govern you, Americans.” — British-American Citizen, Boston, 1889
In his upcoming book, A Distinct Alien Race: An Untold Story of Franco-Americans, Industrialization, Immigration, Religious Strife, being released in September, David Vermette traces individuals and families, from the textile barons whose profits in the Caribbean and China trades financed a new industry, to the rural poor of Quebec who crowded into fetid tenements after the Civil War.
The social history exposes the anti-Franco-American agitation of Protestant clergy, the Ku Klux Klan, and the eugenics movement.
On his blog, Mr. Vermette wrote, “After the Civil War, these (textile) corporations imported a large labor force from Québec and the former Acadia which grew to number one-seventh of the population of New England by the 1920s.
“The book presents a fresh approach to the question of why the rural poor of Québec emigrated in such numbers and who the emigrants were in Québec before they came to the USA. It explores the conditions in which Franco-Americans lived based on contemporary reports and primary sources.”
Mr. Vermette is a researcher, writer, and speaker on the history and identity of the descendants of French North America. He was born and raised in Massachusetts.
The book can be pre-ordered from the Montreal-based publisher, Baraka Books.
Is the book in English?
Yes!