Religious Orders of Women in New France

field_image
Question

What services did women of religious orders provide in New France?

Answer

Women of religious orders were active in New France mainly in founding schools and hospitals. Three religious orders were present almost from the time of the earliest French settlements. Jesuit Relations reports, first published in 1611, inspired many founders of these religious communities to travel to New France. Reports narrated the adventures and trials of the earliest Jesuit missionaries who accompanied French explorers and trappers. The religious orders of women that soon followed established the first schools and hospitals in the colony and were among the first women to arrive in New France. The most important of these communities were:

Ursulines

The Ursulines were the first nuns to arrive in New France, in 1639, led by Marie de l'Incarnation. She and the other Ursulines who accompanied her established a convent in Quebec, where they started the first school for girls in North America. The pupils were both Native and French girls. Ursuline communities and schools spread throughout New France, eventually reaching as far south as New Orleans, where a community was established early in the 18th century. As their communities spread west, they founded schools to educate Native American girls.

Hospitalières de Saint-Joseph

These Augustinian religious women also came to Quebec in 1639 and founded a hospital, the Hôtel-Dieu in Quebec (the first in North America north of Mexico). They staffed another, the Hôtel-Dieu, in Montreal in 1645. The Hospitalières also founded schools for girls, including nursing schools, as well as other institutions to care for the poor and the sick.

Congrégation de Notre-Dame

St. Marguerite Bourgeoys began this noncloistered religious order and, in 1658, established a girls' school in Montreal. This was the first of many boarding schools and day schools run by the order throughout New France. The first bishop of Canada, François de Montmorency Laval, highly encouraged and supported these communities of religious women.

For more information

The Virtual Museum of Canada, Seasons of New France.
Quebec City's Chapelle et Musée de Ursulines.

Ursulines of Canada.

Some from Marie de l'Incarnation to her brother.

Montreal's Musée des Hospitalières de l'Hôtel-Dieu.
Montreal's Marguerite-Bourgeoys Museum, Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secour Chapel.

Canada's First Hospital, Hôtel-Dieu of Quebec City.

The Augustinian Sisters and Quebec City's Hôtel-Dieu.

Also very useful for understanding the role of nuns and sisters in New France:
Robert Choquette, "French Catholicism Comes to the Americas," 131- 242, in Charles H. Lippy et al. Christianity Comes to the Americas 1492-1776. New York: Paragon House, 1992.
W. J. Eccles. "The Role of the Church in New France," 26-37 in Eccles, Essays on New France. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1987.
W. J. Eccles. The Canadian Frontier 1534-1760. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1983.
Thérèse Germain. Autrefois, les Ursulines de Trois-Rivières: une école, un hôpital, un cloître. Sillery, Quebec: A. Sigier, 1997.
Colleen Gray. The Congrégation de Notre-Dame, Superiors, and the Paradox of Power, 1693-1796. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2007.
Dom Claude Martin. La Vie de la Vénérable Mère Marie de l'Incarnation, première supérieure des Ursulines de la Nouvelle France. Paris: L. Billaine, 1677.
Peter N. Moogk. La Nouvelle France: The Making of French Canada: A Cultural History. Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2000.
Marcel Trudel. Les Écolières des Ursulines de Québec, 1639-1686: Amérindiennes et Canadiennes. Montreal: Hurtubise-HMH, 1999.

Bibliography

Library of Congress, France in America, collection of textual sources.
This includes links to the full text of the following:
Pierre Francois Xavier de Charlevoix. History and General Description of New France, 6 vols. New York: Francis P. Harper, 1900.
Chrestien Le Clercq. First Establishment of the Faith in New France, 2 vols. New York: John G. Shea, 1881.
John Gilmary Shea. Discovery and Exploration of the Mississippi Valley. Clinton Hall, NY: Redfield, 1852. Vol. 4 of Benjamin Franklin French, ed., Historical Collections of Louisiana.

The Library and Archives of Canada, full text of the 40 volumes of the Jesuit Relations.

An anthology of selections from the Relations:
Allan Greer. The Jesuit Relations: Natives and Missionaries in Seventeenth-Century North America. New York: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2000. Bedford Series in History and Culture.

Images:
Detail of illustration of Marie de l'Incarnation, from Claude Martin, Marie de l'Incarnation, Ursuline de Tours: Fondatrice des Ursulines de la Nouvelle-France.

Marguerite Bourgeoys, Musée Virtuel Canada, "Des saisons en Nouvelle-France."

Famous American Trials: Salem Witchcraft Trials

Image
Annotation

Part of a larger "Famous Trials" website created by Douglas Linder of the University of Missouri, Kansas City, Law School, this site provides primary documents and other information on the Salem Witch Trials of 1692-93. Linder authored a roughly 1000-word essay on the events in Salem that includes links to biographies of key figures in the trial. The site also offers 18 primary documents concerning the witch trials, including the Reverend Cotton Mather's Memorable Providences, a pamphlet that details an episode of supposed witchcraft by a woman named Goody Glover; an arrest warrent from 1692; seven transcripts of examinations and trial records for accused witches and a sample death warrent. The site also includes approximately 500-word biographies of 17 key figures in the trials, such as accused witches, judges, accusers, and clergy. In addition, there are 14 images of the town of Salem and key figures in the trials. The site offers links to eight related websites and a bibliography of 22 scholarly books and articles and two videos on witchcraft. This site has no index, but is small enough to navigate easily. It is ideal for researching basic information on the Salem Witch trials.

Salem Witchcraft Hysteria: A National Geographic Interactive Site

Image
Annotation

Part of the National Geographic Society website, this is an interactive exercise in which the visitor follows a narrative compiled from several Salem witchcraft trial accounts. These trials took place in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692. The site places visitors in the shoes of one of Salem's accused witches, describing conditions in the jail, the ordeal of the trial, and the accused's eventual confession to performing acts of witchcraft. The site also provides links to brief, 100-word biographies of 11 persons involved in the trials, such as young accusers Ann Putnam and Abigail Williams, slave and accused witch Tituba, and Tituba's master, Reverend Samuel Parris. The narrative leads to a positive outcome--the accused is eventually released from prison--but it offers an optional link to discover what may have happened to a prisoner who refused to confess his or her guilt. The site also contains links to a discussion forum and to an "Ask the Expert" page which allows visitors to pose questions to Richard Trask, Danvers, Massachusetts, archivist and curator of the Rebecca Nurse Homestead. There is also a four-item bibliography of recent works on the Salem trials. This site contains no primary documents, yet it is useful for conveying to younger secondary school students the sense of the panic that surrounded the trials.

U.S. Women's History Workshop

Annotation

This site is designed to provide high school and college teachers with primary source material for teaching women's history. The site provides 13 assignments based on more than 50 documents, primarily illustrations from 19th-century magazines. Two profiles of early women's rights activists include biographies (100-650 words) and 13 articles written by the two about women's rights. Other documents on the site include humorous poetry, advertisements, letters to editors, and excerpts from 19th-century essays about women's rights. A scholarly article (3,000 words), illustrated with 13 prints and cartoons, discusses dress and perceptions of dress in the 1850s and 1860s. Another essay (1,100 words), illustrated with six cartoons, addresses gender and politics in mid-19th century America. The site is somewhat disorganized, but will be a useful resource for teaching women's history.

Women Artists of the American West

Image
Annotation

This online archive features images of photographs taken by women that represent the holdings of the Women in Photography Archives located in Arcata, CA. Most of the photographs in the collection are the work of women photographers who were active between 1850 and 1997 and had some connection with the American West, particularly California.

The archive contains 17 separate collections, arranged according to four main themes: Community, Identity, Spirituality, and Locality. Each of these categories features relevant essays composed by art historians, curators, and artists. As a whole, the site offers the works and biographies of approximately 180 artists and photographers.

For educators, the site also offers a comprehensive eight-week syllabus that covers the website's four main themes.

Although navigating the website can take some getting used to, it is worth the effort. The site is a valuable resource for often lesser-know perspectives on the American West.

Camping With the Sioux—Fieldwork Diary of Alice Cunningham Fletcher

Image
Annotation

This site presents two fieldwork journals written by anthropologist Alice Cunningham Fletcher during her six-week stay with a group of Dakota Sioux women in 1881. The journals are indexed by date and can be searched or read as a narrative.

Visitors will find a 1,000-word biographical essay about Fletcher and a bibliography of sources, including three books, three Smithsonian collections of related materials, five collections of papers, and six links to sites about Sioux Indians and 19th-century anthropology of the Sioux. A gallery of 36 photographs contains pictures of Fletcher, her two travelling companions, scenes of Sioux life, and portraits of Sioux Indians, including Sitting Bull.

In her journals, Fletcher transcribed 14 folk tales related by her Sioux hosts. These tales are indexed by title and presented separately as well as in the journals. The site offers unique sources particularly useful for students of Native American history, women's history, and the history of anthropology and ethnography.

The Barbara McClintock Papers

Image
Annotation

Presents more than 200 items—including 51 articles, 28 lectures, 84 letters, and 35 photographs—by and about the Nobel-winning geneticist Barbara McClintock (1902–1992). Through experiments with maize in the 1920s and 1930s, McClintock discovered that genetic changes occur when chromosomes break and recombine, a process called "crossing over." In the 1950s, upon finding that genes "jump" around, she investigated the effects of transposable genetic elements.

The site includes an exhibit divided into seven chronological sections with a 4,000-word essay presenting McClintock's career highlights, accompanied by links to relevant documents and visuals. Materials in the collection can be retrieved through searches—basic and also geared to scientists—and in chronological and alphabetical listings. Valuable for serious students of genetics as well as those studying the history of American science and professional women.

Woman's Legal History Biography Project

Image
Annotation

The three sections of this website focus on women lawyers in the U.S. and women's legal history. The Women's Lawyers Index offers more than 700 listings of female lawyers in U.S. history, each with links to biographical information, collected papers and archival material (if available), and articles, as well as a bibliography. The content of these sections is uneven, though, some having far more entries than others.

The Clara Shortridge Foltz section primarily consists of 13 articles by Babcock on Foltz, the first female lawyer on the Pacific Coast. It focuses on the relation of early women lawyers to suffrage and other reform movements.

"Research Resources" provides 23 links to other websites on women lawyers and women's legal history, as well as over 50 links to historiographical articles, articles from periodicals and legal journals, and general interest articles. A bibliography lists 38 books and 18 articles dealing with women's legal history. This site is a useful launching point for researching female lawyers and women's legal history.

The Pill

Image
Annotation

Designed as a companion to the PBS film, this site documents the development of the birth control pill and its effect on women's health. The site offers a synopsis of the film (approximately 1,000 words) and about a dozen primary sources, including letters between birth control pill researchers. The site also includes a timeline that documents references to birth control as far back in history as Biblical Genesis.

A Gallery showcases approximately 15 birth control pill package designs. People and Events introduces visitors to the researchers (including Margaret Sanger) who dedicated years to the project, as well as milestones in the pill's development. Special Features uses a Flash presentation to demonstrate how the pill works to prevent pregnancy, explores the many shifts in sexual attitudes that have been attributed to the pill, and asks viewers to participate in an online poll.

A Teacher's Guide features lesson plans in geography, civics, history, and society, and presents challenging exercises for students. For example, one exercise asks students to survey the effect geography had on sexual attitudes by comparing laws about contraception from state to state in 1960.

Although the site is not a comprehensive archive, the primary sources and multimedia exhibits make it valuable, especially for research into birth control and women's issues.

Women Working, 1800-1930

Image
Annotation

This site offers textual and visual historical resources for teaching, learning, and researching the history of women working in the United States. It currently includes almost 3,500 digitized books, 7,500 manuscript pages, and 1,200 photographs. Holdings include letters, diaries, scrapbooks, magazines, catalogs, photographs, books, and pamphlets (both non-fiction and fiction).

Visitors may browse through the "New Additions" area, look through materials by topic (such as home labor, arts, or business), search catalog keywords, or perform a full text search.