Entangling the Quebec Act: Transnational Contexts, Meanings, and Legacies in North America and the British Empire

by Ollivier Hubert (Editor), François Furstenberg (Editor)

Overview

Beyond redrawing North American borders and establishing a permanent system of governance, the Quebec Act of 1774 fundamentally changed British notions of empire and authority. Although it is understood as a formative moment - indeed part of the "textbook narrative" - in several different national histories, the Quebec Act remains underexamined in all of them. The first sustained examination of the act in nearly thirty years, Entangling the Quebec Act brings together essays by historians from North America and Europe to explore this seminal event using a variety of historical approaches. Focusing on a singular occurrence that had major social, legal, revolutionary, and imperial repercussions, the book weaves together perspectives from spatially and conceptually distinct historical fields - legal and cultural, political and religious, and beyond. Collectively, the contributors resituate the Quebec Act in light of Atlantic, American, Canadian, Indigenous, and British Imperial historiographies. A transnational collaboration, Entangling the Quebec Act shows how the interconnectedness of national histories is visible at a single crossing point, illustrating the importance of intertwining methodologies to bring these connections into focus.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780228004646
Publisher:	McGill-Queens University Press
Publication date:	12/30/2020
Series:	McGill-Queen's Studies in Early Canada / Avant le Canada , #2
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	5 MB

About the Author

Ollivier Hubert is professor of history at Université de Montréal.
François Furstenberg is professor of history at Johns Hopkins University.

Table of Contents

Table and Figures vii

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction: Entangling the Quebec Act Ollivier Hubert François Furstenberg 3

Part 1 Quebec, Law, and Empire

1 "As may consist with their Allegiance to His Majesty": Redefining Loyal Subjects in 1774 Hannah Weiss Muller 47

2 The Quebec Act and the Canadiens: The Myth of the Seminal Moment Donald Fyson 74

3 Choosing between French and English Law: The Legal Origins of the Quebec Act Michel Morin 101

4 Quebec, Bengal, and the Rise of Authoritarian Legal Pluralism Christian R. Burset 131

Part 2 Religious and Ethnic Conflict

5 Rethinking Ireland and Assimilation: Quebec, Collaboration, and the Heterogeneous Empire Aaron Willis 165

6 London's Role in the Connection between the Holy See and North America, 1745-1812 Luca Codignola 195

7 A "Fit Instrument": The Quebec Act and the Outbreak of Rebellion in Two British Atlantic Port Cities Brad A. Jones 232

Part 3 Indigenous Peoples and European Borders

8 Seeing Red: The Quebec Act and Its Geographic Implications Jeffers Lennox 267

9 "Our Concerns with Indians are now greatly extended": Cherokees, Westward Indians, and Interpreting the Quebec Act from the Ohio Valley, 1763-1774 Kristofer Ray 304

10 The Quebec Act and the Indigenous Land Issue in Canada Alain Beaulieu 335

Contributors 353

Index 357

Editorial Reviews

The contributors to this collection explore the far-reaching consequences of the 1774 document ... to better understand how eighteenth-century rulers and subjects addressed issues concerning the rights of minorities that, in Canada and elsewhere, we continue to wrestle with today. These essays are valuable contributions to our understanding of the origins and impact of the Quebec Act.” University of Toronto Quarterly


« On peut sans doute regretter l’absence de certains groupes dans ce portrait d’ensemble très réussi, [mais]… quoi qu’il en soit, ces considérations plus personnelles n’entachent pas l’excellence du travail de tout un chacun et tout particulièrement celui d’Ollivier Hubert et de François Furstenberg qui signent une remarquable introduction. Entangling the Quebec Act constitue une superbe contribution à une historiographie qui avait bien besoin d’être un peu dépoussiérée! » Social History-Histoire Sociale


“[The editors] argue for ‘a reconsideration of the Quebec Act from Canadian, North American, Native American, and British Imperial perspectives’ that demonstrates that the importance of the Act is ‘greater than sum of its many fractured historiographical parts’. That is precisely what this collection does show! … one of those rare collections in which there is not a single bad essay.” British Journal of Canadian Studies


"Entangling the Quebec Act adds original and valuable insight to existing scholarship on the Quebec Act, which has declined in the past half century despite significant constitutional developments in Canada and the rise of "new" imperial and global history. This book is both timely and necessary." Ken MacMillan, University of Calgary and author of Death and Disorder: A History of Early Modern England, 1485-1690

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