• The Future of Loyalist Studies

    Christopher F. Minty “Intractable issues vex loyalist studies.” These were the words Ruma Chopra used in an essay, published in History Compass, in 2013. She’s right. As of mid-2015, loyalist studies has come to an important juncture, and the paths historians, researchers, and students go down in choosing their approaches to loyalist studies, within the… Continue Reading

  • The Quebec Invasion as Religious Encounter

    Patrick Lacroix Before Thomas Paine’s Common Sense could inflame the spirit of American colonists, the Quebec Act marked a decisive turn in the coming of the Revolution. The restoration of the Roman Catholic Church in the Province of Quebec to its prior standing aroused fears that had dissipated following the surrender of New France. The… Continue Reading

  • Urbanités: Geography, culture, and urban spaces at IHAF 2015

    Daniel Simeone The theme of the 2015 annual meeting of the Institut d’histoire amérique française (Institute for the History of French North America), the principal French-language conference for historians of Quebec and French-speaking North America, was Urbanités. French and English share the dual interlinked definitions of the word urbanity. It refers to both the condition… Continue Reading

  • Betting on the Continental Army’s Canadian Campaign

    Jacqueline Reynoso In mid-January 1776, the paths of two military officers crossed in Hartford, Connecticut. While passing through the city, General Charles Lee encountered the imprisoned British Major, Christopher French. There, during an evening meal, they exchanged competing assessments about the ongoing military struggles of the period. At some point during the evening, they put… Continue Reading

  • Unrest, Violence, and the Search for Social Order in British North America and Canada, 1749-1876

    Elizabeth Mancke From the mid-eighteenth century to the early Confederation era, British North Americans and then Canadians confronted a wide range of phenomena that could engender disorder: imperial wars, rebellions, the arrival of immigrants, epidemics, political unrest, and relations with First Nations. All, directly or indirectly, presented challenges to maintaining social and political order. In… Continue Reading

  • Sources for Loyalist Studies

    Christopher Minty Writing in Liberty’s Exiles, Maya Jasanoff argued that the Loyalist Claims Commission was a useful—perhaps the most useful—source available for scholars working on loyalists. They are indeed useful, offering thousands of biographical snippets of a wide range of individuals. Most scholars have used the claims, in some capacity.[1] But, alongside the claims, there… Continue Reading