Glasstry news

Props to Borealia for hosting a debate, still ongoing, about the meaning or even the existence of a "seigneurial system" in New France -- because lively debate about anything in early Canadian history always seems all too scarce and rare. Allan Greer, who thrives on controversy (in the best way!) launched the exchange with his essay "There was no Seigneurial System" in late September, and various parties have been responding with Borealia posts since, including Greer. But I fear this is a debate with almost no there there.  Greer now clarifies my piece was aimed primarily at a certain version of the history of New France found in textbooks, reference works and heritage sites. This is the idealized story of a �seigneurial system,� unique to French Canada and featuring seigneurs and censitaires living in harmony, each with their respective duties and benefits. I was really speaking to an anglophone phenomenon, an interpretation that is consistent with a long tradit...

Historiann does not post much anymore at her blog, more's the pity, but Professor Ann M. Little, her alter ego, is interviewed in a recent Borealia post, talking about her recent book The Many Captivities of Esther Wheelwright and, among other things, the challenges of writing book length biographies about people who never left any first person testimonies. Interviewer Keith Grant asks her about the title.  She says: I think it�s a useful way of thinking about people in the eighteenth century in general, because most people were born into a situation and station in life and they didn�t have all that many choices to make about how they made a living or how they prayed. But I also think it�s an especially useful metaphor for understanding girls� and women�s lives in all of these cultures�among Protestant British subjects, among the Wabanaki people, and among Catholic French Canadians, women at every level of these communities had fewer choices and options than their male peers. E...

The grave marker of Pierre LeMoyne d'Iberville , now in the Museum of the City of Havana on Plaza de la Catedral.