Quebec during the American Invasion: The Journal of François Baby, Gabriel Taschereau, and Jenkin Williams, 1775–1776 (review)

To the early Americanist embarking on a transnational jaunt without the benefit of a French dictionary, this book offers an annotated English version of the so-called Rapport Baby, an official report describing the behaviour of some 4,000 Canadian men (and, famously, a dozen Canadian women) in rural Quebec during the occupation of the colony by the 'Continental Army' in 1775–6. Well known to historians since its publication by Quebec's provincial archivist Aegidius Fauteux in the 1920s, this exceptional document details the various ways in which the peasantry of the colony's lower district supported or opposed (and, in some cases, supported then opposed) the invading Bostonnais at the onset of the American revolutionary war. As recounted by the three government investigators and their informants, the actions of the habitants ranged from resisting orders to taking up arms, supplying the 'rebels' with food and fuel, pledging allegiance to Congress or the king, holding local elections, spreading propaganda and rumours, informing against opponents, and ransacking them. Over the past decades, and contrary to the editor's claim (xxi), several anglophone historians from both sides of the Canada-US border have put the Baby journal to good historiographical use, apparently without serious difficulty. Unilingual readers may welcome the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the document through this translation, but historians should know that it contains enough flaws to warrant careful handling.

The translation itself is the work of able but hurried hands. Literary scholar Pascale Vergereau-Dewey worked from the original manuscript, which enabled her to include several small portions of text that were missing in the Fauteux transcription. Unfortunately, her own version also skips segments of the original text, possibly in greater numbers. To historians, the colonial investigators' determination to name names has proven of great value, since many of the listed individuals may be traced in other sources, but the present translation complicates this task by misspelling some surnames and fabricating others out of professional or ethnic indications (e.g., Cormak, a Scotsman, appears as 'Cormak Écossais' [88]). Then comes the full array of mistranslations, from permutations to chronological blurring, simplifications and exaggerations (révoltés into 'revolutionaries,' désavantage into 'debacle'), down to plain errors: cantiniers (sutlers) mistaken for cantonniers (road-menders) (10, 27, 128); côte (a small rural locality) blown up into an entire 'coastal region' (58, 90); and commandements (commandeering) reduced to mere 'orders.' Joseph Morin's servant (engagé) was in favour of the rebels – not Morin's 'sentiments' (86). And since fascines are correctly defined in the preface as 'bundles of sticks used like sandbags in siege warfare' (xxii), why do they appear occasionally as 'kindling wood' in the translation (4, 7)? These are but examples. Some of the translator's clarifications are indeed helpful, but others are misleading (as when a 'village' materializes in the countryside of St-Féréol [11]) or present a distorted view of institutions and social dynamics in late eighteenth-century rural Quebec. Overall, this remains a highly readable rendition of the document and of the myriad stories it contains, but one that students of the American Revolution (the book's intended audience) should think twice before choosing over the French original.

The editorial contributions of military historian Michael P. Gabriel include a biographical background about listed individuals who also appear in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography (mostly those of British descent); a useful map of the parishes visited by the investigators; and illustrations, one of which, a seldom seen 'Canadischer Bauer' drawn by a Hessian hand in 1778, is of true documentary interest. Gabriel provides scant information about the source itself, which leave unanswered such critical questions as why is there no official record of the investigation (only Baby's personal copy is extant), and how different would our...