Les armes à feu en Nouvelle-France by Russel Bouchard (review)

Book Reviews 701 ne manquera pas de nous raconter cet autre drame, celui de la derniere migration. Celle-ci, comme la premiere, est d'ailleurs symbolisee par la charmante couverture du livre: des Soeurs montant un escalier, cornettes et voiles au vent, ont l'air de grands oiseaux qui vont prendre leur envol. MARCEL TRUDEL Boucherville, QC Les armes a feu en Nouvelle-France. RUSSEL BOUCHARD. Sillery, QC: Septentrion 1999· Pp. 177, illus. $18.95 In Les armes afeu en Nouvelle-Francp, Russel Bouchard, a leading authority on the history offirearms in New France, provides a short, updated, and profusely illustrated synthesis ofhis much earlier studies, including his 1982 Laval University MA thesis. The author uses a material-history approach to argue the fundamental importance ofappreciating weapons use and evolving firearms technology in understanding the history of New France. From the beginning of the sixteenth century, firearms heavily influenced the social and economic development of North America. They played a central, perhaps decisive, role in the fate of New France from European contact with Aboriginal peoples to frontier survival, and throughout the course of the fur trade. For Bouchard, the early French colonists' small arms were nothing less than of'[une] utilite quotidienne ... veritable phenomene de civilisation. De tout temps et de tout horizon, le Canadien a ete place directement en contact avec les armes afeu et il est difficile de !'imaginer autrement.' At times, the book almost adopts the style of a reference· source or handbook. The result is a work strong on information and short on analysis. It is organized topically, with chapters on the European provenance of the arms used in New France and the methods by which weapons were exported to, distributed in, and priced in the colony. Finally, the author provides a detailed accounting ofthe various weapons actually in use from 1534 to 1760, from the arquebus to the musket to the flintlock. He liberally uses diagrams, sketches, and other illustrations providing considerable technical detail. He also examines New France's firearms within the contexts of their military and hunting uses and as commodities traded in exchange for furs. The unique strategic and geographic conditions prevailing in underpopulated , militarily threatened New France meant that all classes, and not just the nobility as was the case in metropolitan France, could, and in fact were obliged to, bear arms for their own survival and for the military defence ofthe colony. This permissive policy was a crucial dividing line 702 The Canadian Historical Review between the two societies, since arms use and ownership were strictly controlled in France. Bouchard cites this factor as the underpinning of cultural and social differentiation between Canadien and Franyais. Even the poorest habitant could own a hunting rifle, as arms traders and merchants were obliged by law to accept payment in kind for their wares. The gun was a symbol ofcolonial liberty not known to the non-military or non-aristocratic classes in France. According to the 1734 census in New France, more than 6,600 firearms were privately held. Bouchard leaves the perhaps exaggerated impression that New France was an armed camp with few parallels. In fact, as he suggests, the militia remained woefully underarmed. In 1747 the Royal arsenals at Quebec, Montreal, and Trois-Rivieres contained a further lo,ooo firearms, though they were of many different styles, manufacture, and calibres. Not all were suitable for the battle line. Conflict between the colonists and the Iroquois also fundamentally influenced firearms acquisition and dissemination practices - especially after the widespread adoption of firearms by Aboriginal peoples beginning in the mid-seventeenth century. The siege mentality of the Canadians guaranteed their reliance on firearms. 'La survie de chacun des membres de la communaute est liee directement al'arme afeu,' writes Bouchard. The habitants considered firearms a staple, along with food, shelter, and clothing, in ensuring their family's well-being. But the heightened sense of personal freedom made possible by the ownership of a weapon also belied the extreme dependence of New France on the mother country. A critical lack oftooling equipment, the unavailability ofskilledlabour, and monopolistic mercantilism combined to make nearly impossible the indigenous manufacturing ofarms. Over time, however, certain continental factories (eg...