CHRONICLES OF THE ST. LAWRENCE by LeMoine in 1878

As a beginning here is a bit about the author of:  CHRONICLES OF THE ST. LAWRENCE, as found on the Dictionary of Canadian biography; http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/le_moine_james_macpherson_14F.html

LE MOINE, Sir JAMES MacPHERSON, lawyer, office holder, and author; b. 21 Jan. 1825 at Quebec and baptized 20 February in the Roman Catholic cathedral of Notre-Dame.

A tireless researcher, Le Moine found his material in public and private archives. He interviewed older people and relied on the good offices of historian friends such as Abbé Louis-Édouard Boie and Abbé Jean-Baptiste-Antoine Ferland. Moreover, like today’s archaeologists, anthropologists, and ethnologists, he did field work. From this diversity of sources would come a substantial and varied literary output.

In approaching Le Moine’s historical work, it must be borne in mind that he came from a pluralistic milieu and that his father had adopted an attitude of tolerance, or even indifference, in matters of religion. Although this background led him to ignore the question of religious belief, it also kept him free of any political commitment based on ethnic antagonism. Confronting the historical past, Le Moine could not consider himself either victor or vanquished. He was both at once. He therefore adopted an ordinary human attitude, knowing that participants in past and present events are most often victims of political decisions made by others. He tried, for instance, to do away with the notion of guilt. In any case he was not interested in ideological disputes. As learned scholars do, he preferred to base his thinking on accumulated data. The more numerous the facts, he believed, the more they would enable him to produce an exhaustive work.

Now that we have established that Mr. LeMoine is a credible source let’s dig into what’s interesting about this publication in regards with the “mix-blood” of Bay Chaleurs region, more specifically in Pasepbiac, Qc.

The first excerpt of the book that caught my attention on page 14;

“The maternal ancestors of the Pospillats were Micmac squaws, much to the disgust of the neighboring settlements. These half-breeds were then accounted fierce and revengeful. Tom Carlyle must have had something to do with this word-coining. But let us return to the county town.”

Le Moine’s vision of the Pospillat, the inhabitant of Paspebiac, is obvious right from the start and is tainted with an obvious negative prejudice about them and their origins.

Then i want to bring the attention to p. 290 and 291;

“The Paspyjacks, as a people, one regrets to say, neglect the tillage of the soil. Far better off than they, are the Scotch, English and Irish, with their farms ; indeed, they seem a superior race of colonists. A writer has asserted of the English, that the reason why in enterprise, commerce, freedom, wealth, they surpass all other nations, is because they can be likened to a varied and lasting concrete, a mud of many nations, made up ; Ancient Britons, Eomans, Danes, Saxons, Normans, all blended in one harmonious whole. One cannot say the same of the Paspyjacks.”

This excerpt is really significant in the attitude many poeple had towards the mixed-breed community of the Gaspe. The Paspeya are obviously seen as a inferior race.

This last transcriptions from page 291, is loaded with racisms and is a hard one to read;

The majority had Acadian fathers : others had Jersey progenitors, some of the blacksmiths, carpenters and fishermen who came out with Charles Robin, in 1766, but for whom celibacy had no attractions. Wives were scarce on the Gaspe" coast : they tamed as a substitute some spruce Restigouche squaws trapped at the Micmac settlement close by ; the offspring of these Pocahontas, bleached tolerably white ; one perverse taint sometimes remained : a craving for fire water. A marked trait of Indian character, the love of revenge, occasionally cropped out under the stimulus of the " ardent," rendering them quarrelsome. Hence why the neighbors stood off. The Frenchmen of Perce" dreaded and shunned the fierce Pospilats, whilst the canny Scotch and law-abiding English saw little glory in fighting the bellicose Paspyjacks. The Paspyjacks are different from other Gaspe" communities ; they might inscribe on their escutcheon " Hard work-and moderate intellectual developments ; " they have however much im proved.

In spite of being described as a neutral man in his biography, LeMoine has an obvious aversion towards the “Paspyjacks” in this publication.

The observations made by LeMoine in 1878 are major for many reasons. First, here is yet another account from the 1800’s confirming the mixed origins of the people of Paspebiac. Second, the mixed-bloods of Paspebiac obviously have a status that is neither “indian” or “white” as he wrote; “The Paspyjacks are different from other Gaspe" communities” . To finish, his account tells us a lot about the level of racism and prejudice the people from mixed-blood community in the Bay Chaleurs region had to face. A great account to add to the bigger picture concerning the networks of “half-breed” community that are in the Bay Chaleurs region from Quebec and northeast New Brunswick.