The habitants of New France (Canada) occupied the lowest rung of the social ladder in the colony and worked the land as peasants in a semifeudal fashion.
The officials of New France populated their colony primarily with a peasant class referred to as habitants. In general, habitants practiced limited husbandry and agriculture on land technically owned by others (seigneurs). They worked the land in family units and were for the most part self-sufficient. Habitants made their own decisions concerning how they used their assigned land, but a portion of what they produced, or rent, was owed to the seigneurs, or owners. Although habitants were more independent than peasants in France, seigneurs still exploited them. Some habitants participated as parttime voyageurs (licensed by the government) and couriers de bois (illegal operators) in the fur trade with New France’s Native allies, and others supplemented their income as merchants and craftsmen. Although habitants often feared falling into debt or being attacked by the IROQUOIS, they still became the backbone of the colony. Much of the limited early success of New France can be attributed to habitant hardiness.
Further reading: William J. Eccles, Canadian Society during the French Regime (Montreal: Harvest House,
1968);--, France in North America (East Lansing:
Michigan State University Press, 1990); Allan Greer, Peasant, Lord, and Merchant: Rural Society in Three Quebec Parishes 1740-1840 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1985); Andre Vachon, Victorin Chabot, and Andre Desrosiers, Dreams of Empire: Canada before 1700 (Ottawa: Canadian Government Publishing Centre, Minister of Supply and Services Canada, 1982).
—Dixie Ray Haggard
World History
