Franco-American Culture and Heritage in New Hampshire

It was interesting to see that the new French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, chose New Hampshire for his two-week summer vacation. There was controversy about this location and about the cost of his family vacation because some people in France were arguing that he should have stayed in France for his vacation. Some were also upset about the reported cost of $30,ooo.00 for one week at the home he used for his vacation.

Sarkozy indicated that he was there at the invitation of two family friends, one reported to be the French General Manager of Tiffany in France, the other reported to be one of the managers of Prada, the fashion design house.

My purpose here is not to pass judgement on the costs of his vacation and/or his friends or acquaintances. I would like however to draw the attention to the mostly unknown fact that the State of New Hampshire is home to a very sizable minority of French-speaking residents, descendants from French-Canadian immigrants. It is estimated that about one-third of state residents are of French-Canadian descent. Between the years of 1860 and 1920 (roughly from the American Seccession War to the Great Depression), about one million French-Canadians immigrated to the new industrial mill towns of New England. During that period, because of ample water resources used for energy, all major towns of New England saw the construction of textile and paper mills that employed thousands of workers primarily female workers to weave cotton blankets and linens. At that time, Quebec 's economy was mostly rural and the Quebec population, with the active support and encouragement of the very powerful Catholic church, was trying to fight assimilation by the English by engaging in what has been called the "cradle war."

French-Canadian families were very large with 16, 18 or more children. Obviously, farms could not sub-divided among so many children: One or two of the oldest but not more. The other children had only two other options: Join a Catholic religious order, or emigrate to the United States.

Active recruiters were sent north by US mills to hire workers, and rail links were used to bring this "army" of workers to man the numerous mills all over New England.

Whole areas of these towns were called "Little Canada" or "French Hill." These emigrants lived together fearful of other immigrant groups and socialized among themselves. Their attachment to the French language, the Catholic faith, the French-Canadian culture in terms of food and music, is truly amazing.

Manchester, named for the English industrial city, had the largest cotton mills in the world.

Today, we still can see beautiful churches, and whole districts in towns like Nashua, NH and Manchester, NH, that have been built by the savings and the sacrifices of the French Canadians.

Today, leafing through the phone books of every large city, we can only notice the French last names of their descendants. We still have Catholic masses in French, and weekly radio programs of French or French Canadian music on Sundays.

Obviously, the children and grandchildren descendants have slowly but surely assimilated into the US melting pot with the english pronunciations of last names, and the loss of the French language. Only the older generation (50 years of age and older) still can use French because their primary and secondary education was done in both English and French. Their descendants are unilingual English, in spite of the still existing family ties and the physical proximity of Quebec (which is only a few hours from New England by car.)

The French government and other countries that have membership in the International Francophone Community need to actively protect and celebrate this French heritage by sponsoring youth exchange programs, and sponsoring cultural and art events. We need to keep this heritage alive and nurture and celebrate it. Otherwise, a huge minority of the New England population will lose their roots, and will therefore be ill-equipped to face the challenges of this century. It is only by a full awareness of our roots that we can move forward to face the challenges of the present times.