The Lower Canada Rebellion (), commonly referred to as the Patriots' Rebellion () in French, is the name given to the armed conflict in 1837–38 between rebels and the British colonial government of Lower Canada (now southern Quebec). Together with the simultaneous rebellion in the neighbouring colony of Upper Canada (now southern Ontario), it formed the Rebellions of 1837–38 ().

As a result of the rebellions, the Province of Canada was created from the former Lower Canada and Upper Canada.

History

The rebellion had been preceded by nearly three decades of efforts at political reform in Lower Canada, led from the early 1800s by James Stuart and Louis-Joseph Papineau, who formed the and sought accountability from the elected general assembly and the appointed governor of the colony. After the Constitutional Act 1791, Lower Canada could elect a House of Assembly, which led to the rise of two parties: the English Party and the Canadian Party. The English Party was mostly composed of the English merchants and bourgeoisie and had the support of bureaucrats and the old seigneurial families. The Canadian Party was formed by aristocrats, French or English. The Catholic Church did not openly advocate for any political party but tended to support the English party. With the power in the hand of the population, the French-Canadian business class needed support from the population more than from the British business class. Since the population was mostly French-Canadian, those elected to the House of Assembly tended to be French-speaking and to support the French-Canadian business class. The House of Assembly gave an illusion of power to French-Canadians, but the Executive and Legislative Councils advised the governor, who could veto any legislation. Both councils were made of people chosen by the English party. Craig thought that the Canadian Party and its supporters wanted a French-Canadian republic, and feared that if the United States invaded Lower Canada, the Canadian Party would collaborate. In 1810, Craig imprisoned journalists working for the newspaper, in particular Pierre-Stanislas Bédard, the leader of the Canadian Party and editor of the newspaper. That created a leadership crisis in the party.

After hearing about the 99 grievances submitted by Robert Gourlay, Papineau wrote the "Ninety-two Resolutions" while he was secretly co-ordinating with Upper Canada. After protestors were shot in Montreal in 1832, Papineau had to submit the list of "resolutions" to the governor himself. The document that was presented to the House of Assembly on January 7, 1834, and had 92 demands to the British government. In February 1838, rebel leaders who had escaped across the border into the United States raided Lower Canada. During the summer of 1838, the Patriotes in the United States formed a secret society, called , to invade Lower Canada from the United States. The secret group also had members in Lower Canada itself, who would assist in the invasion. The goal was an independent state of Lower Canada.

The Lower Canada Rebellion, along with the Upper Canadian Rebellion, is often seen as an example of what might have occurred in the United States if the American Revolutionary War had failed. In Quebec, the rebellion, as well as the parliamentary and popular struggle, is now commemorated as the Journée nationale des Patriotes (National Patriots' Day) on the Canadian statutory holiday, Victoria Day. Since the late 20th century, the day has become a symbol for the Quebec independence movement and, to a lesser extent, a symbol of Canada's republican movement.

Leaders

  • Thomas Storrow Brown (1803–1888)
  • Jean-Olivier Chénier (1806–1837)
  • François-Marie-Thomas Chevalier de Lorimier (1803–1839)
  • Amury Girod (1800–1837)
  • James Ard (1802–1840)
  • Edmund Bailey O'Callaghan (1797–1880)
  • Robert Nelson (1794–1873)
  • Wolfred Nelson (1791–1863)
  • Louis-Joseph Papineau (1786–1871)

See also

  • History of Canada
  • List of incidents of civil unrest in Canada
  • Upper Canada Rebellion
  • Timeline of Quebec history
  • Politics of Quebec
  • Canada Bay, New South Wales: some French Canadians who took part in the rebellions were expelled to this region of Australia.
  • Kahnawake Iroquois and the Rebellions of 1837–38
  • February 15, 1839
  • Félix Poutré
  • List of the 108 Lower Canadians prosecuted before the general court-martial of Montreal in 1838–39

Footnotes

References

Further reading

  • Boissery, Beverly. (1995). A Deep Sense of Wrong: The Treason Trials, and Transportation to New South Wales of Lower Canadian Rebels after the 1838 Rebellion, Toronto: Dundurn Press, 367 p. ()
  • Brown, Richard. Rebellion in Canada, 1837–1885: Autocracy, Rebellion and Liberty (Volume 1) (2012) excerpt volume 1; Rebellion in Canada, 1837–1885, Volume 2: The Irish, the Fenians and the Metis (2012) excerpt for volume 2
  • Buckner, Philip Alfred. (1985). The Transition to Responsible Government: British Policy in British North America, 1815–1850, Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 358 p.
  • Burroughs, Peter. (1972). The Canadian Crisis and the British Colonial Policy, 1828–1849, Toronto: MacMillan, 118 p.
  • Decelles, Alfred Duclos. (1916). The "Patriotes" of '37: A Chronicle of the Lower Canadian Rebellion, Toronto: Glasgow, Brook & Co., 140 p. [translated by Stewart Wallace]
  • Ducharme, Michel. "Closing the Last Chapter of the Atlantic Revolution: The 1837–38 Rebellions in Upper and Lower Canada," Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society 116 (2):413–430. 2006
  • Dunning, Tom. "The Canadian Rebellions of 1837 and 1838 as a Borderland War: A Retrospective," Ontario History (2009) 101#2 pp 129–141.
  • Greer, Allan (1993). The Patriots and the People: The Rebellion of 1837 in Rural Lower Canada, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 385 p. () (preview)
  • Senior, Elionor Kyte. (1985). Redcoats and Patriotes: The Rebellions in Lower Canada, 1837–38, Ontario: Canada's Wings, Inc., 218 p. ()
  • Mann, Michael (1986). A Particular Duty: The Canadian Rebellions 1837–1839, Salisbury (Wiltshire): Michael Russel Publishing, 211 p.
  • Tiffany, Orrin Edward. (1980). The Relations of the United States to the Canadian Rebellion of 1837–1838, Toronto: Coles Pub., 147 p.
  • Ryerson, Stanley Bréhaut (1968). Unequal Union: Confederation and the Roots of Conflict in the Canadas, 1815–1873, Toronto : Progress Books, 477 p.
  • Manning, Helen Taft (1962). The Revolt of French Canada, 1800–1835. A Chapter in the History of the British Commonwealth, Toronto: Macmillan Company of Canada, 426 p.
  • Kinchen, Oscar Arvle (1956). The Rise and Fall of the Patriot Hunters, Toronto: Burns and Maceachern, 150 p.
  • Morison, John Lyle (1919). British Supremacy and Canadian Self-Government, 1839–1854, Toronto: S. B.Gundy, 369 p.

Primary services

  • Greenwood, F. Murray, and Barry Wright (2 vol 1996, 2002) Canadian state trials – Rebellion and invasion in the Canadas, 1837–1839 Society for Canadian Legal History by University of Toronto Press,
  • The Patriotes Rebellion Quebec 1837–1839, selection of French documents translated into English for the Marxists Internet Archive
  • Les rébellions des Patriotes de 1837–38
  • Entre la Langue et L'Océan — a feature length film and a critical reading of the events of the Canadian Rebellions of 1837 and 1838 and the true story of the banishment of a political prisoner of the Lower Canada Rebellion to the Australian penal colony