Voyageur is a French word, meaning “traveler”. From the beginning of the fur trade in the 1680s until the late 1870s, the voyageurs were the blue-collar workers of the Montreal fur trade. At their height in the 1810s, they numbered as many as 3,000 men. Hired from farms and villages of the St.
What did voyageurs do in the summer?
Each summer the park offers guided trips aboard these canoes at the Rainy Lake, Kabetogama Lake, and Ash River visitor centers. On land, in a canoe, or on a boat in the park, visitors can envision the voyageurs portaging around places like Grassy Portage and Kettle Falls with their large canoes.
What were the voyageurs paid?
The wintering voyageurs were paid once a year at Grand Portage, but they were paid in goods or in vouchers for merchandise from the company-run story. Because of the inflated prices at Grand Portage, the pay was worth only two-thirds of what it would have been in Montreal.
What did voyageurs do in the winter?
Some voyageurs stayed in the back country over the winter and transported the trade goods from the posts to farther away French outposts. These men were known as the hivernants (winterers). They also helped negotiate trade in indigenous communities.
What language did the voyageurs speak?
Although the new employers were English, the working language would remain French. In Making the Voyageur World, Carolyn Podruchny estimates the number of voyageurs at 500 in 1784, 1,500 in 1802 and 3,000 in 1821 at the height of the fur trade.
How many men are in a voyageur canoe?
Not only did the voyageurs paddle their canoes with a crew of four to six, but they would also portage their cargo.
What do the voyageurs eat?
They ate native foods such as berries, nuts and wild rice. They traded goods for wild rice, fish, and dried peas. The also ate pemmican, which is dried buffalo.
Where were the voyageurs or coureurs des bois from?
Coureurs des bois were itinerant, unlicenced fur traders from New France. They were known as “wood-runners” to the English on Hudson Bay and “bush-lopers” to the Anglo-Dutch of New York.
What does the word voyageurs mean?
: a man employed by a fur company to transport goods to and from remote stations especially in the Canadian Northwest.
What did the voyageurs eat for breakfast?
One observer recorded that a voyageur’s daily allowance of food included no more than a quart of Indian maize and one pound of grease. On other occasions they had pemmican (a greasy dried-meat mixture), wild oats and wheat, and dried meat or fish.
What did French fur traders wear?
“Buckskin coat and leggings, and wearing a cap of coon fur with the tail attached.” Voyageurs and coureurs des bois wore similar clothing, for the most part. Their fashion choices separate overtime namely because the coureurs des bois were no longer around and the trading companies took over.
Who led Quebec into Confederation?
Macdonald Day. His portrait is on the $10 bill. Sir George-Étienne Cartier was the key architect of Confederation from Quebec.
What are seigneurs and habitants?
Habitants were free individuals; seigneurs simply owned a “bundle of specific and limited rights over productive activity within that territory”. The seigneur – habitant relationship was one where both parties were owners of the land who split the attributes of ownership between them.
What replaced the fur trade?
Animal rights organizations oppose the fur trade, citing that animals are brutally killed and sometimes skinned alive. Fur has been replaced in some clothing by synthetic imitations, for example, as in ruffs on hoods of parkas.
What songs did the voyageurs sing?
In her book, Making the Voyageur World, Carolyn Podruchny notes that “Voyageurs sang 3 kinds of songs: romantic and melodic French ballads, lamentations for tragedies that occured to fellow voyageurs, and everyday work songs, composed on the spot and constantly changing.”
Where did the fur traders settle?
They built trading posts in the wilderness, and settlements grew up around many of these posts. Some of these settlements later became such major cities as Detroit, New Orleans, and St. Lewis in the United States; and Edmonton, Montreal, Quebec, and Winnipeg in Canada.
Who did the voyageurs work for what was their job?
“Voyageur”, the French word for traveler, refers to the contracted employees who worked as canoe paddlers, bundle carriers, and general laborers for fur trading firms from the 1690s until the 1850s. This is why voyageurs were also known as “engagés”, a loose French expression translated as “employees”.
What ethnicity were most Voyageurs?
Who Were the Voyageurs? Most voyageurs were French Canadian, recruited from villages and towns, like Sorel, Trois-Rivières, Quebec and Montreal. Voyageurs could be identified by their distinctive clothing. They often wore a red toque and a sash around their waist.
What was life like for the Voyageurs?
They were strong and healthy men who could withstand harsh weather conditions and maintain a very fast paddling pace. The route from Montreal to Lake Superior and back would take 12 to 16 weeks. The men paddled from sunrise to sunset, heaving back-breaking packs of trade goods and furs over grueling portages.
What is a Montreal canoe?
The canot du maître, or Montreal canoe, was the larger of the two, made most often from yellow birch. Some were up to 12 metres (40 feet) long, and required a crew of 10 to 12. paddlers. These canoes could be portaged by four men, and carried a payload of about three tons.
When did the fur trade end in Canada?
They formally ended in 1701 with the Great Peace of Montreal. Coureurs des bois (“runners of the woods”) and voyageurs did much to expand the fur trade. They travelled inland and traded with Indigenous peoples.
How many animals were killed in the fur trade?
Each year, around one hundred million animals are bred and killed on intensive fur farms specifically to supply the fashion industry with not only traditional fur coats but, increasingly, real fur trim for hooded jackets, and real fur pompoms used on hats, gloves, shoes and a range of other clothing and accessories.
Who did the Metis trade with?
The Métis began making a living as trappers by the end of the 1700s. They sold furs to three fur trade companies: Hudson’s Bay Company, the North West Company, and the American Fur Company.