American Minute with Bill Federer
How America was almost NEW FRANCE? Jacques Cartier, Champlain, Fort Ticonderoga, Vermont, Ethan Allen
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A
t the Battle of Pavia in 1525, the
France's King Francis I,
had his horse injured and was captured.
He was taken away to Madrid, Spain, where
Charles V
put him in prison.
Francis
wrote to his mother: "All is lost save honor."
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After being forced to make concessions and surrender some territories,
Francis I
was released.
Possibly influencing his release was an ultimatum sent to
Charles V
by the
Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent.
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Shortly after his release, in 1526,
Francis I
began negotiating a
Franco–Ottoman Alliance
with
Sultan Suleiman
against
Spain's King Charles V,
for which
Francis
was threatened with excommunication.
This alliance emboldened the
Sultan
to increase his attack on Eastern European countries of
Bulgaria, Croatia, Bohemia, and Hungary.
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At the
Battle of Mohács
in 1526,
Turks
defeated the
Hungarians
and killed their
King Louis II
- a shocking moral defeat for all of Europe.
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Charles V
responded by seeking an alliance with the Ottoman Empire's enemy to the east --
Shah Tahmasp I of Persia.
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Meanwhile, on April 20, 1534,
King Francis I
sent explorer
Jacques Cartier
to sail west to find a sea route to Asia.
Cartier
described the land with the native
Inuit word
"Canada,"
which means "settlement." This land became
New France.
in 1535,
King Francis I of France
sent
Jacques Cartier
on a
second voyage
with the
Commission
(Francis Parkman's Works, Volume 2, p. 38-39; Lescarbot, I. 411; and Hazard, I. 19):
"We have resolved to send him again to the lands of Canada and Hochelaga (present-day Montreal), which form the extremity of
Asia
towards the west ... (with the object of the enterprise to be discovery, settlement, and conversion) of men without
knowledge of God
or use of reason."
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Jacques Cartier
sailed up the
Saint Lawrence River
till he came to impassable rapids near Montreal which he named
"La Chine,"
meaning
"The China"
rapids, as he was convinced this was the elusive
Northwest Passage
to
Asia.
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The Voyages of Jacques Cartier
(University of Toronto Press, 1993) gives an account of this expedition, including the winter of 1535-36:
"The
Captain (Jacques Cartier)
again asked them (natives) what was the trouble? They answered that their god, Cudouagny by name, had made an announcement at Hochelaga ... to tell them the tidings, which were that there would be so much ice and snow that all would perish.
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... At this we all began to laugh and to tell them that their god Cudouagny was a mere fool who did not know what he was saying; and that they should tell their messengers as much;
and that Jesus would keep them safe from the cold if they would trust in him.
Thereupon Taignoagny and his companions asked the Captain if he had spoken with
Jesus;
and he replied that his priests had done so and that there would be fine weather."
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That winter was extremely harsh, as the account reported:
"Already several had died, whom for sheer weakness we had to bury beneath the snow; for ... the ground was frozen and we could not dig into it ...
We were also in great dread of the people of the country, lest they should become aware of our plight and helplessness.
And to hide our sickness, our Captain, whom
God
kept continually in good health, whenever they came near the fort, would go out to meet them with two or three men ...
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... At this time so many men were down with this disease that we had almost lost hope of ever returning to France, when
God i
n his infinite goodness and mercy had pity upon us and made known to us the most excellent remedy against all diseases that ever had been seen or heard of in the whole world."
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The account explained how
Jacques Cartier
learned of one who had:
"... been healed by the juice of the leaves of a tree and the dregs of these, and that this was the only way to cure sickness.
Upon this the Captain asked him if there was not some of it thereabouts ... They showed us how to grind the bark and the leaves and to boil the whole in water ... They called the tree in their language Annedda ...
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... In less than eight days, a whole tree as large and as tall as any I every saw was used up, and produced such a result that had all the doctors of Louvain and Montpellier been there with all the drugs of Alexandria, they could not have done so much in a year as did this tree in eight days;
for it benefited us so much that all who were willing to use it recovered health and strength,
thanks be to God."
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Thinking it was gold,
Jacques Cartier
gathered large amounts of
iron-pyrite -- "fool's gold."
Cartier
also seized
Chief Donnacona,
his two sons and seven inhabitants and took them back to
France,
but nine of the ten died.
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In 1541,
Cartier
embarked on his third and final expedition, but this time he did not receive a welcome reception from the native inhabitants.
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Also in 1541,
Sieur Jean-Francois de Roberval
led another expedition.
Sieur de Roberval,
similar to England's
Sir Francis Drake
and
Sir Walter Raleigh,
raided Spanish ships in the Caribbean and attempted a settlement in the New World.
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Sieur de Roberval
was commissioned by
King Francis I
of France as the
first Lieutenant General of New France
(Lettres Patentes accorde'es a' Jehan Francoys de la Rogue Sr de Roberval,
January 15, 1541):
"Francis,
by the grace of God,
King of France,
to all to whom these presents may come, greetings. Since desiring to hear and learn about several countries ...
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... Whereas we have undertaken this voyage for
the honor of God our Creator,
desiring with all our hearts to do that which shall be agreeable to Him,
it is our will to perform a compassionate and meritorious work towards criminals and malefactors, to the end that they may
acknowledge the Creator,
return thanks to Him, and mend their lives.
Therefore we have resolved to cause to be delivered to our aforesaid lieutenant
(Sieur de Roberval)
such and so many of the aforesaid criminals and malefactors detained in our prisons as may seem to him useful and necessary to be carried to the aforesaid countries."
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A very harsh leader,
Roberval
attempted a settlement, named
Charlesbourg-Royal (present-day Quebec)
in 1541, but two years later abandoned it and returned to France with the remaining colonists.
Sieur de Roberval
resumed pirating Spanish ships in the Caribbean.
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Sieur de Roberval
finally died in 1560, being considered one of the first
Protestant Huguenot
victims in the
Wars of Religion
which ravaged France, especially after the
Massacre of Vassy in 1562.
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In 1562, some
French Protestant Huguenots
fled with
Jean Ribault
and
René Goulaine de Laudonnière
to attempt settlements in Florida, but the
Spanish massacred them.
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The French Wars of Religion
were suspended by the
Edict of Nantes of 1598
enacted by
Good King Henry IV,
who had been baptized Catholic but raised Protestant.
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In 1603,
King Henry IV
sent
Samuel de Champlain
to begin settlement of Canada.
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In 1605,
Samuel de Champlain,
considered
"the Father of New France,"
together with Pierre Du Gua de Monts, founded
Port Royal
as the first capital of
French Acadia.
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Port Royal
was attacked and burned by British forces from Virginia in 1613, but was rebuilt.
In 1608,
Samuel de Champlain
founded
Quebec City
near the Indian settlement of "Stadacona."
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In 1609,
Samuel de Champlain
encountered the lake named for him --
Lake Champlain
-- which drains north into the
Saint Lawrence River Valley of Canada.
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Back in
France,
the
Wars of Religion
resumed with the assassination of
King Henry IV
on May 14, 1610. His son,
Louis XIII,
became the next king.
The
French Wars of Religion
finally ended with the
Peace of Alais,
negotiated in 1629 by
French Prime Minister Cardinal Richelieu
and
Huguenot leaders,
being signed by
Louis XIII.
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New France
was slow to attract settlers so
Cardinal Richelieu
founded the
Company of One Hundred Associates
(Compagnie des Cent-Associe's) April 29, 1627, to bring more colonists:
"King Henry the Great,
our father of glorious memory, did seek and discover the lands and countries of
New France,
known as
Canada,
some able dwelling to establish a colony there, in order to, with
Divine assistance,
bring the peoples living there to the
knowledge of the true God,
and to organize and instruct in the
Apostolic and Roman Catholic faith and religion."
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Schedule Bill Federer for informative interviews & captivating PowerPoint presentations: 314-502-8924
[email protected]
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The
French
fortified
Lake Champlain
by building
Fort Sainte Anne
on
Isle La Motte
in 1666. It is considered
the first settlement
in what would later become the
State of Vermont.
In 1690, some
Dutch Reformed Protestant
settlers arrived in the area.
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Colonial wars followed between the
French
and the
British:
-King William's War, 1689;
-Queen Anne's War, 1710;
-Father Rale's War, 1722;
-King George's War, 1744;
-Father Le Loutre's War, 1749;
-French and Indian War, 1754.
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The
British
finally expelled all
French
from
Acadia.
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Many were deported back to other colonies, or back to
France,
or fled south to the
Caribbean
and
French Louisiana,
where the name
"acadian"
became pronounced
"cajun."
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Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
wrote of this expulsion in his epic poem "Evangeline."
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Britain's King
granted a
Royal Charter
in 1679 to the fur trading company --
The Hudson Bay Company
-- giving it monopoly control over such a large area that for a long period of time it was
the largest landowner in the world,
comprising 15 percent of North American acreage.
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The Hudson's Bay Company
is the
oldest continuously operated commercial corporation in North America.
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When the
British
began encroaching further south, the
French
built
Fort St. Frederic
in 1734 on
Lake Champlain.
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When the
British
began encroaching further south, the
French
built
Fort St. Frederic
in 1734 on
Lake Champlain.
In 1759, during the
French and Indian War, British
commander
Jeffrey Amherst
advanced with 11,000 soldiers, forcing the
French
to abandon
Fort St. Frederic.
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The
French
moved 15 miles further south and built
Fort Carillion
at a strategic point where
Lake George
flows into
Lake Champlain.
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British
commander
Jeffrey Amherst
captured
Fort Carillion
and renamed it
Fort Ticonderoga.
"Ticonderoga"
is the Iroquois word meaning "where two waterways meet."
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The capture of the
Fort Ticonderoga
allowed the
British
to begin crossing into
French
territory west of the
Appalachian Mountains.
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The
Mohawks
sided with the
British,
and killed many of the
French survivors.
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Part of the former
French territory
was called
"Ver Mont,"
French
for
"Green Mountain."
British Colonies
of
Massachusetts, New Hampshire
and
New York
tried to lay claim to
Vermont.
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Massachusetts
relinquished its claims, but
New Hampshire
issued land grants to proprietors, who subdivided it into lots.
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Some lots were set aside for
a missionary organization of the Church of England
by the name the
Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts,
and some lots were for the
first clergyman
who would settle in each township.
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In 1775, just three weeks after the
Revolutionary War Battles of Lexington and Concord, Ethan Allen
led 83
Green Mountain Boys of Vermont
on a courageous expedition to capture
Fort Ticonderoga.
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In the early morning of MAY 10, 1775,
Ethan Allen,
accompanied by
Colonel Benedict Arnold,
made a surprise assault on
Fort Ticonderoga.
The bewildered
British captain
asked in whose name such a request was being made.
Ethan Allen
reportedly shouted:
"In the Name of the Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress."
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The
British
surrendered in what was
one of America's first victories of the Revolutionary War.
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Three weeks after the capture of
Fort Ticonderoga,
Harvard President
Samuel Langdon
told the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, May 31, 1775:
"If God be for us,
who can be against us? ..
May our land be purged from all its sins!
Then the Lord will be our refuge and our strength, a very present help in trouble, and we will have no reason to be afraid, though thousands of enemies set themselves against us."
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A little over seven months later, 25-year-old
Colonel Henry Knox
incredibly moved 59 cannons from
Fort Ticonderoga
over 200 miles across
Vermont, New York
and
New Hampshire
to
Massachusetts
.
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The cannons were put on a high hill overlooking Boston's Harbor -
Dorchester Heights.
This forced
British
ships to
evacuate Boston.
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During the
Revolution, Vermont
not only fought the
British
but also
New York,
resulting in
Vermont
becoming its own independent nation for 14 years, similar to Texas.
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The people of
VERMONT
wrote in their original
Constitution, 1777:
"Whereas, all government ought to ... enable the individuals who compose it, to enjoy their natural rights, and the other blessings which
the Author of Existence
has bestowed upon man;
and whenever those great ends of government are not obtained, the people have a right, by common consent, to change it, and take such measures as to them may appear necessary to promote their safety and happiness ...
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And whereas ... the
King of Great Britain
... continues to
carry on, with unabated vengeance, a most cruel and unjust war
against them; employing therein, not only the
troops
of Great Britain, but
foreign mercenaries, savages
and
slaves,
for the avowed purpose of reducing them to a total and
abject submission
to the
despotic domination
of the British parliament, with many other
acts of tyranny ...
Therefore, it is absolutely necessary, for the welfare and safety of the inhabitants of this State, that it should be, henceforth, a
free and independent State ...
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We the representatives of the
freemen of Vermont ... confessing the goodness of the Great Governor of the Universe,
(who alone, knows to what degree of earthly happiness, mankind may attain, by perfecting the arts of government,)
in permitting the people of this State ... to form for themselves, such just rules as they shall think best for governing their future society."
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VERMONT's 1786 Constitution
stated:
"That the people have a right to freedom of speech, and of writing and publishing their sentiments; therefore, the freedom of the press ought not be restrained.
That
the people have a right to bear arms for the defense of themselves
and the State;
and, as standing armies, in the time of peace, are dangerous to liberty, they ought not to be kept up ...
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And each member, before he takes his seat, shall make and subscribe the following declaration, viz.
'I ____ do believe in
one God, the Creator and Governor of the Universe, the Rewarder of the good and Punisher of the wicked.
And I do acknowledge the
Scriptures of the Old and New Testament
to be given by
Divine inspiration,
and own and profess
the Protestant religion.'"
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VERMONT's 1790 Constitution
stated:
"All persons have a natural and unalienable right, to worship
Almighty God,
according to the dictates of their own consciences and understandings, as in their opinion shall be regulated by
the word of God...
No authority can, or ought to be vested in, or assumed by, any power whatever, that shall in any case interfere with, or in any manner control the
rights of conscience ...
Nevertheless,
every sect or denomination of Christians
ought to observe
the Sabbath or Lord's Day,
and keep up some sort of religious worship, which to them shall seem most agreeable to
the revealed Will of God."
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The United States Government accepted
Vermont
as the
14th State of the United States in 1791,
being approved by
President George Washington.
Denominations grew in numbers, most notably
Congregationalists, Episcopalians and Baptists,
followed by
Methodists, Presbyterians, Free Will Baptists
and
Quakers.
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In the early 1800's, there were also
Unitarians, Universalists,
and
unconventional sects,
such as
Millerites
and
Perfectionists.
Beginning in 1820 with the
Second Great Awakening,
revivalism swept
Vermont
and academies with religious affiliations were founded.
The anti-slavery sentiment was strong in
Vermont.
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In the 1840's the
Catholic Church
increased with
French Canadians
and
Irish immigrants.
In the late 1800's,
Judaism, Welsh Presbyterianism, Swedish Lutheranism
and
Greek Orthodoxy
made a presence in
Vermont.
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In 2006, the Pew Religious Landscape Survey listed
VERMONT
as:
-11 percent Evangelical Protestant
-23 percent Mainline Protestant
-0.5 percent Black Protestant
-29 percent Catholic
<0.5 percent Orthodox
<0.5 percent Other Christian
1.0 percent Mormon
<0.5 percent Jehovah's Witnesses
1.0 percent Jewish
<0.5 percent Muslim
1.0 percent Buddhist
<0.5 percent Hindu
<0.5 percent Other World Religions
7 percent Other Faiths
26 percent Unaffiliated
<0.5 percent No Answer
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The
State of Vermont
put a statue of
Ethan Allen
in the
U.S. Capitol's Statuary Hall.
On January 9, 1872,
Senator Henry Bowen Anthony
gave a speech in the
U.S. Capital's Statuary Hall
(Washington: F & J. Rives & Geo. A. Bailey, 1872):
"My colleague has well said that it was a happy idea to convert the old Hall of the House of Representatives into the Pantheon of America.
The idea originated with my distinguished friend who sits upon my right, (Senator Justin Smith Morrill of VERMONT,) then a leading member of the House ...
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It was indeed a happy idea to assemble in the Capitol the silent effigies of the men who have made the annals of the nation illustrious ...
I anticipate ... every State shall have sent her contribution ... of heroes and patriots ...
Vermont
shall send us the stalwart form of
that hero (Ethan Allen)
who thundered at the gates of Ticonderoga 'in the name of the Continental Congress and the Great Jehovah!"
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American Minute is a registered trademark of William J. Federer. Permission is granted to forward, reprint, or duplicate, with acknowledgment.
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