Voyageurs

For other uses, see Voyageur (disambiguation).
Shooting the Rapids, 1879 by Frances Anne Hopkins (1838–1919)

Voyageurs (French: [vwajaʒœʁ] ⓘ; lit. 'travellers') were 18th- and 19th-century French and later French Canadians and others who transported furs by canoe at the peak of the North American fur trade. The emblematic meaning of the term applies to places (New France, including the Pays d'en Haut and the Pays des Illinois) and times where that transportation was over long distances, giving rise to folklore and music that celebrated voyageurs' strength and endurance.[1][unreliable source?] They traversed and explored many regions in what is now Canada and the United States.

Despite their fame, their lives were arduous and not nearly as glamorous as folk tales made out. For example, they had to be able to carry two 90-pound (41 kg) bundles of fur over portages. Some carried four or five, and there is a report of a voyageur carrying seven bundles for half a mile.[2] Hernias were common and frequently caused death.[3] Most voyageurs started working in their early twenties and continued working until they were in their sixties. They never made enough money to consider early retirement from a physically grueling lifestyle.[4]

Fur trading was done by canoe and largely by French Canadians.[citation needed] In the fur trade context, the word also applied, to a lesser extent, to other fur trading activities.[5] Voyageurs were part of a licensed, organized effort, a distinction that set them apart from the coureurs des bois. Additionally, they differed from engagés (hired men, actually indentured servants),[6] who were much smaller-scale merchants and general laborers. Mostly immigrants, the engagés were men required to go anywhere and do anything their masters told them as long as their indentureship was still in place. Until their contract expired, engagés were servants of their masters, who were most often voyageurs.[7] Fewer than fifty percent of engagés remained in New France when their contracts ended. The others either returned to France or died while indentured.[8] After the French presence in Canada ended following the British conquest during the Seven Years' War, fur trade was still continued by their descendants.

  1. ^ "White Oak - Companies and Organizations". www.whiteoak.org. Archived from the original on February 23, 2011.
  2. ^ Mike Hillman, "La Bonga: The Greatest Voyageur" Boundary Waters Journal Magazine, Summer 2010 Issue, pp 20–25
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference TheVoyageurNute2 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Louise Dechêne, Habitants and Merchants in Seventeenth-Century Montreal, Montreal: 1992, p. 122
  5. ^ The Coureur de Bois Chronicles of America http://www.chroniclesofamerica.com/french/voyageurs_to_the_back_country.htm Retrieved August 2011
  6. ^ Population: Social Groups Virtual Museum of New France http://www.historymuseum.ca/virtual-museum-of-new-france/population/social-groups/ Retrieved February 2015
  7. ^ Louise Dechêne, Habitants and Merchants in Seventeenth-Century Montreal, Montreal: 1992, p. 27
  8. ^ Louise Dechêne, Habitants and Merchants in Seventeenth-Century Montreal, Montreal: 1992, pp. 34-35