France and Britain had been arch enemies for centuries. New France (Quebec) was taken over by the British. Ben Franklin had a newspaper in Montreal. You’d think there’d be some influence and rationale for Quebec to secede from Britain and join the US during the war of independence, but it didn’t. Why not?
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“If there’s two flavors that really don’t go well together, it’s American Protestantism and Catholicism”
— Mike Duncan (paraphrased)
Ultimately they thought that a far away crown was far more likely to tolerate their Catholicism than nearby Americans. And anti-Catholic bias at the time was really, really strong.
Many Quebecois did join the rebels. In fact they even created an entire regiment that fought at Saratoga and Yorkstown. But two things prevented large-scale rebellion :
1) Quebecois at this time were militantly Catholic, and saw joining a predominantly Protestant English country as a threat to the Clergy. The rebels institution of freehold tenure threatened the seigneurial system – which also threatened the power of the church. So clergy encouraged Quebecois to stay loyal to Britain or neutral.
2) the British Empire retained virtually impenetrable forts at Quebec City, and where the St Lawrence River connects with the Great Lakes near modern day Kingston. The Americans didn’t have road connection to this area and couldn’t field a powerful enough army to move it through very inhospitable bush to capture Quebec. They tried and it didn’t work, the troops were half starving and they had to retreat.
It came close but internal politics in Quebec put people who opposed it in t he driver’s seat. Also the fear of Catholics in the Old 13 was very real and Quebeckers knew baout it. And finally there were some outright clashes.
Wait, 1781 Northwast Ordinance: we offered, they declined???
The French and their Indigenous allies had been fighting the American settlers and their Indigenous allies for 150 years. There were open battles, like in the 7 years war, but in general it was tit for tat frontier warfare. As in find isolated farm on the frontier owned by your enemies, massacre the inhabitants and disappear before help arrives. The Quebecois hated the British, but they hated the American colonists more and the feeling was mutual.
We know a bit more about the massacres perpetrated by the French and their allies, because it was written down in English. There were probably an equal number of massacres perpetrated by the Americans and their allies.
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