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FRANCOISE MARIE JACQUELIN: LIONESS OF ACADIA
Françoise Marie Jacquelin is an aristocratic Frenchwoman who came to Canada in 1640 to marry Charles LaTour, the Governor of Acadia. Françoise had a keen sense of adventure and she looked forward to a new life in the New World.
But Françoise was walking into a war zone. Her husband’s rival, Charles D’Aulnay, also claimed to be Governor of Acadia. In 1645, LaTour went to Boston and D’Aulnay attacked their fort. Françoise decided to risk her life and lead her husband’s garrison into battle.
Illustration: Françoise Marie Jacquelin on the cover of the book Fortune & LaTour: The Civil War in Acadia, by M.A. MacDonald
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The Saint John River was named by a French explorer Samuel de Champlain when he arrived to this region on St. Jean de Baptise Day. June 24, 1604. Soon after, another Frenchman called Charles LaTour would arrive and set up a trading post there, on the site which would one day become the city of Saint John.
Charles was smart and ambitious and he was appointed by the French King to be governor of Acadia, an area that covered much of modern day New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. The land here would become populated by French farmers who called themselves Acadians and they were united by their faith and their love of the land.
But in 1640 Charles LaTour faced a great challenge. Due to confusion over the boundaries of the territory of Acadia, bureaucrats in France also appointed another man, called Charles D'Aulnay, to be Governor of Acadia. D’Aulnay was determined to fight LaTour for this title in order to make Acadia his personal fiefdom. The clash between the two men would last from 1640 to 1645 and would leave thousands of people dead in its wake.
Photo: Original site of Fort LaTour in modern day Saint John, New Brunswick
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- Explorers like Samuel de Champlain have been sailing to Saint John for over four centuries. Visit the harbour and imagine the tall ships that would have come to this misty port. Take a walking tour of the historic city, which was established by Loyalists in the late 1700s.
- Go further back in history by walking along Harbour Passage. You’ll come across the Fort LaTour Historic Site. The grassy mound conceals the foundations of Fort LaTour. Archaeological digs also uncovered cannon fragments and other weapons from the time of the Acadian Civil War.
- Take New Brunswick's Acadian Coastal Drive along Chaleur Bay, the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the Northumberland Strait. Visit the Village Historique Acadien and the Acadian Wax Museuem in Caraquet. Pop into the Popes Museum in Grande-Anse to learn about the role of the church in the development of Acadia.
- To see what Fort LaTour would have looked like in the 1600s, take a Ferry from Saint John to Digby, Nova Scotia and drive to Annapolis Royal where there is a reconstruction of Port-Royal. Charles LaTour modeled his own fort on Port Royal which was built by Samuel de Champlain and his contemporaries in 1605.
- The best time to visit the Acadian communities is during the annual Festival De La Baie Francaise in Saint John in June or during National Acadian Day on August 15. If you’re there for National Acadian Day, don’t miss the zany tintamarre parade in which locals decorate their cars, wear costumes, paint their faces and then drive down the streets banging pots and waving Acadian flags. For more information visit www.TourismNewBrunswick.ca.
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HISTORY OF THE REGION
New Brunswick Museum
1 Market Square
Saint John, NB
Telephone: +1 (506) 643 2300
www.nbm-mnb.ca
SITE OF THE BATTLE
Fort LaTour Historic Site
Located along Harbour Passage (City Centre)
Telephone: +1 (506) 674 4278
www.sjwaterfront.com
TOURISM INFORMATION
Tourism Saint John
P.O. Box 1971
Saint John, NB. E2L 4L1
Telephone: +1 (866) GO-FUNDY
www.TourismSaintJohn.com
ACADIAN COASTAL DRIVE
Order the 2005 Experience New Brunswick Offical Travel Guide
Telephone: 1 (800) 561-0123
www.TourismNewBrunswick.ca
FORT RECONSTRUCTION
Port-Royal National Historic Site of Canada
P.O. Box 9, Annapolis Royal
Nova Scotia B0S 1A0
Telephone: +1 (902) 532 2898
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SCN
Tue, November 14, 2006 @ 8:30 pm (CST)
channel m
Sun, October 22, 2006 @ 11:00 am ()
Mon, October 16, 2006 @ 8:30 am ()
Tue, May 30, 2006 @ 1:00 pm (PST)
Sun, March 5, 2006 @ 9:30 pm (PST)
SCN
Tue, November 15, 2005 @ 10:00 pm (CST)
Canadian Learning Television
Mon, October 31, 2005 @ 9:30 pm (EST)
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Post-viewing Questions
1. Françoise Marie is known and revered partly because she led men in battle and fought alongside her soldiers as “fiercely as a lioness”. It took until the last few decades for women to be accepted as equals in the military and even today Canadian women soldiers do not engage in frontline battle. What do you think about women in battle? Should women aspire to equality in all fields or do you believe that women instead need to lead in non-military, peaceful solutions?
2. Another quality that Françoise Marie is remembered for is her unshakable loyalty to her husband. What other motivations might Françoise Marie have had for defending Fort LaTour? Do you think that concern for her own position or loyalty to the well being of Fort LaTour residents might have played a significant role in her decision to fight?
3. All of the commentators featured in the film agreed that Francoise Marie was a person worthy of remembrance and respect. Do you think she is a heroine? What qualities did she possess that make her worthy of being regarded as a heroine? Are these qualities that you aspire to? Who else is a Canadian heroine? Why?
4. The story about Françoise Marie is unclear as to the cause of her death. Why might she have died? What might have been her attitude near the end – resistance or sorrow?
5. Does the story of her husband’s subsequent life make a fitting last chapter to her story or cast a shadow over her sacrifice?
Further Research:
1. Chart the history of Acadians in the Maritime Provinces.
Additional Research Question:
This film tells the story of a woman who is a role model to women in her family and in her community. Who, in your life has been a role model? If you would like to share the story about this person with other young people to whom you think this story might act as a beacon, please add it to the website www.mothertongue.ca. Alternately, if you would like to read stories that others have posted, please click on the website and become a part of a dialogue about the importance of role models.
Note:
These starting points for discussion and research questions were written by Dr. Carole Ann Reed, an educational consultant. Dr. Reed has worked as a human rights educator for almost twenty years in the Toronto area and has authored and co-authored many articles, curricula, and educational kits as well as a book. The topics she writes about include issues such as the Holocaust, the Rwandan genocide, women’s rights and anti-racism. For several years she was the Director of the Holocaust Centre of Toronto.
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This series of educational videos was made possible with funding from
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Mother Tongue: A woman's history of ethnic Canada is a 13-part TV series that documents Canada's multicultural history from a female perspective. Each program tells the story of a notable woman in one of Canada's communities, including a Black fugitive slave, an Acadian mail order bride, and an Icelandic suffragette.
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