A Distinct Alien Race: The Untold Story of Franco-Americans

by David Vermette

In the later 19th century, French-Canadian Roman Catholic immigrants from Quebec were deemed a threat to the United States, potential terrorists in service of the Pope. Books and newspapers floated the conspiracy theory that the immigrants seeking work in New England's burgeoning textile industry were actually plotting to annex parts of the United States to a newly independent Quebec. Vermette’s groundbreaking study sets this neglected and poignant tale in the broader context of North American history. He traces individuals and families, from the textile barons who created a new industry to the poor farmers and laborers of Quebec who crowded into the mills in the post-Civil War period. Vermette discusses the murky reception these cross-border immigrants met in the USA, including dehumanizing conditions in mill towns and early-20th-century campaigns led by the Ku Klux Klan and the Eugenics movement. Vermette also discusses what occurred when the textile industry moved to the Deep South and brings the story of emigrants up to the present day. Vermette shows how this little-known episode in U.S. history prefigures events as recent as yesterday’s news. His well documented narrative touches on the issues of cross-border immigration; the Nativists fear of the Other; the rise and fall of manufacturing in the U.S.; and the construction of race and ethnicity.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

394 pages, Paperback

Published September 15, 2018

About the author

Originaire du Massachusetts, David Vermette est écrivain, réviseur et chercheur. Ses écrits ont été publiés dans Smithsonian et Time, et il est l'auteur d'articles et de critiques publiés par Histoire sociale / Social History, Résonance et Le Forum (Université du Maine). Il a rédigé un chapitre du livre Le français autour de nous (New York, CALEC-TBR, 2022) et a également contribué à Franco-Amérique: Nouvelle édition revue et augmentée (Québec, Septentrion, 2017).

Reviews

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

By far this is the best chronicling of the Franco-American life. Most of my father's family were some of the earliest French residents of Montreal. This book explains the reasons, problems, and difficulties of those that decided to emigrate to the United States faced and had to overcome. I had always identified with the Quebecois separatist movement of the mid-20th century. And while researching the Goguet and Ainse surnames came to believe that the pioneers, fur traders, interpreters, and guides among my ancestors were footloose wanderers. Vermette has weaved the narrative that the Franco-Americans were the backbone of North America, willing to abandon their homeland to create a better life for themselves and their children and making good use of a porous border that they traversed frequently. The major difference is that the majority of Vermette's ancestors and relatives were attracted to the hard work and labor-intensive cloth-making industry of New England. For one reason or another, my ancestors emigrated to western New York and the bustling city of Rochester and were craftsmen; carpenters, masons, painters, and plasterers. But like the author, throughout my research, I found the same tightly-knit groupings of Franco American families living, working, intermarrying, and relaxing within a community that they had established.

[Ernest Perreault · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are of French-Canadian heritage you must read this book, especially if you are a baby-boomer. The book contains a great deal of insight into this culture. The economic history information was of great interest to me having grown up in Chicopee, MA; but I am concerned that information might drag the book down for someone not familiar with a “mill town”.

Mr. Vermette, my paternal grandfather obtained his U.S. citizenship by enlisting in the Army in 1918. Your anecdote on page 279 about your grandfather serving in WWI really touched home.

Juste un grand livre. (Just a great book.)

[Abby · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent, timely history of the textile industry in New England and how its French-Canadian workforce shaped the region's economy and culture. David Vermette uses Brunswick, Maine, and its Cabot Mill as his case study, showing the pivotal role the industry played in shaping of the region after the Civil War. But while he plants his feet in Brunswick (where his own family planted roots more than a century ago), his perspective is broader. He does not generalize from his own family's experience, but rather uses a staggering amount of research to capture the larger story of one of the U.S.'s most forgotten immigrant populations. In the process, he dispels stereotypes and generalizations that have persisted in New England for centuries, digging into all kinds of data to shape a fuller picture of what brought French-Canadians south and why they stayed.

Those of us with Franco-American ancestry know through family lore where our families came from and how they lived, but through Vermette's impeccable research and writing, our individual families become visible as part of a major migration, and we come to understand the political and economic forces that influenced their lives and choices. For those less familiar with this history, "A Distinct Alien Race" provides a thorough introduction to a large but often invisible ethnic group that has shaped New England and the U.S. more generally. Vermette also draws startling parallels between the anxieties inspired by our ancestors' movement across the border in the late 1800s and similar movements of people across the country's southern border today. The same rhetoric about national character and cultural values, religious extremism, and racial purity directed at today's immigrants was leveled against our great-grandparents not that long ago. How little things change.

Yet Vermette has a light touch, not an axe to grind. He makes his arguments through the strength of his writing and research. While the material on the textile industry itself can be slightly dry at times, it provides an important backdrop to the story, one that I have never seen gathered before. The last few chapters on New England's present-day Franco communities draw a meaningful and resonant portrait of a culture that persists. This volume is a gift to the Franco-American community and makes an important contribution to the history of the U.S. northeast. I hope it will find an audience on both sides of the U.S./Canada border.

[Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book on this topic. Well written and interesting. My paternal grandmother was French-Canadian and though I don’t know a lot about her, this gives me a great picture of what I imagine her life may have been. One mistake I found in the book is on p. 296. Vermette wrote that Whitin Machine Works was in RI, when in fact it was located in Massachusetts. Many of my family members worked for The Shop, as it was known, until it closed in 1976 and I was born in Whitinsville Hospital.

[Heidi · Rating 5 out of 5]

While unemployed I took a Coursera class called Cultural Diversity and Inclusion. I had to select a culture to research and selected Franco Americans in New England, since that is part of my cultural identity. I enjoyed this source very much. It’s comprehensive and covers slave trade, to cotton economy to industrialization with textile mills and explains why Canadiens left Canada for work in the U.S. in the late 1800s, early 1900s. Though scholarly, I enjoyed it for the references to places I recognized from growing up in Maine and the light bulb went on fir me as I connected the dots. Well written, good read and not too heavy with data, but more narrative.

[Marcia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everyone needs to read this book. As a French Canadian second generation
American whose grandparents all came to the US late in the 19th Century, I found this well researched book compelling and chilling. This is a story that resonates as we again grapple with immigration issues at our southern border.

[Msgregoire · Rating 4 out of 5]

French Canadian dyspora.

A well researched look at the movement of French families from Quebec to New England. As a person of French Canadian decent I was able to identify with many points in the book. Also the comparison of the Canadians of 1850-1930 to the current situation at the southern border was due opening.

[Jason · Rating 5 out of 5]

Native born white Americans being anxious about an influx of non-English speaking Roman Catholic immigrants from a bordering country is nothing new.

The book focuses on the mill towns of Maine, a major draw for Quebec families looking for work. The experiences in the other New England states would have been very much similar.

He gives a detailed history of the development of the textile industry in New England and how it changed after it flipped from being supplied labor from native born woman who worked for a small handful of years to being staffed by immigrant families who spoke a different language and practiced an Alien religion.

Lots of discussion on race and labor and otherness - about a population that has now been so completely deracinated that it is hard to imagine they were ever "not white".

The chapters on the Eugenics movement and the second incarnation of the KKK and its inroads in the North East were illuminating. I knew some of this story but the details supplied rounded out my understanding.

My family crossed the St Lawrence, having farmed and labored on one side of the seaway to farm and labor on the other. This book doesn't directly address my own family's experience, but the closing chapters on the modern questions of identity and a renewed connection to Quebec and what that means did touch me.

And while I am not from the corner of Maine this book focuses on, I do spend time there each year, and have visited many of these towns. I had this with me while I drank at a micro brewery in a renovated textile mill in Biddeford.

This is a solid work on an under appreciated story of US history and worth picking up for anyone interested in labor history, immigrant studies, and our long confused history on race and identity.

[Dennis Hogan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finished A Distinct Alien Race: The Untold Story of Franco-Americans: Industrialization, Immigration, Religious Strife by David G Vermette. I heard the author speak at a genealogy conference and became keenly interested in this book. The book starts with the development of the textile industry by old Boston money earned in the Opium trade with China and the African Slave Trade. The early New England textile mills largely employed young women from farm families who would work in the mills for a few years until they married. The Irish took over in large numbers after the Potato Famine but then after the Civil War the Textile Industry heavily recruited in Quebec, often specific villages in Canada would move to the areas around specific New England towns in places like Brunswick, Maine, Nashua, NH, Woonsocket RI, Lowell, and Lawrence MA; soon “Little Canada’s” sprung up with French Schools, church and social organizations. The living conditions in the mill towns were ghastly and caused needless death and suffering. If you have French Canadian ancestors you will be interested in this book; most fascinating is the familiar negative comments about “foreigners” we hear today.

[Spencer Koelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this book as a present from my mother. I hadn't thought much about my French-Canadian heritage, and I don't read nonfiction often. But I did want to know who I am.

The good news is that the author definitely knows his stuff. The bad news is the lengths he goes to to prove it. There are sections that suffered from being dry and hard to get through.

On the other hand, the narrative here is a fundamentally compelling one. When Vermette doesn't get too bogged down in statistics and numbers, he tells the story of a whole culture very well. It is astonishing, and at times disturbing, how many elements of the immigrant saga and nativist response apply to the latest wave today. I can see a great deal of the same arguments and dogwhistles used by Islamophobic and anti-Mexican pundits here from the time when Canadiens were the huddled masses yearning to breathe free.

It might not be for everyone, but if you're interested in patterns of immigration or have a little French-Canadian in your own ancestry it's worth checking out.

[Theresa Beauregard · Rating 1 out of 5]

did not find it interesting

[Brett Lambert · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating book on the experiences of French-Canadian immigration from Quebec to the New England states between 1840 to 1930. Being of French-Canadian heritage (my great-great-grandparents were married in Fall River, Massachusetts to boot!) living in Western Canada, I was keen to get a better understanding of the Franco-Americans whose lived experiences differ fr not only the Québécois, but also those of French-Canadian descent living in other Canadian provinces.

A lot of ground is covered here, touching upon labour history (they worked in mills enduring horrible working conditions), xenophobia/nativism, and eventually assimilation (while still retaining their identity even if many no longer speak French or are Roman Catholic).

Among the French-Canadian diaspora who are conscious or knowledgeable about their roots, there is lots to learn about each other and this book is an important catalyst for that.

Some sections went into more detail about the mills and the economic/business conditions surrounding it that simply didn’t draw my interest, but the rest of the book is solid.

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A deeply researched book that is obviously a work of love by the author for his family and culture of origin.

Having lived a portion of my Navy brat childhood in Brunswick, Maine, I hoped to learn from this book why the French were the focus of jokes by the local kids. Now I know!

The content of the book is 5-star. The only reason I give
it 4 is due to some elements of writing style. There are portions that read like the author was determined to include all the information compiled in his research notes, resulting in portions that drag. And portions read like a partisan building his argument for a campaign, coming off as out of balance. Completely understandable, considering the historical enmities, yet it detracts somewhat from the reading experience.

Despite these niggles, this book shed great light for me on a portion of American cultural history I was thirsty to learn more about. Not only concerning the French jokes, but also the large shuttered factories and waterworks common across New England.

[Gail Gauthier · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Distinct Alien Race is an excellent, well-documented history of a group that has seemed invisible to me most of my life, even though I'm a member of it. I doubt there is a great deal written about them.

Vermette's chapters on the Klan and the eugenics movement in relation to Franco-American history will be particularly...newsworthy, we might say. I was aware that the Ku Klux Klan targeted Franco-Americans back in the day, because I had a college roommate whose grandfather in Vermont was active in the Klan. I knew about the eugenics connection because I did some research on a wealthy woman living in my Vermont town in the first half of the twentieth century, and she supported that state's eugenics' program. She gave them quite a bit of money over ten years. And, yes, I already knew that eugenicists found Franco-Americans deficient.

That material may be shocking to some. But don't doubt that it happened.

[Louise Robinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This analysis of French-Canadian migration into New England in the mid-1800 to 1930 was fascinating to me and enlightening. Both my paternal grandparents emigrated to the Lowell Mass area in the 1870's. They met and married there and settled in Massachusetts. This gave me great insight into how they were treated and perceived. It helps me to appreciate the hardships they encountered and the success they made of their lives.

[Joyce Adams · Rating 4 out of 5]

I purchased this book several years ago. In preparation for writing an article about my French-Canadian great-grandparents who immigrated from Québec to New Hampshire, I read the book and was fascinated by the rich history that the author provided. I learned a lot!

[Pat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting. Gave me a better understanding of my French-Canadian roots. I did need to do some skimming as there is a lot of detailed info that I didn’t want to take time to plow through.

[Rita Hosey · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book helps one understand the immigration occurring in the New England States and how the FRench were "Americanized". I found it academic in parts.

[Pamela · Rating 4 out of 5]

For years, I have been seeking out my family ancestry and even submitted my DNA to make sure the research I had done was accurate. That genetic result led me to discover more than I realized, and so I was motivated to plan a road trip to New England and visit the American French Genealogical Society in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, to talk with some experts and discover more facts to "put meat on the bones" of my tree. I only wish I could have spent more time with them, but while there, I bought three books: Volumes 1 and 2 of Peter Gagné's "King's Daughters and Founding Mothers: The Filles du Roi" and this book by David Vermette, which was recommended by the library's director.

All that to say: If you want to know the story of how millions emigrated to the United States from Québec and the story of the plight of Franco-Americans, this book will explain quite a lot! and with historical accuracy! This book that I purchased there at the genealogy center is now earmarked in many places. I learned more about the French-speaking Canadians coming to the United States than in any other place I have looked regarding this subject. I kind of wish that this author's ancestors had settled in Fall River, Massachusetts, or Woonsocket, Rhode Island, as mine did, and Mr. Vermette did actually touch on these locations a bit in this study; however, Mr Vermette has roots in Brunswick, Maine, and that particular area will imbed its details into your soul after reading this book.

One subject that this book covered in a detailed way was the impact of French Canadians in the Civil War and the Reconstruction Period afterwards. This information took me by surprise and made me proud of their impact.

I know if your background is French Canadian, you will not only find this informative, but you may get a bit offended by history's treatment of your ancestors at times. I hope that, like this author, you too will be motivated to tell your story, as this culture and its history is and was important to our country's success. Our ancestors did their part, the present is up to us.

[Terry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent work

If one wants to understand all the forces at play over the course of time French Canadians migrated to the states and the afflictions suffered as well as survived, this is a work of art by an author who went to great lengths to document the historical facts surrounding our Quebec ancestors.

[Richard Veilleux · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book gave an incredibly well-researched presentation of the background and evolution of French Canadian migration to New England. I was surprised many times over by the events that led up to this migration, its duration and lingering effects. I highly recommend it.