Historical Figures | The Canadian Encyclopedia

Browse "Historical Figures"

Displaying 16-30 of 45 results
  • Article

    The Jesuit Relations

    The Jesuit Relations is a collection of the annual reports written by the Jesuit missionaries in Canada and sent to France from 1632 to 1672. These reports are an important historical resource regarding all of the events which occurred in the colony during this period. More specifically, they describe the central role played by the members of the Society of Jesus in the colonization of North America. (See Population Settlement of New France.) These reports provide an overview of the colonial vision of the times and describe the successes and failures of the missionaries in their efforts to convert the First Nations. Printed and distributed in Paris, primarily as a propaganda tool, the Jesuit Relations are very popular with travel literature enthusiasts. They remain a unique source of information regarding the early days of New France.

    "https://d3d0lqu00lnqvz.cloudfront.net/media/media/1ab35d09-0c75-441b-b37e-15cacbc481d7.jpg" // resources/views/front/categories/view.blade.php
    
    https://d3d0lqu00lnqvz.cloudfront.net/media/media/1ab35d09-0c75-441b-b37e-15cacbc481d7.jpg The Jesuit Relations
  • Article

    Jesuits

    The Society of Jesus was founded in Paris in 1534 by Saint Ignatius Loyola, a Spanish soldier who underwent a profound religious experience while recovering from serious wounds. Loyola called the society "The Company of Jesus" to indicate its military spirit. The order was authorized in September 1540 to ordain its members. The name "Jesuits" (meaning those who too frequently use or appropriate the name of Jesus) was used against the order as a term of reproach but in time was accepted by its members.

    "https://d3d0lqu00lnqvz.cloudfront.net/media/media/16b8b94b-0ca0-468a-8f8f-09141c3462be.jpg" // resources/views/front/categories/view.blade.php
    
    https://d3d0lqu00lnqvz.cloudfront.net/media/media/16b8b94b-0ca0-468a-8f8f-09141c3462be.jpg Jesuits
  • Article

    Joseph Lewis

    Joseph Lewis, alias Levi Johnston, also Lewes and Louis, fur trader (born c. 1772–73 in Manchester, New Hampshire; died 1820 in Saskatchewan District). Joseph Lewis was a Black fur trader, originally from the United States, who participated in the fur industry’s early expansion into the Canadian Northwest in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He is one of very few Black people involved in the fur trade whose name was documented in existing texts. Joseph Lewis is further notable for being the first Black person in present-day Saskatchewan, as well as, in all likelihood, Alberta.

    "https://d3d0lqu00lnqvz.cloudfront.net/media/new_article_images/BlackFurTraders/Le_Code_Noir_1742_edition.jpg" // resources/views/front/categories/view.blade.php
    
    https://d3d0lqu00lnqvz.cloudfront.net/media/new_article_images/BlackFurTraders/Le_Code_Noir_1742_edition.jpg Joseph Lewis
  • Article

    Joshua Mauger

    Joshua Mauger, colonial entrepreneur, sea captain, politician (baptized 25 April 1725 in the parish of St. John, Jersey; died 18 October 1788 at Warborne, near Lymington, England). Mauger was one of Nova Scotia’s wealthiest and most influential merchants in the 18th century. Although he only spent 11 years in the colony, he exerted significant power in its business and politics for two decades after. His complex involvement with Nova Scotia underscores the bonds of subservience and influence that hindered the colony’s early development. Mauger also enslaved Black people and built a significant portion of his business empire on the labour of enslaved people.

    "https://d3d0lqu00lnqvz.cloudfront.net/media/new_article_images/JoshuaMauger/JoshuaMauger.jpg" // resources/views/front/categories/view.blade.php
    
    https://d3d0lqu00lnqvz.cloudfront.net/media/new_article_images/JoshuaMauger/JoshuaMauger.jpg Joshua Mauger
  • Article

    La Corriveau

    La Corriveau, popular designation of Marie-Josephte Corriveau (born 14 May 1733 in St-Vallier, Québec; died 18 April 1763 in Québec City).

    "https://d3d0lqu00lnqvz.cloudfront.net/media/media/26fa727b-86dc-4df5-a5e5-9263f2a2d2b6.jpg" // resources/views/front/categories/view.blade.php
    
    https://d3d0lqu00lnqvz.cloudfront.net/media/media/26fa727b-86dc-4df5-a5e5-9263f2a2d2b6.jpg La Corriveau
  • Article

    Loyalists in Canada

    Loyalists were American colonists, of different ethnic backgrounds, who supported the British cause during the American Revolutionary War (1775–83). Tens of thousands of Loyalists migrated to British North America during and after the war. This boosted the population, led to the creation of Upper Canada and New Brunswick, and heavily influenced the politics and culture of what would become Canada.(This is the full-length entry about Loyalists in Canada. For a plain-language summary, please see Loyalists in Canada (Plain-Language Summary).)

    "https://d3d0lqu00lnqvz.cloudfront.net/media/media/151acf74-3492-4e2d-891d-6a2bada0080c.jpg" // resources/views/front/categories/view.blade.php
    
    https://d3d0lqu00lnqvz.cloudfront.net/media/media/151acf74-3492-4e2d-891d-6a2bada0080c.jpg Loyalists in Canada
  • Article

    Lumberjacks

    Lumberjacks hold a permanent place in Canadian folklore and history. While the practice of felling trees has been taking place for thousands of years — beginning with Indigenous people and continuing with the arrival of the first Europeans — the professional lumberjack was born around the turn of the 18th century. Though the profession has undergone many changes, lumberjacks still play an important role in the Canadian forestry industry.

    "https://d3d0lqu00lnqvz.cloudfront.net/media/media/3a108f5b-24a9-4e65-aa3b-c8eeb85d2e52.jpg" // resources/views/front/categories/view.blade.php
    
    https://d3d0lqu00lnqvz.cloudfront.net/media/media/3a108f5b-24a9-4e65-aa3b-c8eeb85d2e52.jpg Lumberjacks
  • Article

    Marie de l'Incarnation

    Marie de l’Incarnation, born Marie Guyart, founder of the religious order of the Ursulines in Canada, mystic and writer (born 28 October 1599 in Tours, France; died 30 April 1672 in Quebec City). Her writings are among the most important accounts of the founding of the colony of New France and the establishment of the Roman Catholic Church in the Americas. Her work as a teacher helped to lay the foundations for formal education in Canada.

    "https://d3d0lqu00lnqvz.cloudfront.net/media/new_article_images/mariedelincarnation/800px-Portrait_de_Mère_Marie_de_l'Incarnation.jpg" // resources/views/front/categories/view.blade.php
    
    https://d3d0lqu00lnqvz.cloudfront.net/media/new_article_images/mariedelincarnation/800px-Portrait_de_Mère_Marie_de_l'Incarnation.jpg Marie de l'Incarnation
  • Article

    Madeleine de Verchères

    Marie-Madeleine Jarret de Verchères (born 3 March 1678 in Verchères, Quebec; died August 1747 in Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pérade, Quebec). Madeleine de Verchères is best known for her role in the defence of Fort Verchères in New France in 1692. She is remembered as a military heroine, and her image became part of efforts to recruit Canadian women for wartime work during the First and Second World Wars.

    "https://d3d0lqu00lnqvz.cloudfront.net/MadeleinedeVercheres/Madelaine-2.JPG" // resources/views/front/categories/view.blade.php
    
    https://d3d0lqu00lnqvz.cloudfront.net/MadeleinedeVercheres/Madelaine-2.JPG Madeleine de Verchères
  • Article

    Marie Rollet

    Marie Rollet, first Frenchwoman to settle in New France (born circa 1580 in Paris, France; died in May 1649 and buried 27 May 1649 in Quebec City, New France). She is recognized as the first female French farmer in New France, alongside her husband Louis Hébert.

    "https://d3d0lqu00lnqvz.cloudfront.net/media/media/5bc5a1a0-fdd2-4ca7-8c1a-eeb54a285dba.jpg" // resources/views/front/categories/view.blade.php
    
    https://d3d0lqu00lnqvz.cloudfront.net/media/media/5bc5a1a0-fdd2-4ca7-8c1a-eeb54a285dba.jpg Marie Rollet
  • Article

    Jamaican Maroons in Nova Scotia

    The ancestors of the Maroons of Jamaica were enslaved Africans who had been brought there by the Spanish in the 16th and 17th centuries, and later by the British (who captured Jamaica from Spain in 1655), to work its lucrative sugar plantations. The word maroon was widely used to describe a runaway, and maroonage to denote the act and action of escaping enslavement, whether temporarily or permanently. After a series of wars with the colonial government in Jamaica, one group of Maroons was deported to Nova Scotia in 1796. While Maroon communities existed in Nova Scotia for only four years before they were sent to Sierra Leone, their legacy in Canada endures.

    "https://d3d0lqu00lnqvz.cloudfront.net/media/media/ec55dd45-84f0-4ca8-a613-cadef5f53496.jpg" // resources/views/front/categories/view.blade.php
    
    https://d3d0lqu00lnqvz.cloudfront.net/media/media/ec55dd45-84f0-4ca8-a613-cadef5f53496.jpg Jamaican Maroons in Nova Scotia
  • Article

    Mary Ann Shadd

    Mary Ann Camberton Shadd Cary, educator, publisher, lawyer, abolitionist (born 9 October 1823 in Wilmington, Delaware; died 5 June 1893 in Washington, D.C.). Mary Ann Shadd became the first Black woman in North America to publish and edit a newspaper, The Provincial Freeman. As one of the first Black newspaperwomen in North America, Shadd promoted the abolition of slavery and the emigration of African Americans to Canada ( see Black Canadians; Black Enslavement in Canada; Slavery Abolition Act, 1833). She also advocated on behalf of women’s rights (see Women’s Movements in Canada).

    "https://d3d0lqu00lnqvz.cloudfront.net/maryannshadd/maryannshaddcanadapost.jpg" // resources/views/front/categories/view.blade.php
    
    https://d3d0lqu00lnqvz.cloudfront.net/maryannshadd/maryannshaddcanadapost.jpg Mary Ann Shadd
  • Article

    Masumi Mitsui

    Masumi Mitsui, MM, farmer, soldier, Canadian Legion official (born 7 October 1887 in Tokyo, Japan; died 22 April 1987 in Hamilton, ON). Masumi Mitsui immigrated to Canada in 1908 and served with distinction in the First World War. In 1931, he and his comrades persuaded the BC government to grant Japanese Canadian veterans the right to vote, a breakthrough for Japanese and other disenfranchised Canadians. Nevertheless, Matsui and more than 22,000 Japanese Canadians were displaced, detained and dispossessed by the federal government during the Second World War (see Internment of Japanese Canadians).

    "https://d3d0lqu00lnqvz.cloudfront.net/media/new_article_images/MasumiMitsui/2010-23-2-4-551.jpg" // resources/views/front/categories/view.blade.php
    
    https://d3d0lqu00lnqvz.cloudfront.net/media/new_article_images/MasumiMitsui/2010-23-2-4-551.jpg Masumi Mitsui
  • Article

    Mathieu Da Costa

    Mathieu Da Costa (depending on the language of the documents that mention his name, also known as “Mateus Da Costa,” “Mathieu de Coste,” “Matheus de Cost” and “een Swart genamd Matheu”), interpreter (dates and places of birth and death unknown). Da Costa is one of the most fascinating and elusive figures in the early history of Canada. Historians consider him the first Black person known to have visited Canada, probably in the company of Pierre Dugua de Mons and Samuel de Champlain). (See also Black Canadians; African Canadians.) But many aspects of his life remain unclear or unknown.

    "https://d3d0lqu00lnqvz.cloudfront.net/media/media/122b2db3-8b90-411b-97f2-6c1c1390feef.jpg" // resources/views/front/categories/view.blade.php
    
    https://d3d0lqu00lnqvz.cloudfront.net/media/media/122b2db3-8b90-411b-97f2-6c1c1390feef.jpg Mathieu Da Costa
  • Article

    Mifflin Gibbs

    Mifflin Wistar Gibbs, politician, judge, diplomat, banker, entrepreneur (born 17 April 1823 in Philadelphia, PA; died 11 July 1915, in Little Rock, AR). Gibbs was a notable figure in both American and Canadian history. In just over a decade in colonial British Columbia, he prospered in business, advocated for the Black community, served as an elected official and helped guide British Columbia into Confederation. Gibbs was the first Black person elected to public office in what is now British Columbia.

    "https://d3d0lqu00lnqvz.cloudfront.net/media/new_article_images/Mifflin-Gibbs.jpg" // resources/views/front/categories/view.blade.php
    
    https://d3d0lqu00lnqvz.cloudfront.net/media/new_article_images/Mifflin-Gibbs.jpg Mifflin Gibbs