Voyageurs
Voyageurs 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 and times where that transportation was over long distances, giving rise to folklore and music that celebrated voyageurs' strength and endurance. 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 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. Hernias were common and frequently caused death. Most voyageurs started working in their early twenties and continued working until in their sixties. They never made enough money to consider early retirement from a physically grueling lifestyle.
Fur trading was done by canoe and largely by French Canadians. In the fur trade context, the word also applied, to a lesser extent, to other fur trading activities. Voyageurs were part of a licensed, organized effort, a distinction that set them apart from the coureurs des bois. Additionally, they differed from engagés, 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. Fewer than fifty percent of engagés remained in New France when their contracts ended. The others either returned to France or died while indentured. After the French presence in Canada ended following the British conquest during the Seven Years' War, fur trade was still continued by their descendants.
History
The early European fur trade with Indigenous peoples was not limited to beaver pelts. Beavers were not particularly valued and people preferred "fancy fur" or "fur that is used with or on the pelt". The fur trade was viewed as secondary to fishing during this era. The earliest North American fur trading did not include long-distance transportation of the furs after they were obtained by trade with the First Nations; it started with trading near settlements or along the coast or waterways accessible by ship. Soon, coureurs des bois achieved business advantages by travelling further inland to trade. By 1681, the King of France decided to control the traders by publishing an edict that banned fur and pelt trading in New France.As the trading process moved deeper into the wilderness, transportation of the furs became a larger part of the fur trading business process. The authorities began a process of issuing permits. Those travellers associated with the canoe transportation part of the licensed endeavour became known as voyageurs, a term which literally means "traveller" in French. The fur trade was thus controlled by a small number of Montreal merchants. New France began a policy of expansion in an attempt to dominate the trade. French influence extended west, north, and south. Forts and trading posts were built with the help of explorers and traders. Treaties were negotiated with native groups, and fur trading became very profitable and organized. The system became complex, and the voyageurs, many of whom had been independent traders, slowly became hired laborers.
By the late 17th century, a trade route through and beyond the Great Lakes had been opened. The Hudson's Bay Company opened in 1670. The North West Company opened in 1784, exploring as far west and north as Lake Athabasca. By the late 18th century, demand in Europe grew substantially for marten, otter, lynx, mink and especially beaver furs, expanding the trade and adding thousands to the ranks of voyageurs. The American Fur Company, owned and operated by John Jacob Astor, was founded in 1808. By 1830, the American Fur Company had grown to monopolize and control the American fur industry.
From the beginning of the fur trade in the 1680s until the late 1870s, the voyageurs were the blue-collar workers of the Montreal fur trade. At their height in the 1810s, they numbered as many as three thousand. For the most part, voyageurs were the crews hired to man the canoes that carried trade goods and supplies to trading locations where they were exchanged for furs, and "rendezvous posts," such as Grand Portage at the western end of Lake Superior. They then transported the furs back to Lachine near Montreal, and later also to points on the route to Hudson Bay. Some voyageurs stayed in the back country over the winter and transported the trade goods from the posts to farther away French outposts. These men were known as the hivernants. They also helped negotiate trade in indigenous communities. In the spring they would carry furs from these remote outposts back to the rendezvous posts. Voyageurs also served as guides for explorers such as Pierre La Vérendrye. The majority of these canoe men were French Canadian; they were usually from Island of Montreal or seigneuries and parishes along or near the Saint Lawrence River; many others were from France.
Voyageurs were mostly illiterate and therefore did not leave many written documents. The only known document left behind for posterity by a voyageur was penned by John Mongle who belonged to the parish of Maskinongé. He most likely used the services of a clerk to send letters to his wife. These chronicle his voyages into mainland territories in quest of furs.
Three major influences molded the lives of voyageurs. First, their background of French-Canadian heritage as farmers featured prominently in their jobs as voyageurs. Working as a voyageur was seen as a temporary means of earning additional income to support their families and expand their farms. Most voyageurs were born in New France. However, fur trading was not an everyday experience for most of the colonial population. Roughly two thirds of the population did not have any involvement in the fur trade. The second influence came from indigenous communities. Voyageurs learned from indigenous people how to survive in the regions they travelled and adopted many traditional methods and technologies. Voyageurs also brought Western materials and techniques that were valued by the communities they encountered. The final influence was the social structure of the voyageurs life. Since this group was limited to men, it was highly masculine. These men engaged in activities such as gambling, drinking, fighting; interests which were reserved for men of this trade.
Types: voyageurs, , and
The terms voyageur, explorateur, and coureur des bois have had broad and overlapping uses, but their meanings in the context of the fur trade business were more distinct. Voyageurs were canoe transportation workers in organized, licensed long-distance transportation of furs and trade goods in the interior of the continent. Coureurs de bois were entrepreneurial woodsmen engaged in all aspects of fur trading rather than just transportation of furs and trade goods. The coureurs de bois came before the voyageurs, and were partially replaced by them. For those coureurs des bois who continued, the term picked up the additional meaning of "unlicensed". Another name sometimes given to voyageurs is engagés, indicating a hired wage-earner.There were several types of voyageurs, depending on the job that they carried out. Because of their diet, which consisted largely of salt pork, voyageurs who travelled only between Montreal and Grand Portage were known as mangeurs de lard a derogatory term. These men were seasonal workers employed mostly during the summer months to transport goods which could weigh as much as four tonnes by canoe. Up to ten men could be required to safely navigate with so much on board. They would travel to the western end of Lake Superior to drop off their goods. Those who overwintered were called hommes du nord or hivernants. Those who were neither primarily traveled the interior without wintering in it. They would pick up the goods from Lake Superior and transport them inland over large distances. Because of their experience, approximately one-third of the mangeurs de lard became hommes du nord.
Value to the fur trade industry
The voyageurs worked for trading companies such as the North West Company and the Hudson's Bay Company. They retrieved furs from all over North America but were especially important in the rugged Athabasca region. Athabasca was one of the most profitable fur-trade regions in the colonies because pelts from further north were thicker and of superior quality to those trapped further south.Originally the HBC was content to stay close to its trading posts along the shores of Hudson Bay and have indigenous trading partners bring the pelts to them. However, once the NWC began sending voyageurs into Athabasca it became easier for indigenous trappers to simply trade with them than to make the long trek to Hudson Bay. As a result, Colin Robertson sent a message to the HBC London Committee in 1810 suggesting that they begin hiring French Canadian voyageurs of their own:
I would warmly recommend to your notice the Canadians; these people I believe, are the best voyageurs in the world; they are spirited, enterprising, & extremely fond of the Country; they are easily commanded; never will you have any difficulty in setting a place with them Men; however dismal the prospect is for subsistence, they follow their Master wherever he goes.
By 1815, the HBC took his advice and began hiring substantial numbers of French-Canadian voyageurs for trading expeditions into Athabasca. Colin Robertson led the first of these HBC expeditions and claimed to have difficulty hiring voyageurs in Montreal because of NWC efforts to thwart him. The NWC realized how important the voyageurs were to their success and were unwilling to give them up easily. This competition for experienced labour between the HBC and the NWC created the largest demand for voyageurs in Montreal since before the merger of the XY Company and the NWC.
James H. Baker was once told by an unnamed retired voyageur:
I could carry, paddle, walk and sing with any man I ever saw. I have been twenty-four years a canoe man, and forty-one years in service; no portage was ever too long for me, fifty songs could I sing. I have saved the lives of ten voyageurs, have had twelve wives and six running dogs. I spent all of my money in pleasure. Were I young again, I would spend my life the same way over. There is no life so happy as a voyageur's life!