A Not-So-New World: Empire and Environment in French Colonial North America

French colonists established elaborate gardens in Quebec, inspired by Samuel de Champlain, and experimented with indigenous plants. They believed they could rehabilitate the region's plant life, but their attempts to make French wine from American grapes revealed the strangeness of New France. This experience supported the acquisition and incorporation of Native American knowledge and the development of botanical science.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 264 pages
Publication date: 29 August 2023
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press

In 1608, when Samuel de Champlain established the colony of Quebec, he created intricate gardens where he sowed French seeds he had brought with him and experimented with indigenous plants found in nearby fields and forests. Inspired by Champlain, fellow colonists nurtured similar gardens throughout the Saint Lawrence Valley and Great Lakes region. In his book, A Not-So-New World, Christopher Parsons explores how French colonists began to understand Native environments and claimed a mandate to cultivate vegetation that closely resembled what they had left behind. However, Parsons notes that colonists soon encountered limitations in their gardens. The peculiarity of New France became increasingly apparent, as colonists discovered that they could not produce French wine from American grapes. They attributed these differences to Native American neglect and believed that the French colonial project aimed to rehabilitate and restore the region's plant life. Nevertheless, as colonists continued to experiment with indigenous species and share their findings with the broader French Atlantic world, New France began to appear increasingly foreign to French naturalists and even to the colonists themselves. Parsons demonstrates how the French experience of attempting to improve American environments not only facilitated the acquisition and incorporation of Native American knowledge but also contributed to the development of an emerging botanical science focused on naming new species. By examining the moment when settlers, missionaries, merchants, and administrators believed in their ability to shape the environment to resemble the country they had left behind, A Not-So-New World sheds light on the complex and multifaceted relationship between the French colonists, Native Americans, and the natural world.

Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781512825497