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What Is The New Idea Of The Message Of Freedom In North America

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The weekly newspaper North American was published in Swanton, Vermont from 1839 to 1841. The particular issues chosen for this paper were distributed to the town from May 1st to May 29th 1839, encompassing an entire month of publications. The newspaper was centrally focused on Canadian rights and independence, specifically sovereignty from the British colonial government. Originating in modern-day Quebec, (then called Lower Canada) this independence movement was sparked by a rebellion against the Crown by the “Parti patriote”, or Patriote Party and their followers from 1837 to 1838. The rebellion however was put down by the British faily quicky, leaving the Patriotes to find new means of spreading their message of freedom. Swanton is a …show more content…

The cause of the Quebec Rebellions of 1837 was the “result of longstanding disputes about the nature of the British colonial government, a serious economic depression, and the growth of an urban Anglophone population.” The rebellion was short-lived and quickly put down by the Lower Canadian/British colonial government. Following the failed insurrection, many rebels sought refuge in the town of Swanton, Vermont not only due to its proximity to the border to Canada but also due to the fact that the town held many American supporters of the movement as well. The primary focus of the paper was specifically to highlight the injustices against the Parti Patriote by the colonial government including highlighting the individuals who had been imprisoned, banished or killed. On the first page of each issue of North American is a section entitled “People of Canada! Remember that the blood of martyrs in the cause of FREEDOM calls aloud for vengeance at your hands. The following is a list of those who have fallen victims of despotism, in the Lower Province”. The section lists twenty names of people who had been killed by the British government in Lower Canada, due to their affiliation to the Patriotes. For example, in the May 1st issue, the paper gives lengthy two-page biography of a man named Charles Ovide Perrault detailing some of his

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