Control and Order in French Colonial Louisbourg, 1713-1758 is the culmination of nearly a quarter century of research and writing on 18th-century Louisbourg by A. J. B. Johnston. The author uses a multitude of primary archival sources-official correspondence, court records, parish registries, military records, and hundreds of maps and plans-to put together a detailed analysis of a distinctive colonial society. Located on Cape Breton Island (then known as Île Royale), the seaport and stronghold of Louisbourg emerged as one of the most populous and important settlements in all of New France. Its economy was based on fishing and trade, and the society that developed there had little or nothing to do with the fur trade, or the seigneurial regime that characterized the Canadian interior. Johnston traces the evolution of a broad range of controlling measures that were introduced and adapted to achieve an ordered civil and military society at Louisbourg. Town planning, public celebrations, diversity in the population, use of punishments, excessive alcohol consumption, the criminal justice system, and sexual abuse are some of the windows that reveal attempts to control and regulate society. A. J. B. Johnston's Control and Order in French Colonial Louisbourg offers both a broad overview of the colony's evolution across its half-century of existence, and insightful analyses of the ways in which control was integrated into the mechanisms of everyday life.
List of TablesList of FiguresList of AbbreviationsForewordIntroductionContrasts and Similarities: Population, Institutions and PowersOrder and Control in the Colonial ContextResearch on Eighteenth-Century LouisbourgUnderstanding the “Pacified Society” of LouisbourgThe Book AheadCreating and Organizing a New ColonyBefore Louisbourg: An Era of Few ControlsFounding a New ColonyCape Breton Island and Its PotentialEstablishing Authority, Introducing the PowersFundamental Control: Judicial InstitutionsComplexity in Diversity: The People to be GovernedThe Evolution of a Planned, Fortified TownAn Uncertain BeginningFirst Attempts to Control the Use of SpaceMarking AdvancesThe Town Continues its EvolutionA War, a Peace, a Second WarControlling Spaces: Military ZonesProfitable Spaces: Economic SectorsCommunity Spaces: Worship, Bury, Gather, and CelebratePursuing Harmony in Civil SocietyA Controlling AtmosphereOrder on Ile RoyaleThe Quest for Harmony at the TopGood Colonists, Bad ColonistsCounting and MeasuringAn Aversion for “Independent Spirits”Attempts to Control Alcohol ConsumptionThe Arm of Civil JusticeThe Necessity of PunishmentDetaining Suspects in Prisons“Tenir la main” in Military SocietyA Difficult GarrisonThe OfficersEconomic ControlThe Enlisted Men“Spirit of libertinage and revolt”Positive InfluencesMisdemeanors, Infractions, and PunishmentsSerious Crimes: The Conseil de GuerreThe Never Ending Problem: DesertionTotal Disorder: The 1744 MutinyValues and BehaviorMen and WomenA Diverse SocietyExpressing One's OpinionOn the MarginsCrimes and Criminals: Punishing the GuiltyConclusionBibliographyIndex
A. J. B. Johnston has written numerous books on the colonial Louisbourg and has edited two volumes of proceedings from the French Colonial Historical Society.
