The Quebec Act at 250

Dr. Brendan McConville
Thursday, June 27, 2024  |  1-2 pm EDT  |  Virtual

In commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the Quebec Act, Dr. Brendan McConville explored the significance of the inclusion of the formerly French province into the British North American colonies—and why it made Congregationalists so profoundly uncomfortable. 

In June 1774, Parliament incorporated the formerly French province of Quebec into the British Empire. With that move, the governor and his council at Quebec continued to legislate, Roman Catholicism could be openly practiced, and French civil law continued. In addition, the territory between the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers now came under the control of the governor of Quebec.

Watch the video from this excellent discussion to learn more about how these developments, occurring a little over a decade following the end of a major war with France, caused alarm among British North American colonists already unsettled by other acts of Parliament.

This program was part of Revolutionary Stories, New England’s Hidden Histories’ series on the American Revolution and the Congregational experience.

 

SPEAKER BIO

Dr. Brendan McConville is Professor of History at Boston University and Director of the David Center for the American Revolution at the American Philosophical Society. His research focuses on the intersection of politics and social developments in Early America. He is the author of These Daring Disturbers of the Public Peace (Cornell, 1999, paperback University of Pennsylvania, 2003), The King’s Three Faces: The Rise and Fall of Royal America, 1688-1776 (OIEAHC-UNC Press, 2006), and The Brethren: A Story of Faith and Conspiracy in Revolutionary America (Harvard, 2021).