Caring for a Colony: The Story of Jeanne Mance

John Abbott is a professor of history at Laurentian University’s Algoma University College. He is the co-author of The Border at Sault Ste Marie and The History of Fort St. Joseph.

Jeanne Mance (1601–1673) is an iconic figure in the history of New
France and Montreal. She was and still is the epitome of saintliness,
one who served God through selfless devotion to others. Within the
nursing profession she is seen to combine the virtues of tender and
empathetic care of the sick, a canny understanding of the relationship
between care and cash flow, and the importance of effective
administration. Even the flinty secularist separatists in the modern
Québécois nationalist movement recognize the usefulness of so storied
a heroine.

In Caring for a Colony, Joanna Emery draws her young readers into the
world of 17th-century France and New France, informing them about female
roles at that time, people’s belief in miracles, the Christian
missionary impulse to convert the Amerindian people, the materialistic
dynamics of the fur trade that turned Ville-Marie into Montreal, and the
concept of Montreal’s origin as a “city of god.” Her biographical
line of Jeanne Mance is generally easy to follow, particularly when
context (e.g., wars of religion, coureurs de bois, the pure life) is
provided in explanatory sidebars; when people (e.g., Marguerite
Bourgeoys) or issues that are really contextual are incorporated into
the text instead of sidebars, however, readers may find the storyline
more difficult to follow. Caring for a Colony is, nevertheless,
recommended.