Heroines and History: Representations of Madeleine de Verchères and Laura Secord

Margaret Conrad is Canada Research Chair in Atlantic Canada Studies at
the University of New Brunswick. She is the author of Atlantic Canada: A
Region in the Making, and coauthor of Intimate Relations: Family and
Community in Planter Nova Scotia, 1759–1

A century ago, Madeleine de Verchиres and Laura Secord were among the
few women deemed worthy to be included in Canadian history texts. Since
historical inquiry at this time focused mostly on political and military
matters, it is not surprising that these two women were associated with
military conflicts: Verchиres with the French–Iroquois wars in New
France and Secord with the War of 1812 in Upper Canada.

This book traces how these two “women worthies” were
“constructed” in the half century following Confederation by
historians in Quebec and Ontario eager to find female symbols both to
reflect and to inspire national greatness. Drawing on the growing body
of literature that addresses historical memory and commemoration, the
authors explore the processes by which two ordinary women became larger
than life, their names invoking characteristics deemed desirable:
courage, patriotism, and loyalty. Scholars in the interwar years began
to question the historical significance of Verchиres and Secord but, by
this time, they had become popular icons, their exploits chronicled in
poetry, prose, processions, pageants, textbooks, tourists sites, movies,
monuments, cartoons, art works, and, most potently for Secord, on candy
boxes.

Rich in detail, this book is a welcome addition to the literature in
Canadian historiography and a good place to start for anyone interested
in the “making” of history. I have only one quibble. Although the
parallels between Verchиres and Secord are many and fascinating, the
authors do not structure their monograph to sustain a comparative study.
Each woman is treated separately and subject to different thematic
chapters. Thus, for example, we learn about the representation of Secord
in children’s texts but we have no parallel study for Verchиres.
Points of comparison are raised in the introduction but the epilogue is
devoted to a treatment of the Iroquois, who figure as the enemy in the
Verchиres story and a British ally in the War of 1812. While the
attention to issues of class, culture, gender, and race are the great
strengths of this monograph, there may well have been some value in a
more structured comparative approach to this enduring duo.