Couldn’t Have Done It Without Us: How Franco-Americans Saved the US Economy with David Vermette
The Franco-American Collection at the University of Southern Maine invites you to Couldn’t Have Done It Without Us: How Franco-Americans Saved the US Economy. Join us at the University of Southern Maine’s Lewiston campus, 51 Westminster St. in Lewiston, room 170, on April 14, 2025 at 6 pm for the event. There is no fee for our programs, which are made possible by the generous sponsorship of the Québec Delegation in Boston and TV5MONDE.
Textiles were the country’s largest industry in the 19th century, and after the Civil War it was French-Canadians who powered it. They made up nearly a quarter of the United State’s cotton textile employees and 44 percent in New England at a time when more than one half of all cotton textile workers lived in that region. Some scholars have written that there was a change in the source of textile labor in the early 20th century which favored immigrants to the US from southern and eastern Europe. This presentation shows that French-Canadians were by far the greatest factor in the textile industry labor pool from immediately after the Civil War until the industry’s decline in the mid 20th century. And in saving the textile industry in the post-Civil War period, French-Canadians made an enormous contribution to economic history. There will be a Q&A session following Vermette’s presentation.
David Vermette is an author and an independent researcher. He is the author of the book A Distinct Alien Race: The Untold Story of Franco-Americans (Baraka Books, 2018) (French translation: Une race d’étrangers: Le récit méconnu des Franco-Américains, Septentrion, 2024) and the blog French North America. His writing has appeared in Smithsonian and Time, and he has authored articles and reviews published by Histoire sociale/Social History, Résonance, and Le Forum (University of Maine). He wrote a chapter in the book French All Around Us (New York, CALEC-TBR, 2022) and also contributed to Franco-Amérique: Nouvelle édition revue et augmentée (Quebec, Septentrion, 2017). He is also an editor and ghostwriter for academics, consultants, and businesspeople. Originally from Massachusetts, he is a frequent speaker on the topic of Franco-American history.
Unable to join us in-person? Here’s a link to register to attend on Zoom: https://maine.zoom.us/meeting/register/hX1HnMY_TMabP1SKuYh6jA
For more information or to register, contact the FAC archivist, Anna Faherty at anna.faherty@maine.edu or by phone (207) 753-6545. If you have questions about disability access or need to request disability accommodations (e.g. sign language interpreters, materials in electronic format, etc.), please contact Anna. Requests should be made as soon as possible to allow sufficient time for the accommodation process.