平特五不中
Mary Anne Poutanen est une historienne sociale dont les recherches portent sur les strat茅gies de subsistance mises au point par les femmes de la classe populaire montr茅alaise au XIXe si猫cle pour joindre les deux bouts. Elle examine ces strat茅gies du point de vue de la justice p茅nale. Mary Anne est l'auteure听du livre Beyond Brutal Passions: Prostitution in Early Nineteenth-Century Montreal, pour lequel elle a re莽u le Prix Lionel-Groulx d茅cern茅 par l'Institut d'histoire de l'Am茅rique fran莽aise en 2016. Sa monographie co-r茅dig茅e听avec听Roderick MacLeod,听A Meeting of the People: School Boards and Protestant Communities in Quebec, 1801-1998,听a re莽u en听2006 le Founder鈥檚 Prize听de la听Canadian Association of Foundations of Education. A Meeting of the People听a 茅galement 茅t茅 s茅lectionn茅听pour le prix Sir John A Macdonald en 2004. Mary Anne听enseigne des 茅tudes interdisciplinaires 脿 l鈥橴niversit茅 平特五不中 dans le cadre du Programme d鈥櫭﹖udes sur le Qu茅bec et 脿 l鈥橧nstitut d鈥櫭﹖udes du Canada de 平特五不中 et 脿 temps partiel au D茅partement d鈥檋istoire de l鈥橴niversit茅 Concordia o霉 elle est professeure affili茅e. Mary Anne est 茅galement membre du Centre de recherches interdisciplinaires en 茅tudes montr茅alaises et du Groupe d'histoire de Montr茅al 脿 平特五不中. Ses recherches actuelles portent sur l鈥檋istoire des multiples r么les des femmes dans les tavernes, auberges et 茅piceries montr茅alaises, dans le cadre d鈥檜n projet intitul茅 芦听At the Bar: Gender, Work, and Regulation in Montreal鈥檚 Hospitality Services, 1840-1870 禄.
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芦At the Bar: Gender, Work, and Regulation in Montreal鈥檚 Hospitality Services, 1840-1870禄
This project focuses on the various forms of hospitality that required a tavern licence. It builds on my previous studies of the sex trade, of vagrancy, and of larceny in early nineteenth-century Montreal. That research uncovered women publicans who operated city taverns, inns, and groceries involved in the sale of alcohol and an even larger number who provided most of the domestic work as servants and family members of male keepers and grocers (Upton, 2013; Roberts, 2009; Wright, 2003; Kirkby, 1997). Many widows continued operating these family businesses following the death of their spouse. To even modest establishments the women brought capital consisting of movables, credit, cash, knowledge, and experience. This study seeks to understand the following: from whom they borrowed and to whom they lent money; whether they cross the boundaries of religious, linguistic or national affiliations; did the children who grew up in these families benefit from wider networks; and what occupations they pursued. Despite its importance as a subsistence strategy for women of various social classes and ethnicities (as recognized by Bradbury 1993 and 2011; Olson 1998 and 2000; Harvey 2012), the hospitality sector in Montreal has hardly been studied.
Public houses were sites where representatives from immigrant populations socialized, gossiped, celebrated, debated, negotiated and mobilized support. They served an institutional function in a dynamic reinforcement of ethno-cultural identity (Horner 2018; Olson & Thornton 2011; O鈥橫ahony 2007; Wilson 2003). Information was a key resource that accompanied the hospitality trades in moments of agitation and diplomatic crisis (for example, Sheehy 2017) and in the bread-and-butter calamities of everyday life as well. Keepers and grocers assured face-to-face exchanges critical to relations of trust in which trade, social behaviour, and politics were grounded (Olson & Poutanen 2018; Szreter 1996). These women were undoubtedly community builders.
In the years 1840 to 1870, the urban population grew significantly, as did property values and the numbers of strangers navigating public spaces. Massive streams of migrants from Ireland (1847 and 1849), from Britain and from the villages that surrounded Montreal re-balanced the ethno-cultural elements. Public opinion was divided over regulation of the lucrative trade in alcohol, and in the early 1840s a temperance discourse, both Catholic and Protestant, targeted the popular class and the taverns they frequented (Poutanen 2017; Noel 1995; Ar猫s 1990).
Historical sources 鈥� specifically municipal taxrolls(1848-1870), tavern licenses (1841-1851), business directories, and census returns - have allowed me to compile a comprehensive database identifying 272 women who ran licensed public houses and groceries. Notarial documents and genealogical records provide evidence of their life trajectories and networks of kinship and credit; these sources have also uncovered unrecognized management by women. Sources for the women鈥檚 business practices include notarized acts (marriage contracts, inventories, leases, property sales, promissory notes, protests, and bankruptcies) and newspaper advertisements. An analysis of (re)marriages and residential moves have already disclosed kinship and collaboration among the women licensees and net upward social mobility among their children (Bertaux and Thompson 1997; Gauvreau & Olson 2008; Poutanen 2017). Criminal court records will identify those women implicated in informal or makeshift economies and who sold drinks without a licence, or whose establishments attracted attention of the police owing to accusations of theft, riot, assault and battery, prostitution or possession of stolen goods.
