Why Didn't the Canadians get drawn into the American Revolution?

[vomit_comet]

Canada was neutral and became just the place to store the beer… 95 degrees becomes 35 when you cross the border. An 8 year revolution doesn’t go on without cold beer.

[donkeyoatey]

@aceplace57

Interesting response RickJay. I didn’t know how settled Canada was in the 1770’s. How much of it was French and how much English. Thank you for clearing that up.

There’s this thing called the interwebz. It has a lot of information if you can access it.:rolleyes:

[tomndebb]

Earlier thread on this topic:
Why wasn’t Canada considered one of the American colonies before the revolution?

[Muffin]

@aceplace57

I didn’t know how settled Canada was in the 1770’s. How much of it was French and how much English.

Read link at post 6.

[CraterLayer]

From this letter it seems that the Canadians were at first sympathetic to the Rebels:
The two-prong drive of the Americans led by Schuyler (then Montgomery) and Arnold respectively ended in disaster at Quebec on December 31, to be followed eventually by an agonizing withdrawal and then by a marked change in feeling in the Canadian countryside. This later was described graphically by Moses Hazen in a letter on April 1, 1776, to General Schuyler:

You are not unacquainted with the friendly disposition of the Canadians, when General Montgomery first penetrated into the country; the ready assistance which they gave on all occasions, by men, carriages, and provisions, was most remarkable, Even when we were before Quebec, many parishes offered their services in the reduction of that fortress, which were at the time thought unnecessary. But this most fortunate fate, added to other incidents, had caused such a change in their disposition, that we no longer look upon them as friends, but on the contrary waiting an opportunity to join our enemies…

I don’t know what he is referring to as “this most unfortunate fate” that caused the turn in tide of the opinions of the Canadians.

[MikeS]

@CraterLayer

I don’t know what he is referring to as “this most unfortunate fate” that caused the turn in tide of the opinions of the Canadians.

The full letter is here. The actual text is “his most unfortunate fate” (bolding mine), referring to General Montgomery. This almost certainly refers to Montgomery’s death during the initial assault on Quebec. Why Col. Hazen thinks that Montgomery’s death would cause a turn in opinion is lost on me; but he continues on to describe other actions that definitely have turned opinion against the Continental Armies:

[The clergy] are unanimous, though privately, against our cause; and I have too much reason to fear many of them, with other people of some consequence, have carried on a correspondence the whole winter with General Carleton in Quebeck, and are now plotting our destruction. The peasantry in general have been ill used; they have in some instances been dragooned, with the point of the bayonet, to furnish wood for the garrison, at a lower rate than the current price; carriages, and many other articles furnished, for which certificates were given, not legible and without signature — the one half of consequence rejected by the Quartermaster-General. It is true, they have been promised payment, from time to time; yet they look upon such promises as vague, their labour and property lost, and the Congress and the United Colonies as bankrupt; and (what is a more material point) they have not seen sufficient force in the country to protect them. These matters furnish very strong arguments to be made use of by our enemies.

In other words, the Catholic clergy (who were “thought leaders” in the society of the time) were against the revolution — as noted, the Quebec Act gave them a pretty good deal in terms of free practice of religion and financial support, while the Americans viewed it as an Intolerable Act. And the Continental Army were basically pressganging the people of the countryside for labour and supplies while they were laying siege to Quebec, which didn’t win them over to much of anyone.