Quebec Act - Timeline Event
Time Period
10-07-1774
Description
Following its victory over France in the Seven Years’ War, Great Britain acquired the French colony of New France in present-day Canada. To more effectively govern Quebec, which was home to as many as 100,000 Catholics, Parliament promulgated the Quebec Act of 1774. The act expanded the province’s boundaries into the Northwest Territory, which included lands that American colonists hoped to settle and develop. Controversially, Britain recognized the Catholic Church in Quebec and tolerated Catholics’ freedom of worship. American colonists, who had already been exposed to a longer transatlantic tradition of anti-Catholicism, accused the British government of encouraging a supposed Catholic takeover of the colonies. In their eyes, they would be enslaved to the Catholic Church and lose their liberties as British citizens. The Quebec Act ultimately exacerbated tensions between colonists and the British government on the eve of the American Revolution.
Interactive Timeline(s)
Browse Related Timeline Entries
Religious Groups
Catholicism (Western Liturgical Family): Other ARDA LinksCatholicism (Western Liturgical Family): Religious Family Tree
Photographs
Quebec Act of 1774, title page- Internet Archive
Quebec City- Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division
Province of Quebec map- Wikimedia Commons
Book/Journal Source(s)
Fenton, Elizabeth, 2011. Religious Liberties: Anti-Catholicism and Liberal Democracy in Nineteenth-Century U.S. Literature and Culture New York: Oxford University Press.Marty, Martin E., 1985. Pilgrims in Their Own Land: 500 Years of Religion in America New York: Penguin Books. (Notes: Originally published in 1984 by Little, Brown and Company.).
Web Source(s)
https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/quebec_act_1774.aspText of the Quebec Act of 1774
Web Page Contributor
William S. CossenAffliated with: Pennsylvania State University, Ph.D. in History
