By Kolby LaMarche

In the years before Vermont’s French-Canadian community grew into the thousands and beyond, a short-lived newspaper offered a voice for those who had crossed the border from Quebec in search of safety and a new start.

Le Patriote Canadien appeared first in Burlington in the summer of 1839. Published by Ludger Duvernay, a Montreal printer and supporter of the Patriote movement, a reform effort that sought greater political autonomy, democratic rights, and protections for French-Canadian culture against British colonial control in Lower Canada.

The weekly paper lasted only until February 1840, yet it captured a moment when political refugees and early settlers were trying to stay connected to their language and traditions while building lives along Lake Champlain and central Vermont. 

The story begins with unrest in Lower Canada during the 1830s. Reformers, many of them French-speaking Canadiens, pushed for greater self-rule and an end to what they saw as unfair British colonial control. 

The rebellions of 1837 and 1838 ended in defeat, with arrests, executions, and flights across the border. Duvernay, already known for his work on the newspaper La Minerve, was among those who fled. He spent time in places like Swanton and St. Albans before settling in Burlington.

On August 7, 1839, he published the first issue of Le Patriote Canadien. 

Written mostly in French, and written almost entirely by himself, with some English material to reach local readers, the paper carried news from Quebec, political discussion, historical notes, and community items. It aimed to keep exiled Patriotes informed and to explain their cause to Americans nearby. 

Duvernay struggled with funding, equipment, and a scattered readership. The final issue came out on February 5, 1840. He returned to Montreal in 1842 and resumed La Minerve.

Burlington at that time was a small but active port town. French Canadians had begun arriving even before the rebellions, looking for work in shipping, lumber, and farming. 

The exiles added to their numbers. By around 1840, hundreds of French-Canadian families lived in the area, with some neighborhoods reflecting ties to Quebec towns like Saint-Hyacinthe.

These families carried their Catholic faith, French language, and customs with them. Work was often hard — on the docks, in early mills, or on farms. In 1850, St. Joseph’s Parish was founded in Burlington as the first French national parish in New England. It became a central place for worship and gathering.

Le Patriote Canadien tried to serve practical needs. It included local notices, market information, and efforts to link people spread across Vermont and beyond. Agents were named in various U.S. towns to help with circulation, but money was tight and many exiles were struggling. The paper could not continue.

The larger movement of French Canadians into Vermont came later, where the paper – then already closed – may have had a hay day. After the Civil War, economic hardship in rural Quebec — smaller farms, few opportunities — sent many south. 

Vermont’s nearness and familiar countryside drew them. By 1860, more than 16,000 French Canadians lived in the state, with concentrations in Burlington and other mill areas. Many worked in textiles, manufacturing, and other growing industries.

Newcomers sometimes met suspicion or pressure to set aside their heritage. But it seems, then, the communities didn’t require a newspaper to stay connected to their home-nation. Rather, they brought aspects of their home nation here – religion, language, institutions and knowledge, and a love of the land.