What did Coureur de Bois do?
‘”runner of the woods”‘) or coureur de bois (French: [kuʁœʁ də bwɑ]; plural: coureurs de(s) bois) was an independent entrepreneurial French-Canadian trader who travelled in New France and the interior of North America, usually to trade with First Nations peoples by exchanging various European items for furs.
Why is the Coureur de Bois important?
The independent coureurs des bois played an important role in the European exploration of the continent. They were also vital in establishing trading contacts with Indigenous peoples. Coureurs des bois were itinerant, unlicenced fur traders from New France.
What is the difference between a voyageur and a coureur de bois?
What is the difference between the coureurs des bois and the voyageurs? The coureurs des bois were active during the French Regime. They were small businessmen trapping fur animals and trading. The voyageurs, for their part, were hired hands.
What did the coureur de bois wear?
There weren’t a lot of them in New France until the 1670s. “A Coureur de Bois dressed in buckskin coat and leggings and wearing a cap of coon fur with the tail attached.” Voyageurs and coureurs des bois wore similar clothing, for the most part.
Are the coureurs de bois French?
coureur de bois, (French: “wood runner”) French Canadian fur trader of the late 17th and early 18th centuries.
What food did the coureur des bois eat?
What did the Coureurs des bois eat? The Coureurs des Bois ate fish, pemmican, rubaboo, pork, etc. If they didn’t find anything to eat, they would have to make a black soup made of moss that comes from rocks.
What does Voyageur mean in English?
a woodsman, guide, trapper, boatman, or explorer, esp in the North. Collins English Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers. Word origin. C19: from French: traveller, from voyager to voyage.
How do you pronounce coureurs de bois?
noun, plural cou·reurs de bois [koo-rœr duh -bwah].
Are voyageurs Metis?
From the 1770s until the 1821 merger, most voyageurs were French-Canadians from Lower Canada (now the southern portion of Quebec) and to a lesser extent Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) and Algonquins (Anishinaabeg). After the fur trade merger, the majority of boatmen working in the fur trade were Métis.
Why did the voyageurs come to Canada?
Voyageurs were young men hired to transport goods to trading posts. They were forbidden to do any trading of their own. Until 1705, roughly 60 young men travelled on behalf of the Compagnie de la Colonie as far as the post of Detroit (founded in 1701).
What does Voyageurs mean in English?
What is Coureur de Bois mean?
Definition of coureur de bois : a French or métis trapper of North America and especially of Canada.
Are all French Canadians Métis?
Some French-speaking ethnic groups such as the Acadians, the Brayons and the Métis may be included among the French Canadian group in linguistic contexts, but they are considered separate ethnic and cultural groups from French Canadians due to their distinct histories.
What language did the voyageurs speak?
Although the new employers were English, the working language would remain French. In Making the Voyageur World, Carolyn Podruchny estimates the number of voyageurs at 500 in 1784, 1,500 in 1802 and 3,000 in 1821 at the height of the fur trade.