L’ émergence du prolétariat rural dans une région de peuplement au début du 19e siècle la frontière entre cultivateurs et journaliers

Abstract

This article examines the demographic, social and economic characteristics of the rural proletariat in a Lower Canadian settlement region of the early 19^th century which still has uninhabited cultivable land. It focuses on the background of the heads of families in the seigneury of Saint-Hyacinthe who were identified as a laborer in the civil registers from 1800 to 1831 and in the 1831 census. Their itinerary shows close links with the farming peasants. Their land and movable assets are moreover comparable to that of the poorest peasants. They are also often identified in the civil registers, sometimes as laborers, sometimes as farmers.