Abuse or Punishment?: Violence toward Children in Quebec Families, 1850-1969

By Marie-Aimée Cliche

At one time, the use of corporal punishment by parents in child-rearing was considered normal, but in the second half of the nineteenth century this begin to change, in Quebec as well as the rest of the Western world. It was during this period that the extent of ill-treatment inflicted on children—treatment once excused as good child-rearing practice—was discovered.

This book analyzes both the advice provided to parents and the different forms of child abuse within families. Cliche derives her information from family magazines, reports and advice columns in newspapers, people’s life stories, the records of the Montreal Juvenile Court, and even comic strips. Two dates are given particular focus: 1920, with the trial of the parents of Aurore Gagnon, which sensitized the public to the phenomenon of “child martyrs;” and 1940, with the advent of the New Education movement, which was based on psychology rather than strict discipline and religious doctrine.

There has always been child abuse. What has changed is society’s sensitivity to it. That is why defenders of children’s rights call for the repeal of Section 43 of the Canadian Criminal Code, which authorizes “reasonable” corporal punishment. Abuse or Punishment? considers not only the history of violence towards children in Quebec but the history of public perception of this violence and what it means for the rest of Canada.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wilfrid Laurier University Press
• Release date: Nov 27, 2014
• ISBN: 9781771120654

Marie-Aimée Cliche

Marie-Aimée Cliche has published several articles on the history of single mothers, infanticide (Hilda Neatby Prize, 1990), incest, and legal separation, all in Quebec, and three books: Les Pratiques de Dévotion en Nouvelle-France (1988); Maltraiter ou Punir (Jean-Charles-Falardeau Prize, 2007) and Fous, Ivres ou Méchants? Les Parents Meurtriers au Québec, 1775–1965 (2011).

Book preview

ABUSE OR

PUNISHMENT?

A broad-ranging series that publishes scholarship from various disciplines, approaches, and perspectives relevant to the concepts and relations of childhood and family in Canada. Our interests also include, but are not limited to, interdisciplinary approaches and theoretical investigations of gender, race, sexuality, geography, language, and culture within these categories of experience, historical and contemporary.

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ABUSE OR

PUNISHMENT?

VIOLENCE TOWARD CHILDREN IN

QUEBEC FAMILIES 1850–1969

MARIE-AIMÉE CLICHE

TRANSLATED BY W. DONALD WILSON

Wilfrid Laurier University Press acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts for our publishing program. We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada, through the National Translation Program for Book Publishing for our translation activities. We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund for our publishing activities.

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LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION

Cliche, Marie-Aimée

[Maltraiter ou punir?  English]

Abuse or punishment? violence toward children in Quebec families, 1850–1969 / Marie-Aimée Cliche ; translated by W. Donald Wilson.

(Studies in childhood and family in Canada)

Translation of: Maltraiter ou punir?

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Issued in print and electronic formats.

Mostly in English with some French.

ISBN 978-1-77112-063-0 (pbk.).—ISBN 978-1-77112-065-4 (epub).—

ISBN 978-1-77112-064-7 (pdf)

1. Child abuse—Québec (Province)—History—19th century.   2. Child abuse— Québec (Province)—History—20th century.   3. Corporal punishment of children— Québec (Province)—History.   4. Discipline of children—Québec (Province)—History.   5. Child rearing—Québec (Province)—History.   I. Wilson, W. Donald, 1938–, translator   II. Title.   III. Title : Maltraiter ou punir? English.   IV. Series: Studies in childhood and family in Canada

HV6626.54.C3C5413 2014     362.760971409’034     C2014-902730-3

 C2014-902731-1

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Front-cover image by Odette Vincent, Les défauts de nos enfants, L’Éducateur, suppl. to La Famille 6/3 (Nov. 1942), 95. Reproduced with permission. Cover design and text design Sandra Friesen.

Copyright © 2007 by Éditions du Boréal. Originally published as Maltraiter ou punir? La violence envers les enfants dans les familles québécoises, 1850–1969.

English translation

© 2014 Wilfrid Laurier University Press

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CONTENTS

List of Tables and Boxes

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgements

Introduction

PART I

In the Good Old Days: A Rural Society, 1850–1919

Chapter 1 A Discourse Full of Good Intentions

Chapter 2 Everyday Violence within Families, 1850–1919

PART II

An Urban Society, 1920–1939

Chapter 3 Aurore Gagnon, the Child Martyr

Chapter 4 A More Moderate Approach, 1920–1939

Chapter 5 Violence Viewed from the Juvenile Delinquents’ Court, 1920–1939

PART III

From World War II to the Quiet Revolution, 1940–1969

Chapter 6 New Expertise and a Different Approach to Parenting, 1940–1969

Chapter 7 Is That a Good Way to Raise Children? Violence in the Advice Columns, 1940–1969

Chapter 8 Violence Viewed from the Juvenile Delinquents’ Court and the Children’s Aid Clinic, 1940–1965

Chapter 9 Aurore, Pauline, Hélène, and Barbara: The Child Martyrs of Allô Police, 1953–1965

Chapter 10 Humour Is No Laughing Matter: Corporal Punishment in Quebec Comic Strips, 1945–1969

Conclusion

Appendix: Oral Testimonies

Notes

Bibliography

Index of Names

LIST OF TABLES AND BOXES

Table 1 Pedagogical journals published in the province of Quebec, 1857–1969

Table 2 Quebec magazines for parents, 1873–1969

Table 3 Distribution by decade of articles dealing with corporal punishment in Quebec family magazines, 1873–1969

Table 4 Distribution of articles dealing with corporal punishment in Quebec family magazines, 1873–1969

Table 5 Authorship of articles and replies to letters on the subject of corporal punishment in Quebec family magazines, 1873–1969

Table 6 Distribution of the files of the Juvenile Delinquents’ Court (JDC) and the Social Welfare Court (SWC), by sex and generation, 1912–1965

Table 7 Distribution of children as delinquents and victims in the files of the JDC and the SWC, 1912–1965

Table 8 Distribution of grievances outlined in the accusations and complaints dealt with by the JDC and the SWC, 1912–1965

Table 9 Children of immigrant parents by country of origin and period, from the records of the JDC and the SWC, 1912–1965

Table 10 Occupations of parents, from the records of the JDC and the SWC, 1912–1965

Table 11 Distribution by sex of the most frequent accusations on the report and complaint forms, from the records of the JDC and the SWC, 1912–1965

Table 12 Types of Violence Described in the Records of the JDC and the SWC, 1912–1965

Table 13 Distribution of beaten children, by age and sex, from the records of the JDC and the SWC, 1912–1965

Table 14 Family members who beat the children, from the records of the JDC and the SWC, 1912–1965

Table 15 Distribution by sex of the causes of parental displeasure according to the reports of probation officers, from the records of the JDC and the SWC, 1912–1965

Table 16 Distribution of types of violence by the sex of the parent and by period, from the records of the JDC and the SWC, 1912–1965

Table 17 Age distribution of abused children, from Quebec newspaper reports, 1870–1919

Table 18 Harm inflicted on abused children, from Quebec newspaper reports, 1870–1919

Table 19 Aggressors of abused children, from Quebec newspaper reports, 1870–1919

Table 20 Letters dealing with violence toward children in the advice columns, 1925–1969

Table 21 Authorship of letters to the advice columns dealing with violence against children, 1925–1969

Table 22 Persons committing acts of violence, according to the advice columns, 1925–1969

Table 23 Distribution of children subjected to violence, by age and sex, from the advice columns, 1925–1969

Table 24 Types of violence described in letters to the advice columns, 1925–1969

Table 25 Reasons for beatings according to parents, from the advice columns, 1925–1969

Table 26 Reasons for beatings according to the children, from the advice columns, 1925–1969

Table 27 Instances of nervosity and violence, from the records of the JDC and the SWC, 1912–1965

Table 28 Distribution of corporal punishment in the three comic strips, 1945–1969

Table 29 Identity of the persons who beat children in the comic strips, 1945–1969

Table 30 Types of corporal punishment inflicted on children in the comic strips, 1945–1969

Box 1 How Children Are Taught to Obey

Box 2 Indications of Character

Box 3 Aurore Gagnon’s Family

Box 4 Chronology of the Gagnon Case

Box 5 Letter from Baby to Papa and Mama

Box 6 Rights of the Child in the Province of Quebec, as Proposed by the Institut familial, 1942

Box 7 How to Obtain Instant Obedience, 1945

Box 8 The Spanking, by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Illustration 1 He will go over and strike him, even in his mother’s arms …

Illustration 2 Mr Bogeyman

Illustration 3 The Dark Room

Illustration 4 Bringing Up Dolly

Illustration 5 Unruly Little Boys

Illustration 6 The Child Martyr, 1877

Illustration 7 Angry Blows

Illustration 8 How to Combat Fear in the Very Young

Illustration 9 All in Its Own Time

Illustration 10 To Your Good Health

Illustration 11 At the Stricts’ … and the Easys’

Illustration 12 A Spoiled Brat

Illustration 13 The Good Old-Fashioned Spanking

Illustration 14 He Has No Patience with Young Ruffians

Illustration 15 Postum for Your Nerves

Illustration 16 The Long Arm of the Law

Illustration 17 Ti-Prince

Illustration 18 La Petite Iodine

Illustration 19 The World Turned on Its Head

Illustration 20 Les Jumeaux du Capitaine

Illustration 21 C’est Toujours Comme Ça (The Sleepwalking Father)

Illustration 22 C’est Toujours Comme Ça (The Expert)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I wish to thank all the individuals and organizations that have made it possible for me to write this book: the Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council for the grant that allowed me to carry out the research on which this book is based; the Human Resources office at UQAM, which awarded me a completion grant to write it; the colleagues and friends that discussed different theoretical, methodological, and technical aspects with me, especially Michelle Perrot of Université Paris VII, Anne-Marie Sohn of the Université de Rouen, Jean Trépanier of the Université de Montréal, the late Jean-Marie Fecteau, Fernande Roy, and Paul-André Linteau of UQAM; the librarians and archivists who helped me gain access to the documents, especially those at UQAM, the National Library of Quebec, the National Archives of Quebec in Quebec City and in Montreal, and the Montreal Pre-archive Centre; the staff at Éditions du Boréal, and all the students at UQAM who helped to assemble the sources: Marie-Josée Béchard, Nathalie Blanchette, Rachel Bolduc, Fanny Constantineau, Daniel Dicaire, Carolyne Hébert, Tara Landry, Danielle Laurendeau, Isabelle Moreau, Bastien Pelletier, Lucie Quevillon, Marie-France René, Hélène Séguin, Olivier Shareck, and Éric Vaillancourt.

INTRODUCTION

Today Canadian society is almost unanimous in condemning violence toward children. It considers the murders and sexual abuse to which they are subjected to be the worst kind of crime, and it even questions the use of corporal punishment in child-rearing. As these lines were being written, the Supreme Court of Canada was imposing very narrow limits on the interpretation of Section 43 of the Criminal Code:

Every schoolteacher, parent or person standing in the place of a parent is justified in using force by way of correction toward a pupil or child, as the case may be, who is under his care, if the force does not exceed what is reasonable under the circumstances.¹

The repeal of this article, which some consider unconstitutional and contrary to the Charter of Rights,² would have represented an official disavowal of a tradition whose origin is lost in the mists of time. However, the highest court in the land did not dare to go that far.

For thousands of years beating has been considered a normal principle of child-rearing. Biblical quotations such as He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes (Prov. 13:24) and Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him (Prov. 22:15) attest to both the antiquity and the legitimacy of the practice. The same tradition is found in Eastern countries. Rarely has a civilization failed to adopt it, so that the first French missionaries who came to Canada in the seventeenth century were astounded to find that the Amerindians never beat their children.³

With only a few exceptions such as Quintilian and Montaigne, Western advisers on parenting have long recommended that children’s misdemeanours be sanctioned with moderate corporal punishment to teach them the difference between right and wrong. In their eyes, such punishments did not amount to ill-treatment. They were, to borrow Eirick Prairat’s expression,⁴ a legitimate use of violence that had to fall within reasonable limits, a term that has varied considerably in meaning from period to period.

It was not until the latter part of the nineteenth century that feelings in the Western world about the various forms of violence inflicted on children began to change. The new attention devoted to social problems and the rise of mass circulation newspapers made it possible to bring the phenomenon of child abuse to the attention of the general public. At the same time, the emergence of psychology and the other behavioural sciences paved the way for the development of child-rearing methods that excluded the use of force. A century later, in 1979, the legal abolition of corporal punishment in Sweden represented an important stage in this evolution.

Since the 1970s numerous historical, sociological, and psychological studies have shown that corporal punishment has harmful consequences in children’s lives, lasting into adulthood. We owe one of the best-known studies to the German psychoanalyst Alice Miller: For Your Own Good: Hidden Cruelty in Child-Rearing and the Roots of Violence. This book denounced the ravages of the poisonous or black pedagogy that was rampant in Germany and in the Anglo-Saxon countries from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries. The well-intentioned experts on parenting who conceived this method wished to train children to practise virtue and to root out their vicious tendencies as they emerged. The first measure they recommended was to instill in children the habit of total obedience to their parents, starting from the cradle. To achieve this there had to be no hesitation in administering corporal punishment in sufficient doses to obtain total submission or, indeed, to break the child’s will. According to Miller, children treated in this way, being unable to express their anger and revolt against parents they loved and the loss of whose affection they feared, were reduced to repressing these violent feelings in their subconscious. Subsequently, if they were unable to recall their suffering and give it verbal expression, they would be in considerable danger of turning this violence against themselves in the form of masochism, mental illness, self-destructive drug use, or even suicide, or against others by inflicting on their own children or on others a treatment similar to what they themselves had suffered. This explains how violence can be handed down from generation to generation within a family. In certain extreme cases, this repetition compulsion can take the form of sadistic murder or, as in Hitler’s case, by the attempt to exterminate an entire group of human beings made into a scapegoat, like the Jews.⁵

Other scholars have reached similar conclusions to Alice Miller. In his book entitled The English Vice: Beating, Sex and Shame in Victorian England and After, Ian Gibson has traced back the origins of masochistic sexuality in England and other countries to the practice of beating children on the buttocks.⁶ In the United States the sociologists Murray Straus and Richard Gelles have carried out large-scale investigations in order to demonstrate, by statistical means, that corporal punishment can easily degenerate into abuse, and that such violence has deplorable long-term consequences. They also condemned myths about violence within the family, especially the beliefs that abusers belong to a different species from ordinary people, that violence is restricted to disadvantaged social classes and minority groups, that alcohol is its real cause, and that it is impossible for love and violence to coexist.⁷ Finally, Philip Greven has explained how fundamentalist Protestants in the United States have relied (and still rely) on an improper interpretation of the Bible to justify corporal punishment.⁸ More recently, in parallel with these authors who insist on the harmful effects of violence in child-rearing, others have discovered the resilience of children, who, as long as they benefit from a number of factors, are able to develop a strong personality despite very unfavourable living conditions.⁹ In one of her last books Alice Miller spoke of the helping and enlightened witnesses who provide assistance for abused children and previously abused adults.¹⁰

Some historians have taken an interest in the evolution of corporal punishment. Elizabeth Pleck has studied the development of social policies aiming to remedy family violence in the United States; Linda Gordon, who carried out a similar study in Boston, has pointed out that punishments which would be considered abuse today were thought acceptable in the past,¹¹ while Anne-Marie Sohn has stressed the increased sensitivity of the French public about corporal punishment, starting from World War I.¹² Finally, we would point to the originality of the feminist approach that took its inspiration from the concept of gender to bring out, on the one hand, the differences in violent behaviour between men and women and, on the other, the different ways in which violence is applied to girls and boys.¹³ These studies and many others have served as our guides and sources of inspiration in undertaking this study.

In Quebec, it is possible to trace the transformation of ideas and customs related to violence against children, starting from the mid-nineteenth century. We have chosen the 1850s as our starting point because the first treatise on child-rearing intended for parents written by a French Canadian, Le Manuel des parents chrétiens, by Abbé Alexis Mailloux, was published in 1851,¹⁴ while the first pedagogical journal, the Journal de l’Instruction publique, began publication in 1857. Later, two key dates will serve to demarcate the other parts of our book: 1920, the year of the Gagnon trial, which contributed more than any other event to sensitizing the Quebec public to the phenomenon of physically abused children, and 1940, because of the advent of the New Education movement. Our study will end at the time of the Quiet Revolution because of the changes then taking place in the organization of the Quebec family and society, which have profoundly transformed the relations between parents and children. Furthermore, the 1960s correspond to a turning point in the history of violence toward children in North America. In 1962 a group of American pediatricians published an article on the beaten child syndrome and demonstrated the possibility, thanks to radiography, of discovering traces of old or multiple fractures.¹⁵ This discovery led to the requirement that doctors report such cases to the police, while at the same time it made the general public aware of the extent of child abuse within families.

The present study will deal only with Quebec, but we will make use of the work of our English-Canadian colleagues in order to make comparisons with the situation in other provinces. We will also restrict ourselves to the violence suffered by children within the family, and not in educational institutions. The latter aspect is equally worthy of interest and we have already devoted two articles to the topic,¹⁶ but we have decided to exclude it from the present study, first because the sources of information are different and second because the bond of affection that unites children with their parents poses a special problem. Finally, we will not deal with sexual abuse, a subject to which we intend to devote another book.

In analysing the advice about child-rearing aimed at parents, we will use the family magazines published for them and also books cited in these periodicals. In addition we will look at the advice offered in the columns of popular newspapers and pedagogical journals. Although intended for teachers, the latter do contain articles dealing with parenting. To investigate the various forms of violence suffered by Quebec children we will consult newspapers and legal archives, which will provide information about the most serious forms of ill-treatment. But what can we discover about the violence that remained hidden within ordinary families? To answer this question we shall turn to the life stories previously utilized by Denise Lemieux and Lucie Mercier in their study of family life at the turn of the twentieth century.¹⁷ These will be supplemented from another source that allowed people to reveal their problems while remaining anonymous: the advice columns of newspapers and magazines. To this we shall add the oral testimonies gathered informally from people around us, a list of whom appears at the end of the book. Finally, comic strips will help to show the importance of humour as a source of resilience.

This varied documentation will allow us to reconstruct the way in which awareness of the violence inflicted on children grew in the province of Quebec between 1850 and 1970, showing how the public gradually became aware of the existence of physically abused children and of the connection between corporal punishment and abuse, and how the public has come to a constantly diminishing tolerance of such practices. It goes without saying that this evolution did not follow a steady course, for like all human phenomena it has experienced periods of acceleration, turning points, intervals of stagnation, and even regressed at times.

For the purposes of analysis, the word violence will refer to the use of force to inflict physical suffering on children, including both ill-treatment forbidden and punished by the law and so-called reasonable or moderate corporal punishment as allowed by Section 43 and recommended by some authorities.

We shall also use the concept of stereotype. It will occur in discussing types of violence practised by a specific category of people in identical circumstances. We have identified four such stereotypes: the wicked stepmother, the drunken father, the nervous mother, and mentally ill parents. Because they correspond to certain aspects of reality, stereotypes do have their uses in that they allow us to recognize dangerous situations and to take necessary preventative and punitive measures. But they also have the disadvantage of obscuring other equally real forms of violence that do not correspond to them.¹⁸ Nevertheless, a series of stereotypes has marked the evolution of social attitudes toward violence inflicted on children, so they must be taken into account.

PART I

IN THE GOOD OLD DAYS:

A RURAL SOCIETY,

1850–1919

In 1850 Quebec was called Canada East (Lower Canada in some official documents) and was governed under the Act of Union (1841). The number of its inhabitants, initially 890,261, would rise to one and a half million by the turn of the twentieth century. More than three-quarters were of French origin. The birth rate was high: 43.2 births per 1,000 inhabitants between 1866 and 1876, and 38 per 1,000 between 1906 and 1916. Unfortunately, the infant mortality rate was also very high, particularly in Montreal. In 1859 almost a third of infants did not survive beyond the first year,¹ and, in 1911–15 the average annual infant mortality rate was 165.6 per 1,000 in all of Quebec and 209 per 1,000 in Montreal.² Some sought comfort in the idea that they were getting little angels in Paradise,³ while others, in Canada as in the United States, attempted to defeat this scourge. L’Association québécoise de la Goutte de lait, inspired by a French model, was created for this purpose in Montreal at the very beginning of the century, and in Quebec City in 1915.⁴

Eighty-five per cent of Québécois were Roman Catholics. Furthermore, some historians consider the years between 1840 and 1896 to be the period when the influence of the clergy was strongest in the province. In 1871 77.2% of the population was rural, and 66.4% in 1891.⁵ This meant that the children of farm families — in other words, the majority — began to contribute to the family’s subsistence by their labour as soon as they grew strong enough.

The same situation prevailed in the other rural regions of Canada, as Neil Sutherland has shown.⁶ In the poorest milieus children as young as twelve could be placed in domestic service to earn a living. According to the 1911 census, children aged between ten and fourteen who were in employment, most of them boys, represented 3.7% of that age group.⁷

In the mid-nineteenth century less than a third of the population (29.1%) was literate, with, naturally, considerable variations depending on the social group. Thanks to educational legislation that during the 1840s created a system of rural schools, the écoles de rang, the literacy rate had reached 74.4% by the end of the century.⁸ Three-quarters of the population therefore became theoretically able to read textbooks, family magazines, and especially the mass circulation newspapers that appeared in the last quarter of the nineteenth century: La Patrie in 1879, La Presse in 1884, and Le Petit Journal in 1920. It goes without saying that those unable to read could learn about the contents of these media from the more educated members of the family and the parish, beginning with the parish priest.

The laws of the time did take violence against children into consideration. The Traité sur les lois civiles du Bas-Canada of 1832 stated that fathers and mothers had a right to punish their children in moderation.⁹ This article was reproduced in the Civil Code of Lower Canada: The father and, in his default, the mother of an unemancipated minor have over him a right of moderate correction, which may be delegated to and exercised by those to whom his education has been entrusted.¹⁰ The adjective reasonable was added in 1885,¹¹ and the article remained in force until 1991.

English criminal law, which was in force in Canada from 1763, expressed exactly the same idea, which is only to be expected considering the universal practice of corporal punishment. British citizens were protected against physical violence by laws punishing assault and battery, but a treaty of 1842 specified that if a master beat his servant, a schoolmaster his pupil, etc., the assault and battery were justifiable as long as the limits prescribed in each case by moderation and necessity were observed."¹² In 1888 Judge Taschereau added, A parent may in a reasonable manner chastise his child.¹³

The same idea of reasonable punishment appeared in Section 55 of the 1892 Criminal Code: It is lawful for every parent, or person in the place of a parent, schoolmaster or master, to use force by way of correction towards any child, pupil or apprentice under his care, provided that such force is reasonable under the circumstances.¹⁴

However, if an adult inflicted excessive punishment he was liable to a charge of assault and battery, illegal homicide [sic], or manslaughter, and even of murder.¹⁵ Subsequently, other legal measures were taken to protect children from adults who abused their right to punish. In 1912, a Quebec law made it possible to send any child who was habitually beaten or cruelly treated by his parents, or by those with whom he resided,¹⁶ to an industrial school, originally intended for homeless children with no means of support. It was up to judges to distinguish between reasonable punishment and abuse, and their decisions would necessarily be influenced by the theories of child-rearing and practices of their time and milieu.

CHAPTER 1

A DISCOURSE FULL OF GOOD INTENTIONS

He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes.

– Prov. 13:24 (quoted by Télesphore Gagnon’s lawyer, 1920)

In 1900 the writer Louis Fréchette, who was born in 1839, published his memoirs, in which he described the child-rearing practices of his childhood.

Parents and schoolmasters were certainly no more cruel in those days than today, but the vast majority, if not all, were entirely convinced that children could only go astray if they were not thoroughly beaten at least three times a week. A switch, a cane, a whip, and often even a stout stick, were considered essential tools for the improvement of youth and the salvation of younger generations. Bringing up children meant extreme flogging; punishing them meant breaking their bones. Such were the recommended means and method: Fathers and mothers, chastise your children, take up the rod, beat them, tame them: each stroke that you give them adds a jewel to your future crown; break one of their limbs if you have to; it is better that your child go to heaven lacking an arm or leg than to hell with limbs intact.¹

Here Louis Fréchette was expressing himself with a humour that made it easier for him to evoke such painful memories. Besides, he did not dare to accuse parents of cruelty, preferring to attribute their severity to the influence of religion. But was the recommended method as harsh as he said? To find out, we undertook a systematic search in the pedagogical journals published between 1850 and 1920 that were aimed at a readership of teachers, selecting about thirty articles on child-rearing (see Table 1). Our second source consists of eight periodicals intended for parents, from 1873 to 1969 (see Table 2). Each of these had a distinguishing feature. For instance, Le Foyer Canadien was a family newspaper for Francophones living in Massachusetts. La Mère et l’Enfant was produced by a doctor who wished to reduce infantile mortality. La Famille and La Famille chrétienne both had priests as editors. The department store Le Bon Marché offered its customers the magazine La Femme. Le Coin du feu, and La Bonne Parole expressed the ideas of the earliest Quebec feminists. Finally, La Tempérance was a tool of the Franciscans in their campaign against alcohol. As can be seen from the titles, half of these magazines were meant for women and mothers and the other half for both parents, but none was aimed specifically at fathers.

In these eight magazines we found fifteen articles from before 1920 that dealt specifically with corporal punishment, five of them by priests (see Tables 3, 4, and 5). We supplemented this corpus with twenty or so books (six of them by Canadian authors), most of which are quoted in these articles. Unanimity reigned where the basic principles of education were concerned, but the manner in which they were applied varied considerably from author to author, some calling for extreme severity but others for greater moderation.

Table 1 Pedagogical Journals Published in the Province of Quebec, 1857–1969

Note: To avoid an excessive number of tables, in the tables 5, 10, 12, 13, 15, 17–19, and 21–26 we have given the combined data without indicating the chronological evolution. When a significant change took place during a specific period we have indicated this in the body of the text.

Table 2 Quebec Magazines for Parents, 1873–1969

Table 3 Distribution by Decade of Articles Dealing with Corporal Punishment in Quebec Family Magazines, 1873–1969

Table 4 Distribution of Articles Dealing with Corporal Punishment in Quebec Family Magazines, 1873–1969

Note: Some magazines contained articles dealing with child-rearing, but none discussed corporal punishment specifically.

BRINGING UP CHILDREN IN THE WAY THEY SHOULD GO

The French-Canadian contributors to these publications were all Roman Catholics. For them the ultimate objective of parenting was to equip the child with a moral foundation that would allow it to achieve heavenly bliss after death. A heavy responsibility thus weighed on parents, who would have to account to God for the fate of the children He had entrusted to them.

The doctrine of original sin made these advisers on child-rearing likely to see a mixture of good and evil tendencies in the souls of children.² This meant that the former had to be cultivated and the latter combatted. The theories of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, with his belief in the innate goodness of the human being, were known and frequently cited, but always rejected. Some authors suggested that children’s personalities could be moulded like soft wax.³ Others preferred an analogy — well suited to a rural society — with the work of a gardener who uproots weeds as soon as they appear.⁴ In each case, the involvement of the parents was primordial. Indeed it was to this end that God had delegated part of His authority to them.

Table 5 Authorship of Articles and Replies to Letters on the Subject of Corporal Punishment in Quebec Family Magazines, 1873–1969

The primary duty of parents was to set their children a good example. In particular they had to take great care not to swear or blaspheme in their presence. Father Boncompain, a Jesuit preacher, told a piquant story on the subject. A mother, hearing, her little boy using bad words, prepared to spank him. But she stopped with her hand in the air when the child cried out to her, But Mama, Papa says that all the time!⁵

The principal warning given parents concerned the danger of spoiling children, in other words letting them do whatever they wanted, giving into all their whims, without ever scolding them to correct their misdemeanours. This detrimental tendency was ascribed to the selfishness and ill-conceived affection of parents who wanted to enjoy their children without troubling to bring them up properly. In fact, such parents did not really love their children, for genuine love was not blind and well able to administer punishment if required.⁶

Illustration 1 He will go over and strike him, even in his mother’s arms …

A drunkard’s brutality was one of the first forms of violence toward children to be condemned in Quebec.

Source: Le père brutal, La Tempérance 4/2 (June 1909), 34. Reproduced with the kind permission of the Franciscans of the Province of St Joseph in Canada.

The contrary excess, which was condemned almost as frequently, consisted of treating children harshly at the risk of dulling their wits.⁷ Punishment administered in anger was disapproved of, for parents risked going too far.⁸ Excessive or too frequent beatings were also condemned, for they could produce a fearful, untruthful, or rebellious child. But the strongest blame was reserved for fathers with an excessive affection for the bottle who brutalized their children while drunk (see Illustration 1).⁹ This form of violence was characterized as ill-treatment rather than punishment, for its purpose was not to punish a misdemeanour. Similarly, some advised against beating children who wet their beds at night when unable to help themselves.¹⁰ But while suggesting medical treatments for bed-wetting, which was considered an illness, one advertisement confirmed that when a child intentionally misbehaves it is proper to punish him.¹¹

Illustration 2 Mr Bogeyman

TOP LEFT Mr Bogeyman carries off naughty little boys. TOP RIGHT Mrs Bogeyman gives greedy little girls a thrashing. BOTTOM L Mr Bogeyman looks for liars to cut off their tongues. BOTTOM R Mrs Bogeyman shuts disobedient little girls in with the rats.

This engraving dates from around 1840. In Quebec, starting in the nineteenth century, child-rearing authorities forbade frightening children with such stories.

Source: Denis Martin and Bernard Huin, Images d’Épinal, © Musée du Québec and Éditions de la Réunion des Musées Nationaux, 1995, with the kind permission of the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec and with the collaboration of the Musée départemental d’art ancien et contemporain and the Musée de l’image d’Épinal. Photo: MNBAQ, Patrick Altman.

A third error to be avoided was frightening children by telling stories about bogey men, werewolves, ghosts, or other imaginary creatures. A popular print from 1840 shows how M. and Mme Croquemitaine [Mr and Mrs Bogeyman] beat naughty children, cut out their tongues, or shut them in with rats (see Illustration 2).¹² From 1857 on, Quebec doctors and pedagogues were agreed in condemning such tales, which not only risked traumatizing children, but could even result in nervous illness.¹³

For the same reason, some people condemned the practice of shutting children up in dark rooms. From the middle of the nineteenth century, Charlotte Brontë and Victor Hugo had described the fear that the dark can cause in children. The English novelist told how, after being shut up inside a room where she imagined seeing a ghost, a little girl suffered a nervous shock, the repercussions of which remained with her into adulthood. The person responsible was an aunt who merely thought that she was eradicating the child’s bad tendencies. Charlotte Brontë was more concerned to describe the circumstances and consequences of this punishment than beatings administered with a rod, however much these were feared. Victor Hugo described the fate of Cosette who was abused by her foster parents: they sent her out in the dark of night to fetch water from a well deep in the forest.¹⁴ In 1893 a woman writer related in a Quebec magazine how she had seen a little girl of nine suffering from nervous spasms after a primary teacher had shut her in a cellar, threatening to have her devoured by rats.¹⁵ Twenty years later Georgine C. Lemaire would retell the same story, this time saying that the little girl died in the throes of horrible convulsions.¹⁶ On this point, however, the opinions of all writers did not evolve at the same rate. As late as 1919 one pedagogical journal endorsed unreservedly the attitude