People in New France
The Sovereign Council
Soldiers
'Farmers'
Fur Traders
The Catholic Church/Clergy
Intendant
Bishop of Quebec
Governor
Habitants
Seigneurs
Coureur de Bois
Merchants
Voyageurs
The clergy was a small group of educated people who could read and write. Many people went to them them before making important decisions about politics, the economy of the colony, etc.
They would have represented the King
They would have controlled the military and dealt with trading with the First Nations
The chief administrator of the colony, who worked to keep the it orderly.
His job was to make New France less dependent on France for their basic needs, food, clothing, etc. He also thought of ways to use the colony in benefit of France
He represented the Catholic Church which played an important role in New France just like it did in France.
The king wanted military men to settle in New France so he offered seigneuries (large plots of land own by seigneurs — or landlords — who received the land as grants from the king of France) to officers, who in turn encouraged soldiers to settle on the land. A seigneury represented an opening for an officer to change their life.
Habitants means inhabitants since they inhabited New France and they would have been called 'Paysans' which means peasants in French.
In exchange for the right to establish a farm, habitants had to clear the land, plant crops and build a house. They also had to pay the seigneur’s miller to grind their grain into flour and give a few days of labor each year to the seigneur
Seigneurs also had to build a house for themselves, and a flour mill and a church for the habitants. The seigneurs were allowed to own habitant's and since seigneurs needed clear land to farm there was no problem in buying established farmland from habitant's.
Most of the seigneurs were men from noble families, but common people and women could become seigneurs as well. To keep their land grants from the king, they had to recruit settlers (habitants) to farm the land.
Voyageur means traveler, they were men from New France.
They would have traveled between the merchants in Montreal and the fur trade posts of the Great Lakes end even further west.
Means 'runner of the woods' the name comes from the way some of the engaged in the fur trade by running through the woods to trade with the First Nations
They worked for themselves at first and were encouraged by the government of New France. Later though they made independent trading illegal but that didn't stop the Coureur de Bois
Many different businesses started in Quebec , you would have seen shops of blacksmiths, butchers, bakers, etc.
Many merchants made a living in fur trade and imported foods from France to trade with the First Nations. They would have bought furs from colonists.
They would provide spiritual and moral guidance, and start schools, hospitals and orphanages.
Many soldiers came to New France to protect the colony from the Haudenosaunee and the British. Many men only picked the military as their job because they needed a way to earn a living.
In Europe there was a division between the Catholics and the Protestants, they discriminated against each other. Britain was a protestant country and had laws to stop Catholics from serving in government The Catholic religious order called the Jesuits were an important part of the Catholic Church in New France. The Jesuits came to New France in the early 1600s