This was the seigneurial system of land tenure, whose legal structure was transferred alsmot unaltered from France to the New World. Although the system was old and effete in seventeenth-century France, scholars have considered that it shaped much of the life of early Canada. Harris argues in this classic study, now available in paper for the first time, that such was not the case. If the seigneurial system were central to the development of early Canadian society, the patterns of settlement, land use, and trade in the colony would have borne the imprint of the system. Through inspection of such records as deeds of land concession and sale, statements of vassalage, and wills, Harris reconstructs the geography of Canada before the British conquest. This evidence leads to novel and interesting conclusions: that the seigneurie was not an important unit on the land and the seigneur was not a dominant figure in the life of the community. With remarkable clarity, Harris unfolds a detailed picture of the landscape of early Canada and of the people who created it. The reissue of this important volume will be welcomed by all interested in early European societies in North America.

Cole Harris is a Professor Emeritus at the University of British Columbia. He is the author of several books, including Making Native Space: Colonialism, Resistance, and Reserves in British Columbia (UBC Press, 2002), which was nominated for the Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize, and The Reluctant Land: Society, Space, and Environment in Canada Before Confederation (UBC Press, 2008), which won the Srivastava Prize for Excellence in Scholarly Publishing. He is an Officer of the Order of Canada and a Fellow of The Royal Society of Canada. He lives in Vancouver, BC. To this day Harris and his family maintain a summer home on property originally staked out by his grandfather.

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