From the salt trade to local family entrepreneurship

The story of a family from Kamouraska

2024. Gabriel Gagnon and his partner, Isabelle Leblanc, owned a vegetable farm and opened a butcher shop on Rang 6 in Mont-Carmel, a rural community in Kamouraska.

1734. While trading salt, Étienne Voyer, a salt smuggler and ancestor of Gabriel, was arrested and deported to New France. He settled in Sainte-Marie-de-Beauce, where he married and lived out the rest of his days.

What has changed in nearly three centuries? Which traditions have been preserved, and what would Étienne Voyer find surprising today?

An unexpected move to a new country

Étienne Voyer was born in Anjou, Maine-et-Loire, France. He was a salt smuggler. Taxes on this condiment varied widely from one region to the next, and the economic hardships of the day encouraged this illegal trade. However, if a smuggler was caught, he risked imprisonment, galley slavery, or deportation.

During the summer of 1743, Étienne was taken prisoner and deported to New France. The conditions of the crossing, which lasted more than two months, were harsh.

We were crammed into this dark and foul-smelling place like sardines in a barrel. . . . We had about a hundred soldiers on board, each of whom had an entire regiment of [lice] with him.. . . . Another breeding ground for lice as well as a source of infection were eighty salt smugglers, who had languished for a year in prison . . . .They were covered with ulcers and some were even being eaten alive by worms.

(What happened to a contemporary of Étienne Voyer)

Unable to return to France, Étienne settled as a farmer in Sainte-Marie de Beauce. Thanks to his hard work, his land provided for his basic needs: food, clothing, shelter, and firewood for the winter. It was a simple but hard life, involving manual labour from sunrise to sunset. The 1762 census tells us that the family had planted nine arpents of land and owned one ox, two cows, two heifers, three sheep, one horse, and one pig. Starting from nothing, Étienne laid the foundations for a family living off the land.

A group of workers in a logging camp.