| Summary: | The history of taverns in eighteenth-century Louisbourg, on Ile Royale
(Cape Breton), provides an insight into the culture of the working people
of this seaport. The thesis reveals how the cabarets and auberges
developed, independently of the government authorities' wishes.
Although regarded as a menace to good order and the work ethic, these
drinking places were reluctantly tolerated. Taverns provided a unique
public and secular meeting place for fishermen, soldiers and workers.
There men, often far from their own families, could establish
relationships, affirm group loyalties, express themselves and maintain
their own culture. Liquor was readily available and drinking could have
occurred elsewhere more cheaply, yet people preferred to drink in an
auberge or cabaret with companions. This preference indicates that the
taverns' social function was more important than the mere satisfaction of
thirst or the clients' alleged desire for inebriation. Taverns were a
customary institution of eighteenth-century colonial society and their
persistence, whatever officials might wish, testifies to the dominance of
commercial values at Louisbourg as well as to the lower ranks'
attachment to their own customs and culture.
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