The Role Of The Jesuits In New France

As the Amerindian found it difficult to understand some of the priests’ religious dogmas, - sin, quilt, and hell, the Jesuits could not also accept nor grasp, the idea of Shamans religious exploits like soul leaving the body or that a man could injure or kill, a far away enemy. However, both were in New France to convert the Indians to catholic Christianity. They were highly intelligent and creative educators who used different methods and even tricks, theatrics, pictures and extreme campfire discursions to subvert the indigenous lifeworld to persuade Amerindian to embrace the fictional Christ. The missionaries would cease every opportunity to discredit Shaman. They employed the element of fear and intimidation to teach. Knowing that native

children learned better at moments increased sentiment and over exaggeration of issue, they would paint a scary picture of hell and the underworld. Believing that perspective transformation requires shock treatment, Jesuits educators painted frightened verbal portraits of hell, the fiery underworld. Indian young Christians were urged to employ the see-hear-taste-touch method of teaching to teach their neophyte Christians. They used pictures to instruct their adult learners in Acadia at the initial stage , the Jesuits had nothing of importance to learn and everything of importance to teach. The political context of pedagogical instruction in the early Jesuit era and the Amerindian were neglected by the Amerindian to their peril……
Welton argues that the elites who governed New France recreated feudal condition in New world to ensure the goods of imperial centers. New France was run as a colonial frontier to ensure the flow of the “golden gold” of the fur trade. “by 1590, the fur trade had gained such momentum that the French crown wanted to secure its control against it chief competitor, the English. the story of the Samuel Champlain occupies considerable attention in the first decades of the 17th century new France….