New Hampshire

The first postcolonial sovereignty in the Americas when it seceded from Great Britain in anticipation of the Revolutionary War, New Hampshire is one of the original 13 colonies; the first state to adopt a state constitution; and although only the 41st most populous state with 1.3 million people, the 20th state in population density, thanks in large part to the suburban sprawl of southern New Hampshire. The state's center of population has moved steadily south since 1950, in part because the southern border is at the outer edge of commuting distance from Boston—at least for motorists, as efforts to extend public transportation from the Boston metropolitan area into New Hampshire have continually stalled—and because of the buildup of the defense and technology industries in the area during the Cold War, leading to heavy migration into the state. Demographically, New Hampshire has at times been the whitest state in the union, with a white population of about 97 percent, two percent of which is Hispanic. Blacks account for a little over 1 percent of the population, Asians for twice that.

What makes New Hampshire's demographic unique is that it has the largest French population (26 percent) in the country. Although it is likely that more of the French Americans of New Hampshire have intermarried and abandoned ties with their French heritage than in Maine or Louisiana, due to the smaller percentage of French-speaking households—3.4 percent versus 5.28 percent in Maine and 4.68 percent in Louisiana—the impact of the French has nevertheless been significant. While most French families are found in the northern part of the state, where they were once employed as lumberjacks and foresters, or in the former mill towns like Manchester alongside the largest Irish American communities, they are distributed throughout the state. Most of the New Hampshire French are Acadians or Newfoundlanders who relocated to New Hampshire either after the British took control of Canada or to find work in the mills.

[Page 641]Quebec television station CKSH is carried on cable systems throughout New Hampshire as well as Maine, providing Québécois in these states with a critical link to their culture, as well as the liberty of hearing their language spoken; the French taught in New Hampshire schools is the same textbook continental French as is taught in the rest of the country. CKSH's programming, all of it in French, ranges from contemporary television shows like Lost dubbed into Quebec French, music and entertainment programs, news and discussion shows, soap operas, and a block of Saturday morning cartoons. Additionally, in most of New Hampshire, one can find tourtière, ployes (buckwheat pancakes), salmon pie, cretons, tomato sausage, and other French-Canadian foods. Although Vermont has a reputation as a major exporter of maple syrup, maple sugaring in New Hampshire is a vibrant part of small-town life, just as it is in Quebec, and many homeowners still tap their own trees to make their own syrup to last throughout the year.