King’s daughters

Hoping to rapidly increase the population of New France, the colony’s intendant, Jean Talon, put into operation an intensive policy for developing manpower. This included importing, at the expense of the state, “king’s daughters,” who would marry many of the colony’s unwedded indentured employees, soldiers, and settlers. In seven years more than 1,000 “king’s daughters” found husbands shortly after disembarking from their ships. Talon was not disappointed in his expectations: in 1671 he proudly announced that there had been between 600 and 700 births in the colony.