Ezekiel Rebuffed

Being in the shadow of an older sibling never sat well with Ezekiel Hart, whose temperament and sense of propriety differed so markedly from that of Moses. He cultivated good relations with his fellow townspeople, shrewdly enlarged the birthright that was his and regarded himself as a model citizen worthy of being honored by his fellows. Little did he realize that he would be tossed into a political maelstrom that would so undermine his mental equilibrium.


There were indeed threats to be countered, both at home in Trois-Rivières and in the provincial capital. One came from John Coffin, scion of an aristocratic family, anti-Semitic and with marriage ties to the Tonnancour family, In Quebec City Ezekiel had to deal with a rambunctious judge Pierre-Amable De Bonne, the highly-placed militia adjutant François Baby, and a crusading legislator Pierre Bédard. Besides, he was a Jew at a time when the rights of this minority were not yet confirmed in the British Empire. The discord between an establishment seeking to absorb the francophone majority in Lower Canada into the British monarchial system and a restive population determined on protecting its heritage came to a head when Ezekiel Hart tried to take his seat in the Legislative Assembly.


The story begins with Ezekiel, the second son of Aaron Hart, visiting the newly created republic to the south and not leaving for home until he married Frances, the niece of his namesake living in New York. In the next fifteen years a growing family found their home in a gracious house in Trois-Rivières and the world seemed to offer limitless opportunities. Then came the rebuff and Ezekiel Hart had to adjust.


This is the third of five books that collectively trace the genesis of a dynasty ushered in during colonial strife. After the American Revolution three generations of Harts influenced Quebec history in many different ways. The story begins in 1769, six months after the birth of Moses, the eldest of Aaron Hart's many children, and concludes in 1852 with his death. In those eighty-odd years Quebec evolved from a feudal society spread along both sides of the mighty Fleuve Saint-Laurent into a mosaic of multilingual and urbanized communities not too different from the other societies that were emerging in the New World. Ezekiel Hart was best known as the elected official who was turned away at the legislature's door at a time when Jews were barred from official British institutions.