What did the Quebec Act of 1774 do?
- Abolished slavery in Upper Canada
- Allowed religious freedom for Catholics and permitted them to hold public office
- Created the Dominion of Canada
- Divided Quebec into Upper and Lower Canada
Answer: Allowed religious freedom for Catholics and permitted them to hold public office
Britain passed the Quebec Act in 1774 to govern the French-speaking Catholic majority better. It gave Catholics religious freedom and let them hold public office, which Britain itself did not allow at the time. It also restored French civil law and kept British criminal law.
Learn more: The British conquest and the Quebec Act
- In 1759 the British defeated the French at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham at Québec City. This ended France’s empire in America.
- The commanders of both armies, Brigadier James Wolfe and the Marquis de Montcalm, were killed leading their troops.
- After the war, Britain renamed the colony the “Province of Quebec”.
- The French-speaking Catholic people were called habitants or Canadiens. They worked to keep their way of life in the English-speaking, Protestant British Empire.
- The Quebec Act of 1774 was passed to govern the French Roman Catholic majority better. It is one of the constitutional foundations of Canada.
- The Quebec Act gave Catholics religious freedom and let them hold public office, which was not then allowed in Britain.
- The Quebec Act restored French civil law and kept British criminal law.
- Sir Guy Carleton (Lord Dorchester), Governor of Quebec, defended the rights of the Canadiens and defeated an American invasion of Quebec in 1775.