New Worlds”by Natalie Zemon Davis is an article filled with facts and history about the complex and accomplished Ursuline sister who made the choice to dedicate her life to God and the faith, giving up everything, including her son for the convent. The article is amazingly detailed and gives a mountain of information about Marie, the 17th century France in which she grew up, and the wilds of Quebec that she came to know as a nun.
Dedicating her life to preaching and educating the Amerindians in 1600s Quebec, Marie was able to keep record of her life from the time she became interested in the nunnery straight through her entire life of dedication to her faith, writing early on that “my soul melted in thankfulness that I no longer had anyone but God in my heart”. Marie addressed most of her journals to her son, and it is he that would publish them after her death. Davis’ major argument throughout the article is nothing controversial, she is simply trying to develop Marie as a heroine, someone to be admired for her faith during adversity.
Marie would spend much of her life in the wildness of Quebec, fearful of Amerindian wars and braving the harsh new world that she was unaccostomed to. Davis takes the position that Marie’s sacrifices helped to elevate her to a place of respect, despite the fact that women were not given many choices in the 17th century, and proves her theory by talking about how often in Marie’s life she bucked against the system and did things her way because it was what she felt to be right.
The article does a wonderful job of showing how important women like Marie De L’Incarnation were to the development of the New World, especially places as remote and harsh to live in as Quebec. Without women like her with the courage to leave everything behind place like Quebec would never have been colonized and the Amerindians would never have been brought Christianity. While it is arguable that it was people like Marie that ended the cultures of the native peoples, she must be admired for her courage during a time and from a place where women were not respected for being different, they were expected to conform.