Émilie Leblanc (May 14, 1863 – December 19, 1935) was a Canadian educator and

Acadian The Acadians (; , ) are an ethnic group descended from the French who settled in the New France colony of Acadia during the 17th and 18th centuries. Today, most descendants of Acadians live in either the Northern American region of Acadia, ...

activist. The daughter of Mathilde and Calixte LeBlanc, she was born in College Bridge,

New Brunswick New Brunswick is a Provinces and Territories of Canada, province of Canada, bordering Quebec to the north, Nova Scotia to the east, the Gulf of Saint Lawrence to the northeast, the Bay of Fundy to the southeast, and the U.S. state of Maine to ...

. A series of 13 letters written by Leblanc appeared in the Weymouth newspaper '' L'Évangéline'' between February 1895 and February 1898 under the pseudonym Marichette. Marichette was supposedly an elderly Acadian woman with many children, unlike Leblanc herself, who was young and had no children. Her first letter spoke in favour of giving women the right to vote. The letters also spoke of the importance of preserving the Acadian culture, language and religion and condemned political corruption and the unfair treatment of the Acadians. The newspaper's owner Valentin Landry eventually bowed to social pressure and stopped publishing Marichette's letters. Leblanc married Jos Honoré Carrier, an accountant. She taught school in Weymouth for a number of years before returning to New Brunswick. She died in

Moncton Moncton (; ) is the most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of New Brunswick. Situated in the Petitcodiac River Valley, Moncton lies at the geographic centre of the The Maritimes, Maritime Provinces. Th ...

and was buried in Memramcook.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Leblanc, Emilie 1863 births 1935 deaths Acadian people Canadian schoolteachers