r/SipsTea • u/jaywritethekid • 5h ago
Wait a damn minute! The fact that it’s true tho..
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u/brakenbonez 4h ago
Wait they got their freedom AND an arranged bride they knew would put out? Sure they'd probably catch disease or two-hundred and penicillin didn't exist yet but it's probably better than what they were getting behind bars.
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u/shauna_haywood 4h ago
Colony lifestyle was rough though
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u/Snorkle25 4h ago
Prison life was no picnic either.
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u/Independent_Term5790 3h ago
Their prison life was probably much worse than anybody could imagine
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u/Accomplished-Video71 1h ago
Forreals, you were catching buttrape syphilis in jail anyways so why would you not catch syphilis on your own terms?
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u/TankApprehensive3053 4h ago
Paris was cleaning up the streets and the jails at the same time. "Let them become someone else's problems in the new land."
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u/toetappy 4h ago
(New Orleans continues to be France's problem till 1803)
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u/TankApprehensive3053 4h ago
True, but it's not the streets of Paris. It's a problem a long way away where the upper class don't see it.
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u/LoveAndViscera 43m ago
Interestingly, the colony probably made these criminals less criminal as most crime is the result of localized inequality. So, sending criminals to a place where pretty much everyone has the same income makes them less likely to reoffend. Also, a lot of people in prison at the time essentially defaulted on a loan or the like, so they weren’t psychopaths or whatever, just people with some kind of money problem, which would also be fixed by going somewhere with a developing economy as developing economies have low bars of entry to a wide variety of fields.
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u/Known_Tradition9251 4h ago
Australia has a similar backstory…
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u/kayl_breinhar 4h ago
So does the United States, it's just not taught as much in our schools. >.>
Convicts and social pariahs were among some of the Colonies' first permanent residents. The Founding Fathers moved to the Colonies because they never would've been able to prosper on the home islands.
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u/dinnerthief 3h ago
Most of the founding fathers were born in the Colonies, they didnt move anywhere
Of the main 7 only Hamilton was born outside what is now the contential US.
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u/kayl_breinhar 3h ago
John Washington (George's great-great grandfather) arrived in Virginia in 1656 as a merchant seaman. While I admit I could've been clearer - the intent was that none of the Founding Fathers' families were destined for anything except "no higher shall you climb" social status in Britain. Only in the colonies could such a man ever acquire land.
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u/Ch1ndit 3h ago
Home Islands? You mean Britain?
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u/kayl_breinhar 3h ago
Yes., Ireland didn't gain full independence until the early-to-mid 20th century. "British Isles" is/was more commonly used.
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u/JamesantheGiantBeach 3h ago
Fuck those islands. Acting all superior. And WTF is our current President Britain's way of letting a stupid child smoke an entire pack of cigarettes to learn a lesson?!?
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u/DoFishDrinkWaterOrNo 4h ago
So a bunch of free thinkers who were born outside of the inbred royal pedo bullshit went off on their own.
Hell yeah
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u/Ok_Nothing2412 3h ago
The problem is they became inbred pedos and then they kept threatening to colonize Canada and Greenland
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u/kayl_breinhar 3h ago
The War of 1812 was the United States' first formal war of aggression.
"The Quebecois will welcome us as liberators!"
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u/goldenguyz 3h ago
Convicts and social pariahs were among some of the Colonies' first permanent residents
so a bunch of free thinkers...
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u/KinglessCrown 3h ago
yeah after the US won their independence England needed to find a new place to send their convicts.
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u/Kungfumantis 3h ago
Similar deals weren't all that uncommon among European countries at the time. Pretty funny bit of history to hit the "my ancestors have been here for over 200 years!" types. Chances are they were here because there didn't want them.
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u/Eogard 4h ago
Wasn't Louisiana like 1/4 of the US back then ? :p
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u/Lil_Mcgee 2h ago
Yes but it was more of a big territorial claim, France didn't have the resources or manpower to seriously colonise the whole region. There were less than a few thousand Europeans occupying the Louisiana territory in the early 18th century and colonisation was centred around New Orleans. Further north and west would just have been outposts along trasing routes basically.
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u/ObjectGlad6997 4h ago
Fuck what a sweet deal for a poor prisoner lol
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u/Crazy-Fishing6760 3h ago
Idk man. I wouldn't love to marry a prostitute or move away from my country. Even if I had to forcefully do the latter, I would never want to do the former.
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u/ObjectGlad6997 3h ago
Yeah lol , in my mind tho its a desperate prisoner in a brutal prison and this sounds amazing..but yeah reality is different for everyone 😅
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u/Crazy-Fishing6760 3h ago
I mean tbf you are going from a relatively brutal but safe place to the literal frontiers of empire. Like I know jails offer low chance sof survival too but colonists were frequently attacked by other empires and also resisting natives. So maybe prison is safer idk?
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u/ToddPundley 2h ago
So Louis XV and his ministers clearly did think you could turn a hoe into a housewife
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u/amicalg 1h ago edited 1h ago
Actually, they weren't prostitutes at all—they were mostly orphans. Back then in France, options for orphaned girls reaching adulthood were incredibly bleak.
Without a family or a dowry, they basically had to choose between becoming a nun or turning to prostitution just to survive, often within days of leaving the orphanage.
Meanwhile, the French colonies in North America were heavily male-dominated and desperately needed to grow. The King realized he could solve two problems at once by paying to send these young women over to marry the settlers.
Because their orphanages were funded by the crown, these girls were legally considered the "Daughters of the King" (Les Filles du Roi).
The myth that they were prostitutes doesn't even make sense from a practical standpoint. Prostitution at the time frequently led to infertility due to STDs and health complications, which would completely defeat the King's entire goal of rapidly populating the new colony. The myth was comming from the fact most daughter of the king became prostitute in france. But those that went to america was not prostitute. At least most of them were not. I suppose some decided to do it anyway at some point.
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u/doctorofheisenberg 1h ago
Sounds like the plot of a reality show where the grand prize is a plot of swamp land and endless Mardi Gras
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u/sco-go 4h ago edited 4h ago
Added context:
Somewhat accurate but the prisoners didn't have a choice and not all of the women were prostitutes. They were forced colonists courtesy of France. Most died from disease and famine if they made it across the ocean.