A CANADIAN TRAGEDY OF INJUSTICE:THE ACADIAN EXPULSION (DEPORTATION/DIASPORA)

“Far asunder, on separate coasts, the Acadians landed… Friendless, homeless, hopeless, they wandered from city to city.”

-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie

ALSO KNOWN AS: The Great Upheaval, the Great Expulsion,

The Deportation, the Acadian Expulsion, or to the deportees, Le Grand Dérangement

EARLY ACADIA Acadia began at Port Royal in 1605.

During the 17th century, about 60 French families (with names such as Gallant, Boutilier, Thibault, Surette, Legere, Fougere, Samson, D’Entremont, Babineau, Gaudet, LeBlanc, Boudreau, Saulnier, Dumaresq, Gagnon, Aucoin, Doucet, Doucette, Labatt, Touesnard, Cyr, Deveau, Deveaux, etc) were established in Acadia.

They developed friendly relations with the Mi’kmaq, with whom they intermarried, learning their hunting and fishing techniques.

The Acadians lived mainly in the coastal regions of the Bay of Fundy; farming with dyke systems.

FARMING & DYKES

Aboiteau farming on reclaimed marshland.

Labour-intensive method using dykes.

Dykes stop high tides from inundating marshland. A wooden aboiteau built into the dyke, with a hinged door that swings open at low tide to allow fresh water to drain from the farmland but swings shut at high tide to prevent salt water from flooding the fields.

Aboiteau farming of salt marshes tied to modernization of agriculture in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

The Acadians were and remain very family oriented devout Catholics. Like their French ancestors, they were known for their excellent culinary skills.

Acadian Culture

Caught in the middle between French (Cape Breton) and British (NS Mainland).

Over 74 years, there were 6 wars in Acadia and Nova Scotia in which the Wabanaki Confederacy and some Acadians resisted British takeover of the region.

France lost political control of Acadia in 1710, but the Mi'kmaq did not concede land to the British. Along with some Acadians, the Mi'kmaq used military force to resist the founding of British (Protestant) settlements by making raids on British towns.

The Mi'kmaq assisted the Acadians in resisting the British during the Expulsion.

1710: The British Conquest of Acadia.

Acadians refused to sign an unconditional oath of allegiance to Britain.

Various Acadian militia operations against the British.

Supply lines to the French at Louisbourg and Fort Beausejour.

This is often ignored. Acadians are usually shown to be neutral victims of imperial wars.

Some anti-British sentiment.

Religion: British monarch was the head of the Protestant Church of England.

Male Acadians might have to fight against France during wartime.

Mi'kmaq might perceive this as acknowledging the British claim to Acadia rather than the Mi'kmaq. Dangers of attack from the Mi'kmaq.

Reasons Against Unconditional Oaths to Britain

Claude Picard, Ships Take Acadians into Exile

WHAT WAS IT?

The Deportation was the forced population transfer (or ethnic cleansing!) of the Acadian population from Nova Scotia, P.E.I., and Cape Breton between 1755 and 1763.

WHERE IS IT?

Acadia/Acadie: the name given to lands in a portion of the French colonial empire.

Parts of eastern Quebec, the Maritimes, and New England as far south as Philadelphia.

People living in Acadia, and sometimes former residents and their descendants, are called Acadians.

WHO ORDERED THE DEPORTATION?

The British governor Charles Lawrence and the Nova Scotia Council.

EVENTS LEADING TO THE DEPORTATION The idea of solving the Acadian “problem”

through full scale deportation, was not new.

The Acadian “Problem” had existed since the late 1600s.

RELEVANT HISTORY

Acadia was captured by the British from the French in Queen Anne’s War(1702–1713).

The British conquest was confirmed in the Treaty of Utrecht (1713).

The French kept Ile Royale (Cape Breton), Ile Saint-Jean (P.E.I) and parts of New Brunswick.

RELEVANT HISTORY CONTINUED…

1720-1740 –Building of Louisbourg at Ile Royale (Cape Breton)

1749 – Creation of Halifax as British stronghold to counter Louisbourg and protect Boston/New England.

1750-51 – French strengthen position at Fort Beausejour in New Brunswick near Sackville; Acadians were in the middle.

BUT, WHY IN 1755? War starts up again in 1756 – The Seven Years

War. It started in North America in 1754 as the French and Indian War but not declared by Britain till 1756.

While the relationship between the French and the English had always been filled with animosity, tensions heightened.

British worry that the Acadians will be disloyal, they tried to make them swear an oath or be deported.

IN 1755 That year, the British attacked the French

Fort Beausejour during the beginnings of a major military offensive to gain greater control of the continent.

Within the walls of the fort, 300 Acadians were found. Despite claims that they had been forced to take up arms against their will, the discovery completely eroded British trust of the Acadians.

ATTACK ON FORT BEAUSEJOUR Thomas Pinchon, the fort’s supply clerk had been sowing

doubt among the Acadians for days before the Fort fell.

The French later discovered, that Pinchon was a spy who had funneled information, including the plans to the fort, to the British.

Lawrence was raging mad over the amount of Acadians who had rallied to Fort Beausejour’s defense.

Lawrence said, “Their pretending to have been forced to take up arms is an insult upon Common Sense.” and “The Acadians will prove for ever a Thorn in our Side.”

He made sure that the colonial office in London found out about the 300 Acadians present at the Fort.

FORT BEAUSEJOUR

OATH OF ALLEGIANCE Early in July 1755 - Lawrence orders Acadian

leaders to appear before the Halifax Council to sign an oath of allegiance.

The Acadians will not sign, but will hand over their firearms.

ONE LAST CHANCE

On July 28 of 1755, Lawrence gave the Acadians one last opportunity to swear allegiance to the British Crown. The Acadians again refused, believing that this demand was no different than ones made over the past few decades.

IN THE WEEKS THAT FOLLOWED…

Lawrence, “Destroy all the villages….and use every other method of distress.”

Carried out by 2000 New England militiamen who herded the Acadians together at their settlements and sent them on ships bound for the 13 American colonies, the Caribbean, back to France and England. The largest group went to Louisiana, a French colony.

The order to deport the Acadians read by Winslow in a church in Grand-Pré.

Parks Canada - Grand Pré National Historic Site - Grand-Pré's Legacy

THE EXPULSION The New Englanders burned the Acadians’

barns and houses to deprive them of shelter if they tried to stay behind.

Women and children took to the woods in hiding (Mi’Kmaq help).

Families were broken up as the British sent ships from the same villages to different destinations (intentional to kill their culture/cultural genocide).

THE ACADIAN REACTION

The church erupted in shouts and cries. Every well-tanned face was frozen in shock or twisted in rage. What had they done to deserve such punishment? Where were they being sent? What would become of their wives and children? At first, few could grasp the enormity of what was happening. Weeks later, Winslow would note, many still found it hard to believe they were being stripped of their property and banished from their homeland -(Jobb 119).

THEIR FATE

The British response was swift and unforgiving.

Before 1755 was over, an estimated 6,000 Acadians were rounded up as prisoners and forced onto ships bound for the 13 colonies, The Caribbean, Britain, and France.

Nearly half would die en route.

THEIR FATE CONTINUED… The deportations lasted for seven years.

In the end, Acadians were sent to Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia and England, most of which were unprepared for their arrival.

In total, the British are estimated as deporting 75% of the Acadian population of 13,000. Seven thousand were deported in the first years alone. Another 3000 had been deported by 1762.

BRITISH ULTERIOR MOTIVES?

British desired Acadian lands for the settlement of Protestants from Britain, New England, and Germany (around Lunenburg).

These settlers came to be known as the “New England Planters,” the ancestors of most modern Annapolis Valley citizens.

YouTube - The Acadians Deportation

THE ACADIANS IN LOUISIANA

1756 – a group of Acadians was sent to England and put into internment camps until France took them back in 1763.

They had difficulty adjusting to French society and could not find comfortable homes.

1600 of them sailed for New Orleans, Louisiana, a Spanish colony, in 1785 to join others who had settled there earlier from

1766-1770.

This is where we get the word “Cajun”.

EFFECTS ON THE MI’KMAQ

The deportation destroyed the friendly social and economic relationships on which Aboriginal people had depended for nearly 150 years and led to poor relations with the British that culminated in wars and the now infamous treaties of the 1750s.

THE RETURN OF THE ACADIANS! By 1764, the Acadians were permitted to

return to NS, NB and PEI.

An estimated 3000 returned.

By 1800, there were 4000 Acadians living in NS, 3800 in NB, and 700 in PEI.

Most settled in Cheticamp in CB and the SW of NS, in Malpeque in PEI, and to vacant land throughout NB.

A NEW IDENTITY The new Acadian identity was centered

around the church since very few other aspects of their culture remained intact.

The Expulsion unexpectedly acted as a unifying force and helped to create a uniquely Acadian identity that continues to this day.

2012: Grand Pré named UNESCO World Heritage Site.