History of the Acadians

Acadian flag

The Acadians (French: Acadiens) are the descendants of the original French settlers and often Métis, of parts of Acadia (French: Acadie) in the northeastern region of North America comprising what is now the Canadian Maritime Provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island, Gaspé, in Quebec, and parts of the American state of Maine.

In the Great Upheaval of 1755, Acadians were uprooted by the British; some of these resettled in Louisiana, where they became known as Cajuns. War between the French and the British in their colonies and in Europe is an important element in the history of the Acadians. No other factor shaped the cultural evolution of Acadians in such a dominant way. A second historical element to affect development of the Acadians is a sense of abandonment by France. The last century has been marked by struggles by the Acadian people for equal language and cultural rights as a minority group in the Maritime provinces of Canada.

Seventeenth Century

Main article: Port Royal, Nova Scotia

Arrival of First Families

Governor De Razilly's administration at La Have prepared the ground for the arrival of the first recorded migrant families on board the Saint Jehan, which left La Rochelle on 1 April 1636. There were a number of sailings from the French Atlantic Coast to Acadian between 1632 and 1636, this is the only one for which a detaled passenger list has survived. Nicholas Denys, who was stationed across the LaHave River at Port Rossingol (Liverpool Bay), acted as agent for the Saint Jehan. After a 35 day crossing of the Atlantic, the Saint Jehan arrived on 6 May 1936 at LaHave, Nova Scotia. There were seventy-eight passengers and eighteen crew members. With this ship, Acadia began a slow shift from being primarily a matter of explorers and traders, of men, to a colony of permanent settlers, including women and children. While the presence of European women is a signal that settlement was seriously contemplated, there were yet so few of them in this group of migrants that they did not immediatley affect the status of Acadia as basically a colony of European transients. By the end of the year, the migrants were moved from La Have and re-established at Port Royal. At Port Royal in 1636, Mathieu Martin was the first-born son of European parents born in Acadia. His parents were Pierre Martin and Catherine Vigneau. Martin later became the Seigneury of Cobequid (1699).

Civil War

Siege of St. John (1745) - d'Aulnay defeats La Tour in Acadia

Acadia was plunged into what some historians have described as a civil war in Acadia (1640–1645). Acadia had two legitimate Lieutenant Governors. The war was between Port Royal, where Governor Charles de Menou d'Aulnay de Charnisay was stationed, and present-day Saint John, New Brunswick, where Governor Charles de Saint-Étienne de la Tour was stationed.

In the war, there were four major battles. la Tour attacked d'Aulnay at Port Royal in 1640. In response to the attack, D'Aulnay sailed out of Port Royal to establish a five month blockade of La Tour's fort at Saint John, which La Tour eventually defeated (1643). La Tour attacked d'Aulnay again at Port Royal in 1643. d'Aulnay and Port Royal ultimately won the war against La Tour with the 1645 siege of Saint John. After d'Aulnay died (1650), La Tour re-established himself in Acadia.

English Colony (1654-1667)

In 1654, war between France and England broke out. Led by Major Robert Sedgwick, a flotilla from Boston, under orders from Cromwell, arrived in Acadia to chase the French out. The flotilla seized La Tour's fort, then Port-Royal. La Tour, nevertheless, managed to find himself in England, where, with the support of John Kirke, succeeded in receiving from Cromwell a part of Acadia, along with Sir Thomas Temple. La Tour returned to Cap-de-Sable where he remained until his death in 1666 at the age of 70.

During the English occupation of Acadia, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Louis XIV's minister forbade the Acadians from returning to France. The Treaty of Breda, signed July 31, 1667, returned Acadia to France. A year later, Marillon du Bourg would arrive to take possession of the territory for France. The son of LeBorgne, Alexandre LeBorgne, was named provisionary governor and lieutenant-general of Acadia. He married Marie Motin-La Tour, the eldest child in the marriage between La Tour and d'Aulnay's widow.

As a result of the English occupation, no new French families would settle in Acadia between 1654 and 1670. In the spring of 1671, more than fifty colonists left La Rochelle aboard the l'Oranger. Others arrived from Canada (New France) or were retired soldiers. During this time, a number of colonists married with the local First Nations. Some of the first to marry were Charles de Saint-Étienne de La Tour, Martin, Pierré Lejeune–Briard, Jehan Lambert, Petitpas and Guidry. The capitan, Vincent de Saint-Castin, the commander at Pentagoet, married Marie Pidikiwamiska, the daughter of an Abenakis chief.

French Colony

In 1670, the new governor of Acadia, the chevalier Hubert d'Andigny, chevalier de Grandfontaine, was responsible for the first census undertaken in Acadia. The results did not include those Acadians living with local First Nations. It revealed that there were approximately sixty Acadian families with approximately 300 inhabitants in total. These inhabitants were predominantly engaged in aboiteau farming along the shores of the present day Bay of Fundy. No serious attempt was made to boost the population of Acadia. French efforts in North America were concentrated on New France.

In August 1674, a privateer from Curaçao, Jurriaen Aernoutsz, captured the forts at Pentagoet and Jemseg, and declared Acadia to be the Dutch territory of New Holland. However, Aernoutsz's appointed administrator, John Rhoades, was captured and taken to Boston after attacking two ships from New England in the Bay of Fundy shortly after Aernoutsz returned to Curaçao in search of settlers, and control of Acadia quickly reverted back to France. The Dutch continued to consider New Holland part of their colonial empire in North America, appointing Cornelius Van Steenwyk as Dutch governor of the territory in 1676, but this was largely a paper designation — in actual practice, the region remained under French control and sovereignty. Shortly after his appointment, Van Steenwyk sent a Dutch expedition to reoccupy Pentagoet, but they were turned back by three British war ships from Boston. The Dutch continued to claim sovereignty over Acadia on paper until 1678, when they surrendered the claim in the Treaties of Nijmegen.

Eighteenth Century

Approximately seventy-five years after Port Royal was founded, Acadians migrated from the capital and established what would become the other major Acadian settlements before the Expulsion of the Acadians: Grand Pré, Chignecto, Cobequid and Pisiguit.

Prior to the founding of Halifax (1749), Port Royal/ Annapolis Royal was the capital of Acadia and later Nova Scotia for most of the previous 150 years. During that time the British made six attempts to conquer Acadia by defeating the capital. They finally defeated the French in the Siege of Port Royal (1710). Over the following fifty years, the French and their allies made six unsuccessful military attempts to regain the capital.

Colonial Wars

File:Joseph Broussard Beausoleil acadian HRoe.jpg

Joseph Broussard ("Beausoleil"). Artist Herb Roe

There was already a long history of Acadian, Mi’kmaq and Maliseet resistance to the British occupation of Acadia during the four French and Indian Wars and two local wars before the Expulsion of the Acadians. The Mi'kmaq and the Acadians were allies through their religious connection to Catholicism and through numerous inter-marriages. The Mi'kmaq held the military strength in Acadia even after the conquest of 1710. They primarily resisted the British occupation of Acadia and were joined in their efforts on numerous occasions by Acadians.

Before the British Conquest of Acadia in 1710, Acadians fought against the English occupation. While many Acadians traded with the New England protestants, they seem to have been reluctant to be ruled by them. During King William's War, the crews of the very successful French privateer Pierre Maisonnat dit Baptiste were primarily Acadian. The Acadians resisted during the Raid on Chignecto (1696). During Queen Anne's War, Mi’kmaq and Acadians resisted during the Raid on Grand Pré, Piziquid and Chignecto in 1704. Acadians joined French privateer Pierre Maisonnat dit Baptiste as crew members in his victories over many British vessels. The Acadians also assisted the French in protecting the capital in the Siege of Port Royal (1707) and the final Conquest of Acadia. The Acadians and Mi’kmaq were also successful in the Battle of Bloody Creek (1711).

Charles Lawrence

During Dummer's War, the Maliseet raided numerous vessels on the Bay of Fundy while the Mi'kmaq engaged in the Raid on Canso, Nova Scotia (1723). In the latter engagement, the Mi'kmaq were aided by Acadians. During King George's War, Abbe Jean-Louis Le Loutre led many efforts which involved both Acadians and Mi’kmaq to recapture the capital such as the Siege of Annapolis Royal (1744). During this Siege, French officer Marin had taken British prisoners and stopped with them further up the bay at Cobequid. While at Cobequid, an Acadian said that the French soldiers should have "left their [the English] carcasses behind and brought their skins." Le Loutre was also joined by prominent Acadian resistance leader Joseph Broussard (Beausoleil). Broussard and other Acadians were involved in supporting the French soldiers in the Battle of Grand Pré.

During Father Le Loutre’s War, the conflict continued. The Mi'kmaq attacked New England Rangers in the Siege of Grand Pre and Battle at St. Croix. Upon the founding of Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Broussard and the Mi'kmaq conducted numerous raids on the village, such as the Raid on Dartmouth (1751), to try to stop the Protestants migration into Nova Scotia. (Similarly, during the French and Indian War, Mi’kmaq, Acadians and Maliseet also engaged in numerous raids on Lunenburg, Nova Scotia to stop the migration, such as the Raid on Lunenburg (1756).) Le Loutre and Broussard also worked together to resist the British occupation of Chignecto (1750) and then later they fought together with Acadians in the Battle of Beausejour (1755). (As early as the summer of 1751, La Valiere reported, approximately 250 Acadians had already enrolled in the local militia at Fort Beausejour.) (During the French and Indian War, the Native and Acadians were also victorious at the Battle of Petitcodiac, Raid on Lunenburg (1756) and the Battle of Bloody Creek (1757).)

When Charles Lawrence took over the post following Hopson’s return to England, he took a stronger stance. He was not only a government official but a military leader for the region. Lawrence came up with a military solution for the forty-five years of an unsettled British conquest of Acadia. The French and Indian War (and Seven Years' War in Europe) began in 1754. Lawrence's primary objectives in Acadia were to defeat the French fortifications at Beausejour and Louisbourg. The British saw many Acadians as a military threat in their allegiance to the French and Mi'kmaq. The British also wanted to interrupt the Acadian supply lines to Fortress Louisbourg, which, in turn, supplied the Mi'kmaq.

French and Indian War

Main article: Great Upheaval

Fortress of Louisbourg

When the French and Indian War began in 1754 (as part of the Seven Years' War), the British government, doubting the loyalty of the newly British Acadians, demanded that they take an oath of allegiance to the British monarch. Since the oath required renouncing a key article of the Acadians' Roman Catholic faith, most refused.

Deportation of the Acadians

The British Conquest of Acadia happened in 1710. Over the next forty-five years the Acadians refused to sign an unconditional oath of allegiance to Britain. During this time period Acadians participated in various militia operations against the British and maintained vital supply lines to the French Fortress of Louisbourg and Fort Beausejour. During the French and Indian War, the British sought to neutralize any military threat Acadians posed and to interrupt the vital supply lines Acadians provided to Louisbourg by deporting Acadians from Acadia.

After the British officially gained control of Acadia in 1713, the Acadians refused to sign an unconditional oath to be British subjects. Instead, they negotiated a conditional oath that promised neutrality. Many Acadians might have signed an unconditional oath to the British monarchy had the circumstances been better, while other Acadians did not sign because they were clearly anti-British. For the Acadians who might have signed an unconditional oath, there were numerous reasons why they did not. The difficulty was partly religious, in that the British monarch was the head of the (Protestant) Church of England. Another significant issue was that an oath might commit male Acadians to fight against France during wartime. A related concern was whether their Mi'kmaq neighbours might perceive this as acknowledging the British claim to Acadia rather than the Mi'kmaq. As a result, signing an unconditional oath might have put Acadian villages in dangers of attack from Mi'kmaq.

In the Grand Dérangement (the Great Upheaval), more than 12,000 Acadians (three-fourths of the Acadian population in Nova Scotia) were expelled from the colony between 1755 and 1764. The British destroyed around 6,000 Acadian houses and dispersed the Acadians among the 13 colonies from Massachusetts to Georgia. The single event that involved the most deaths of Acadians was the sinking of the Duke William. Although there were no purposeful attempts to separate families, this did occur in the chaos of the eviction. Popular historian Tim Frink writes on the contrary that "the separation of the men from their families" indeed was purposefully planned and undertaken from the beginning of the upheaval. He adds "no effort was made to keep families together" (Frink, 1999). Members of the same family and community were sent to different colonies to impose assimilation.

Acadians were forcibly settled throughout North America: Quebec (2,000), Nova Scotia (1,249), Massachusetts (1,043), South Carolina (942), Maryland (810), Baie des Chaleurs (700), Connecticut (666), Pennsylvania (383), Île Saint-Jean (300), Louisiana (300), North Carolina (280), New York (249), Georgia (185), and along the St. John River (86). Another 866 were rejected by Virginia and subsequently sent to England. The Acadians in England were sent to France at war's end in 1763.

File:Joseph Broussard Beausoleil acadian HRoe.jpg

"Beausoleil" Joseph Broussard. Artist Herb Roe

Some Acadians escaped into the woods and lived with the Mi'kmaq; some bands of partisans fought the British, including a group led by Joseph Broussard, known as "Beausoleil", along the Peticodiac River of New Brunswick. Some followed the coast northward, facing famine and disease. Some were recaptured, facing deportation or imprisonment at Fort Beausejour (renamed Fort Cumberland) until 1763.

The Acadians who were deported to what is now the United States were met by British colonists who treated them much like African slaves. Some Acadians became indentured servants. Massachusetts passed a law in November 1755 placing the Acadians under the custody of "justices of the peace and overseers of the poor"; Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Connecticut adopted similar laws. The Province of Virginia under Robert Dinwiddie initially agreed to resettle about one thousand Acadians who arrived in the colony but later ordered most deported to England, writing that the "French people" were "intestine enemies" that were "mudr'd and scalp'd our frontier settlers."

In 1758, after the fall of Louisbourg, over 3,000 Acadians were deported to northern France. Resettlement attempts were tried in Châtellerault, Nantes and Belle-Isle off Brittany. The French islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon near Newfoundland became a safe harbor for many Acadian families until they were once again deported by the British in 1778 and 1793.

After the end of the Seven Years War in 1763, Acadians were allowed to return to Nova Scotia as long as they did not settle in any one area in large numbers; they were not permitted to resettle in the areas of Port Royal or Grand-Pré. Some Acadians resettled along the Nova Scotia coast and remain scattered across Nova Scotia to this day.

Many dispersed Acadians looked for other homes. Beginning in 1764, groups of Acadians began to arrive in Louisiana (which had been passed to Spanish control in 1762). They eventually became known as Cajuns.

Re-establishing in Nova Scotia

Beginning in the 1770s, many Acadians were encouraged to return through the policies of Nova Scotia Governor Michael Francklin who guaranteed Catholic worship, land grants and issued a promise that there would be no second expulsion (At this time, Nova Scotia included present-day New Brunswick). However the fertile Acadian dykelands had been resettled by New England Planters who were soon followed by Loyalists who further occupied former Acadian lands. Returning Acadians and those families who had escaped expulsion had to settle in other parts of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick in most cases isolated and unfertile lands. The new Acadian settlements were forced to focus more on the fishery and later forestry.

Milestones of Acadian return and resettlement included:

• 1767 St. Pierre et Miquelon
• 1772 census
• 1774 Founding of Saint-Anne's church
• Displacement from Fort Sainte-Anne to the upper Saint John River valley
• the Acadian school at Rustico and the abby Jean-Louis Beaubien
• the Trappistines in Tracadie

Nineteenth Century

Milestones of Acadian return and resettlement included:

• Simon d'Entremont and Frédéric Robichaud, 1836 MLAs in N.S.
• 1846 Amand Landry, MLA in N.B.
• 1847, Longfellow publishes Evangéline
• 1854, Stanislaw-Francois Poirier, MLA in P.E.I
• 1854, the seminary Saint-Thomas in Memramcook becomes the first upper level school for Acadians
• 1859, the first history of Acadia is published in French by Edme Rameau de Saint-Père, Acadians begin to become aware of their own existence

Acadian Renaissance

• 1864 founding of the Farmers' Bank of Rustico, the earliest known community bank in Canada, under the leadership of Rev. George-Antoine Belcourt
• 1867, first Acadian newspaper, Le Moniteur Acadien (The Acadian Monitor) is published by Israël Landry
• 1871 Common School Act prohibiting the teaching of religion in the classroom
• 1875, the death of Louis Mailloux, 19 years old in Caraquet by government forces only stokes Acadian nationalism

1880, the Society of Saint John the Baptiste invites Francophones from all over North America to a congress in Quebec City

July 20–21, 1881, Acadian leaders organize the first Acadian National Convention in Memramcook, New Brunswick which had for its goal to take care of the general interests of the Acadian population. More than 5,000 Acadians participated in the convention. It was decided that August 15, the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, would be chosen to celebrate Acadian culture as National Acadian Day. Other debates at the convention centered around education, agriculture, emigration, colonization, and newspapers, and these same issues would arise at subsequent conventions.

At the second convention, on August 15, 1884, in Miscouche, Prince Edward Island, the Acadian flag, an anthem - Ave Maris Stella, and a motto - L'union fait la force were adopted. Issues discuss

• 1885, John A. Macdonald nominates Pascal Poirier from Shediac as the first Acadian senator
• Also, in that year, a second Acadian newspaper, Le Courrier des Provinces Maritimes
• 1887, the newspaper L'Evangéline begins being published from Digby, later, in 1905, moves to Moncton
• 1890, third Acadian convention

Twentieth Century

Milestones of the Acadian Rennaisance

• 1912, Mgr Edouard LeBlanc is the first Acadin bishop in the Maritim
• 1917, the Conservative Aubin-Edmond Arsenault becomes the first Acadian premier of P.E.I.
• 1920, 2nd Acadian bishop, Mgr Alexandre Chiasson in Chatham and later Bathurst
• Also, la Société nationale de l'Assomption undertakes a campaign to build a commemorative church in Grand-Pré
• 1923, Pierre-Jean Véniot, becomes the first Acadian premier of N.B. but was not elected
• 1936, the first Caisse Populaire Acadien in Petit-Rocher is founded

...

• The committee France-Acadie is founded
• 1955, the first Tintamarre occurs.

Since the 1960s

Louis Robichaud, popularly known as "P'tit-Louis", was the first elected Acadian Premier of New Brunswick, serving from 1960 to 1970. First elected to the legislature in 1952, he became provincial Liberal leader in 1958 and led his party to victory in 1960, 1963, and 1967.

Robichaud modernized the province's hospitals and public schools and introduced a wide range of reforms in an era that became known as the quiet revolution. To carry out these reforms, Robichaud restructured the municipal tax regime, expanded the government and sought to ensure that the quality of health care, education and social services was the same across the province—a programme he called equal opportunity, is still a buzzword in New Brunswick.

Critics accused of Robichaud's government of "robbing Peter to pay Pierre" with the assumption being that rich municipalities were Anglophone ones and poor municipalities were Francophone ones. While it was true that the wealthier municipalities were predominantly in certain English-speaking areas, areas with significantly inferior services were to be found across the province in all municipalities.

Robichaud was instrumental in the formation of New Brunswick's only French-speaking university, the Université de Moncton, in 1963, which serves the Acadian population of the Maritime provinces.

His government also passed an act in 1969 making New Brunswick officially bilingual. "'Language rights", he said when he introduced the legislation, "are more than legal rights. They are precious cultural rights, going deep into the revered past and touching the historic traditions of all our people."

1977, official opening of the Acadian Historic Village in Caraquet, New Brunswick.

Born 1929 in Bouctouche, Antonine Maillet is an Acadian novelist, playwright, and scholar. Maillet received a BA and MA from the Université de Moncton, followed by a Ph.D. in literature in 1970 from the Université Laval. Maillet won the 1972 Governor General's Award for Fiction for Don l'Orignal. In 1979, Maillet published Pélagie-la-Charrette for which she won the prix Goncourt. Maillet's character "La Sagouine" (from her book of the same name) is the inspiration for "Le Pays de la Sagouine" in her hometown of Bouctouche.

Beginning in 1994, the Acadian community gathered for a Congrès Mondial Acadien in New Brunswick. The Congrès has been held every 5 years since then: in Louisiana in 1999, in Nova Scotia in 2004, in the Acadian Peninsula of New Brunswick in 2009. The 5th Congrès Mondial Acadien will be hosted in 2014 by a gathering of 40 different communities located in 3 different provinces (states) in 2 countries. North western New Brunswick and Temiscouata Quebec in Canada as well as Northern Maine in the United States are joining hands to host the 5th CMA.

Twenty-First Century

In 2003, at the request of Acadian representatives, a proclamation was issued in the name of Queen Elizabeth II, acting as the Canadian monarch, officially acknowledging the deportation and establishing July 28 as a day of commemoration. The day of commemoration is observed by the Government of Canada, as the successor of the British Government.

See also

• Aboriginal peoples in Canada
• Acadians
• Cajuns
• Fort Beauséjour and Fortress of Louisbourg
• List of Acadian governors
• List of conflicts in Canada
• Military history of Canada
• New Brunswick
• Nova Scotia
• Prince Edward Island
• Timeline of Canadian history
• History of Nova Scotia

References

• Arsenault, B. (1994). Histoire des Acadiens. Gasp: Fides.
• Dupont, Jean-Claude (1977). Héritage d'Acadie. Montreal: Éditions Leméac.
• MacDonald, M.A. (1983). Fortunes & La Tour: The Acadian Civil War. Toronto: Methuen.
• "Thomas Beamish Akins: British North America's Pioneer Archivist". Nova Scotia Archives and Record Management. Retrieved 2007-09-21.

External links

• Acadian Ancestral Home - a repository for Acadian History & Genealogy
• Poitou, Acadie, Bretagne
• Acadian-Cajun Genealogy & History
• CyberAcadie — Site Web sur l'histoire des Acadiens
• Le Pays De La Sagouine

Further reading

• Griffiths, Naomi Elizabeth Saundaus (1992), The Contexts of Acadian History: 1686–1784, McGill-Queen's Press, ISBN 9780773508866
• Plank, Geoffrey (2003), An Unsettled Conquest: The British Campaign Against the Peoples of Acadia, University of Pennsylvania Press, ISBN 9780812218695
• Reid, John G. (1981), Acadia, Maine, and New Scotland: Marginal Colonies in the Seventeenth Century, University of Toronto Press, ISBN 9780802055088
• Reid, John G. (2004), The "conquest" of Acadia, 1710: Imperial, Colonial, and Aboriginal Constructions, University of Toronto Press, ISBN 9780802085382
• Jobb, Dean (2005), The Acadians: A People's Story of Exile and Triumph. John Wiley & Sons (published in the United States as The Cajuns: A People's Story of Exile and Triumph)