Acadia
Acadia was the name given by the
French to a
colonial territory in northeastern
North America that included parts of eastern
Quebec, the
Maritime provinces, and modern-day
New England, stretching as far south as
Philadelphia. The actual specification by the French government for the territory refers to lands bordering the
Atlantic coast, roughly between the 40th and 46th parallels. Later, the territory was divided into the
British colonies which were to become
American states and
Canadian provinces.
Encyclopedia
Acadia was the name given by the
French to a
colonial territory in northeastern
North America that included parts of eastern
Quebec, the
Maritime provinces, and modern-day
New England, stretching as far south as
Philadelphia. The actual specification by the French government for the territory refers to lands bordering the
Atlantic coast, roughly between the 40th and 46th parallels. Later, the territory was divided into the
British colonies which were to become
American states and
Canadian provinces.
Early history
The territory's first
European
colonists, who would later become known as
Acadians, were French subjects primarily from the Pleumartin to
Poitiers in the Vienne
département of west-central France. The first French settlement was established by Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Monts, Governor of Acadia under the authority of
King Henry IV, on
Saint Croix Island in 1604. The following year, the settlement was moved across the
Bay of Fundy to Port Royal after a difficult winter on the island and deaths due to
scurvy. In 1608, many of the settlers followed
Samuel de Champlain north to found
New France at the site of modern day
Quebec City.
The French took control of the
Abenaki First Nations territory. In 1654, King
Louis XIV of France appointed aristocrat Nicholas Denys as Governor of Acadia and granted him the confiscated lands and the right to all its
minerals.
British colonists captured Acadia in the course of King William's War but Britain returned it to France at the peace settlement. It was recaptured in the course of Queen Anne's War and its conquest confirmed in the Treaty of Utrecht of 1713.
On 23 June that year, the French residents of Acadia were given one year to declare allegiance to Britain or leave
Nova Scotia. In the meantime, the French signalled their preparedness for future hostilities by building
Fortress Louisbourg on
Cape Breton Island. The British grew increasingly alarmed by the prospect of disloyalty in wartime of the Acadians now under their rule.
The great upheaval
In 1755, the British burned Acadian homes at the outbreak of the
French and Indian War between Britain and France, accusing Acadians of disloyalty and guerrilla action. Those who still refused to swear loyalty to the British crown then suffered what is referred to as the
Great Upheaval, when some 6,000-7,000 Acadians were expelled from Nova Scotia to France or the American
colonies. Others fled deeper into Nova Scotia and other parts of the colony of Canada.
After 1764, many expelled Acadians settled in
Louisiana, which had been transferred by France to Spain before the end of the Seven Years' War. The name
Acadian was corrupted to
Cajun. Britain allowed some Acadians to return to Nova Scotia, but these were forced to settle in small groups, and were not permitted to reside in the former communties of Grand-Pre and Port Royal.
The poem
Evangeline by
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow is a romanticized account of the Deportation and its aftermath, telling the story of Evangeline, a Acadian woman who never gives up the search for her lover.
Origin of the name
The origin of the name Acadia is credited to the explorer
Giovanni da Verrazzano , who had the Greek term "Arcadie", meaning land of plenty, written on the entire Atlantic coast north of Virginia on his sixteenth century map. Another theory is that Acadia is derived from the Mi'kmaq term for "place", pronounced "akatie" and the Malecite term "quoddy", also meaning a "fertile place".
Contemporary Acadia
Today,
Acadia refers to regions of
Atlantic Canada with French roots, language, and culture. In the abstract,
Acadia refers to the existence of a French culture on Canada’s east coast.
In 1994, Acadians and Cajuns held the first Acadian World Congress in
Moncton, New Brunswick. Subsequent world congresses were held in 1999 and 2004.
The national anthem of Acadia is
Ave Maris Stella.
See also
External links
-
- — Illustrated Historical Essay
- — Illustrated Historical Essay
- from the Columbia Encyclopedia
- in
- Acadian history and census records
