Encyclopedia
The
Acadians are the descendants of the original
French settlers of parts of the northeastern region of
North America comprising what is now the Canadian provinces of
Nova Scotia,
New Brunswick and
Prince Edward Island. Although Acadians and Quebecers are both francophone Canadians,
Acadia was founded four years prior to the founding of
Quebec and in a geographically separate area. Furthermore, Acadians to a great extent hail from different parts of France than do Quebecers. Consequently, the two have formed distinct cultures.
In the expulsion of 1755, Acadians were uprooted by the British; many later resettled in
Louisiana, where they became known as
Cajuns.
History
In 1603
Henry IV, the
King of France, granted Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Monts, the right to colonize lands in North America between 40º- 60º North
latitude. Arriving in 1604, the French settlers built a fort at the mouth of the St. Croix River which separates present day
New Brunswick and
Maine, on a small island named
Île-Ste-Croix. The following spring, the settlers sailed across the bay to Port-Royal in present day
Nova Scotia.
During the 17th century, about one hundred French families were established in Acadia. They developed friendly relations with the aboriginal
Mi'kmaq, learning their hunting and fishing techniques. The Acadians lived mainly in the coastal regions, farming land reclaimed from the sea through diking. Living on the frontier between French and British territories, the Acadians found themselves on the frontlines in each conflict between the powers. Acadia was passed repeatedly from one side to the other, and the Acadians learned to survive through an attitude of studied neutrality, refusing to take up arms for either side, and thus came to be referred to as the "French neutrals."
In the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, France ceded that portion of Acadia which is now Nova Scotia to the British for the last time. In 1754, the British government, no longer accepting the neutrality previously granted to the Acadians, demanded that they take an absolute oath of allegiance to the
British monarch, which would require taking up arms. The Acadians did not want to take up arms against family members who were in French territory, and believed that the oath would compromise their
Roman Catholic faith, and refused. Colonel Charles Lawrence ordered the mass
deportation of the Acadians, without authority from London and despite earlier cautions from British authorities against drastic action. Historian John Mack Faragher has used the contemporary term, "ethnic cleansing," to describe the British actions.
In what is known as the
Great Expulsion , more than 12,000 Acadians were expelled, their homes burned and their lands confiscated. Families were split up, and the Acadians were dispersed throughout the British lands in North America; some were returned to France.
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.
Geography
The Acadians today predominantly inhabit the northern and eastern shores of New Brunswick, Miscou Island and Île Lamèque. Other groups of Acadians can be found in the
Magdalen Islands and throughout other parts of Quebec, in
Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia such as Chéticamp and Clare. Still others can be found in the southern and western regions of New Brunswick and in New England. Many of these latter communities have faced varying degrees of assimilation. For many families in predominantly anglophone communities, French language attrition has occurred, particularly in younger generations. The Acadians who settled in Louisiana after 1764, known as
Cajuns, have had a dominant cultural influence in many parishes, particularly in the southwestern area of Louisiana known as Acadiana.
Culture
Today Acadians are a vibrant minority, particularly in New Brunswick and Louisiana . Since 1994, Le Congrès Mondial Acadien has united Acadians of the Maritimes, New England, and Louisiana.
Notable Acadians in the Maritimes include singers
Angèle Arsenault and Edith Butler, writer
Antonine Maillet, boxer
Yvon Durelle, pitcher Rheal Cormier, former
Governor General Roméo LeBlanc, former premier of
Prince Edward Island Aubin-Edmond Arsenault, the first Acadian premier of any province and the first Acadian appointed to a provincial supreme court, his father, Joseph-Octave Arsenault, the first Acadian appointed to the Canadian Senate, and former New Brunswick premier
Louis Robichaud, who was responsible for modernizing education and the government of New Brunswick in the mid-
20th century.
August 15, the feast of the
Assumption, is the national feast day of the Acadians. The national anthem of the Acadians is "Ave, maris stella". On that day, the Acadians celebrate by having the
tintamarre which consists mainly of a big parade where people can dress up with the colours of Acadia and make a lot of noise.
Flags
The
flag of the Acadians is the
French tricolour with a golden star in the blue field, which symbolizes the
Our Lady of the Assumption, patron saint of the Acadians and the "Star of the Sea". This flag was adopted in 1884 at the Acadian National Congress in Miscouche, PEI.
Acadians in the diaspora have adopted other symbols. The flag of Acadians in Louisiana, known as
Cajuns, was designed by Thomas J. Arceneaux of the
University of Louisiana at Lafayette, and adopted by the Louisiana legislature as the official emblem of the
Acadiana region in . A group of New England Acadians attending Le Congrès Mondial Acadien in Nova Scotia in 2004, endorsed a design for a by William Cork, and are advocating for its wider acceptance.
Flag of
Acadiana region of Louisiana
Flag of
New England Acadians
Language
Acadians speak a dialect of French called Acadian French. Many of those in the Moncton area speak Chiac and
English. The Louisiana Cajun descendants mostly speak
English but many still speak
Cajun French.
Tributes to The Expulsion
In 1847, an epic poem by American writer
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow,
Evangeline, was loosely based on the events surrounding the 1755 deportation. The poem became an American classic, and also contributed to a rebirth of Acadian identity in both Maritime Canada and in Louisiana.
Robbie Robertson wrote a popular song based on the Acadian Expulsion titled
Acadian Driftwood that appeared on
The Band's 1975 album,
Northern Lights - Southern Cross was the seventh album by Canadian [i]-American [i] ...
.
Antonine Maillet's
Pélagie-la-charette concerns the return voyage to Acadia of several deported families starting 15 years after the
Great Expulsion.
Legend
The American folklore hero,
Paul Bunyan, is believed by some to have been influenced if not inspired by Acadian stories about
lumberjacks.
See also
References
Sources- Dupont, Jean-Claude . Héritage d'Acadie. Montreal: Éditions Leméac.
- Faragher, John Mack . A Great and Noble Scheme: The Tragic Story of the Expulsion of the French Acadians from their American Homeland. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.
- Frink, Tim . New Brunswick, A Short History. Summerville, N.B.: Stonington Books.
Notes1. Rather than go by self-identification, many would instead define an Acadian as a French speaking person living in the Maritime provinces of Canada; which according to the same 2001 census, was 276,355 .
2 An exhibit by the Massachusetts State Archives in conjunction with the Commonwealth Museum, made possible through a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Further reading
- James Laxer, The Acadians: In Search of a Homeland, Doubleday Canada, October 2006 ISBN 0-385-66108-8.
External links
-
- - Acadian history and genealogy storehouse
- - Acadians in New England.
- from - the Rosetta Edition
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