History of the Acadians - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Acadians are the descendants of the original French settlers and often Métis

Métis people (Canada)

The Métis are one of the Aboriginal peoples in Canada who trace their descent to mixed First Nations parentage. The term was historically a catch-all describing the offspring of any such union, but within generations the culture syncretised into what is today a distinct aboriginal group, with...

, of parts of Acadia

Acadia

Acadia was the name given to lands in a portion of the French colonial empire of New France, in northeastern North America that included parts of eastern Quebec, the Maritime provinces, and modern-day Maine. At the end of the 16th century, France claimed territory stretching as far south as...

(French: Acadie) in the northeastern region of North America comprising what is now the Canadian Maritime Provinces of New Brunswick

New Brunswick

New Brunswick is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the only province in the federation that is constitutionally bilingual . The provincial capital is Fredericton and Saint John is the most populous city. Greater Moncton is the largest Census Metropolitan Area...

, Nova Scotia

Nova Scotia

Nova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...

, and Prince Edward Island

Prince Edward Island

Prince Edward Island is a Canadian province consisting of an island of the same name, as well as other islands. The maritime province is the smallest in the nation in both land area and population...

, Gaspé, in Quebec, and parts of the American state of Maine

Maine

Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...

.

The history of the Acadians was significantly influenced by the warfare that took place in Acadia during the 17th and 18th century. Eventually, the last of the colonial wars -- the French and Indian War

French and Indian War

The French and Indian War is the common American name for the war between Great Britain and France in North America from 1754 to 1763. In 1756, the war erupted into the world-wide conflict known as the Seven Years' War and thus came to be regarded as the North American theater of that war...

-- resulted in the British Expulsion of the Acadians from the region. After the war, many Acadians came out of hiding or returned to Acadia from the British Colonies. Others remained in France and some migrated from there to Louisiana, where they became known as Cajun

Cajun

Cajuns are an ethnic group mainly living in the U.S. state of Louisiana, consisting of the descendants of Acadian exiles...

s. The nineteenth century saw the beginning of the Acadian Renaissance

Renaissance

The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...

and the publication of Evangeline

Evangeline

Evangeline, A Tale of Acadie, is an epic poem published in 1847 by the American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The poem follows an Acadian girl named Evangeline and her search for her lost love Gabriel, set during the time of the Expulsion of the Acadians.The idea for the poem came from...

, which helped galvanize Acadian identity. In the last century Acadians has been marked by achievements in the areas of equal language and cultural rights as a minority group in the Maritime provinces of Canada.

Arrival of the first families

Governor Isaac de Razilly

Isaac de Razilly

Isaac de Razilly was a member of the French nobility appointed a knight of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem at the age of 18. He was born at the Château d'Oiseaumelle in the Province of Touraine, France. A member of the French navy, he served for many years during which he played an important...

's administration at LaHave, Nova Scotia

LaHave, Nova Scotia

LaHave was once the capital of Acadia/ Nova Scotia and is now a small scenic village located on Highway 331 at the mouth of the LaHave River in Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia, across the river from Riverport and approximately 15 kilometres from the town of Bridgewater.- French Colony :LaHave was the...

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 detailed passenger list has survived. Nicolas Denys

Nicolas Denys

.Nicolas Denys was a French aristocrat who became an explorer, colonizer, soldier and leader in New France. Today, he is perhaps best known for founding settlements at St. Pierre , Ste...

, 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 1636 at LaHave, Nova Scotia

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 immediately affect the status of Acadia as basically a colony of European transients. By the end of the year, the migrants were moved from LaHave and re-established at Port Royal

Port Royal, Nova Scotia

Port Royal was the capital of Acadia from 1605 to 1710 and is now a town called Annapolis Royal in the western part of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. Initially Port Royal was located on the north shore of the Annapolis Basin, Nova Scotia, at the site of the present reconstruction of the...

. At Port Royal in 1636, Pierre Martin and Catherine Vigneau, who had arrived on the Saint Jehan, were the first European parents to have a child in Acadia. The first-born child was Mathew Martin. In part, because of this distinction, Mathieu Martin later became the Seigneury of Cobequid (1699).

Civil war

With the death of Isaac de Razilly

Isaac de Razilly

, 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

Charles de Menou d'Aulnay

Charles de Menou d'Aulnay was a pioneer of European settlement in North America and Governor of Acadia .-Biography:D'Aulnay was a member of the French nobility who was at various times a sea captain, a lieutenant in the French navy to his cousin Isaac de Razilly, and Governor of Acadia...

de Charnisay was stationed, and present-day Saint John, New Brunswick

Saint John, New Brunswick

City of Saint John , or commonly Saint John, is the largest city in the province of New Brunswick, and the first incorporated city in Canada. The city is situated along the north shore of the Bay of Fundy at the mouth of the Saint John River. In 2006 the city proper had a population of 74,043...

, where Governor Charles de Saint-Étienne de la Tour

Charles de Saint-Étienne de la Tour

Charles de Saint-Étienne de la Tour, the French King's appointed Governor of Acadia from 1631–1642 and again from 1653–1657, was born in France in 1593 and died at Cap de Sable in 1666...

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

Oliver Cromwell

Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....

, 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

Thomas Temple

Sir Thomas Temple, 1st Baronet was a British proprietor, governor of Acadia/ Nova Scotia...

. 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

Jean-Baptiste Colbert

Jean-Baptiste Colbert was a French politician who served as the Minister of Finances of France from 1665 to 1683 under the rule of King Louis XIV. His relentless hard work and thrift made him an esteemed minister. He achieved a reputation for his work of improving the state of French manufacturing...

, Louis XIV's minister forbade the Acadians from returning to France.
As a result of the English occupation, no new French families would settle in Acadia between 1654 and 1670.

French colony

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.

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

Aboiteau

Aboiteau farming on reclaimed marshland is a labor-intensive method in which earthen dykes are constructed to stop high tides from inundating marshland...

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

New France

New France was the area colonized by France in North America during a period beginning with the exploration of the Saint Lawrence River by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and ending with the cession of New France to Spain and Great Britain in 1763...

.

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.

During that last decades of the seventeenth century, Acadians migrated from the capital Port Royal and established what would become the other major Acadian settlements before the Expulsion of the Acadians: Grand Pré, Chignecto

Isthmus of Chignecto

The Isthmus of Chignecto is an isthmus bordering the Maritime provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia which connects the Nova Scotia peninsula with North America....

, Cobequid

Cobequid

The old name Cobequid was derived from the Mi'kmaq word "Wagobagitk" meaning "the bay runs far up", in reference to the area surrounding the easternmost inlet of the Minas Basin, a body of water called Cobequid Bay....

and Pisiguit

Pisiguit

In the Minas Basin of Acadia, which is now Nova Scotia, the settlement of Grand-Pré grew eastward towards the Pisiquid River. This settlement became known as Pisiguit or . Pisiguit came from the Mi'kmaq term Pesaquid, meaning "Junction of Waters". It became so large that it was viewed as...

Eighteenth century

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)

Siege of Port Royal (1710)

The Siege of Port Royal , also known as the Conquest of Acadia, was conducted by British regular and provincial forces under the command of Francis Nicholson against a French Acadian garrison under the command of Daniel d'Auger de Subercase, at the Acadian capital, Port Royal...

. Over the following fifty years, the French and their allies made six unsuccessful military attempts to regain the capital.

Colonial wars

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

French and Indian Wars

The French and Indian Wars is a name used in the United States for a series of conflicts lasting 74 years in North America that represented colonial events related to the European dynastic wars...

and two local wars (Dummer's War

Dummer's War

Dummer's War , also known as Lovewell's War, Father Rale's War, Greylock's War, the Three Years War, the 4th Indian War or the Wabanaki-New England War of 1722–1725, was a series of battles between British settlers of the three northernmost British colonies of North America of the time and the...

and Father Le Loutre's War

Father Le Loutre's War

Father Le Loutre’s War , also known as the Indian War, the Micmac War and the Anglo-Micmac War, took place between King George's War and the French and Indian War in Acadia and Nova Scotia. On one side of the conflict, the British and New England colonists were led by British Officer Charles...

) before the Expulsion of the Acadians. The Mi'kmaq and the Acadians were allies through 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.

While many Acadians traded with the New England Protestants, Acadians participation in the wars clearly indicated that many were reluctant to be ruled by the British. During the first colonial war, King William's War

King William's War

The first of the French and Indian Wars, King William's War was the name used in the English colonies in America to refer to the North American theater of the Nine Years' War...

(1689–97), the crews of the very successful French privateer Pierre Maisonnat dit Baptiste

Pierre Maisonnat dit Baptiste

Pierre Maisonnat dit Baptiste was a French privateer famous for the success he had against New England merchant shipping and fishing interests. Baptiste's crew members were primarily Acadians....

were primarily Acadian. The Acadians resisted during the Raid on Chignecto (1696)

Raid on Chignecto (1696)

The Raid on Chignecto occurred during King Williams War when New England forces from Boston attacked the Isthmus of Chignecto, Acadia in present-day Nova Scotia. The raid was in retaliation for the French and Indian Siege of Pemaquid at present day Bristol, Maine. In the English Province of...

. During Queen Anne's War

Queen Anne's War

Queen Anne's War , as the North American theater of the War of the Spanish Succession was known in the British colonies, was the second in a series of French and Indian Wars fought between France and England, later Great Britain, in North America for control of the continent. The War of the...

, Mi’kmaq and Acadians resisted during the Raid on Grand Pré

Raid on Grand Pre

The Raid on Grand Pré was the major action of a raiding expedition conducted by New England militia Colonel Benjamin Church against French Acadia in June 1704, during Queen Anne's War...

, Piziquid and Chignecto

Isthmus of Chignecto

The Isthmus of Chignecto is an isthmus bordering the Maritime provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia which connects the Nova Scotia peninsula with North America....

in 1704. The Acadians also assisted the French in protecting the capital in the Siege of Port Royal (1707)

Siege of Port Royal (1707)

The Siege of Port Royal in 1707 was two separate attempts by English colonists from New England to conquer Acadia by capturing its capital Port Royal during Queen Anne's War. Both attempts were made by colonial militia, and were led by men inexperienced in siege warfare...

and the final Conquest of Acadia

Siege of Port Royal (1710)

. The Acadians and Mi’kmaq were also successful in the Battle of Bloody Creek (1711).

During Dummer's War

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

Canso, Nova Scotia

For the headland, see Cape Canso.Canso is a small Canadian town in Guysborough County, on the north-eastern tip of mainland Nova Scotia, next to Chedabucto Bay. The area was established in 1604, along with Port Royal, Nova Scotia. The British construction of a fort in the village , was instrumental...

(1723). In the latter engagement, the Mi'kmaq were aided by Acadians. During King George's War

King George's War

King George's War is the name given to the operations in North America that formed part of the War of the Austrian Succession . It was the third of the four French and Indian Wars. It took place primarily in the British provinces of New York, Massachusetts Bay, New Hampshire, and Nova Scotia...

, Abbe Jean-Louis Le Loutre

Jean-Louis Le Loutre

Abbé Jean-Louis Le Loutre was a Catholic priest and missionary for the Paris Foreign Missions Society...

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

Joseph Broussard

Joseph Gaurhept Broussard , also known as Beausoleil, was a leader of the Acadian people in Acadia; later Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Broussard organized a resistance movement against the forced Expulsion of the Acadians...

(Beausoleil). Broussard and other Acadians were involved in supporting the French soldiers in the Battle of Grand Pré

Battle of Grand Pré

The Battle of Grand Pré, also known as the Battle of Minas, was a battle in King George's War that took place between British and French forces near present-day Grand-Pré, Nova Scotia in the winter of 1747 during the War of the Austrian Succession...

.

During Father Le Loutre’s War, the conflict continued. The Mi'kmaq attacked New England Rangers in the Siege of Grand Pre

Siege of Grand Pre

The Siege of Grand Pre happened during Father Le Loutre’s War and was fought between the British and a militia made up of Mi’kmaq, Maliseet, and Acadians. The siege happened at Fort Vieux Logis, Grand Pre...

and Battle at St. Croix

Battle at St. Croix

The Battle at St. Croix was fought during Father Le Loutre’s War between New England Rangers and Mi’kmaq at Battle Hill in the community of St. Croix, Nova Scotia. The battle lasted for three days in the spring of 1750.-Historical context:...

. Upon the founding of Dartmouth, Nova Scotia

Dartmouth, Nova Scotia

Dartmouth founded in 1750, is a community and planning area of the Halifax Regional Municipality, Nova Scotia. Located on the eastern shore of Halifax Harbour, Dartmouth has been nicknamed the City of Lakes after the large number of lakes located in the city.On April 1, 1996, the provincial...

, Broussard and the Mi'kmaq conducted numerous raids on the village, such as the Raid on Dartmouth (1751)

Raid on Dartmouth (1751)

The Raid on Dartmouth occurred during Father Le Loutre’s War on May 13, 1751 when an Acadian and Mi’kmaq militia from Chignecto, under the command of Acadian Joseph Broussard, raided Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, destroying the town and killing twenty British villagers...

, to try to stop the Protestants migration into Nova Scotia. (Similarly, during the French and Indian War

French and Indian War

, Mi’kmaq, Acadians and Maliseet also engaged in numerous raids on Lunenburg, Nova Scotia

Lunenburg, Nova Scotia

Lunenburg , is a Canadian port town in Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia.Situated on the province's South Shore, Lunenburg is located on a peninsula at the western side of Mahone Bay. The town is approximately 90 kilometres southwest of the county boundary with the Halifax Regional Municipality.The...

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

Isthmus of Chignecto

The Isthmus of Chignecto is an isthmus bordering the Maritime provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia which connects the Nova Scotia peninsula with North America....

(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.)

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

French and Indian War

(and Seven Years' War

Seven Years' War

The Seven Years' War was a global military war between 1756 and 1763, involving most of the great powers of the time and affecting Europe, North America, Central America, the West African coast, India, and the Philippines...

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

The British Conquest of Acadia

Siege of Port Royal (1710)

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

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.

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

Great Upheaval

The Expulsion of the Acadians was the forced removal by the British of the Acadian people from present day Canadian Maritime provinces: Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island...

), 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

Province of Georgia

The Province of Georgia was one of the Southern colonies in British America. It was the last of the thirteen original colonies established by Great Britain in what later became the United States...

. 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.

Acadian and Mi’kmaq resistance

With the Expulsion of the Acadians during the French and Indian War

French and Indian War

, the Mi’kmaq and Acadian resistance intensified. After the Expulsion began, much of the resistance was led by Charles Deschamps de Boishébert et de Raffetot

Charles Deschamps de Boishébert et de Raffetot

Charles Deschamps de Boishébert , was the leader of the Acadian resistance to the Expulsion of the Acadians. He settled and tried to protect Acadians refugees along the rivers of New Brunswick. Fort Boishebert is named after him...

. The Acadians and Mi’kmaq again engaged victoriously in the Battle of Petitcodiac

Battle of Petitcodiac

The Battle of Petitcodiac was fought during the Bay of Fundy Campaign of the French and Indian War. The battle was fought between the British colonial troops and Acadian resistance fighters led by French Officer Charles Deschamps de Boishébert on September 4, 1755 at the Acadian village of...

(1755) and the Battle of Bloody Creek (1757). Acadians who were being deported from Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia

Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia

Annapolis Royal is a town located in the western part of Annapolis County, Nova Scotia. Known as Port Royal until the Conquest of Acadia in 1710 by Britain, the town is the oldest continuous European settlement in North America, north of St...

on the ship Pembroke defeated the British crew and sailed to land. There was also resistance during the St. John River Campaign

St. John River Campaign

The St. John River Campaign occurred during the French and Indian War when Colonel Robert Monckton led a force of 1150 British soldiers to destroy the Acadian settlements along the banks of the Saint John River until they reached the largest village of Sainte-Anne des Pays-Bas in February 1759...

. Boishebert also ordered the Raid on Lunenburg (1756). In the spring of 1756, a wood-gathering party from Fort Monckton (former Fort Gaspareaux

Fort Gaspareaux

Fort Gaspareaux was a French fort at the head of Baie Verte near the mouth of the Gaspareaux River and just southeast of the modern village of Port Elgin, New Brunswick, Canada, on the Isthmus of Chignecto...

), was ambushed and nine of them were scalped.

In the April of 1757, a band of Acadian and Mi'kmaq raided a warehouse near Fort Edward

Fort Edward (Nova Scotia)

Fort Edward is a National Historic Site in Windsor, Nova Scotia, Canada and was built during Father Le Loutre's War. The fort was created to help prevent the Acadian Exodus from the region...

, killing thirteen British soldiers and, after taking what provisions they could carry, setting fire to the building. A few days later, the same partisans also raided Fort Cumberland

Fort Cumberland

Fort Cumberland can refer to:*Fort Cumberland *Fort Cumberland also known as Fort Beauséjour*Fort Cumberland Fort Cumberland is located in Cucumber Land, Cumber is short for Cucumber. Fort Cumberland was founded by Johnson Merrell, a moonshiner in 1687...

.

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

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.

Some Acadians became indentured servants in the British colonies. Massachusetts passed a law in November 1755 placing the Acadians under the custody of "justices of the peace

Justice of the Peace

A justice of the peace is a puisne judicial officer elected or appointed by means of a commission to keep the peace. Depending on the jurisdiction, they might dispense summary justice or merely deal with local administrative applications in common law jurisdictions...

and overseers of the poor"; Pennsylvania

Province of Pennsylvania

The Province of Pennsylvania, also known as Pennsylvania Colony, was founded in British America by William Penn on March 4, 1681 as dictated in a royal charter granted by King Charles II...

, Maryland

Province of Maryland

The Province of Maryland was an English and later British colony in North America that existed from 1632 until 1776, when it joined the other twelve of the Thirteen Colonies in rebellion against Great Britain and became the U.S...

, and Connecticut

Connecticut Colony

The Connecticut Colony or Colony of Connecticut was an English colony located in British America that became the U.S. state of Connecticut. Originally known as the River Colony, it was organized on March 3, 1636 as a haven for Puritan noblemen. After early struggles with the Dutch, the English...

adopted similar laws. The Province of Virginia under Robert Dinwiddie

Robert Dinwiddie

Robert Dinwiddie was a British colonial administrator who served as lieutenant governor of colonial Virginia from 1751 to 1758, first under Governor Willem Anne van Keppel, 2nd Earl of Albemarle, and then, from July 1756 to January 1758, as deputy for John Campbell, 4th Earl of Loudoun...

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

Châtellerault

Châtellerault is a commune in the Vienne department in the Poitou-Charentes region in France.It is located to the north of Poitou, and the residents are called Châtelleraudais.-Geography:...

, Nantes

Nantes

Nantes is a city in western France, located on the Loire River, from the Atlantic coast. The city is the 6th largest in France, while its metropolitan area ranks 8th with over 800,000 inhabitants....

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.

Re-establishing in Nova Scotia

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.

Beginning in the 1770s, many Acadians were encouraged to return through the policies of Nova Scotia Governor Michael Francklin

Michael Francklin

Michael Francklin or Franklin served as Nova Scotia's Lieutenant Governor from 1766-1772.Born in Poole, England, Francklin immigrated to Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1752. He worked as a trader and merchant, initially in association with Joshua Maugher...

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

New England Planters

The New England Planters were settlers from the New England colonies who responded to invitations by the lieutenant governor of Nova Scotia, Charles Lawrence, to settle lands left vacant by the Bay of Fundy Campaign of the Acadian Expulsion...

who were soon followed by Loyalists

United Empire Loyalists

The name United Empire Loyalists is an honorific given after the fact to those American Loyalists who resettled in British North America and other British Colonies as an act of fealty to King George III after the British defeat in the American Revolutionary War and prior to the Treaty of Paris...

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:

1836 Simon d'Entremont and Frédéric Robichaud, MLAs in N.S.
1846 Amand Landry, MLA in N.B.
1847, Longfellow publishes Evangéline
Evangeline
Evangeline, A Tale of Acadie, is an epic poem published in 1847 by the American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The poem follows an Acadian girl named Evangeline and her search for her lost love Gabriel, set during the time of the Expulsion of the Acadians.The idea for the poem came from...
1854, Stanislaw-Francois Poirier, MLA in P.E.I
1854, the seminary Saint-Thomas in Memramcook, New Brunswick
Memramcook, New Brunswick
Memramcook is a Canadian village in Westmorland County, New Brunswick. Located in south-eastern New Brunswick, the community is predominantly people of Acadian descent who speak the Chiac derivative of the French language....

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
Farmers' Bank of Rustico
The Farmers' Bank of Rustico operated in the village of Rustico, from 1864 to 1894. It is often considered to have been the first community-based bank in Canada. Founded and managed under the leadership of Father Georges-Antoine Belcourt , the Farmer's Bank of Rustico was established on April...

, 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

Memramcook, New Brunswick

Memramcook is a Canadian village in Westmorland County, New Brunswick. Located in south-eastern New Brunswick, the community is predominantly people of Acadian descent who speak the Chiac derivative of the French language....

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

Assumption of the Virgin Mary

Many significant works of art depict the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. They include:* Assumption of the Virgin by Francesco Botticini* Assumption of the Virgin by Titian* Assumption of the Virgin by Antonio da Correggio...

, would be chosen to celebrate Acadian culture as National Acadian Day

National Acadian Day

The National Acadian Day is observed in Canada each year on August 15, celebrating the Assumption of Mary. It was during the first National Convention of the Acadians held at Memramcook, New Brunswick, in 1881 that the Acadian leaders received the mandate to set the date of this celebration.The...

. 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

Miscouche, Prince Edward Island

Miscouche is a Canadian rural community in Prince County, Prince Edward IslandIncorporated in 1957, Miscouche is located 6 miles west of the city of Summerside...

, the Acadian flag, an anthem - Ave Maris Stella, and a motto - L'union fait la force were adopted. Issues discuss

1885, John A. Macdonald
John A. Macdonald
Sir John Alexander Macdonald, GCB, KCMG, PC, PC , QC was the first Prime Minister of Canada. The dominant figure of Canadian Confederation, his political career spanned almost half a century...

nominates Pascal Poirier from Shediac as the first Acadian senator; a second Acadian newspaper published, 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 Renaissance

1912, Mgr Edouard LeBlanc is the first Acadian 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; la Société nationale de l'Assomption undertakes a campaign to build a commemorative church in Grand-Pré, Nova Scotia
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
Tintamarre
Tintamarre is an Acadian tradition of marching through one's community making noise with improvised instruments and other noisemakers, usually in celebration of National Acadian Day. The term originates from the Acadian French word meaning "clangour" or "din"...

occurs.

The Quiet Revolution

Louis Robichaud

Louis Joseph Robichaud, PC, CC, QC , popularly known as "Little Louis" or "P'tit-Louis" , was a Canadian lawyer and politician...

, 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.

Antonine Maillet

Born 1929 in Bouctouche, Antonine Maillet

Antonine Maillet

Antonine Maillet, is an Acadian novelist, playwright, and scholar. She was born in Bouctouche, New Brunswick and lives in Montreal, Quebec....

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

Bouctouche, New Brunswick

Bouctouche is a Canadian town in Kent County, New Brunswick and in 2006 Census the population was 2,383.The town is located at the mouth of the Bouctouche River on the coast of the Northumberland Strait, approximately 40 kilometres northeast of Moncton....

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.

Acadian Remembrance Day

The Fédération des Associations de Familles Acadiennnes of New Brunswick and the Société Saint-Thomas d'Aquin of Prince Edward Island has resolved that December 13 each year shall be commemorated as "Acadian Remembrance Day" to commemorate the sinking of the Duke William and the nearly 2000 Acadians deported from Île-Saint Jean who perished in the North Atlantic from hunger, disease and drowning in 1758. The event has been commemorated annually since 2004 and participants mark the event by wearing a black star.

Acadian World Congress

Beginning in 1994, the Acadian community gathered for a Acadian World Congress

Acadian World Congress

The Acadian World Congress, or Le Congrès Mondial Acadien, is a festival of Acadian and Cajun culture and history, held every five years. It is also informally known as the Acadian Reunion...

in New Brunswick. The congress 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 Acadian World Congress will be hosted in 2014 by a gathering of 40 different communities located in 3 different provinces (states) in 2 countries. Northwestern New Brunswick and Témiscouata, Quebec, in Canada as well as Northern Maine in the United States are joining hands to host the 5th CMA.

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

Arrival of the first families

Civil war

English colony (1654–1667)

French colony

Eighteenth century

Colonial wars

French and Indian War

Acadian and Mi’kmaq resistance

Re-establishing in Nova Scotia

Nineteenth century

Acadian renaissance

Twentieth century

The Quiet Revolution

Antonine Maillet

Twenty-first century

Acadian Remembrance Day

Acadian World Congress

See also

External links

Further reading