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The Acadians, Acadia, The
Expulsion and the birth of
Nova Scotia

Acadia (in the French language Acadie) was the name given to lands
in a portion of the French colonial empire in northeastern North
America that included parts of eastern Quebec, the Maritime provinces,
and modern-day New England, stretching as far south as Philadelphia.
People living in Acadia, and sometimes former residents and their
descendants, are called Acadians.

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 became Canadian provinces and American states.

Today, Acadia is used to refer to regions of North America that are
historically associated with the lands, descendants, and/or culture of
the former French region. It particularly refers to regions of The
Maritimes with French roots, language, and culture, primarily in New
Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, as well as in the
American state of Maine. It can also be used to refer to the Acadian
diaspora in southern Louisiana, a region also referred to as Acadiana.
In the abstract, Acadia refers to the existence of a French culture in any
of these regions.

Early 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 , 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 from scurvy. In 1607 the colony received bad news:
King Henry had revoked Sieur de Monts' royal fur monopoly,
citing that the income was insufficient to justify supplying the
colony further. Thus recalled, the last of the Acadians left Port
Royal in August of 1607. Their allies, the native Mi'kmaq nation,
kept careful watch over their possessions, though. When the
former Lieutenant Governor, Jean de Biencourt de Poutrincourt
et de Saint-Just, returned in 1610, he found Port Royal just as it
was left.[

The French took control of the Abenaki First Nations territory. In
1654, King Louis XIV of France appointed aristocrat Nicolas
Denys as governor of large portions of Acadia and granted him
the confiscated lands and the right to all its minerals.

The Netherlands asserted sovereignty over Acadia in 1674 after
privateer Jurriaen Aernoutsz captured the forts at Pentagoet and
Jemseg. Control over the region reverted to France when Aernoutsz's
appointed administrator, John Rhoades, was captured by New England
within a few months. The Dutch West India Company continued to
assert a paper claim over Acadia until 1678, appointing Cornelius Van
Steenwyk as its governor, although they never successfully recaptured
actual control of the territory.

British colonists captured Acadia in the course of King William's War
(1690–1697), but Britain returned it to France at the peace settlement.
It was recaptured in the course of Queen Anne's War (1702–1713), and
its conquest was confirmed in the Treaty of Utrecht (1713).

On June 23, 1713, the French residents of Acadia were given one year
to declare allegiance to Britain or leave the region. In the meantime, the
French signalled their preparedness for future hostilities by beginning
the construction of Fortress Louisbourg on Isle Royale, now Cape
Breton Island. The British grew increasingly alarmed by the prospect of
disloyalty in wartime of the Acadians now under their rule.
Causes

1713 – Treaty of Utrecht – ended war between Britain and
France/Spain. In North America, France ceded to Great Britain its
claims to the Hudson's Bay Company territories in Rupert's
Land, Newfoundland and Acadia. The formerly partitioned island
of Saint Kitts was also ceded in its entirety to Britain. France
retained its other pre-war North American possessions,
including Île-Saint-Jean (now Prince Edward Island) as well as
Île Royale (now Cape Breton Island), on which it erected the
Fortress of Louisbourg. How would a minority control (English and
Scots) a majority (Acadians)?
 Oath of Allegiance came years later – Acadians decide to remain
neutral and not sign the oath, but would sign oath of loyalty
 Problem – to France they appear as unreliable allies, to Britain,
unsatisfactory citizens
 People on the border between two warring nations
Causes continued
1749 – Creation of Halifax as British
stronghold to counter Louisbourg and protect
Boston/New England
 1750-51 – French strengthen position at Fort
Beausejour in NB near Sackville; Acadians
were literally in the middle
 1753 – Governor Charles Lawrence sees
Acadian neutrality as a threat; they must sign
allegiance

Causes continued
motives – British desire Acadian
lands for the settlement of Protestants
from Britain, New England, and
Germany (around Lunenburg)
 Ulterior
Causes continued
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1754 – Outbreak of war
between France and Britain
July 1755 - Lawrence orders
Acadian leaders to appear
before the Halifax Counsel to
sign an iron clad oath of
allegiance
The Acadians will not sign,
but will hand over their
firearms
July 28, 1755 – Acadians are
given one more chance, but
will not sign
The Expulsion
After they refuse to sign,

Lawrence announces that all
Acadians who refused to sign
an oath of allegiance would be
deported (expulsion, Grand
d’erangement/Great Upheaval)
The Expulsion

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
and England
The Expulsion
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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)
Escape

Some escaped
 One group of 86 Acadians dug a tunnel from their
barracks in their prison camp
 On one ship, Acadians seized their captors and
sailed back to the Bay of Fundy and fled to the St.
John River region of NB
 2000 fled to Ile Saint-John (PEI); for every one
Acadian originally living in PEI, there were three
Acadian refugees
 In 1758, the British captured Louisbourg fort, Ile
Saint-Jean and Ile Royale (Cape Breton) and
rounded up and deported any Acadians who had
escaped there; 1500 fled yet again to NB, New
England, New France, and St. Pierre and Miquelon
The Journey

Many died en route of malnutrition, exposure,
storms at sea, shortage of drinking water and
disease due to poor sanitary conditions
 Many ships lost 1/3 of their Acadian
passengers
 When they arrived at their destinations, many
wandered from town to town searching for
their families and friends. They were
intentionally spilt up (“Evangeline” poem)
 They often put advertisements in newspapers
looking for their relatives
Expulsion

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
¾ of the Acadian population of 13,000.
Seven thousand were deported in the first
years alone. Another 3000 had been
deported by 1762.
 YouTube - Québec History 10 - The Acadians
 Evangeline
Poem (English Version)
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

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This is where we get the
word, “Cajun” YouTube - The
Cajuns
YouTube - acadian driftwood, the band
YouTube - Band & Emmylou Harris The
Last Waltz evangeline
 YouTube
- Cajun Fiddle
 YouTube - Sesame Street film Louisiana Zydeco music
 YouTube - Sesame Street - It's Zydeco
 Jambalaya, crawdads, bayou, Mardi
Gras, gumbo soup, etc…all Cajun!
Effect on Mi’kmaq

The Mi’kmaq population had been negatively
effected as well
 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
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By 1764, the Acadians were permitted to return to NS, NB and
PEI
An estimated 3000 did so
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 centred
around the church since
very few other aspects
of their culture
remained in tact
The Expulsion
unexpectedly acted as
a unifying force and
helped to create a
uniquely Acadian
identity that continues
to this day
ACADIAN LAST NAMES
 ACADIAN
18th CENTURY NAMES &
ORIGINS:ACADIAN ANCESTRAL
HOME

In 1620, the Plymouth Council for New England, under King James VI (of
Scotland) & I (of England) designated the whole shorelines of Acadia and the
Mid-Atlantic colonies south to the Chesapeake Bay as New England. The first
documented Scottish settlement in the Americas was of Nova Scotia in 1621.
On 29 September 1621, the charter for the foundation of a colony was granted
by James VI to William Alexander, 1st Earl of Stirling and, in 1622, the first
settlers left Scotland. This settlement initially failed because of difficulties in
obtaining a sufficient number of skilled emigrants, and in 1624 James VI created
a new order of baronets. Admission to this order was obtained by sending six
labourers or artisans, sufficiently armed, dressed and supplied for two years, to
Nova Scotia, or by paying 3,000 merks to William Alexander. For six months, no
one took up this offer until James compelled one to make the first move.
 In 1627, there was a wider uptake of baronetcies and thus more settlers
available to go to Nova Scotia. However, in 1627, war broke out between
England and France, and the French re-established a settlement at Port Royal
which they had originally settled. Later that year, a combined Scottish and
English force destroyed the French settlement, forcing them out. In 1629, the
first Scottish settlement at Port Royal was inhabited. The colony's charter, in
law, made Nova Scotia (defined as all land between Newfoundland and New
England) a part of mainland Scotland; this was later used to get around the
English navigation acts. However, this did not last long: in 1631, under King
Charles I, the Treaty of Suza was signed which returned Nova Scotia to the
French. The Scots were forced by Charles to abandon their mission before their
colony had been properly established, and the French assumed control of the
Mi'kmaq and other First Nations territory.
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Ancestors of more than half of present-day Nova Scotians arrived in the period following the
Acadian Expulsion. Between 1759 and 1768, about 8,000 New England Planters responded
to Governor Charles Lawrence's request for settlers from the New England colonies.
Several years later, approximately 30,000 United Empire Loyalists (American Tories) settled
in Nova Scotia (when it comprised present-day Maritime Canada) following the defeat of the
British in the American Revolutionary War. Of these 30,000, 14,000 went to New Brunswick
and 16,000 went to Nova Scotia. Approximately 3,000 of this group were Black Loyalists,
about a third of whom soon relocated themselves to Sierra Leone in 1792 via the Committee
for the Relief of the Black Poor, becoming the Original settlers of Freetown.
Large numbers of Gaelic-speaking Highland Scots emigrated to Cape Breton and the
western part of the mainland during the late 18th century and 19th century. In 1812 Sir
Hector Maclean (the 7th Baronet of Morvern and 23rd Chief of the Clan Maclean) emigrated
to Pictou from Glensanda and Kingairloch in Scotland with almost the entire population of
500.[13][14][15] Sir Hector is buried in the cemetery at Pictou.[15]
About one thousand Ulster-Scots settled in mainly central Nova Scotia during this time, as
did just over a thousand farming migrants from Yorkshire and Northumberland between
1772 and 1775.
Nova Scotia was the first colony in British North America and in the British Empire to
achieve responsible government in January-February 1848 and become self-governing
through the efforts of Joseph Howe. Pro-Confederate premier Charles Tupper led Nova
Scotia into the Canadian Confederation in 1867, along with New Brunswick and the
Province of Canada.
In the provincial election of 1868, the Anti-Confederation Party won 18 out of 19 federal
seats, and 36 out of 38 seats in the provincial legislature. For seven years, William Annand
and Joseph Howe led the ultimately unsuccessful fight to convince British imperial
authorities to release Nova Scotia from Confederation

In 1654, King Louis XIV of France appointed aristocrat as Governor of
Acadia and granted him the confiscated lands and the right to all its
minerals. English colonists captured Acadia in the course of King
William's War, but England returned the territory to France in the Treaty
of Ryswick at the end of the war. The territory was recaptured by forces
loyal to Britain during the course of Queen Anne's War, and its
conquest was confirmed by the Treaty of Utrecht of 1713. France
retained possession of Île St Jean (Prince Edward Island) and Île
Royale (Cape Breton Island), on which it established a fortress at
Louisbourg to guard the sea approaches to Quebec. This fortress was
captured by American colonial forces in 1745, then returned by the
British to France in 1748, then captured again during the French and
Indian War, in 1758.
 Thus mainland Nova Scotia became a British colony in 1713, although
Samuel Vetch had a precarious hold on the territory as governor from
the fall of Acadian Port-Royal (Annapolis Royal) in October 1710.
British governing officials became increasingly concerned over the
unwillingness of the French-speaking, Roman Catholic Acadians, who
were the majority of colonists, to pledge allegiance to the British Crown,
then George II. The colony remained mostly Acadian despite the
establishment of Halifax as the province's capital, and the settlement of
a large number of foreign Protestants (some French and Swiss but
mostly German) at Lunenburg in 1753. In 1755, the British forcibly
expelled over 12,000 Acadians in what became known as the Grand
Dérangement, or Great Upheaval[7]. The Acadians were scattered
across the Atlantic, in the Thirteen Colonies, Louisiana, Quebec, Britain
and France[8]. Very few eventually returned to Nova Scotia [9].