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    The Acadian Expulsions

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    Luke Marchand
    The document summarizes the Acadian Expulsions, known as Le Grand Dérangement, which saw the forced removal of between 6,000-10,000 Acadians from their homes in Maritime Canada by the British in 1755. The Acadians, French settlers who had occupied the region, practiced neutrality but were seen as allies of the Mi'kmaq Indigenous group. To break this alliance and seize Acadian lands, the British governor imprisoned Acadian men and forced the removal of the entire population from Acadia, scattering them across the British colonies. This tragic event came to be known as the Great Upheaval and destroyed Acadian culture in the region.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    The Acadian Expulsions

    Uploaded by

    Luke Marchand
    40 views20 pages
    The document summarizes the Acadian Expulsions, known as Le Grand Dérangement, which saw the forced removal of between 6,000-10,000 Acadians from their homes in Maritime Canada by the British in 1755. The Acadians, French settlers who had occupied the region, practiced neutrality but were seen as allies of the Mi'kmaq Indigenous group. To break this alliance and seize Acadian lands, the British governor imprisoned Acadian men and forced the removal of the entire population from Acadia, scattering them across the British colonies. This tragic event came to be known as the Great Upheaval and destroyed Acadian culture in the region.

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    The document summarizes the Acadian Expulsions, known as Le Grand Dérangement, which saw the forced removal of between 6,000-10,000 Acadians from their homes in Maritime Canada by the British in 1755. The Acadians, French settlers who had occupied the region, practiced neutrality but were seen as allies of the Mi'kmaq Indigenous group. To break this alliance and seize Acadian lands, the British governor imprisoned Acadian men and forced the removal of the entire population from Acadia, scattering them across the British colonies. This tragic event came to be known as the Great Upheaval and destroyed Acadian culture in the region.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
    40 views20 pages

    The Acadian Expulsions

    Uploaded by

    Luke Marchand
    The document summarizes the Acadian Expulsions, known as Le Grand Dérangement, which saw the forced removal of between 6,000-10,000 Acadians from their homes in Maritime Canada by the British in 1755. The Acadians, French settlers who had occupied the region, practiced neutrality but were seen as allies of the Mi'kmaq Indigenous group. To break this alliance and seize Acadian lands, the British governor imprisoned Acadian men and forced the removal of the entire population from Acadia, scattering them across the British colonies. This tragic event came to be known as the Great Upheaval and destroyed Acadian culture in the region.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
    of 20

    The Acadian Expulsions

    HISTORY 2710A

    MONDAY, MARCH 8, 2021

    DR. HEATHER STANLEY


    Acadia
    • a French
    settlement that
    occupied
    territories in
    Maritime Canada
    and what is now
    Maine
    • traditional
    territories
    Mi’kmaq, Maliseet,
    Abenaki and likely
    Iroquois
    • the expulsions were part of French Indian War
    (1754-1763) and Seven Year’s War (1756-1763)
    Acadia –
    • Acadia also a pawn in these bigger events
    Background
    • for a long time the big historiographical question
    was: were the Acadian expulsions justified?
    Early Settlement
    • in the early period relationships between the settlers
    and the local Indigenous groups (Mi’kmaq) were
    crucial to the survival of the settlers
    • would likely arrive in poor health and then get
    worse
    • the Mi’kmaq were used to seeing European
    fishermen and traders
    • the Acadians didn’t take land they reclaimed it
    through dykes
    • the early settlements attracted the first Roman
    Catholic priests  many would live with the
    Mi’kmaq as missionaries
    • Recollets baptize Chief Henri Membertous
    (1610)
    • Jesuits take over and are more successful
    Acadian Agriculture – Dykes
    • techniques learned in France adapted to Canadian
    circumstances
    • reclaiming swampland through dykes meant not having
    to clear out trees
    • Bay of Fundy/Baie Française has dramatically high and
    low tides:
    • high tides make the surrounding rivers overflow their banks
    • over time layer after layer of rich soil gets deposited by this flooding
    • BUT these are salt tides and salt = no crops
    • Acadians solve this by building dykes around the perimeter of the affected
    areas to stop the flooding  rain and snow washes away the salt
    • takes 2 years BUT left with VERY fertile good soil
    • manage to grow surpluses of wheat right away
    • great land for fruit trees
    Acadian Agriculture –
    Livestock
    • on the seaward side of the dykes wild grass called
    salt hay/spartina grew  used for winter feed for
    livestock  mainly cattle and sheep
    • advantage over places like New England who
    often had to slaughter and repurchase livestock
    due to lack of winter feed
    • pigs allowed to forage in forest AND given kitchen
    scraps  slaughtered in fall and then large portions
    preserved for winter food
    Acadia and Jesuit Orders
    • Why were the Jesuits more successful?:
    • experience from missionary work in
    Asia with very different cultures
    • affiliated with nuns  to convert
    women and children AND provide
    additional labour
    • didn’t require Indigenous people to
    change their lifestyle to convert
    • important gender implications for
    women
    • Roman Catholic priests live with the Mi’kmaq and learn
    their languages and customs
    • serve as intermediaries between Mi’kmaq and the settlers
    • the press maintain crucial political links between the
    Acadian settlers and the Mi’kmaq which would be crucial
    Mi’kmaq and later on
    Early Settlement • the Mi’kmaq converts likely (at least at first) adopted
    Christianity and Jesus as a figure into their existing belief
    systems
    • they understood conversion had political benefits
    • as the Acadian lands change hands the Mi’kmaq don’t
    recognize French and British claims to their territory
    • period between 1654 and 1745 sometimes called the “Acadian Golden Age”

    • even though Acadia kept changing hands during this time the Acadians were left
    largely alone  no Intendant or other colonial representative of the crown like in New
    France
    • this was fine with the Acadians who didn’t really care who was in charge as long as
    they weren’t be made to do military service for either the French or the British
    • it was the local politics that structured Acadian lives  they become fiercely
    independent as a people
    • focused on a policy of neutrality  had an odd relationship with the Thirteen
    Colonies
    • subject to raids

    Acadia in the • BUT also engaged in trade  surplus wheat for goods like tobacco and cloth

    Golden Age
    Day-to-Day Life for Acadians
    • organized on the seigneurial system  very similar to New France
    • landlords have little power
    • abundant game and wood mean the peasant farmers don’t have to pay to hunt or gather
    • supplemented by both the fur trade (smaller importance) and fish trade (bigger importance)
    • landlords are reluctant to build infrastructure like bake ovens and mills  often get destroyed
    in English raids
    • in absence of other authorities the Jesuit priests provide much of the law and order for society
    • negotiate disputes between settlers and between the settlers and the Mi'kmaq
    Day-to-Day Life for Acadians
    • houses were small, made of rough planks with a thatched roof

    • large families with an average of 8-10 children would live there  usually
    on one room
    • patriarchal family organization BUT same French civil laws and customs
    gave women’s rights
    • nearest neighbours were likely close relations

    • standing water meant mosquitos were a major problem

    • life was necessarily communal

    • not enough labourers so people had to help with large tasks like building
    dykes, houses, bringing in the harvest  unlike New France
    • this local, community organizing and self reliance might have increased
    their feelings of independence even further
    Day-to-Day Life for Acadians
    • Acadia grew through natural increase  meaning the
    colonies grew the population through their own
    children rather than immigration
    • unusually low infant mortality rates and longer life
    spans
    • better nutrition than French peasants  similar to New
    France
    • BUT unlike New France isolation may have kept them
    away from diseases especially
    • less unique DNA but tighter kinship networks
    The Importance of the Mi’kmaq in the Period of
    Conflict
    • golden age could not last

    • 1700s saw increased friction between Britain and France

    • European concerns about the strong relationship between


    the Mi'kmaq and the Acadian peasants
    • local leaders used priests to maintain good relationships
    with the Mi'kmaq including ceremonial gift exchanges
    • some historians argue that it was this relationship that
    pushed the British towards the expulsion strategy
    • they argue that the British choice to deport the Acadians was
    in part due to the fact that Mi'kmaq warriors would join the
    peasants in resisting British settlement on or near their
    combined lands
    Le Grand Dérangement
    • July 28, 1755 British Governor Charles
    Lawrence starts the expulsion process
    • will end up removing between 6,000-
    10,000 Acadians from their homes
    • 1,000 would remain in the area hiding in
    the woods
    • would become known as le grand
    derangement  the Great Upheaval
    • https://www.youtube.com/watch?
    v=9F23fgzNbO4
    • across Acadia similar events happened:
    • adult men and boys over 10 brought to central
    locations for an important announcement
    Le Grand Dérangement • announcement became that the Acadians were being
    forced off their lands
    • allowed to bring any cash or household goods
    • BUT all land and livestock forfeit to the British crown
    • AND all the men were imprisoned
    • Lawrence actually acting without superiors or
    forward planning  means the men are imprisoned
    for over a month
    • don’t release them for fear of rebellion
    • e.g. Grand Pré 428 men and boys forced onto
    transport ships or in the local church  best evidence
    for deportations based on diary of Colonel John
    Winslow  New England solider
    Le Grand Dérangement – Grand Pré
    • the men were then used as hostages to keep the women under control  Winslow a
    master of psychological warfare

    • needed them to bring in the harvest to feed both the prisoners and the occupied
    soldiers  women had to comply or Winslow would refuse all food to their
    imprisoned men

    • Winslow allows several male millers to grind the wheat

    • to keep the adult male prisoners in line Winslow put the young boys on the transport
    ships as additional hostages

    • once the harvest was finished and all transports ships had arrived  second phase of
    deportation

    • Winslow assured compliance but threatening to separate families  still happened

    • as soon as the town was evacuated it was burned to the ground by British soldiers

    • outside Grand Pré where the psychological warfare was less organized prisoners were
    sometimes freed and then hidden by the Mi’kmaq
    • the plan was to scatter the Acadians throughout the
    Thirteen Colonies to avoid them grouping together to
    create rebellion
    • made a law for them that once they arrived in their new
    city or town or settlement they were forbidden to leave the
    borders of that place
    Le Grand • conditions of the ship were awful largely due to lack of
    Dérangement planning:
    • not properly provisioned
    • cargo ships not ships for transporting people
    • lots of disease (might have been due to their isolation
     exposed for the first time)
    • thousands die on the journey
    Le Grand Dérangement – Resettlement
    • the towns and cities the Acadians were forced to
    settle in were usually hostile  ongoing wars
    with France causes anti-French and anti-Catholic
    feelings
    • many saw the Acadians as only a drain on the
    economy  gave them little aid as possible
    • e.g. Maryland  many died of exposure or
    starvation in the swamp lands
    • most cases children were seized and sold into
    indentured servitude  long terms  most were
    not free until age 21
    • some risked imprisonment trying to escape to
    Quebec  at best a temporary reprieve because
    New France would also fall in 1763
    The Second Expulsion
    • a second expulsion occurred in 1758 to get rid of those who had hidden and were
    still in the area
    • in this case the Acadians were departed back to France or Britain

    • many would die of disease again AND the Atlantic crossing was a dangerous one 
    many drowned
    • many of the survivors who reached Europe would actually emigrate to place like
    Louisiana  had been a French colony and still had much of its French culture 
    actually became a huge chain migration
    • Acadian gets shorted to Cajun  first was used as an insult but gradually adopted
    by Acadians themselves  Acadian diaspora ((the dispersal of people from their
    ancestral homeland) would form a distinct subculture with its own dialect, music, and food
    • in 1764 Britain allowed some small select groups of Acadians to return to what is
    now Nova Scotia and Cape Breton Island  not original homelands BUT will be
    vocal minority for French and Roman Catholic rights in the Maritimes
    Conclusions
    • the Acadians were an extremely adaptive people who created a robust colony
    • constant chaos and lack of involvement in the early eras of Acadian development meant that
    Acadians felt little or no loyalty to either France or Britain  became an insular and self-
    sufficient community who expressed vocal resentment about interference
    • this, combined with their excellent land, and alliances with the Mi'kmaq made them a target
    • the human cost of the expulsions was extremely high  it became more than a deportation
    due to the large number of lives lost to disease, drowning, the separation of parents from their
    children and the loss of homeland and farms that they had built

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