Great Upheaval

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Deportation of Acadians order, read by Winslow in Grand-Pré church

The Great Upheaval, also known as the Great Expulsion, The Deportation, the Acadian Expulsion, and called by the deportees, Le Grand Dérangement, was the forced population transfer of the Acadian population from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick between 1755 and 1763, ordered by British governor Charles Lawrence and the Nova Scotia Council. It led to the deaths of thousands of Acadians. The policy was extremely controversial, both in Canada and England, where opponents of the British government strongly criticized it. As of the late 20th century it would probably be called an "ethnic cleansing".

Contents

[edit] History

The Acadian removal occurred at the culmination of tensions between the French and the English that had existed in Acadia since the territory was ceded to the British by the Treaty of Utrecht of 1713. It was also related to increasing tensions in the 1750s between the two nations in Europe and North America. The British, nervous about the loyalties of French-speaking inhabitants of the newly created colony of Nova Scotia, demanded that the Acadians swear an oath of loyalty to the British. The Acadians offered to swear their neutrality. In 1730, the British agreed and the Acadians became the "neutral French."[1] In 1749, Governor Cornwallis again asked the Acadians to take the oath. Although unsuccessful, he took no drastic action. The following governor, Peregrine Hopson, continued the conciliatory policy for the Acadians.[2]

When Charles Lawrence took over the post following Hopson’s return to England, he took a stronger stance. When fighting between the French and the English broke out in the Ohio River valley in 1754, signalling the beginning of the French and Indian War (and Seven Years' War in Europe), Lawrence concluded he needed the Acadians to accept the oath on British terms. Following the discovery of 300 Acadians at the French Fort Beauséjour when the English captured it in 1755, Lawrence made one last attempt to convince the Acadians to accept the oath.[3] They again refused to accept Lawrence’s terms. The Lieutenant Governor decided to deport the Acadians to various locations throughout the thirteen British North American colonies, France, Louisiana, and Britain.

Their Mi'kmaq hosts, who never agreed to cede any of their land, were not so lucky as to be deported (except for some of mixed French descent, who were deported to Massachusetts as indentured servants). Instead, to dispossess them of their homeland, successive British governors issued proclamations offering bounties to colonial rangers for hunting, killing, and scalping Mi'kmaqs. Such proclamations were issued by Governors Paul Mascarene (and William Shirley of Massachusetts Bay) in 1744, by Edward Cornwallis in 1749, and by Charles Lawrence in 1756. By the time a lasting peace was concluded between the Mi'kmaq and British in 1761, the Mi'kmaq had been greatly reduced in numbers, and most of their territory had been seized by the wave of British immigration that began in 1749. Those Mi'kmaq who managed to elude the British provided crucial support to many refugee Acadians who were relatives. Soon after the British began to claim Acadians and Mi'kmaqs as their subjects in 1713, the colonial authorities passed laws forbidding the groups to speak or intermarry, but they were not successful in keeping the populations separated.[4]

[edit] Charles Lawrence's expulsion orders

Halifax 11 August 1755

Instructions for Major Handfield, Commanding his Majesty's garrison of Annapolis Royale in relation to the transportation of the Inhabitants of the District of Annapolis River and other French Inhabitants out of the Province of Nova Scotia.

Sir,

Having in my Letter of the 31st of July last made you acquainted with the reasons which Induced His Majesty's Council to come to the Resolution of sending away the French Inhabitants and clearing the whole Country of such bad subjects, it only remains for me to give you the necessary orders for the putting in practice what has been so solemnly determined.

That the Inhabitants may not have it in their power to return to this Province nor to join in strengthening the French of Canada in Louisbourg; it is resolved that they shall be dispersed among his Majesty's Colonies upon the Continent of America.

For this purpose Transports are ordered to be sent from Boston to Annapolis to ship on board one thousand persons reckoning two persons to a ton, and for Chignecto, transports have been taken up here to carry off the Inhabitants of that place; and for those of the District around Mines Bason Transports are in from Boston. As Annapolis is the place where the last of the transports will depart from, any of the vessels that may not receive their full complement up the Bay will be ordered there, and Colonel Winslow with his detachment will follow by land and bring up what stragglers he may meet with to ship on board at your place.

Upon the arrival of the vessels from Boston in the Bason of Annapolis as many of the Inhabitants of Annapolis District as can be collected by any means, particularly the heads of families and young men, are to be shipped on board of them at the above rate of two persons to a ton, or as near it as possible. The tonnage of the vessels to be ascertained by the charter partys, which the masters will furnish you with an amount of.

And to give you all the ease possible respecting the victualling of these transports, I have appointed Mr. George Sauls to act as agent Victualler upon this occasion and have given him particular instructions for that purpose with a copy of which he will furnish you upon his arrival at Annapolis Royale from Chignecto with the provisions for victualling the whole transports; but in case you should have shipped any of the Inhabitants before his arrival you will order five pounds of flour and one pound of pork to be delivered to each person so shipped to last for seven days and so until Mr. Saul's arrival, and it will be replaced by him into the stores from what he has on board the provision vessel for that purpose.

The destination of the Inhabitants of Annapolis River and of the transports ordered to Annapolis Bason:

To be sent to Philadelphia such a number of vessels as will transport three hundred persons.

To be sent to New York such a number of vessels as will transport two hundred persons.

To be sent to Connecticut such a number of vessels / whereof the Sloop Dove, Samuel Forbes, Master to be one / as will transport three hundred persons.

And To be sent to Boston such a number of vessels as will transport two hundred persons, or rather more in proportion to the province of Connecticut, should the number to be shipped off exceed one thousand persons.

When the people are embarked you will please to give the master of each vessel one of the letters of which you will receive a number signed by me of which you will address to the Governor of the Province or the Commander in Chief for the time being where they are to be put on shore and enclose therein the printed form of the Certificate to be granted to the Masters of the vessels to entitle them to their hire as agreed upon by Charter party; and with these you will give each of the Masters their sailing orders in writing to proceed according to the above destination, and upon their arrival immediately to wait upon the Governors or Commanders in Chief of the Provinces for which they are bound with the said Letters and to make all possible dispatch in debarking their passengers and obtain certificates thereof agreeable to the form aforesaid.

And you will in these orders make it a particular injunction to the said Masters to be as careful and watchful as possible during the whole course of the passage to prevent the passengers making any attempt to seize upon the vessel by allowing only a small number to be upon the decks at a time and using all other necessary precautions to prevent the bad consequence of such attempts; and that they be particularly careful that the Inhabitants carry no arms nor other offensive weapons on board with them at their embarkation. As also that they see the provisions regularly issued to the people agreeable to the allowance proportioned in Mr. George Saul's instructions.

You will use all the means proper and necessary for collecting the people together so as to get them on board. If you find that fair means will not do with them, you must proceed by the most vigorous measures possible, not only in compelling them to embark, but in depriving those who shall escape of all means of shelter or support by burning their houses and destroying everything that may afford them the means of subsistence in the country, and if you have not force sufficient to perform this service, Colonel Winslow at Mines or the Commanding Officer there will upon your application send you a proper reinforcement.

You will see by the Charter partys of the vessels taken up at Boston that they are hired by the month; therefore I am to desire that you will use all possible dispatch to save expense to the public.

As soon as the people are shipped and the transports are ready you will acquaint the Commander of His Majesty's Ship therewith that he may take them under his convoy and put to sea without loss of time.

– Sir Charles Lawrence, Orders to Captain John Handfield

[5]

[edit] Deportation

Approximately 7,000 Acadian were deported during 1755. The deportees were held on prison ships for several weeks before being moved to their destinations, leading to the deaths of hundreds. An estimated 2,700 deportees died before reaching their destination. An additional 10,000 are estimated to have died from displacement during the winter of 1755–1756. There were approximately 23,000 Acadians before the deportation according to provincial records, but based on British records, only an estimated 10,000 survived. Approximately 5,000 to 6,000 Acadians escaped to Quebec, hid among the Mi'kmaq, or were able to hide in the countryside and avoid deportation until the situation settled down. [6]

[edit] After the expulsion

Joseph "Beausoleil" Broussard. Artist Herb Roe

Not all Acadians were deported by the British. A large number of Acadians fled overland, aided by their Mi'kmaq allies, and resettled in the colonies of New France, present-day Québec and New Brunswick. There was also a small guerrilla resistance led by Joseph Broussard dit "Beausoleil". Others returned and settled in the region of Fort Sainte-Anne, now Fredericton, and were displaced again by the arrival of Loyalists during and after the American Revolution. In 1785 they created the first colony in the Upper Saint John River valley, near what is now Edmundston.

Many of the deportees succumbed to disease after their removal from Nova Scotia. When the vessels carrying the Acadians to Philadelphia reached Delaware in November 1755, it was discovered that smallpox had broken out among them. Many subsequently perished, despite efforts of local Quakers to assist.[7] An outbreak of smallpox also claimed some of those who found refuge at Quebec, then still under French rule. Those who went to the West Indies, in particular, suffered from the change in climate and endemic infectious disease, and many died of fever.[8]. Four hundred died when the transport ship Violet sank in 1758 en route from Île St.-Jean to France. Another three hundred went down with the Prince William, another British transport ship that had unsuccessfully tried to rescue the Violet.[9]

The British burned the homes and farms around the Bay of Fundy or gave them to English-speaking Protestant colonists. For example, on 4 June 1760, New England planters arrived to claim land in Nova Scotia taken from the Acadians. The most significant repopulation in Nova Scotia came from the Highland Scots'[citation needed] emigrating as a result of the Highland Clearances beginning in the late 18th century. In time some of the Acadian population returned. Today there are islands of largely French-speaking towns, such as Chéticamp, intermingled with those of the Scots descendants.

Over the next several decades, many Acadians moved down the North American east coast, landing temporarily in New England, the Carolinas and other ports, with a large number eventually settling in Louisiana, then controlled by Spain. Spanish authorities welcomed the Catholic Acadians as settlers, first in areas along the Mississippi River, then later in the Atchafalaya Basin and in the prairie lands to the west, a region later renamed Acadiana. During the 19th century, as Acadians reestablished their culture, "Acadian" was elided locally into "Cajun."

The following table lists the destinations to which Acadians were deported, together with estimates of how many arrived at each port:

Area Population
Connecticut 667
New York 249
Maryland 810
Pennsylvania 383
North Carolina 280
Georgia 185
Massachusetts 1,043
St. John River (Maine & New Brunswick) 86
Île Saint-Jean (Prince Edward Island) 300
Baie des Chaleurs (Québec & New Brunswick) 700
Nova Scotia 1,249
Québec 2,000
Louisiana 300
England 866
France 3,500
TOTAL 12,618

Table source: R.A. LEBLANC. "Les migrations acadiennes", in Cahiers de géographie du Québec, vol. 23, no 58, April 1979, p. 99-124.

[edit] Acadians in literature and culture

American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow published a long, narrative poem about the plight of the Acadians called Evangeline in 1847.[10] The Evangeline Oak is a tourist attraction in Louisiana.

The song "Acadian Driftwood", recorded in 1975 by The Band, portrays the Great Upheaval and the displacement of the Acadian people.

[edit] Modern recognition

Grand-Pré Park, situated in present-day Grand Pré, Nova Scotia, is now a National Historic Site of Canada. It has been preserved as a living monument to the Expulsion, complete with a memorial church and a statue of Evangeline, the subject (and title) of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's stirring poem on the experience.

In December 2003, Governor General Adrienne Clarkson, representing Canada's Monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, declared the Crown's acknowledgement of (but did not apologise for) the Expulsion. She designated July 28 as "A Day of Commemoration of the Great Upheaval." This proclamation, often referred to as the Royal Proclamation of 2003, closed one of the longest open cases in the history of the British courts, initiated when the Acadian representatives first presented their grievances of forced dispossession of land, property and livestock in 1760.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ R. Douglas Francis, Richard Jones, and Donald B. Smith, Origins: Canadian History to Confederation, 6th ed. (Toronto: Nelson Education, 2009), 117
  2. ^ John Brebber, New England’s Outpost: Acadia before the Conquest of Canada, (Hamden, CT: Archon Books, 1965), 190.
  3. ^ James Hannay, "The Fall of Beausejour", in The Acadian Deportation: Deliberate Perfidy or Cruel Necessity?, edited by Naomi Griffiths, (Toronto: Copp Clark Publishing, 1969), 96.
  4. ^ Daniel N. Paul We Were Not the Savages, (2000) chapters 4-7
  5. ^ Text of Charles Lawrence's orders to Captain John Handfield
  6. ^ Faragher, p. 423–424
  7. ^ The Acadian Exiles, Arthur G. Doughty[1]
  8. ^ Ibid.
  9. ^ Ibid.
  10. ^ Calhoun, Charles C. Longfellow: A Rediscovered Life. Boston: Beacon Press, 2004: 189. ISBN 0807070262.

[edit] References

[edit] In English

[edit] In French

  • LeBlanc, Ronnie-Gilles, ed. (2005). Du Grand dérangement à la Déportation : nouvelles perspectives historiques, Moncton: Chaire d'études acadiennes, Université de Moncton, 465 p.
  • Arsenault, Bona and Pascal Alain (2004). Histoire des Acadiens, Saint-Laurent, Québec: Éditions Fides, 502 p.
  • Sauvageau, Robert (1987). Acadie : La guerre de Cent Ans des français d'Amérique aux Maritimes et en Louisiane 1670-1769 Paris: Berger-Levrault
  • Gaudet, Placide (1922). Le Grand Dérangement : sur qui retombe la responsabilité de l'expulsion des Acadiens, Ottawa: Impr. de l'Ottawa Printing Co.
  • d'Arles, Henri (1918). La déportation des Acadiens, Québec: Imprimerie de l'Action sociale

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Upheaval"
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