116-605: Grand-Pré National Historic Site is a park set aside to commemorate the Grand-Pré area of Nova Scotia as a centre of Acadian settlement from 1682 to 1755, and the British deportation of the Acadians that happened during the French and Indian War . The original village of Grand Pré extended four kilometres along the ridge between present-day Wolfville and Hortonville . Grand-Pré is listed as
232-628: A World Heritage Site and is the main component of two National Historic Sites of Canada . Grand-Pré (French for great meadow ) is located on the shore of the Minas Basin, an area of tidal marshland, first settled about 1680 by Pierre Melanson dit La Verdure, his wife Marguerite Mius d'Entremont and their five young children who came from nearby Port-Royal , which was the first capital of the French settlement of Acadia ( Acadie in French). Pierre Melanson and
348-441: A YA novel entitled The Hat , inspired by what happened at Grand-Pré in 1755. There is no reference to Evangeline in the novel. The focus instead is on two fictional characters, 14-year old Marie and 10-year old Charles. In 1907, John Frederic Herbin , poet, historian, and jeweller, and whose mother was Acadian, purchased the land believed to be the site of the church of Saint-Charles so that it might be protected. The following year
464-574: A piece of the land and funds were raised to build a memorial church in Grand-Pré. Construction began in the spring of 1922 and the exterior was finished by November. The interior of the church was finished in 1930, the 175th anniversary of the Deportation, and the church opened as a museum. As railway tourism declined in the face of subsidized highway construction, the Dominion Atlantic sold the park to
580-611: A raid on the blockhouse at LaHave, Nova Scotia. On September 11, a child was killed in a raid on the Northwest Range. Another raid happened on March 27, 1759, in which three members of the Oxner family were killed. The last raid happened on April 20, 1759, at Lunenburg, when the Miꞌkmaq killed four settlers who were members of the Trippeau and Crighton families. The Cape Sable campaign involved
696-408: A rectilinear street grid was laid between Grand-Pré and Horton Landing to the east, but the local farming population preferred to settle along the upland ridge in a spread out fashion, much like the previous residents of the area, the Acadians, had done. Several schools and congregations were formed at Grand-Pré including a meeting house converted into a church in the early 19th century, today known as
812-500: A region they called La Grande Ligne ("The Great Road", also known as "the King's Highway"). About 1,500 Acadians accepted the offer, but the land turned out to be infertile, and by the end of 1775, most of them abandoned the province. The British did not directly deport Acadians to Louisiana. Following the expulsion by the British from their home, Acadians found their way to many friendly locales, including France. Acadians left France, under
928-415: A schooner at Fort Cumberland and killed its master and two sailors. In the winter of 1759, the Miꞌkmaq ambushed five British soldiers on patrol while they were crossing a bridge near Fort Cumberland. They were ritually scalped and their bodies mutilated as was common in frontier warfare . During the night of April 4, 1759, a force of Acadians and French in canoes captured the transport. At dawn they attacked
1044-541: A staple for tourism traffic on the Dominion Atlantic and the Grand Pre site was located beside the railway's mainline. The railway made substantial investments in developing the park and promoting the history and lore of Acadians. Extensive gardens were planted at the site and a small museum was opened. In 1920 the Dominion Atlantic erected a statue of Evangeline conceived by Canadian sculptor Louis-Philippe Hébert and, after his death, finished by his son Henri. The railway deeded
1160-512: A warehouse near Fort Edward, killed thirteen British soldiers, took what provisions they could carry and set fire to the building. Days later, the same partisans raided Fort Cumberland. By November 1756, French Officer Lotbinière wrote about the difficulty of recapturing Fort Beausejour: "The English have deprived us of a great advantage by removing the French families that were settled there on their different plantations; thus we would have to make new settlements." The Acadians and Mi'kmaq fought in
1276-400: Is 44.5, compared to 41.8 for the province. 84.8% of the population is older than 15 years, which is in the provincial average. With regard to language, 96.6% of the inhabitants are English-speaking, 1.4% are francophone and 2.0% are allophones . The francophone population is anglicized as 99.3% of the population speak English at home. With respect to knowledge of official languages, 7.2% of
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#17329060637381392-412: Is also a fine vantage point for watching the ebb and flow of the world's highest tides. Grand-Pré has no official status; there are only specific data for subdivision D of Kings County, which includes the area between Hantsport and Wolfville , where Grand-Pré and a few other villages exist. In this area, there were 5499 inhabitants in 2006, compared to 5167 in 2001, an increase of 6.4%. The average age
1508-467: Is the oldest existing Presbyterian church in Nova Scotia. One of Nova Scotia's best known wineries, Domaine de Grand-Pré, is located in the community. Grand-Pré is also Canada's first designated Historic Rural District. The Just Us! coffee company headquarters is located in the village and is something of a tourist attraction. Evangeline Beach is a famous stopover for thousands of migrating shore birds and
1624-606: The Battle of Jumonville Glen . French Officer Ensign de Jumonville and a third of his escort were killed by a British patrol led by George Washington . In retaliation the French and the Native Americans defeated the British at Fort Necessity . Washington lost a third of his force and surrendered. Major General Edward Braddock 's troops were defeated in the Battle of the Monongahela , and Major General William Johnson 's troops stopped
1740-471: The Church of England was made the official religion. These acts granted certain political rights to Protestants while the new laws excluded Catholics from public office and the franchise (the right to vote) and forbade Catholics from owning land in the province. It also empowered British authorities to seize all "popish" property (Church lands) for the crown and barred Catholic clergy from entering or residing in
1856-545: The Covenanter Church . Over time, merchants and shop owners congregated at nearby Wolfville to the west, leaving Grand-Pré to continue as a farming community. One of the Planter descendants was Sir Robert Borden , the eighth Prime Minister of Canada , who was born in Grand-Pré in 1854. Grand-Pré continued as a rich and productive but small farming community. The Windsor and Annapolis Railway arrived in 1869, at first serving
1972-572: The French conquered St. John's, Newfoundland on June 14, 1762, the success galvanized both the Acadians and the natives, who gathered in large numbers at various points throughout the province and behaved in a confident and, according to the British, "insolent fashion". Officials were especially alarmed when natives gathered close to the two principal towns in the province, Halifax and Lunenburg, where there were also large groups of Acadians. The government organized an expulsion of 1,300 people and shipped them to Boston. The government of Massachusetts refused
2088-635: The Gaspé Peninsula coast of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence . Sir Charles Hardy and Brigadier-General James Wolfe commanded the naval and military forces, respectively. After the Siege of Louisbourg (1758), Wolfe and Hardy led a force of 1500 troops in nine vessels to Gaspé Bay , arriving there on September 5. From there they dispatched troops to Miramichi Bay on September 12, Grande-Rivière, Quebec and Pabos on September 13, and Mont-Louis, Quebec on September 14. Over
2204-582: The Haitian Revolution . Louisiana's population contributed to the founding of the modern Cajun population. (The French word "Acadien" evolved into the word "Cadien", which was later anglicized as the word "Cajun"). On July 11, 1764, the British government passed an order-in-council to permit Acadians to legally return to British territories in small isolated groups, provided that they take an unqualified oath of allegiance. Some Acadians returned to Nova Scotia (which included present-day New Brunswick). Under
2320-527: The LaHave River at Dayspring was killed and another seriously wounded by a member of the Labrador family. The next raid happened at Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia on August 24, 1758, when eight Miꞌkmaq attacked the family homes of Lay and Brant. They killed three people in the raid, but were unsuccessful in taking their scalps, a common practice for payment from the French. Two days later, two soldiers were killed in
2436-710: The Mississippi River and later, they settled in the Atchafalaya Basin , as well as in the prairie lands to the west—a region which was later renamed Acadiana . Some Acadians were sent to colonize places in the Caribbean, such as French Guiana , or the Falkland Islands under the direction of Louis Antoine de Bougainville ; these latter efforts at colonization were unsuccessful. Other Acadians migrated to places like Saint-Domingue , but they fled to New Orleans after
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#17329060637382552-536: The Province of Maine , a large, but sparsely populated exclave of the colony of Massachusetts. For four long winter months, William Shirley , who had ordered their deportation, had not allowed them to disembark and as a result, half died of cold and starvation aboard the ships. Some men and women were forced into servitude or forced labor, children were taken away from their parents and were distributed to various families throughout Massachusetts. The government also arranged
2668-593: The Raid on Grand Pré (1704) happened and Major Benjamin Church burned the entire village. After the war, in 1713, part of Acadia became Nova Scotia, and Port-Royal, now called Annapolis Royal, became its capital. Over the next 40 years the Acadians refused to sign an unconditional oath of allegiance to the British crown. Some were motivated not to sign for fear of losing their religion, some were afraid of repercussions from their native allies, some did not want to take up arms against
2784-438: The "Ste Anne's Massacre". On February 18, 1759, Hazen and about fifteen men arrived at Sainte-Anne des Pays-Bas. The Rangers pillaged and burned the village of 147 buildings, two Catholic churches and various barns and stables. The Rangers burned a large store-house, containing a large quantity of hay, wheat, peas, oats and other foodstuffs, and killed 212 horses, about five head of cattle and a large number of hogs. They also burned
2900-454: The 1650s when Acadia was under English control. Pierre Terriot was the son of Jehan born in Port Royale around 1654. Pierre Melanson was responsible for founding the parish of Saint-Charles des Mines while his friend, Pierre Terriot founded the parish of Saint-Joseph de la rivière aux Canards. The fertility of the soils and wealth of other resources in the area had been known to the French since
3016-426: The 300th anniversary of the arrival of the first Acadians in the region in 1682, the Grand-Pré memorial park was designated the "Grand-Pré National Historic Site" in commemoration of the settlement and later deportation of the Acadians. In 1995, the site and surrounding region were designated the "Grand-Pré Rural Historic District National Historic Site" in honour of the rural cultural landscape which features one of
3132-408: The Acadians ). A. J. B. Johnston wrote that the evidence for the removal of the Acadians indicates that the decision makers thought the Acadians were a military threat, therefore the deportation of 1755 does not qualify as an act of ethnic cleansing. Geoffrey Plank argues that the British continued the expulsion after 1758 for military reasons: present-day New Brunswick remained contested territory and
3248-483: The Acadians and to permanently cut the supply lines they provided to Louisbourg by removing them from the area. Without differentiating between those who had remained neutral and those who took up arms, the British governor Charles Lawrence and the Nova Scotia Council ordered all Acadians to be expelled. In the first wave of the expulsion, Acadians were deported to other British North American colonies. During
3364-469: The Acadians had to remain in port on their vessels for months. The Colony of Virginia refused to accept the Acadians on grounds that no notice was given of their arrival. They were detained at Williamsburg , where hundreds died from disease and malnutrition. They were then sent to Britain where they were held as prisoners until the Treaty of Paris in 1763. The Acadians who had offered the most resistance to
3480-501: The Acadians on the Petiticodiac . They arrived at present-day Moncton and Danks' Rangers ambushed about 30 Acadians who were led by Joseph Broussard dit Beausoleil. The Acadians were driven into the river where three of them were killed and scalped, and the others were captured. Broussard was seriously wounded. Danks reported that the scalps were Miꞌkmaq and received payment for them. Thereafter, he went down in local lore as "one of
3596-714: The Acadians permission to land and sent them back to Halifax. Miꞌkmaw and Acadian resistance was evident in the Halifax region. On April 2, 1756, Miꞌkmaq received payment from the Governor of Quebec for twelve British scalps taken at Halifax. Acadian Pierre Gautier, son of Joseph-Nicolas Gautier, led Miꞌkmaw warriors from Louisbourg on three raids against Halifax Peninsula in 1757. In each raid, Gautier took prisoners, scalps or both. Their last raid happened in September and Gautier went with four Miꞌkmaq, and killed and scalped two British men at
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3712-607: The Acadians refused to sign an oath of allegiance to Britain, which would make them loyal to the crown, the British Lieutenant Governor, Charles Lawrence, as well as the Nova Scotia Council on July 28, 1755, made the decision to deport the Acadians. The British deportation campaigns began on August 11, 1755. Throughout the expulsion, Acadians and the Wabanaki Confederacy continued a guerrilla war against
3828-458: The Acadians the legal right to leave Georgia and enter other colonies. South Carolina followed Georgia's example and expediated passports to Acadian exiles in hopes they would move on to other territories. Along with these papers, South Carolina authorities provided the Acadians with two vessels. After running aground numerous times in the ships, some of these Acadians returned to the Bay of Fundy. Along
3944-494: The Acadians to France during the second wave of the expulsion. Approximately 1,000 Acadians went to the Colony of Maryland , where they lived in a section of Baltimore that became known as French Town . The Irish Catholics were reported to have shown charity to the Acadians by taking orphaned children into their homes. Approximately 2,000 Acadians disembarked at the Colony of Massachusetts . There were several families deported to
4060-496: The Acadians who joined him in Grand-Pré built dykes there to hold back the tides along the Minas Basin. They created rich pastures for their animals and fertile fields for their crops. Grand-Pré became the bread basket of Acadia, soon outgrew Port-Royal, and by the mid-18th century was the largest of the numerous Acadian communities around the Bay of Fundy and the coastline of Nova Scotia (Latin for "New Scotland"). During Queen Anne's War ,
4176-491: The Acadians' allegiance to the French and the Wabanaki Confederacy as a military threat. Father Le Loutre's War had created the conditions for total war ; British civilians had not been spared and, as Governor Charles Lawrence and the Nova Scotia Council saw it, Acadian civilians had provided intelligence, sanctuary, and logistical support while others had fought against the British. During Le Loutre's war, to protect
4292-526: The Annapolis region. They were victorious in the Battle of Bloody Creek (1757) . Acadians being deported from Annapolis Royal on the ship Pembroke rebelled against the British crew, took over the ship and sailed to land. In December 1757, while cutting firewood near Fort Anne, John Weatherspoon was captured by Natives—presumably Miꞌkmaq— and was carried away to the mouth of the Miramichi River, from where he
4408-480: The British claim to Acadia, putting villages at risk of attack from the Miꞌkmaq. Other Acadians refused to sign an unconditional oath because they were anti-British. Various historians have observed that some Acadians were labelled "neutral" when they were not. By the time of the Expulsion of the Acadians, there was already a long history of political and military resistance by Acadians and the Wabanaki Confederacy to
4524-409: The British colonies. While there was clear animosity between Catholics and Protestants during this time period, many historians point to the overwhelming evidence which suggests that the motivation for the expulsion was military. The British wanted to cut off supply lines to the Miꞌkmaq, Louisbourg and Quebec. They also wanted to end any military threat which the Acadians posed (See Military history of
4640-441: The British government passed an order-in-council to permit Acadians to return to British territories in small isolated groups, provided that they take an unqualified oath of allegiance. Today Acadians live primarily in eastern New Brunswick and some regions of Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, Quebec and northern Maine. American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow memorialized the expulsion in the popular 1847 poem, Evangeline , about
4756-609: The British in response to British aggression which had been continuous since 1744 (see King George's War and Father Le Loutre's War ). The first wave of the expulsion began on August 10, 1755, with the Bay of Fundy Campaign during the French and Indian War. The British ordered the expulsion of the Acadians after the Battle of Beausejour (1755). The campaign started at Chignecto and then quickly moved to Grand-Pré , Piziquid ( Falmouth / Windsor, Nova Scotia ) and finally Annapolis Royal . On November 17, 1755, George Scott took 700 troops, attacked twenty houses at Memramcook, arrested
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4872-511: The British occupation of Acadia. The Miꞌkmaq and the Acadians were allies through numerous inter-marriages during the previous century. While the Acadians were the largest population, the Wabanaki Confederacy, particularly the Miꞌkmaq, held the military strength in Acadia even after the British conquest. They resisted the British occupation and were joined on numerous occasions by Acadians. These efforts were often supported and led by French priests in
4988-401: The British removing Acadians from present-day Shelburne County and Yarmouth County . In April 1756, Major Jedidiah Preble and his New England troops, on their return to Boston, raided a settlement near Port La Tour and captured 72 men, women and children. In the late summer of 1758, Major Henry Fletcher led the 35th regiment and a company of Gorham's Rangers to Cape Sable. He cordoned off
5104-583: The British settlers from attacks along the former border of New England and Acadia, the Kennebec River , the British built Fort Halifax ( Winslow ), Fort Shirley ( Dresden , formerly Frankfurt) and Fort Western ( Augusta ). After the British capture of Beauséjour , the plan to capture Louisbourg included cutting trade to the Fortress in order to weaken the Fortress and, in turn, weaken the French ability to supply
5220-608: The British—particularly those who had been at Chignecto—were reported to have been sent to the southernmost colonies (the Carolinas and the Colony of Georgia ), where about 1,400 Acadians settled and were "subsidized" and put to work on plantations . Under the leadership of Jacques Maurice Vigneau of Baie Verte , the majority of the Acadians in Georgia received a passport from the governor, John Reynolds . These passports gave
5336-727: The Canadian Maritimes such as Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and New Brunswick. Many Acadians expelled from the Grand-Pré area eventually settled in the New England States and travelling overland to South Louisiana in the United States after being dropped on the Atlantic coast. In Louisiana, the term Cajun evolved from the name Acadian. After the deportation of the Acadians, the vacant lands were resettled by New England Planters in 1760 and renamed Horton Township. A large town plot with
5452-672: The Canadian federal government in 1957. The Canadian Parks Service took over operation of the park. It was designated a National Historic Site in 1982. The Visitor Reception and Interpretation Center features exhibits about the history of Grand-Pré and Acadia . A video presentation presents the story of the Acadian deportation . Grand-Pré National Historic Site is also the location of an archaeological site sponsored by St. Mary’s University , Parks Canada , and Sociéte Promotion Grand-Pré. While excavations have been undertaken by Parks Canada since 1971,
5568-617: The Chignecto region and were victorious in the Battle of Petitcodiac (1755). In the spring of 1756, a wood-gathering party from Fort Monckton (former Fort Gaspareaux ) was ambushed and nine were scalped. In April 1757, the same band of Acadian and Miꞌkmaw partisans raided Fort Edward and Fort Cumberland near present-day Jolicure, New Brunswick , killing and scalping two men and taking two prisoners. July 20, 1757, some Miꞌkmaq killed 23 and captured two of Gorham's rangers outside Fort Cumberland. In March 1758, forty Acadians and Miꞌkmaq attacked
5684-501: The French advance at Lake George . In Acadia, the primary British objective was to defeat the French fortifications at Beauséjour and Louisbourg and to prevent future attacks from the Wabanaki Confederacy, French and Acadians on the northern New England border. (There was a long history of these attacks from Acadia – see the Northeast Coast Campaigns 1688 , 1703 , 1723 , 1724 , 1745 , 1746 , 1747 .) The British saw
5800-436: The French and others were anti-British (see Military history of the Acadians ). During King George's War the French made numerous attempts to regain Acadia (See Siege of Annapolis Royal (1744) and in 1745 ). As a result of British attempts to secure their control over the Bay of Fundy region, they were defeated by some local Acadians, Mi'kmaq and Canadiens in the Battle of Grand Pre . Father Le Loutre's War began with
5916-517: The Landscape of Grand-Pré was named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. Grand-Pré was founded in about 1680 by Pierre Melanson and Pierre Terriot. Pierre Melanson, an Acadian settler who traveled east from Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Mons 's original settlement at Port Royal and its habitation . Pierre, an Acadian of French Huguenot and English extraction, had arrived in Port Royal with Sir Thomas Temple in
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#17329060637386032-564: The Lunenburg settlement nine times over a three-year period during the war. Boishebert ordered the first Raid on Lunenburg (1756) . In 1757, the second raid on Lunenburg occurred, in which six people from the Brisson family were killed. The following year, March 1758, there was a raid on the Lunenburg Peninsula at the Northwest Range (present-day Blockhouse, Nova Scotia ) when five people from
6148-462: The Mi'kmaq by deporting Acadians from Acadia. After the Battle of Fort Beauséjour , the British began the removal of the Acadians . During the Bay of Fundy Campaign (1755) , Lieutenant Colonel John Winslow arrived in Grand-Pré with troops on August 19, 1755 and took up headquarters in the church. Winslow also built a palisade, which was recently uncovered through archeological research. The men and boys of
6264-708: The Mi'kmaq retreated. During the French and Indian War (the North American theatre of the Seven Years' War ), the Acadians were expelled from Grand-Pré during the Bay of Fundy Campaign (1755) . There were various British soldiers who kept a journal of the deportation from Grand-Pré such as Lt. Col. John Winslow and Jeremiah Bancroft . The site of Grand-Pré during the expulsion was later immortalized by American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow with his epic poem Evangeline . Acadians from Grand Pré were dispersed in many locations and some eventually returned to other parts of
6380-511: The Minas Basin, collectively becoming known as Les Mines or Minas after the copper deposits surveyed by de Mons at the entrance to the Basin. By the mid-1680s the population was sufficient to support a church and the parish of Saint-Charles des Mines was formed. During Queen Anne's War , New Englander Ranger Benjamin Church , burned the village and broke some of the dykes in the Raid on Grand Pré . In this raid, Church and his rangers got stuck on
6496-422: The Miꞌkmaq in their warfare against the British. According to historian Stephen Patterson , more than any other single factor – including the massive assault that eventually forced the surrender of Louisbourg – the supply problem brought an end to French power in the region. Lawrence realized he could reduce the military threat and weaken Fortress Louisbourg by deporting the Acadians, thus cutting off supplies to
6612-612: The Nova Scotia legislature passed an act to incorporate the Trustees of the Grand-Pré Historic Grounds. Herbin built a stone cross on the site to mark the cemetery of the church, using stones from the remains of what he believed to be Acadian foundations. Herbin sold the property to the Dominion Atlantic Railway in 1917 on the condition that Acadians be involved in its preservation. Acadian history had already become
6728-491: The Ochs and Roder families were killed. By the end of May 1758, most of those on the Lunenburg Peninsula had abandoned their farms and retreated to the protection of the fortifications around the town of Lunenburg, losing the season for sowing their grain. For those who did not leave their farms, the number of raids intensified. During the summer of 1758, there were four raids on the Lunenburg Peninsula. On July 13, 1758, one person on
6844-588: The Removals. There is significant evidence in the correspondence of military and civil leaders for Anti-Catholicism . Faragher writes, "The first session of the Nova Scotia Assembly ... passed a series of laws intended to institutionalize Acadian dispossession" including an act titled "An Act for the Quieting of Possessions to Protestant Grantees of land formerly occupied by the French." In it and two subsequent acts,
6960-505: The US state of Maine . The Expulsion occurred during the French and Indian War , the North American theatre of the Seven Years' War . Prior to 1758, Acadians were deported to the Thirteen Colonies , then later transported to either Britain or France . Of an estimated 14,100 Acadians, approximately 11,500 were deported, of whom 5,000 died of disease, starvation or shipwrecks. Their land
7076-491: The accommodation that Acadians and Anglo-Americans reached." As well, the British were clearly not concerned that the Acadians were French, given the fact that they were recruiting French " foreign Protestants " to settle in the region. Further, the New Englanders of Boston were not banishing Acadians from the Atlantic region; instead, they were actually deporting them to live in the heart of New England: Boston and elsewhere in
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#17329060637387192-583: The adoption of orphaned children and provided subsidies for housing and food for a year. The Colony of Connecticut prepared for the arrival of 700 Acadians. Like Maryland, the Connecticut legislature declared that "[the Acadians] be made welcome, helped and settled under the most advantageous conditions, or if they have to be sent away, measures be taken for their transfer." The Colony of Pennsylvania accommodated 500 Acadians. Because they arrived unexpectedly,
7308-451: The area were ordered into the church on September 5. Winslow informed them that all but their personal goods were to be forfeited to the Crown and that they and their families were to be deported as soon as ships arrived to take them away. (At exactly the same time, the Acadians in the neighbouring village of Pisiguit were informed of the same declaration at Fort Edward .) Some Acadians escaped
7424-411: The bottom of the river, raiding Kennebecais and Managoueche ( City of Saint John ), where they built Fort Frederick . Then they moved up the river and raided Grimross ( Arcadia, New Brunswick ), Jemseg , and finally reached Sainte-Anne des Pays-Bas. Contrary to Governor Lawrence's direction, New England Ranger Lieutenant Hazen engaged in frontier warfare against the Acadians in what has become known as
7540-584: The cape and sent his men through it. One hundred Acadians and Father Jean Baptistee de Gray surrendered, while about 130 Acadians and seven Miꞌkmaq escaped. The Acadian prisoners were taken to Georges Island in Halifax Harbour. En route to the St. John River Campaign in September 1758, Monckton sent Major Roger Morris of the 35th Regiment, in command of two men-of-war and transport ships with 325 soldiers, to deport more Acadians. On October 28, Monckton's troops sent
7656-452: The capital of Acadia. The 1713 Treaty of Utrecht ceded the territory to Great Britain while allowing the Acadians to keep their lands. Reluctant to sign an unconditional oath of allegiance to Britain, over the following decades some participated in French military operations and helped maintain supply lines to the French fortresses of Louisbourg and Beauséjour . As a result, the British sought to eliminate any future military threat posed by
7772-633: The church located just west of Old Government House, Fredericton . The leader of the Acadian militia on the St. John river, Joseph Godin-Bellefontaine , refused to swear an oath despite the Rangers torturing and killing his daughter and three of his grandchildren in front of him. The Rangers also took six prisoners. In the Gulf of St. Lawrence Campaign, also known as the Gaspee Expedition, British forces raided French villages along present-day New Brunswick and
7888-523: The close conditions, while others were allowed to join communities and live normal lives. In France, 78 Acadian families were repatriated to Belle-Île-en-Mer off the western coast of Brittany after the Treaty of Paris. The most serious resettlement attempt was made by Louis XV , who offered 2 acres (8,100 m ) of land in the Poitou province to 626 Acadian families each, where they lived close together in
8004-652: The community lies at the eastern edge of the Annapolis Valley several kilometres east of the town of Wolfville on a peninsula jutting into the Minas Basin surrounded by extensive dyked farm fields, framed by the Gaspereau and Cornwallis Rivers . The community was made famous by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 's poem Evangeline and is today home to the Grand-Pré National Historic Site . On June 30, 2012,
8120-427: The community with a small rural station. Livestock and marsh hay became major exports, joined in the late 19th century by the Annapolis Valley's major apple exporting industry. Four large apple warehouses were built around the station to pack and ship apples. In the 1920s when the Dominion Atlantic Railway developed the Grand-Pré Memorial Park to attract tourists. While agriculture remained Grand-Pré's major industry,
8236-415: The deportation and continued their armed resistance against the British throughout the expulsion campaigns. Before the first year was over, however, more than 6,000 Acadians were deported from the Bay of Fundy region. Many villages were burned to the ground to ensure the Acadians would not be able to return. Thousands more would be deported in the second wave of the Expulsion of the Acadians , which involved
8352-488: The deportation of the Acadians from Cape Breton and Prince Edward Island (1758). The deportation continued until England and France made peace in 1763. In all, 12,000 Acadians were deported. Many Acadians died from drowning, starvation, imprisonment, and exposure. When the poem, Evangeline , by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was published in the United States in 1847, the story of the Deportation and le Grand Dérangement,
8468-576: The deportation orders, Acadian land tenure had been forfeited to the British crown and the returning Acadians no longer owned land. Beginning in 1760 much of their former land was distributed under grant to the New England Planters . The lack of available farmland compelled many Acadians to seek out a new livelihood as fishermen on the west coast of Nova Scotia, known as the French Shore. The British authorities scattered other Acadians in groups along
8584-403: The early part of the century when Samuel de Champlain , de Mont's cartographer, had surveyed the region. The settlers quickly employed their dyke building technology to the vast salt marshes; effectively reclaiming several thousand acres of productive farm land. The farms and the population grew quickly, making Grand-Pré the principal settlement in Acadia. Settlements spread from Grand-Pré around
8700-460: The establishment of Halifax , which became the new capital for the colony in 1749. The British established Fort Vieux Logis at Grand Pre, which a Mi'kmaq and Acadian militia attacked in the Siege of Grand Pre . During the French and Indian War , the British sought to neutralize any military threat Acadians might have posed and to interrupt the vital supply lines Acadians provided to Louisbourg and
8816-495: The expulsion, these Acadians were either imprisoned or deported. Along with the British achieving their military goals of destroying the fortress of Louisbourg and weakening the Mi'kmaq and Acadian militias, the result of the Expulsion was the devastation of both a primarily civilian population and the economy of the region. Thousands of Acadians died in the expulsions, mainly from diseases and drowning when ships were lost. On July 11, 1764,
8932-450: The expulsion. Historian John Grenier asserts that Faragher overstates the religious motivation for the expulsion and obscures the fact that the British accommodated Acadians by providing Catholic priests for forty years prior to the Expulsion. Grenier writes that Faragher "overstates his case; his focus on the grand dérangement as an early example of ethnic cleansing carries too much present-day emotional weight and in turn overshadows much of
9048-618: The field school has been operational for ten years, during which archaeologists have identified the cemetery for the Acadian period, the cellar of an Acadian house immediately to the east of the Memorial Church, and has conducted test pits throughout the site looking for evidence of the parish church, St-Charles-des-Mines; Pierre-Alain Bugeauld (Bujold) was the Church Warden [Marguillier aux Mines];
9164-658: The following weeks, Hardy took four sloops or schooners, destroyed about 200 fishing vessels, and took about 200 prisoners. The Acadians took refuge along the Baie des Chaleurs and the Restigouche River . Boishébert had a refugee camp at Petit-Rochelle, which was probably located near present-day Pointe-à-la-Croix, Quebec . The year after the Battle of Restigouche , in late 1761, Captain Roderick Mackenzie and his force captured over 330 Acadians at Boishebert's camp. After
9280-543: The foot of Citadel Hill. Pierre went on to participate in the Battle of Restigouche. Arriving on the provincial vessel King George, four companies of Rogers Rangers (500 rangers) were at Dartmouth April 8 until May 28 awaiting the Siege of Louisbourg (1758) . While there they scoured the woods to stop raids on Dartmouth. In July 1759, Miꞌkmaq and Acadians killed five British in Dartmouth, opposite McNabb's Island. By June 1757,
9396-536: The fort at New Gloucester . During this period, the Wolastoqiyik and Miꞌkmaq were the only tribes of the Wabanaki Confederacy who were able to fight. On August 13, 1758, Boishebert left Miramichi, New Brunswick with 400 soldiers, including Acadians whom he led from Port Toulouse . They marched to Fort St. George ( Thomaston ) and unsuccessfully laid siege to the town, and raided Munduncook ( Friendship ) where they wounded eight British settlers and killed others. This
9512-427: The fort. During the expulsion, French Officer Charles Deschamps de Boishébert led the Miꞌkmaq and the Acadians in a guerrilla war against the British. According to Louisbourg's account books, by late 1756 the French had regularly dispensed supplies to 700 natives. From 1756 to the fall of Louisbourg in 1758, the French made regular payments to Chief Jean-Baptiste Cope and other natives for British scalps . Once
9628-505: The great uprooting, was told to the English-speaking world. Grand-Pré, forgotten for almost a century, became popular for American tourists who wanted to visit the birthplace of the poem's heroine, Evangeline. But nothing remained of the original village except the dykelands and a row of old willows. There is a bust of Henry W. Longfellow on site by Sir Thomas Brock . In 2018, Canadian historian and novelist A. J. B. Johnston published
9744-461: The highest numbers of fatalities during the expulsion. By the time the second wave of the expulsion had begun, the British had discarded their policy of relocating the Acadians to the Thirteen Colonies, and had begun deporting them directly to France. In 1758, hundreds of Île Royale Acadians fled to one of Boishebert's refugee camps south of Baie des Chaleurs. The Petitcodiac River Campaign
9860-625: The influence of Henri Peyroux de la Coudreniere , to settle in Louisiana , which was then a colony of Spain. Louisiana was transferred to the Spanish government in 1762. Because of the good relations which existed between France and Spain, and because of their common Catholic religion, some Acadians chose to take oaths of allegiance to the Spanish government. Soon the Acadians composed the largest ethnic group in Louisiana. First, they settled in areas along
9976-477: The most 'obnoxious' Acadians and replace them with Protestant immigrants. In time the Protestants would come to dominate their new communities." Shirley wanted "peaceable [loyal] subjects" and specifically, in his own words, "good Protestant ones." Faragher compared the expulsion of the Acadians to contemporary acts of ethnic cleansing . In contrast, some leading historians have objected to this characterization of
10092-619: The most reckless and brutal" of the Rangers. Colonel Robert Monckton led a force of 1,150 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 ( Fredericton, New Brunswick ) in February 1759. Monckton was accompanied by New England Rangers led by Joseph Goreham, Captain Benoni Danks, Moses Hazen and George Scott. The British started at
10208-545: The mouth of the Saint John River , carried in Acadian vessels by Acadian middlemen. The Acadians from Grand-Pré also offered their labour to those at Isthmus of Chignecto to build a church and dykes. The British built Fort Vieux Logis in the area during Father Le Loutre's War , which was attacked by the Acadians and Mi'kmaq in the Siege of Grand-Pré . The siege lasted for a week and the 300 natives took prisoners who remained in captivity for almost two years. Eventually
10324-404: The mud flats of Baie Francais (Bay of Fundy), which gave the Mi'kmaq and Acadians time to position themselves to fiercely defend the village. They were eventually overwhelmed and Church burned the village and the fields. During King George's War , a French force led by Jean-Baptiste Nicolas Roch de Ramezay defeated a larger British force in a night raid at the Battle of Grand-Pré . This battle
10440-517: The neighbouring towns destroying the plantations. On May 13, they raided Frankfort ( Dresden ), where two men were killed and a house burned. The same day they raided Sheepscot (Newcastle) and took five prisoners. Two people were killed in North Yarmouth on May 29 and one taken captive. The natives shot one person at Teconnet, now Waterville , took prisoners at Fort Halifax and two prisoners at Fort Shirley (Dresden). They also captured two workers at
10556-472: The offspring of such unions to be sent to English schools and raised as "English Protestants" (quote from a letter by Shirley). This was linked to larger anxieties in the realm over the loyalty of Catholics in general—as Charles Stuart 's Jacobite Rebellion was a Catholic-led rebellion as was Le Loutre's rebellion in Nova Scotia. Shirley, who in part was responsible for the Removals, according to historian Geoffrey Plank, "recommended using military force to expel
10672-689: The oldest land occupation and use patterns of European origin in Canada. The "Grand Pré Heritage Conservation District" was designated under the provincial Heritage Property Act in 1999, and encompasses the area in and around the hamlet of Grand-Pré as well as the Grand-Pré National Historic Site. Grand-Pr%C3%A9, Nova Scotia Grand-Pré ( French: [ɡʁɑ̃pʁe] ) is a Canadian rural community in Kings County , Nova Scotia . Its French name translates to "Great/Large Meadow" and
10788-488: The park made the community a tourism destination as well as a memorial to the Acadian people. The Park eventually became a National Historic Site and in 1957 was purchased by the Canadian Park Service . Today, Grand-Pré is the home the Grand-Pré National Historic Site which is now a national park administered by Parks Canada to commemorate the Acadian people and their deportation. The Covenanter Church at Grand-Pré
10904-496: The plight of a fictional character, which spread awareness of the expulsion. After the British gained control of Acadia in 1713, the Acadians refused to sign an unconditional oath of loyalty to become British subjects. Instead, they negotiated a conditional oath that promised neutrality. They also worried that signing the oath might commit male Acadians to fight against France during wartime and that it would be perceived by their Mi'kmaq neighbours and allies as an acknowledgement of
11020-587: The population can communicate in French at various levels, the rest being unilingual anglophone. Grand-Pré is the birthplace of Prime Minister Sir Robert Borden . Expulsion of the Acadians The Expulsion of the Acadians was the forced removal of inhabitants of the North American region historically known as Acadia between 1755 and 1764 by Great Britain . It included the modern Canadian Maritime provinces of Nova Scotia , New Brunswick , and Prince Edward Island , along with part of
11136-546: The province, as they wanted no repeat of Le Loutre and his type of war . In addition to other anti-Catholic measures, Faragher concludes "These laws—passed by a popular assembly, not enacted by military fiat—laid the foundation for the migration of Protestant settlers." In the 1740s, William Shirley had hoped to assimilate Acadians into the Protestant fold. He did so by trying to encourage (or force) Acadian women to marry English Protestants and statutes were passed which required
11252-429: The region, they raised wheat and other grains, produced flour in no fewer than eleven mills, and sustained herds of several thousand head of cattle, sheep and hogs. Regular cattle droves made their way over a road from Cobequid to Tatamagouche for the supply of Fort Beauséjour , Louisbourg , and settlements on Île St. Jean ( Prince Edward Island ). Other exports went by sea from Minas Basin to Isthmus of Chignecto or to
11368-457: The region. The Wabanaki Confederacy and Acadians fought against the British in six wars, including the French and Indian Wars , Father Rale's War and Father Le Loutre's War , over a period of 75 years. In 1753, French troops from Canada marched south and seized and fortified the Ohio Valley . Britain protested the invasion and claimed Ohio for itself. On May 28, 1754, the war began with
11484-532: The remaining Acadians and killed two hundred head of livestock to deprive the French of supplies. Acadians tried to escape the expulsion by retreating to the St. John and Petitcodiac rivers, and the Miramichi in New Brunswick. The British cleared the Acadians from these areas in the later campaigns of Petitcodiac River , Saint John River , and the Gulf of St. Lawrence in 1758. The Acadians and Miꞌkmaq resisted in
11600-399: The second wave, they were deported to Britain and France, and from there a significant number migrated to Spanish Louisiana , where "Acadians" eventually became " Cajuns ". Acadians fled initially to Francophone colonies such as Canada , the uncolonized northern part of Acadia, Île Saint-Jean (now Prince Edward Island ), and Île Royale (now Cape Breton Island ). During the second wave of
11716-399: The settlers had to be completely withdrawn from Lawrencetown (established 1754) because the number of Indian raids prevented settlers from leaving their houses. In nearby Dartmouth , in the spring of 1759, another Miꞌkmaw attack was launched on Fort Clarence , located at the present-day Dartmouth Refinery , in which five soldiers were killed. Before the deportation, the Acadian population
11832-404: The ship Moncton and chased it for five hours down the Bay of Fundy. Although Moncton escaped, one of its crew was killed and two were wounded. In September 1756, a group of 100 Acadians ambushed a party of thirteen soldiers who were working outside Fort Edward at Piziquid. Seven were taken prisoner and six escaped back to the fort. In April 1757, a band of Acadian and Miꞌkmaw partisans raided
11948-412: The shores of eastern New-Brunswick and the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. It was not until the 1930s, with the advent of the Acadian co-operative movements, that the Acadians became less economically disadvantaged. According to historian John Mack Faragher , the religious and ethnic dimensions of the Expulsion of Acadians are in addition to, and deeply connected with, the military exigencies cited as causes for
12064-426: The sort of communities Britain's colonial officials tried to discourage. More worryingly for the British authorities, some Acadians threatened to migrate north to French-controlled regions, including the Saint John River, Île Royale ( Cape Breton Island ), the coasts of the Gulf of St. Lawrence and Canada. Because the British believed their policy of sending the Acadians to the Thirteen Colonies had failed, they deported
12180-412: The way, they were captured and imprisoned. Only 900 managed to return to Acadia, less than half of those who had begun the voyage. Others also tried to return home. The South Carolina Gazette reported that in February, about 30 Acadians fled the island to which they were confined and escaped their pursuers. Alexandre Broussard, brother of the famed resistance leader Joseph Broussard, dit Beausoleil ,
12296-562: The women and children to Georges Island. The men were kept behind and forced to work with troops to destroy their village. On October 31, they were also sent to Halifax. In the spring of 1759, Joseph Gorham and his rangers arrived to take prisoner the remaining 151 Acadians. They reached Georges Island with them on June 29. November 1759 saw the deportation to Britain of 151 Acadians from Cape Sable who had been prisoners on George's Island since June. In July 1759 on Cape Sable, Captain Cobb arrived and
12412-561: Was Boishébert's last Acadian expedition; from there he and the Acadians went to Quebec and fought in the Battle of Quebec (1759) . In the first wave of the expulsion, most Acadian exiles were assigned to rural communities in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland and South Carolina. In general, they refused to stay where they were put and large numbers migrated to the colonial port cities where they gathered in isolated, impoverished French-speaking Catholic neighbourhoods,
12528-418: Was a series of British military operations that occurred from June to November 1758 to deport the Acadians who either lived along the river or had taken refuge there from earlier deportations. Benoni Danks and Gorham's Rangers carried out the operation. Contrary to Governor Lawrence's direction, New England Ranger Danks engaged in frontier warfare against the Acadians. On July 1, 1758, Danks began to pursue
12644-518: Was also a Notary (1706) and a Judge/Justice (1707). Acadian artefacts that have been unearthed include fragments of Saintonge ceramic, nails, wine bottle glass, window pane glass, a 1711 French silver coin, spoons, belt buckles, buttons, clay pipes, etc. There seems to also be evidence of the occupation by New England troops, as well as considerable evidence of the New England Planter occupation period beginning in 1760. The "Landscape of Grand Pré"
12760-755: Was among them. About a dozen are recorded to have returned to Acadia after an overland journey of 1,400 leagues (4,200 miles (6,800 km)). After the siege of Louisbourg , the British began to deport the Acadians directly to France rather than to the British colonies. Some Acadians deported to France never reached their destination. Almost 1,000 died when the transport ships Duke William , Violet , and Ruby sank in 1758 en route from Île Saint-Jean ( Prince Edward Island ) to France. About 3,000 Acadian refugees eventually gathered in France's port cities and went to Nantes . Many Acadians who were sent to Britain were housed in crowded warehouses and subject to plagues due to
12876-471: Was estimated at 14,000. Most were deported, but some Acadians escaped to Quebec, or hid among the Miꞌkmaq or in the countryside, to avoid deportation until the situation settled down. In present-day Maine, the Miꞌkmaq and the Wolastoqiyik raided numerous New England villages. At the end of April 1755, they raided Gorham , killing two men and a family. Next they appeared in New Boston ( Gray ) and went through
12992-491: Was fired upon by 100 Acadians and Miꞌkmaq. The second wave of the expulsion began with the French defeat at the Siege of Louisbourg (1758) . Thousands of Acadians were deported from Île Saint-Jean ( Prince Edward Island ) and Île Royale ( Cape Breton Island ). The Île Saint-Jean Campaign resulted in the largest percentage of deaths of the deported Acadians. The sinking of the ships Violet (with about 280 persons aboard) and Duke William (with over 360 persons aboard) marked
13108-514: Was given to settlers loyal to Britain, mostly immigrants from New England and Scotland . The event is largely regarded as a crime against humanity , though the modern-day use of the term "genocide" is debated by scholars. A census of 1764 indicates 2,600 Acadians remained in the colony, having eluded capture. In 1710, during the War of the Spanish Succession , the British captured Port Royal ,
13224-545: Was listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO on June 30, 2012, having been added to Canada's tentative list of potential World Heritage Sites in 2004. The 1,300 hectares (3,200 acres) of polderised marshland and archaeological sites in the Grand-Pré area were recognized as an "exceptional example of the adaptation of the first European settlers to the conditions of the North American Atlantic coast" and as "a memorial to Acadian way of life and deportation". In 1982, on
13340-563: Was sold or traded to the French, taken to Quebec and was held until late in 1759 and the Battle of the Plains of Abraham , when General Wolfe's forces prevailed. Approximately 55 Acadians, who escaped the initial deportation at Annapolis Royal, are reported to have made their way to the Cape Sable region—which included south western Nova Scotia—from where they participated in numerous raids on Lunenburg, Nova Scotia . The Acadians and Miꞌkmaq raided
13456-481: Was the most significant and bloodiest victory for the French in Acadia. The village, however, remained in British control once the French retreated. During Father Le Loutre's War , the Acadians at Grand-Pré played a significant role in supporting the Acadian Exodus out of mainland Nova Scotia, which started in 1749. Grand-Pré willingly responded to the call from Le Loutre for basic food stuffs. The bread basket of
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