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| Could they go home again ? ... | |
| When the war was over in 1763, a few
thousand Acadians headed for Canada. In 1766, about 800 of them gathered
in Boston and left by land, headed for Acadia. Four months later,
they had gotten to the isthmus of Shediac and heard that Grand Pre was
settled by others. So many of them stayed right there. About
50-60 continued on to see their former settlements in Acadia. The
men and women there were threatened and angry at the pitiful travelers.
They eventually reached the deserted shore of St. Mary’s Bay and settled
down.
They built log homes and started fishing, hunting, and clearing the land. Remember, Lawrence had 70 deputies imprisoned in Halifax. Of those, 50 were deported separate from their families. The rest were put in a ship that went to Port Royal to pick up more Acadians. Acadians who made their way back to their homeland found they could not settle together in large groups and their land was now occupied by people brought over by the English. |
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Massachusetts 1043 Connecticut 666 New York 249 Maryland 810 Pennsylvania 383 South Carolina 280 Georgia 185 Nova Scotia 1249 St. John River Valley (NB) 87 England 866 France 3400 Quebec 2000 PEI 300 Baie des Chaleurs 700 |
The Acadians at Philadelphia sent a petition to the king at this time. It mentions how Rene LeBlanc (while in the king’s service) was taken by the Indians to the French fort and kept for 4 years. Shortly before being made prisoners, their papers, deeds, records, etc. were taken from them (and they haven’t seen them since). They had thought that they were being summoned to renew their former oath. It talks about the haste and little regard that took place with the deportation. It says “Parents were separated from children, husbands from wives, some of whom have not to this day met again; and we were so crowded in the transport vessels that we had not room even for all our bodies to lay down at once.” They couldn’t even bring anything with them. |
| By 1763, there were 154 families
at Horton and 128 families at Cornwallis. The English settlers sent
a note to the governor asking him to allow the Acadians to remain, because
they were needed as laborers (ie. to help repaire dykes). But the
Acadians working with the new settlers at Kings and Annapolis were ordered
to go to Halifax, where 130 were deported in 1762.
In 1764, there were 2,600 Acadians in Acadia. In 1768, Nova Scotia had 1068. The govt. tried to find settlers in 1759. Canard and Habitant were now called Cornwallis. The English arriving in 1761 found Acadians who had not eaten bread in 5 years. Lawrence offered the land to New Englanders, who sent agents to look it over. [Herbin, 142-147] As a result of the Grande Derangement, two “New Acadias” were formed ... one in Louisiana and one in New Brunswick. Only in these places (and small settlements nearby) did the Acadians manage to maintain their identity into the 20th century. |
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| LINK
• The Treaty of Paris - 1763 |
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 The
1755 Exile
The
1758 Exile
The
"End" of
the Exile |
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St. Domingue | Martinique | French Guiana | Falkland Islands | St. Pierre & Miquelon | Louisiana American Colonies: Connecticut | Georgia | Maryland | Massachusetts | New York | Pennsylvania | South Carolina |
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