The Acadian Exiles : a Chronicle of the Land of Evangeline

Some were to wander as exiles in many lands for many years, separated from their childre

order that they might accompany their families, but this was not effected, for the deputies themselves landed in North Carolina, while their wives and children were dispersed in other colonies. [Footnote: Nova Scotia Documents, p. 280. Calnek and Savary, History of the County of Annapolis, p. 124.] One of the leading Acadians, and one who had loyally served the British, Rene Le Blanc, notary of Grand Pre, was landed with his wife and his two youngest children in New York, while his eighteen other children were scattered far and wid

maintain themselves by their own efforts, the state to provide for such as were incapable, through age or infirmity, of performing manual labour. Hundreds of those who were placed under control escaped and wandered, footsore and

ng to the Gazette, made their way to the plantation of a Mr Williams on the Santee, terrified the family, secured a quantity of clothing and firearms, broke open a box containing money, and headed across the Alleghanies, it was thought, for the French stronghold, Fort Duquesne, where Pittsburgh now stands. This conjecture is probable, since nine Acadians from Fort Duquesne arrived at the river St John some time later. In the interval the South Carolina legislature passed an act for the dispersion of four-fifths of the French Neutrals in various parishes at the public expense, the remaining fifth to be supported at Charleston by the vestry of St Phillips. On April 16 passports were given to one hundred and thirty persons to proceed to Virginia. Here they obtained the authority of the governor to return to Acadi

own, in 'neutral huts,' as their mean dwellings were termed. When the plague-stricken people arrived, Philadelphia had scarcely recovered from the panic of a recent earthquake. Moreover, there was a letter, said to have been written by Lawrence, dated at Halifax, August 6, and published in the Philadelphia Gazette on September 4, not calculated to place the destitute refugees in a favourable light. This is the substance of the letter: We are now forming the noble project of driving the French Neutrals out of this province. They have long been our secret enem

[Footnote: Jonathan Belcher, governor of New Jersey and later of Massachusetts. He was the father of the chief justice of Nova Scotia.] to the same effect. The governor of New Jersey, in his reply, expressed surprise that those who planned to send the French Neutrals, or rather rebels and traitors to the British cr

nd were sadly in need of bed-clothing. A petition to the governor, giving an account of their conduct in Acadia and of the treatment they had received, fell on deaf ears. An act was passed for t

commerce, and in the course of a long and successful career in Philadelphia amassed an enormous fortune, including large estates in t

he end that they may not continue as they now really are, useless to His Majesty, to themselves, and a burthen to this colony, be it enacted ... that the Justices of the Peace ... be required and empowered to bind with respectable families such as are not arrived at

Later some of the parents straggled in, but they were dispersed immediately in Orange and Westchester counties, and some on Long Island, in charge of a constable. The New York Mercury of July 1757 reported that a number of the neutrals had been captured near Fort Edward while on their way to Crown Point

ive under the French flag. The count accepted the offer and issued a proclamation to the Acadians inviting them to Santo Domingo. Moore had arranged that John Hanson should conduct the exiles to their new home. Hanson, on arriving at the French colony, was to take a contract to build houses and make out the desired military plans while so engaged. He succeeded in transporting the Acadians, but failed in th

nts in Nova Scotia, and sent here for some political reason bare and destitute, Christian charity, nay, common humanity, calls on every one according to his ability to lend assistance and to help these objects of compassion.'] There they were kindly received and found, no doubt, a happier lot than in any of the other colonies. Those landed at Baltimore were at first lodged in private hous

with especial kindness. At Worcester a small tract of land was set aside for the Acadians to cultivate, with permission to hunt deer at all seasons. The able-bodied men and women toiled in the fields as reapers, and added to their income in the evening by making wooden implements. The Acadians were truly primitive in th

should they become a public charge. Several instances are recorded of children being sent to join their parents. A certain number were confined in the workhouse and in the provincial hospital. But on December 6, 1760,

cially from Virginia, where they were not allowed to remain. Finding in Louisiana men speaking their own tongue, they felt a sense of security, and

of Nelson now stands. For several years these refugees in New Brunswick bravely struggled against hardship, disease, and starvation; but in the late autumn of 1759 the several settlements sent deputies to Colonel Frye at Fort Cumberland, asking on what terms they would be received back to Nova Scotia. Frye took a number of them into the for

nd many perished from the disease. After Quebec surrendered and the victorious British army entered the gates, some two hundred of them, under the leadership of a priest, Father Coquart, who apparently had a passport from General Murray, marched through the wilderness to the headwaters of the St John and went down to Fort Frederick at the mouth of that river. Colonel Arbuthnot, the British commandant there, treated them generously. In 1761, however, many Acadians at the St John were seized and deported to Halifax, where they were held as prisoners of war, but were provided with rations and given 'good wages for road-making.' [Footnote: MacM

f property from Indian raids than ever before. Early in the month of January 1756 British rangers rounded up over two hundred Acadian prisoners at Annapolis, and put them on board a vessel bound for South Carolina. The prisoners, however, made themselves masters of the ship and sailed into the St

out troops from Cork to Halifax were ordered to Ile St Jean to carry the Acadians and French to France. The largest of these transports was the Duke William; another was named the Violet. Some of the Acadians made good their escape, but many were dragged on board the vessels. On the Duke William was a missionary priest, and before the vessels sailed he was called upon to perform numerous marriages, for the single men had learned that if they landed unmarried in France they would be forced to perform military service, for which they had no inclination. Nine transports sailed in consort, but were soon caught in a violent tempest and scattered. On December 10 the Duke William came upon the Violet in a sinking condition; and notwithstanding all efforts at rescue, the

the misapplication of public funds. The second is a letter from the Lords of Trade to Belcher laying down rules for his conduct as lieutenant-governor and referring to the many serious charges against his predecessor, some of which they regard as having substantial foundation, and none of which they express themselves as altogether rejecting. Consult, in the Public Archives, Canada, Nova Scotia A, vol. lxv.] wrote on June 18, 1761: 'By representations made to me from the new settlements in this province, it appears extremely necessary that the inhabitants should be assisted by the Acadians in repairing the dykes

again. In 1762 five transports loaded with prisoners were sent to Massachusetts, but that colony wanted no more Acadians and sent them

ng them out of Canada or Nova Scotia. Almost immediately those in exile began to seek new homes among people of their own race and religion. The first migration seems to have been from New England by the Lake Champlain route t

attracted to a small farmhouse by the crowing of a cock in the early dawn. To their unspeakable joy they found the house inhabited by a family of their own race. Here they halted for a few days, making inquiry concerning their old friends. Then they tramped on in different directions. Everywhere on the isthmus the scene was changed. The old familiar farm buildings had disappeared or were occupied by strangers of an alien tongue, and even the names of places were known no more. Some journeyed to Windsor and some to Annapolis, where they remained for a

Acadian descent. In Canada the Rt Rev. Edward Le Blanc, bishop of Acadia, the Hon. P. E. Le Blanc, lieutenant-governor of the province of Quebec, and the Hon. Pascal Poirier,

many of those who found their way to Old France remained there permanently. For upwards of twenty years the French government was concerned in finding places for them. Some were settled on estates; some were sent to Corsica; others, as late as 1778, went to Louisiana. Nor can we estimate the number of Acadians in the province of Quebec, for no distinction has been made between them and the general French-Canadian population. For the Maritime Provinces, however, we have the count of the census of 1911. This shows 98,611 in New Brunswick, 51,746 in Nova Scotia, and 13,117 in Prince Edward Island, a total of 163,474 in the three provinces. The largest communit

GRAPHI

because of the biased attitude taken by the authors or because of their inadequate use of original sources. The present writer has deliberately avoided consulting

Acadia are scattered through several volumes of this valuable series: see the volumes entitled 'Pioneers of France, The Old Regime, A Half-Century of Conflict', and 'Montcalm and Wolfe'. Celestin Moreau, 'Histoire de l'Acadie Francoise' (Paris, 1873). James Hannay, 'History of Acadia' (St John, 1879). P. H. Smith, 'Acadia: A Lost Chapter in American History' (Pawling, N.Y., 1884). Justin Winsor, 'Narrative and Critical History of America': see vols. iv and v (Bosto

ique et politique des Etablissemens dans les deux Indes' (5 vols., Paris, 1770), which first painted a picture of an idyllic life of simplicity and happiness among the Acadians. Thomas Hutchinson, 'History of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay' (3 vols., London, 1765-1828). G. R. Minot, 'Continuation of the History of

st of Canada' (London, 1871; 2nd ed., 1908), a work which devotes much space to the early establishments in Nova Scotia. Rev. Edmund F. Slafter, 'Sir William Alexander and American Colonization' (Boston, 1873), which contains a valuable s

C. Steiner, 'History of the Plantation of Menunkatuck and of the Original Town of Guilford, Connecticut' (Baltimore, 1897). Rev. D. P. O'Neill, 'History of St Raymond's Church, We

translations of portions by W. L. Grant in Jameson's 'Original Narratives of Early American History' (New York, 1907). Marc Lescarbot, 'Histoire de la Nouvelle France' (1st ed., Paris, 1609): a new edition with translation has been edited by W. L. Grant (The Champlain Society, 3 vols.,

also Purchas, 'His Pilgrimes,' vol. iv (1625); and John Winthrop, 'History of New England,' edited by James Savage (2 vols., Boston, 1825-1826), and by J. K. Hosmer in 'Original Narratives of Early American H

re to be found in the 'Collection de Documents relatifs a l'Histoire de la Nouvelle France' (4 vols., Quebec, 1885); in 'Documents relative to the Colonial History of the State of New York,' edited by O'Callaghan and Fernow (15 vols., Albany, 1856-1887), particularly vol. ix; and in the 'Collections' of the Massachusetts Historical Society (Boston, 1792

nsulted. The British Government publications, the 'Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series, America and West Indies,' which has been brought down only to 1702, and the 'Acts of the Privy Council, Colonial Series,' are also useful. But perhaps the most valuable of all is the volume entitled 'Selections from the Publ

, Halifax, and Ottawa. In Paris are the official records of French rule in America. Of the 'Archi

ches from 1663 onward (partially calendared in Canadian

ers relating to the refugee Acadians, but the most important section for general Acadian history is C-11, which relates to C

ing to commercial companies and religious missions, and the

ses, lists of Acadian refu

arine' (Series B), which is divided into eight sub-series, has a vast collection of documents relating to America, including Acadia. Acadian material is also found scattered through other series of the 'Archives Nationales' and among the manuscripts of the 'Bibli

ly described as America and West Indies, embraces the papers of the office of the Secretary of State who had charge of the American colonies; and C.O. 217-221, formerly, for the most part, described as Board of Trade Nova

etch's Letter Book (Sloane MS. 3607), and the Brown Collection (Additional MSS. 190694). These are pape

ations between New England and Nova Scotia, and others connected with the disposal of those Acadians who were transported to Massachusetts, and

cadia, transcripts from the Public Record Office at London and from the British Museum, letter-books of the Governors of

rom the Papers of the Secretary of State and of the Board of Trade at the Public Record Office, but including some from the British Museum and elsewhere (a calendar is to be found in the 'Report on Canadian Archives' for 1894); B. Minutes of the Executive Council of Nova Scotia, 1720-1785; E. Instructions to Governors, 1708 onwards. The Archives also possess transcripts of the French 'Archives des Colonies,' Series B, down to 1746, Series C-11 and parts of Series F and G, and of many documents of the 'Minist

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