Great Acadian Expulsion
Migrating to Nova Scotia from the rural Vendee region of France—in search of a better life—the Acadians began settling in Acadie along the Bay of Fundy, a region with the highest tidal fall in the world. But when the sovereignty of their land moved into British hands after the 1713 signing of the Treaty of Utrecht, by 1730, British authorities forced the Acadians to swear their neutrality in any further conflict between the constantly warring British and the French. In the years that followed, the Acadians fate became increasingly tenuous, when Britain and France undertook a game of hegemony by building forts and naval bases a mere stone’s throw away from each other.
Losing Control
When Fort Beauséjour fell to English forces in June of 1755, British Governor Charles Lawrence noted some 279 Acadian militia among the defeated, and when Acadians refused an oath of British allegiance the following month, Lawrence ordered their deportation from Nova Scotia, a move well received by recents immigrants from New England, who coveted the Acadians fertile lands. On September 5th, 1755, Colonel John Winslow ordered all Acadian males ten years or older to assemble at a church in Grand Pré—the heart of Acadian Nova Scotia—informing them of the confiscation of their lands, homes and livestock, while New Englander Charles Morris devised a plan to surround the church with like-minded men, before breaching dikes and burning Acadian homes and crops.
Forced Removal
By the fall of 1755, Acadians were forced to board ships bound for Pennsylvania, Georgia, South Carolina, New France, Cape Breton and the northwestern head waters of the Petitcoudiac River. Between 1755 and 1763, some 10,000 Acadians were forcibly removed from British-held Nova Scotia, many dying from disease, starvation and squalid conditions aboard ships, forcing Acadians to wander North America in search of missing loved ones and peace-loving places to live. Although the Acadians were never shipped to Louisiana by their British oppressors, many were drawn to the French possession due to a commonality of language and culture, beginning the steady migration of Acadians into Acadia, as it is now known, well into the 1820s.
A Lasting Heritage
Throughout their tragic ordeal, Acadians managed to hold onto their sense of heritage and identity, as reflected in the music, language and food still prevalent in Cajun Louisiana to this day, displaying a remarkable resilience of human will in the face of abject inhumanity displayed by the British, making the Great Acadian Expulsion, another low water moment in human history.