WEBVTT NOTE 38. The Persecution of the Acadians 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.120 Volume 2, Chapter 38, The Persecution of the Acadians 2 00:00:05.120 --> 00:00:12.560 Thus the British, during 1755, went down on many fronts to ignominy and crushing defeat. 3 00:00:13.520 --> 00:00:20.480 However, the British took advantage of their lone victory in Nova Scotia to exert their power over 4 00:00:20.480 --> 00:00:28.000 the hapless French citizens of British Acadia. Frustrated by their lack of victory over French 5 00:00:28.000 --> 00:00:37.000 In their arms, they presumably decided to levy barbaric vengeance on helpless and peaceful French citizens in their midst. 6 00:00:38.000 --> 00:00:48.000 Acadia had first been settled by Frenchmen in 1605, but was sacked and destroyed by Virginia's Captain Argyle in 1613. 7 00:00:48.000 --> 00:01:01.000 French settlement regained Acadia during the 17th century, but it was seized from France along with Newfoundland at the Peace of Utrecht, ending Queen Anne's War in 1713. 8 00:01:01.000 --> 00:01:17.000 A treaty provided that the French population of Acadia would have liberty for at least a year to emigrate from Nova Scotia with their property, presumably to nearby Cape Breton Island, which remained in the hands of France. 9 00:01:17.000 --> 00:01:24.280 The treaty also provided that Acadians choosing to remain would, upon taking an oath of allegiance 10 00:01:24.280 --> 00:01:30.480 to Britain, enjoy complete religious liberty. Many Acadians applied for permission to leave 11 00:01:30.480 --> 00:01:37.360 as promised by the treaty, but the British authorities preemptorily refused. Colonel 12 00:01:37.360 --> 00:01:43.800 Samuel Vetch, governor of Nova Scotia, had financial interest in the island and urged 13 00:01:43.800 --> 00:01:49.000 The Board of Trade not to permit its labor force to leave. 14 00:01:49.000 --> 00:01:53.880 The Acadians were prohibited from using British-owned vessels to leave. 15 00:01:53.880 --> 00:01:59.700 When the desperate Acadians began to build their own small boats to sail to Cape Breton, 16 00:01:59.700 --> 00:02:05.400 the new governor, Francis Nicholson, brutally confiscated the boats and prevented them from 17 00:02:05.400 --> 00:02:06.400 departing. 18 00:02:06.400 --> 00:02:12.140 By that time, the supposed year of grace for the Acadians was over, and they were from 19 00:02:12.140 --> 00:02:18.700 from then on prohibited from leaving the island. Since the year was up, the British presumed 20 00:02:18.700 --> 00:02:25.060 to prohibit Acadian emigration with complete self-righteousness. After this British display 21 00:02:25.060 --> 00:02:32.940 of bad faith capped by hypocrisy, the Acadians naturally, though courageously, refused to 22 00:02:32.940 --> 00:02:40.300 take an oath of allegiance to the new King George I. In 1720, the new governor of Nova 23 00:02:40.300 --> 00:02:46.380 of Scotland, Richard Phillips, ordered the Acadians to take the oath in four months or 24 00:02:46.380 --> 00:02:53.380 leave the island, but taking with them no more than two sheep per family. 25 00:02:53.500 --> 00:02:58.980 When the despairing Acadians, deprived of all boats, tried to leave by cutting a road 26 00:02:58.980 --> 00:03:05.980 to nearby Cape Breton by land, Phillips forced them to stop. He too did not want to lose 27 00:03:05.980 --> 00:03:12.500 I want to lose the benefits of Acadian labor, that is forced labor, since the Acadians were 28 00:03:12.500 --> 00:03:19.440 forced to stay on this alien-run island. During the same year, Phillips sent Lieutenant Governor 29 00:03:19.440 --> 00:03:27.540 Paul Mascarine to London. Mascarine converted the Board of Trade to a diabolic plan. Eventually, 30 00:03:27.540 --> 00:03:33.240 the Acadians should all be coercively expelled from the island, where they were too much 31 00:03:33.240 --> 00:03:40.200 under the influence of wicked French priests. But this should not be done until the French 32 00:03:40.200 --> 00:03:46.520 could work to build up and complete English fortifications on the island. The Acadians, 33 00:03:46.520 --> 00:03:52.200 meanwhile, were neither allowed to leave the country nor permitted to settle down as full 34 00:03:52.200 --> 00:03:59.080 citizens. Instead, they were forced to supply the needs of the British troops and to strengthen 35 00:03:59.080 --> 00:04:05.960 and the fortifications of their British masters. Despite these provocations, the Acadians remained 36 00:04:05.960 --> 00:04:14.960 peaceful. In 1726, Lieutenant Governor Lawrence Armstrong, a tough, hardliner, forced a public 37 00:04:14.960 --> 00:04:23.160 oath of allegiance on the Acadians of Annapolis, Port Royal, capital of Nova Scotia. The following 38 00:04:23.160 --> 00:04:27.540 In the same year, however, the issue arose again with the ascension to the throne of 39 00:04:27.540 --> 00:04:34.420 George II. Armstrong sent naval troops to enforce a loyalty oath on the Acadians, but 40 00:04:34.420 --> 00:04:39.920 the persecuted Frenchmen continued to refuse. At least they would not lend their public 41 00:04:39.920 --> 00:04:46.260 sanction to their own tormentors. The day was saved for the heroic Acadians by ensign 42 00:04:46.260 --> 00:04:53.020 and Robert Roth, who, on his own initiative, promised the Acadians freedom of religion, 43 00:04:53.020 --> 00:04:59.620 exemption from the draft, and freedom to leave the island. In return for these rights, the 44 00:04:59.620 --> 00:05:05.860 Acadians took the oath of allegiance. Governor Armstrong, of course, angrily refused to ratify 45 00:05:05.860 --> 00:05:11.660 these unwarrantable concessions, which had already been promised them at the Peace of 46 00:05:11.660 --> 00:05:16.660 of Utrecht. Having gained the public oath, however, Armstrong vaguely and grudgingly 47 00:05:16.660 --> 00:05:23.540 promised the Acadians the liberties of English subjects. The Acadians of Annapolis had not 48 00:05:23.540 --> 00:05:29.300 yet taken the oath. When ordered to do so by the governing council, the leading men 49 00:05:29.300 --> 00:05:36.740 in Annapolis resolved instead to follow the other Acadians in taking the oath only under 50 00:05:36.740 --> 00:05:44.060 with the Roth Conditions. The Council called this action insolent and defiant, and arrested 51 00:05:44.060 --> 00:05:50.600 the four leading accating deputies for contempt and disrespect to the King. Lieutenant Governor 52 00:05:50.600 --> 00:05:56.580 Armstrong then announced that the four prisoners had been guilty of several enormous crimes 53 00:05:56.580 --> 00:06:03.060 in assembling the inhabitants in a riotous manner, contrary to the orders of the government, 54 00:06:03.060 --> 00:06:09.380 In framing a rebellious paper, three of the prisoners were promptly clamped into prison. 55 00:06:09.380 --> 00:06:16.220 In consideration for his advanced age, Armstrong graciously allowed the fourth, Abraham Borg, 56 00:06:16.220 --> 00:06:22.940 to leave Acadia, of course without any of his property. The rest of the people of Annapolis 57 00:06:22.940 --> 00:06:30.500 were punished by being prohibited from fishing on any British coast. To cap his crimes, Armstrong 58 00:06:30.500 --> 00:06:37.080 Armstrong pillaged the church of Abbey-Bressley and forced the priest to flee. For a blissful 59 00:06:37.080 --> 00:06:43.320 interlude, Governor Phillips returned to the peninsula, permitting Bressley to return home 60 00:06:43.320 --> 00:06:49.460 and promise the Acadians religious freedom. In response, the grateful Acadians of Annapolis 61 00:06:49.460 --> 00:06:56.300 and the rest of Nova Scotia took the oath of allegiance. Soon, however, Armstrong was 62 00:06:56.300 --> 00:07:02.380 in charge again. He promptly violated the British promises. He began by expelling two 63 00:07:02.380 --> 00:07:09.140 French missionaries and then insisted on requiring his approval of all priests in the province 64 00:07:09.140 --> 00:07:16.620 and on barring all priests immigrating from Quebec in French Canada. During King George's 65 00:07:16.620 --> 00:07:24.020 War, the Acadians, despite three decades of betrayal and oppression, remained strictly 66 00:07:24.020 --> 00:07:54.020 The French were very neutral in the war between England and their homeland. When the English captured the French fortress in Louisbourg in 1746, they promptly deported all the French citizens to France. The worried Acadians were reassured by Governor William Shirley, but Shirley omitted any pledge of religious freedom and indicted several Canadians for high treason against Great Britain. After the war ended in 1748, 67 00:07:54.020 --> 00:08:00.540 Today, Great Britain embarked on a new phase of its program for Nova Scotia. It decided 68 00:08:00.540 --> 00:08:07.980 to settle Englishmen on the peninsula, as yet inhabited only by French settlers and 69 00:08:07.980 --> 00:08:15.020 British soldiers. In that way, military benefits would accrue for the expected future war with 70 00:08:15.020 --> 00:08:21.420 France, and a population and labor force would be available to replace the Acadians, who 71 00:08:21.420 --> 00:08:26.380 and by that time might be expelled. Several thousand English colonists were settled in 72 00:08:26.380 --> 00:08:32.960 this way. The new governor, Edward Cornwallis, on instructions from the Crown, embarked on 73 00:08:32.960 --> 00:08:39.540 a new policy of repression of the Acadians. He was instructed to force another oath of 74 00:08:39.540 --> 00:08:45.980 allegiance and to permit Acadians to leave but never with any of their property. They 75 00:08:45.980 --> 00:08:51.500 They could not, for example, sell their lands and leave with any of the proceeds. 76 00:08:51.500 --> 00:08:57.740 Cornwallis also prohibited the Acadians from trading with the French, or from accepting 77 00:08:57.740 --> 00:09:00.380 religious jurisdiction from Quebec. 78 00:09:00.380 --> 00:09:07.120 Further, he embarked on determined efforts to force Protestantism upon the devoutly Roman 79 00:09:07.120 --> 00:09:09.860 Catholic populace. 80 00:09:09.860 --> 00:09:14.860 Acadian exemption from the draft was removed, no priest was permitted in the province without 81 00:09:14.860 --> 00:09:21.860 1,000 Akkadians reacted by protesting their faithful service as subjects of the Crown, and proposed instead to renew their oath on the old conditions granted them by Governor Phillips. Cornwallis, in turn, bitterly denounced Phillips for not doing his duty, unable to win renewal on the Crown. 82 00:09:44.860 --> 00:09:52.860 In the middle of the Phillips conditions, the Acadians in the spring of 1750 decided to leave Nova Scotia. 83 00:09:52.860 --> 00:10:03.860 The Board of Trade, however, decided that the time was not yet ripe, as the French might entice them to Cape Breton and use them in the next war. 84 00:10:03.860 --> 00:10:11.860 Cornwallis, therefore, patrolled Nova Scotia to keep the Acadians as prisoners on the peninsula. 85 00:10:11.860 --> 00:10:17.020 The desperate Acadians, however, managed to slip through the patrols aided by the French 86 00:10:17.020 --> 00:10:26.020 and the missionaries. 800 Acadians managed to reach Prince Edward Island during 1750. 87 00:10:26.020 --> 00:10:33.300 Cornwallis hastily built more forts to prevent more Acadians from leaving. A peaceful and 88 00:10:33.300 --> 00:10:41.540 happy lull ensued, however, during 1752-53. Under the governorship of Peregrine Hopson, 89 00:10:41.540 --> 00:10:46.400 The Acadians enjoyed religious liberty and were permitted to take the oath under the 90 00:10:46.400 --> 00:10:53.580 old conditions. The peace was not to last long. The active imperialist and hardliner 91 00:10:53.580 --> 00:11:00.800 Charles Lawrence soon became acting governor. Lawrence regarded the Acadians as part and 92 00:11:00.800 --> 00:11:08.100 parcel of the French enemy and treated them accordingly. In August 1754, Lawrence denounced 93 00:11:08.100 --> 00:11:15.100 the obstinacy, treachery, and ingratitude of the incendiary French priest. 94 00:11:15.100 --> 00:11:21.820 The evil Arcadians, he thundered, persisted in trading with the French and with the Indians. 95 00:11:21.820 --> 00:11:27.660 What is more, here was an ominous warning indeed, they possessed the best and largest 96 00:11:27.660 --> 00:11:30.220 tracts of land in this province. 97 00:11:30.220 --> 00:11:35.100 Not surprisingly, since the French had settled these lands. 98 00:11:35.100 --> 00:11:41.060 Beneath the mock surprise were the words of a man getting ready to loot the hard-earned 99 00:11:41.060 --> 00:11:48.140 property of others. Lawrence warned the Acadians of expulsion should they not take an unconditional 100 00:11:48.140 --> 00:11:54.800 oath. Lawrence then proceeded to prohibit all export of corn from the province. The 101 00:11:54.800 --> 00:12:00.820 order served to prohibit the sale of corn to the French and Indians, and thus to force 102 00:12:00.820 --> 00:12:07.420 was a sale at a far lower price to the British town of Halifax in Nova Scotia. 103 00:12:07.420 --> 00:12:12.820 The next step in the English exploitation of the labor of the French Acadians was the order 104 00:12:12.820 --> 00:12:19.220 by Lawrence to bring in wood to the British fort. The Acadians protested that their oath 105 00:12:19.220 --> 00:12:25.780 of allegiance did not require them to supply wood to the fort. The British reply to this 106 00:12:25.780 --> 00:12:31.980 eminently reasonable claim was to denounce the evil influence of Abbé Doudon over the 107 00:12:31.980 --> 00:12:39.980 minds of the Acadians and to hold the Abbé and five of the Acadians in Halifax. The Abbé 108 00:12:39.980 --> 00:12:45.900 protested that the people are free and should be contracted with for firewood and not be 109 00:12:45.900 --> 00:12:53.140 treated as slaves. The Council of Nova Scotia's reply was to reprimand the protesters and 110 00:12:53.140 --> 00:13:00.820 ordered the Acadians to bring in wood under pain of death. Abbé d'Aldin, in the meanwhile, 111 00:13:00.820 --> 00:13:07.100 was expelled from the province and the hapless Acadians agreed to comply with the forced 112 00:13:07.100 --> 00:13:14.940 labor decree. Of all the British campaigns during 1755, the only successful attack was, 113 00:13:14.940 --> 00:13:22.180 we have seen, the capture of Fort Beaux-Ajours and the consequent reduction of the New Brunswick 114 00:13:22.180 --> 00:13:30.940 Area. Naively, the Acadians took at face value the English claim that their hostility 115 00:13:30.940 --> 00:13:38.140 stemmed from worry over the Acadians as potentially subversive allies of the French. With the 116 00:13:38.140 --> 00:13:44.740 French threat greatly reduced, the poor Acadians actually believed that the English would ease 117 00:13:44.740 --> 00:13:51.260 their oppression. Accordingly, they requested Lawrence that they once again be allowed use 118 00:13:51.260 --> 00:13:59.260 and the use of their canoes for fishing, and that they again be allowed to bear arms for hunting and general self-defense. 119 00:13:59.260 --> 00:14:11.260 Lawrence denounced the petition as impertinent and insolent, and ordered once again an unconditional loyalty oath for all Acadians. 120 00:14:11.260 --> 00:14:18.260 In fact, he ordered the deputies who had presented the petition to take the full oath on the spot. 121 00:14:18.260 --> 00:14:21.540 They, of course, insisted on the old conditions. 122 00:14:21.540 --> 00:14:28.180 Not only did Lawrence and his council insist on the immediate oath, but they also informed 123 00:14:28.180 --> 00:14:36.220 the deputies that once anyone refused to take the oath, he would not be allowed another 124 00:14:36.220 --> 00:14:41.100 chance and would be summarily expelled from Nova Scotia. 125 00:14:41.100 --> 00:14:45.540 When the frightened deputies then offered to take the oath, they were informed that 126 00:14:45.540 --> 00:14:52.860 that this act would now be coerced and therefore not sincere. Hence, they could not have even 127 00:14:52.860 --> 00:14:59.980 this chance. Incredibly, the deputies were then promptly arrested and branded popish 128 00:14:59.980 --> 00:15:07.340 recusants and subjects of France. It was now clear that for the British on Nova Scotia, 129 00:15:07.340 --> 00:15:13.840 the reduction of the French power in the area combined with the continued state of war provided 130 00:15:13.840 --> 00:15:21.400 and an excellent opportunity for the final solution of the Acadian problem without further 131 00:15:21.400 --> 00:15:27.240 worry about the Acadians becoming a war threat by joining the French. 132 00:15:27.240 --> 00:15:33.900 Lieutenant Governor Lawrence and his council now move to the climatic stroke, an order 133 00:15:33.900 --> 00:15:39.800 for the expulsion of every Acadian from Nova Scotia's soil. 134 00:15:39.800 --> 00:15:45.640 The order was issued illegally, without authority from Britain, or from the absent Governor 135 00:15:45.640 --> 00:15:54.100 Hobson, but with a pliant legal opinion handed down by Chief Justice Jonathan Belcher, Jr. 136 00:15:54.100 --> 00:16:02.280 The grand genocidal design for eradication of the Acadians from the land they had built 137 00:16:02.280 --> 00:16:10.320 was now underway. By a ruse the Akkadian men were assembled together and were then suddenly 138 00:16:10.320 --> 00:16:17.360 denounced as rebels by the authorities and taken prisoner without warning. All the land, 139 00:16:17.360 --> 00:16:24.160 the cattle and the corn of the Akkadian people were confiscated by the Crown. Only ready 140 00:16:24.160 --> 00:16:30.200 cash and furniture could be removed from the province. All the Akkadian villages and many 141 00:16:30.200 --> 00:16:36.380 Many farms and homes were burned and destroyed by the British troops, who also used every 142 00:16:36.380 --> 00:16:42.140 possible method to flush out any Acadians hiding in the woods. 143 00:16:42.140 --> 00:16:47.800 Imposequit, the British troops arrogantly courted themselves in a Roman Catholic church 144 00:16:47.800 --> 00:16:54.580 and took the precaution of ordering the Acadians to furnish them with provisions before rounding 145 00:16:54.580 --> 00:16:56.480 them up. 146 00:16:56.480 --> 00:17:02.640 To ensure submission, the young male prisoners were coercively separated from their families. 147 00:17:02.640 --> 00:17:11.640 The massive expulsion of the Acadians began in early October 1755, and ship after ship, 148 00:17:11.640 --> 00:17:18.760 separating families and friends, conveyed the unfortunates to all parts of the hemisphere. 149 00:17:18.760 --> 00:17:26.400 Shortly after the expulsion began, Lawrence received the King's order NOT to molest the 150 00:17:26.400 --> 00:17:31.000 The Acadian Reasoning as the typical bureaucrat, Lawrence 151 00:17:31.000 --> 00:17:38.720 rationalized his disobeying the king's order. Once begun, even if in error, the expulsion 152 00:17:38.720 --> 00:17:45.160 process could not be reversed. By the end of the year, over 6,000 Acadians were deported 153 00:17:45.160 --> 00:17:51.420 in their property, confiscated or destroyed. A remnant remained hiding in the woods. Some 154 00:17:51.420 --> 00:17:56.900 Some of the ships were decimated by smallpox. The Acadians were shipped to Georgia, South 155 00:17:56.900 --> 00:18:03.900 Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut, with Lawrence 156 00:18:03.900 --> 00:18:09.540 instructing their governors to dispose of the refugees in such a way as to prevent them 157 00:18:09.540 --> 00:18:15.180 from remaining together as a people. In some of the colonies, the younger Acadians were 158 00:18:15.180 --> 00:18:21.180 were conscripted as indentured servants for a few months. 159 00:18:21.180 --> 00:18:25.980 Typical of the cold treatment of the Acadians in the American colonies was that of South 160 00:18:25.980 --> 00:18:32.580 Carolina, where about a third of the Acadians were sent. They were immediately thrown into 161 00:18:32.580 --> 00:18:39.740 custody. Soon after, they were compulsorily disfursed, quotas being sent to all of the 162 00:18:39.740 --> 00:18:45.100 parishes of the colony. Finally, they were given permission to go where they wished. 163 00:18:45.100 --> 00:18:50.300 The bulk of them deciding to migrate to French Canada. 164 00:18:50.300 --> 00:18:55.220 Pennsylvania's treatment of the hapless refugees was particularly ill-natured and was capped 165 00:18:55.220 --> 00:19:01.340 by bitter attacks by Pennsylvania's Governor Robert Hunter Morris and New Jersey's Governor 166 00:19:01.340 --> 00:19:08.220 Jonathan Belcher, father of Nova Scotia's pliable Chief Justice. 167 00:19:08.220 --> 00:19:14.620 Morris and Belcher raised the alarm about an imminent, giant, subversive Roman Catholic 168 00:19:14.620 --> 00:19:22.900 Conspiracy in the Colonies' Midst, an unholy potential alliance of Acadians, Irish and 169 00:19:22.900 --> 00:19:30.860 German Catholics. All these groups were attacked by the governors as rebels and traitors. Besides, 170 00:19:30.860 --> 00:19:37.620 the colonies had too many strangers already. Only the generosity of the Quakers made the 171 00:19:37.620 --> 00:19:49.180 New York led in seizing Acadian youth and forcing them into the bondage of indentured 172 00:19:49.180 --> 00:19:55.820 service. All the men were placed under arrest and dispersed by quota among the various districts 173 00:19:55.820 --> 00:20:02.940 in the province. Massachusetts received over one thousand Acadians, many filtering down 174 00:20:02.940 --> 00:20:11.340 A tract of land was set aside for Acadians in Worcester, but when many began to move 175 00:20:11.340 --> 00:20:18.780 to Boston, the city's select men expelled them to the outlying districts. Virginia expelled 176 00:20:18.780 --> 00:20:26.060 all of its Acadians, most of whom moved to French Louisiana. Some Acadians who had left 177 00:20:56.060 --> 00:21:03.060 and virtually no food. Many died from smallpox. After the British conquered Quebec later in 178 00:21:03.380 --> 00:21:10.380 the war, many Acadians were seized and shipped as defeated prisoners of war to Halifax, where 179 00:21:11.300 --> 00:21:18.300 they were forced to work on the roads. Only in Maryland, where Catholics were not unknown 180 00:21:18.620 --> 00:21:25.620 monsters, were the Acadians treated with courtesy and kindness in the Americas. They were treated 181 00:21:26.060 --> 00:21:32.400 were voluntarily housed in private homes and were able to find work and build homes in 182 00:21:32.400 --> 00:21:41.960 Baltimore. Many Acadians had voluntarily emigrated to Prince Edward Island, and by 1755, 4,000 183 00:21:41.960 --> 00:21:48.920 former Acadians had settled there. Upon the final British capture of Louisbourg and Prince 184 00:21:48.920 --> 00:21:55.920 The British deported them all to France, two of the ships sinking, with 700 Acadians aboard. 185 00:21:58.640 --> 00:22:05.640 A few of the Acadians managed to hide successfully in the woods of Nova Scotia, and there they 186 00:22:05.640 --> 00:22:12.600 teamed up with dissident Indians to wage guerrilla war upon their tormentors. Two hundred of 187 00:22:12.600 --> 00:22:26.600 were rounded up by January 1756 and shipped to South Carolina. The prisoners managed to take over the ship and sailed to Canada, where they became privateers for the French. 188 00:22:26.600 --> 00:22:36.600 After the war in America was over, however, the British captured this community and carried off the inhabitants as prisoners to Halifax. 189 00:22:36.600 --> 00:22:46.600 Charles Lawrence's defiance of the King's order not to expel the Acadians went unpunished. 190 00:22:46.600 --> 00:22:52.040 Shortly afterward, war between England and France broke out officially and Lawrence only 191 00:22:52.040 --> 00:22:56.040 seemed to be a premature patriot. 192 00:22:56.040 --> 00:23:02.160 The tragedy of the poor Acadians was not over, even with the end of the war in America in 193 00:23:02.160 --> 00:23:11.340 1760. By 1761, Jonathan Belcher, Jr., now Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia, professed 194 00:23:11.340 --> 00:23:18.400 to mist the Acadians. Who could now repair the dykes? Yet when Acadians began to drift 195 00:23:18.400 --> 00:23:25.840 back to Nova Scotia, their very presence changed Belcher's mind, and he and the Council expelled 196 00:23:25.840 --> 00:23:33.120 them once again. Unfortunately, they were deported to Massachusetts, which refused to 197 00:23:33.120 --> 00:23:38.600 receive the five shiploads of Acadians and sent them back again.