The Acadian Tragedy in Nova Scotia - Evangeline 

I confess I've always been a history buff. I've enjoyed exploring places in Europe, knowing I'm at the very site of some famous historical event. The so-called "New World" generally lacks the same level of historical appeal. But that is not true of Nova Scotia. This province has a recorded history far older than one would assume, and one particularly nasty part of history has been immortalised. 

Besides its natural beauty, welcoming people and wonders of nature, Nova Scotia's history deserves to be explored more in future blogs. But for now I’d like to focus on one particular incident in history, a poem that immortalised it, and a scenic trail running past our Inn that allows visitors to bathe in its aura. The incident is often referred to as the Great Upheaval or the Great Expulsion. I refer to the deportation of the French speaking Acadian population from Nova Scotia in 1755.

I recall being a young boy and being proud that my heritage was British. Britain had forged the greatest empire the world had ever seen. My generation, and those before mine, were raised on imagery of British Imperial bravery, sacrifice and glory, such as the painting below. We watched movies like Zulu Dawn and Khartoum where English soldiers were brave and resolute underdogs fighting the good fight against overwhelming savagery.

The Death of Major Peirson – John Singleton Copley

There was a time when conquering foreign countries was hailed as heroic and noble. Colonial powers were portrayed as bringing civilisation and God to savage, heathen people. Conquering them was providing them with the opportunity to taste a better life – and after-life. Individuals who spearheaded conquest were praised and often immortalised with monuments and poems in their names.

Today we live in a world of information. For those who wish to know, it’s possible to find the facts and truth in all things. Now we can look beyond the legends and the propaganda and recognise the damage those empire builders caused in their zeal for glory and riches.

Nova Scotia and Imperialism

Nova Scotia has its own imperial scars, none better known than the Great Upheaval of 1755. It is a story of colonial power struggles and cruelty, so let’s start with Nova Scotia’s colonial history.

It’s believed that Vikings were the first people from the European continent to discover and settle in the Eastern parts of Canada. There are accounts of Leif Ericson having founded “Vinland” in these parts, as far back as the year 1000. Exactly where is debated. It could have been Newfoundland, New Brunswick or Nova Scotia. But Leif Ericson spoke of grapes, so I’m inclined to think that rules out the more northern areas and makes our Nova Scotia a strong contender for being a Viking settlement.

Leif Eriksson Discovers America by Hans Dahl (1849-1937)

Fast forward some centuries and we get the first settlements formally recorded in historical documents. In 1604 a group of French settlers departed Le Havre in France to find and populate the New World known as Acadia.

Think about that. Canada is 153 years old. But Nova Scotia’s modern recorded history goes back over 400 years! Not to mention the thousands of years of human history before the first European settlers. For those history buffs who think the New World lacks history, the time those French visionaries set sail was a time of some famous historical events in Europe. Queen Elizabeth I had just died. Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot was about to take place. James I took the throne of England as well as Scotland, paving the way for the formation of Great Britain. The King James Bible would soon be published. The Russian famine had just killed around one-third of Russia’s population. The Dutch East India Company was formed. Shakespeare was about to debut Othello.

Only in 1620 would the Mayflower set sail for the Americas. By that time, Nova Scotia was already long populated by Europeans.

By all accounts, the new French settlers established good relationships with the native Miq Maq people, a closeness that persisted and contributed to the upheaval a century or so later. The settlers became known as Acadians. They were industrious people. The land around their settlement of Port Royal (now Annapolis Royal) was fertile, but they had to work hard to reclaim and protect it from the sea. They built a series of ingenious dykes, many of which still characterise the landscape. 

The British had colonized these parts around the same time as the French, but further south along the North American coast. Inevitably these two powerful imperial nations would confront each other as their hunger for territories in these lands drive them towards each other. There were many British – French clashes, into which the Acadians and Miq Maq were drawn.

In 1713 the long European War of Spanish Succession ended. The French King Philip of Anjou technically won the war by becoming King of Spain. But the settlement, involving many European powers, contained many trade-offs. Amongst those was the concession that made Acadians in Nova Scotia British subjects, while Acadians in Cape Breton and Prince Edward Island remained under French rule.

  

 Recognition of the Duke of Anjou as King of Spain, under the name of Philip V , November 16, 1700. By François Gérard - [1], Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11034017

Strange that a dispute over royal succession among European aristocracy should end with treaties affecting far flung Nova Scotia. Nor did that settlement bring an end to the conflicts in this province. But, with their new-found legitimacy the British were determined that the Acadians should once and for all renounce their historical ties to France and ally themselves fully with Britain as proper loyal British subjects. In 1730, Britain persuaded most Acadians in Nova Scotia so sign an oath of allegiance to Britain. But the oath was allowed to exclude the Acadians from taking up arms against the French or Miq Maq. For a while the British were content with this. But as conflict with France continued, pressure mounted for Acadians and Miq Maq to join the fight on the side of their legal rulers, the British.

In 1754, yet another war broke out – the French and Indian war. Britain demanded a new oath of allegiance from the Acadians, one that swore unqualified loyalty to Britain. They refused. In 1755, the British Governor, Charles Lawrence took the decision to deal with Acadian stubbornness by deporting them from Nova Scotia. This decree did not distinguish between those Acadians who had been fully loyal to Britain and those who had not.

By 1755 it was estimated some 14,000 Acadians were living in Nova Scotia. That may now seem like many, but consider that the total population of the Canadian territories was estimated at only 55,000. So this decision targeted the deportation of almost a quarter of the entire population of Canadian territories.

Expulsion of the Acadians by Lewis Parker (c. 2011)

The Acadians had been settled in Nova Scotia for 150 years. That likely represented around six generations. Six generations of life and habitat. Then one day with little or no warning, British troops arrived. All property was confiscated and “made forfeit to the crown”. The Acadians themselves were herded onto ships. 

Six generations of homes that had been built, strengthened, extended, improved. Six generations of hard-cultivated land. Six generations of traditions. Six generations of furniture and heirlooms handed down from family to family to family. Six generations of family trees recorded and learned. Six generations of places of worship. Six generations of gravestones. Clothes lost, pets abandoned, livestock left without care. Stores of grain resulting from months of hard work. All lost in an instant.  

Nor did the British make efforts to keep loved ones together. Families, friends, lovers were dragged apart in the chaos and loaded onto different ships, never to see each other again.

The Acadians were scattered. The first wave of deportations sent them to other British colonies in North America. They arrived in these territories with no money, no possessions, and no means of survival. To local inhabitants they were unwelcome aliens and gave them little sympathy or help. Some Acadians escaped and made their way to Cape Breton and PEI. Many were hunted down by the British. Those who reached French territories were now justifiably sworn enemies of the British.

The second wave of deportations took them further afield to Britain and France. Some found their way to French Louisiana, where over time the “Acadians” came to be known as “Cajuns”.

It is estimated that 11,500 Acadians were deported out of the total population of around 14,000. But it did not end there. Conditions on the ships were appalling. Disease spread. Many died and many others arrived in their new lands disease-ridden, further alienating them from locals.

British settlers were encouraged to move onto the lands vacated by the Acadians. Britain gained territory, well developed land for its own settlers, increased fur and logging trade. In 1764 Britain passed a law magnanimously allowing Acadians to return in limited groups and provided they swore a full allegiance to Britain. But by this time their lands were taken, their history erased and their numbers drastically reduced. All was no doubt content in this part of British Empire.

I would imagine this crime against humanity received little attention in the world media at the time. History, after all, is written by the victor. But then, almost a hundred years later, came along an American poet with a name that sounded distinctly upper class English, and an inclination to social consciousness.

Evangeline.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born in Portland, Maine in 1907. By the 1840’s he was America’s most popular poet.

Longfellow had previously dabbled in works with a social conscience. But he was not hailed as a flag bearer for human rights. His 1842 book Poems on Slavery, supposedly pro-abolitionism, was considered so mild one critic said, “even a slaveholder might read them without losing his appetite for breakfast.”

Then in 1847 he wrote the epic poem Evangeline, a Tale of Acadia. The poem became his most popular and enduring work. But more importantly it had a powerful effect on Acadian history and identity. It brought the tragedy to life through its very human story of young lovers torn apart. The cruelty inflicted on the Acadians was no longer a forgotten footnote to imperial rivalry. 

Historians argue that the poem still glossed over the real hardships endured by Acadians. Nonetheless, Evangeline and Gabriel's heartbreaking tale made the world pause and re-examine a period of history it had long been content to forget. 

Hopefully this blog has presented a case that this particular part of the New World has a history worth exploring. Hopefully too, there may an interest in finding a copy of the poem that brought this part of history to life. In future blogs I will touch more on Evangeline and the Evangeline trail established in her memory.