History of Acadie

The Histoire of Acadie is spread over one period going of its exploration by Giovanni da Verrazano in 1524 until the final transfer of the territory which passes to the Britanniques in 1713.

French and British modes

Preparations

In 1603, with the return of an exploratory mission of the River the St. Lawrence directed by the Inhabitant of Saint Malo François Engraved of the Bridge which it accompanied as geographer, Champlain learns that members of the crew went in current the Baie of Fundy and think of having found a ground rich in ore. On its return in France, it makes of it share with the aristocrat Huguenot Pierre Dugua sior of Mons which obtains court then the title of " General lieutenant of the coasts, grounds and borders of Cadie and other places in News-France " , and especially exclusive rights for the trade furs and fishing during ten years in Acadie. On the other hand, Dugua must be committed to establish a minimum of 60 colonists per annum and converting the Indians with the Christian faith.

Preliminary departure and explorations

After having received an financial aid of commercial rich person, Dugua form a forwarding with Champlain, Jean de Poutrincourt and a crew of craftsmen, architects, carpenters, masons, stone masons, soldiers, of two catholic priests and a protesting minister who embark on the ship the Gift of God on March 10th, 1604. Another building, the Good reputation , ordered by François Gravé left three days earlier and also moves him towards News-France but, its mission first being of making trade on the river the St. Lawrence, it will rejoin Acadie only later.

Dugua and its crew unload on May 8th in a place of the east coast of current the Nova Scotia which they name " Hève" (today " Lahave" near Lunenburg) in remembering the Harbor, their wearing of loading. They sail then towards the South and make slackening in a bay while waiting for the arrival of Engraved. A sheep of the edge having fallen to water and being drowned, this bay takes the name of " Port-with-Mouton" (today Port Sheep).

Champlain then embarks on May 19th on the launch of the ship in company of ten men and starts the exploration of the littoral in direction of South-west to the Bay-Holy-Marie. This one seeming to him a favorable place, it turns over to return account in Dugua which moves there the Gift of God like the Good reputation , arrived meanwhile.

While the two ships wet in the Bay-Holy-Marie, the launch is again put at contribution, this time by Champlain and Dugua itself which leave to explore French bay (today Baie of Fundy). They discover a site which makes them strong impression and which they name Port-Royal, not suspecting that it will become later the capital of Acadie. They cross then French bay and recognize large and beautiful river which they name Rivière Midsummer's Day, of the name of the saint of the day (June 24th).

The Island Holy-Cross

Going down always more to South-west, they reach finally a river, named Kunatauktuk Skoodik by the Passamaquoddy, which they baptize Rivière Holy-Cross (at the border of the New Brunswick and the current Maine) because its branches are in the shape of cross. They go up it and discover an small island which they name quite naturally Île Holy-Cross.

It is at this place, which then becomes the first French permanent establishment in America, that Dugua makes come the two ships and makes unload the crews. A dozen houses are built and arranged in such way that the given impression is that of a fort. A kitchen, a store, a vault are also set up, a gun of the ship is installed on a place protected at the southern end from the island and corn is even planted. The island is rather close to the ground so that a communication with the Indians is possible and at the same time enough distant to counter any attack. All thus seems perfect for the first colonization and François Gravé returns to France to the autumn with its ship.

Unfortunately, Dugua had not thought cold. The island Holy-Cross being located at the same latitude that France, it thought of facing one winter more or less similar to that of the French Atlantic coast. But the Gulf Stream which heats the coasts of France does not penetrate in bay of Fundy which moreover is swept by the cold winds of North come from Artique. Roof of bad luck, the winter this year is very early and the first snows fall on October 6th, 1604. From the December 3rd, blocks of ice start to descend the river and the communications with the continent, essential for the water provision soft and out of wood are cut. The lack of fresh water, the Scurvy and the cold are right of 35 or 36 of the 79 or 80 men (the figures are not officially established), pushing the colonists to leave the places as of the following year.

Port-Royal, first attempt

Mid-June 1605, once the ship of François Engraved returned of France with provisions, Pierre Dugua, Champlain and some men leave to research a hospital place. They go down until Cape Cod, but return bredouilles to Holy-Cross at the beginning of August.

Finally, pressing time, it is decided that the site of Port-Royal, discovered the previous year, will make the deal for a second test. The houses of Holy-Cross are then demolished in order to recover the materials which are transported to Port-Royal, where all is rebuilt on the same model.

Once the completed installation, Pierre Dugua share for France in September and bring back with him the majority of the survivors of Holy-Cross, leaving the direction of the colony with François Gravé.

The next winter, though less murderer with 12 died, tests nevertheless the incipient colony and the summer 1606 even misses ringing the knell of Port-Royal. Indeed, Dugua still not having returned of France mid-July with the supply essential to the survival of the colonists, François Gravé leaves Port-Royal with all its men, except two having agreed to remain to keep the establishment under the protection of Membertou, chief of the Micmacs of the area.

But arrived around Cape-Sand, they meet the secretary of Dugua which announces to them that Jean de Poutrincourt, started from Holy-Cross in 1604, is of return with the title of Lieutenant-governor of Acadie, and especially brings back vivres, about fifty craftsmen, the lawyer Marc Lescarbot and some notable, of which his/her own son.

Everyone turns over then to Port-Royal which takes again life. Champlain and Poutrincourt set out again to explore towards the south and go down until Nantucket.

The next winter (1606-1607) occurs this time well. Lescarbot, become the pare-in-train of the colony, organizes choruses of song and especially, creates the play " The Theater of Neptune" who becomes thus the first stage performance in America. On its side, Champlain founds " The Order of Good-Time " , the principle being that each man, in turn, becomes the Master of the ceremonies, the feasts and the one evening rejoicings.

Unfortunately, François Gravé, who is not informed of made progress, returned to Paris and draws up in Dugua a black board of the situation. Dugua, whose privileges have just been revoked by Sully and whose company of draft must be dissolved, then decides to cease its financial support. The colony not being yet self-sufficing, Poutrincourt, Champlain and all the colonists leave Port-Royal on August 11th, 1607 aboard the ship Jonas by leaving the guard of the buildings with Membertou.

Port-Royal, second attempt

Following the failure of Port-Royal, Champlain, Engraved François and Dugua de Monts turn definitively to the St. Lawrence river.

Poutrincourt, as for him, has always the hope to found a colony in Acadie and, on February 25th, 1610, embarks in Dieppe for Port-Royal which it finds in perfect state, thanks to Membertou. It reorganizes the establishment and benefits from it to baptize the Chief Intrigue and a score of the members of his family on June 24th, 1610, which makes of it the first baptism recorded in North America. It returns then its ship to France and spends the next winter with only 23 men. The ship returns on May 22nd, 1611 with inter alia two missionaries Jesuits and sets out again with Poutrincourt and an important quantity of fourures in July 1611, Port-Royal being left under the command of Charles de Biencourt, the proper son of Poutrincourt.

The presence of the Jesuits causes many conflicts, those estimating in particular that the baptism of the Indians was not made in the rules. The business is even presented to the Court and the Sorbonne, this controversy being completed by a canonical interdict thrown by the Fathers on Port-Royal.

Following this, the marchioness of Guercheville, which supported materially and financially Poutrincourt, breaks with him. It charters a ship which arrives at Port-Royal in May 1613, withdraws the brothers Jesuits and share to base a new establishment on the coasts of Maine, in the area of the current city of Lamoine, which takes the name of Saint-Saver.

Destruction of Acadie

While the French tear and divide their forces, the English make up for their lost time. Arrived 3 years after Dugua, in 1607, they found Jamestown, in Virginia, which becomes the first English permanent establishment in America. In July 1613, whereas the colonization of Acadie in is always with its stammerings, the English colony, after having missed failing following a famine in 1609, is increasingly powerful and the Captain Samuel Argall is charged to erase any French presence being able to threaten Jamestown. Thus it shingles on Saint-Saver whom it destroys before even as the fortifications are not finished, close-cropped what remains Holy-Cross and sinks on Port-Royal of which it leaves only one mill and some barns. It is finished by it (temporarily) of Acadie.

Rebuilding

At the time of the attack of Argall, Poutrincourt was in France where it fought to pay its debts and to find partners to replace the loss of the support of the marchioness of Guercheville. It finally succeeds in joining ship-owners of the La Rochelle and share on December 31st, 1613 to arrive on March 27th, 1614 at Port-Royal. Initially surprised by the state of the colony reduced to some lodgings of fortune in which the survivors of the attack had found refuge, he concludes then that it is finished of Acadie and sets out again by it with almost the totality of the colonists whom he unloads with the La Rochelle in July. Poutrincourt will die the following year out of Champagne.

Charles de Biencourt on the other hand always believes in the future of Acadie and does not set out again with his/her father. It remains on the spot with a handle of men, of which Charles of the Tower, his right-hand man. These two men will deliver themselves to the draft of fur during the 10 years to come.

Like the area of Cape Fourchu (current the Yarmouth) lent itself better to the trade of the fur, Port-Royal is abandoned for good in 1618. Charles de Biencourt dies in the Cape Sable with the autumn 1623 and leaves the command of the small colony to the hands of Charles of the Tower.

The continuation

During Years 1620, the king Jacques I {{er}} of England granted the stronghold of Acadie the Scot William Alexander to found a colony there. This last baptized it Nova Scotia . At this time there remained only one score of merchants in Acadie. The colony was abolished since 1610 and becomes a simple mercantile counter of fodder.

The first European colonists of the territory, known later like Acadian, were the French subjects of the colony of the News-France mainly of the areas of Pleumartin and Poitiers. The French took the control of the territory of the Mi' kmaq S and in 1654, the king Louis XIV indicated Nicholas Denys as governor of Acadie, by granting grounds and the rights to him on all its ores.

The territory is conquered by English colonists during the Guerre of the league of Augsburg in 1697, but returns to France to the payment of peace. It is again taken again during the War of succession of Spain and its conquest confirmed by the Traité of Utrecht in 1713.

After this defeat, France built the fortress of Louisbourg on the island Royale (today the island of Cape-Breton the), in preparation for a new possible war; it ordered the maritime approaches towards the Quebec.

However, during the signature of peace with France, the English yielded the territory to France and the Scot had to give up their mission before the colony could not be established. The French fortress of Louisbourg was taken by britannico-American continental forces, then gone back to France; it fell down in the hands of the British after the Conquête of Quebec.

British sovereignty

When Acadie passes for good under the domination of the British, in 1713, those start to establish their own colonies. They ask Acadian to lend the Serment of allegiance, which they refuse to do (although they agree to lend an oath of neutrality). In 1749, whereas France always holds the fortress of Louisbourg, with the island of Cape-Breton the, and that it is building strong Beauséjour, with the New Brunswick, the Great Britain is impatient to regulate the acadian problem.

Deportation

As the Acadian ones refuse last which is quoted to them to lend to the oath of allegiance, in 1755, the British governor Monkton made destroy 6 000 acadian houses in 1755, expelling the inhabitants without ménagement : it was the Déportation of Acadian the, known under the name of great disturbance . The British start to off-set the population by ships in the British colonies of the United States. From there, much are sent in France or in the the Antilles. Some will succeed in fleeing in wood. Many others will die of hunger and disease on the boats.

It is only after the treated of Paris of 1763 that the Acadian ones could leave towards the French colony Louisiana (where they became the founders of the culture Cajun). Others take refuge in France, in particular with Belle-Île-en-Mer. The Québécois historian Philippe Charlois entitled a song like acadian anthem besides; a song written by the singer mononc Serge, who relates to the deportation of Acadian in 1755.

After-deportation

After 1764, one granted to Acadian the permission to return to settle in Nova Scotia; however, it was to them interdict to settle in great number in the same place. In addition, initially farmers, they found themselves forced to convert with fishing, for lack of grounds. The Acadian ones thus were mainly distributed along the northern coast of the continental part of Nova Scotia (today the New Brunswick). It is there, in the acadian Péninsule which the heart of Acadie of Large-Handle in the North-West with beats today Cape-Peeled in south-east.

The other Acadian ones sought refuge in France, particularly with Nantes. The French islands of Saint-Pierre-and-Miquelon close to Newfoundland became a refuge for many acadian families until they were expelled again by the British in 1778 and 1793. There are also people of acadian ascent in the Maine and in Quebec, in Montérégie and in the islands of the Madeleine, in the estuary of the St. Lawrence.

Because they are Catholique S, they do not have the right to vote nor to sit at the legislature. For one short period, they will not even have the right to have grounds. Teaching is exempted by schoolmasters who move from one place to another and serve several villages at the same time. It will not be before the Confederation, nearly one century later, that the Acadian ones will be able to restore a company which resembles that a little that they had front. One founds schools and churches, a professional class citizens makes his appearance and people start to take an active part in the political life: the first Acadian ones are elected with the legislature in the years 1840 and 1850.

Contemporary time

The August 15th 2004 concluded the third acadian World congress, at the time of the festival of the Assomption, and on the occasion of the 400e birthday of the foundation of Acadie.

References

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