Permanent Exhibit


HISTORY OF THE ACADIANS


The Amerindians

Before the arrival of the Europeans, Acadia was inhabited by two large tribes of the Algonquian family: the Micmacs, also called the Souriquois, and the Malecites, also called the Etchemins.

The French, particularly the missionaries, won the trust and the support of the Amerindians of Acadia. The European influence on the native culture was deeply felt at all levels. Nevertheless, the colonies also benefited from contacts with the native peoples since the latter showed them how to make snowshoes, mocassins, bark canoes, etc.

The fur trade formed the basis for contact between the French and the Amerindians. The French exchanged, among other things, guns, copper kettles, and glass beads for pelts of various animals, such as the beaver, the moose and the otter. Militarily, the Amerindians were also a major defense factor for the French against the English.

Mi'kmaq encampment


The Discoverers
Great discoverers such as Christopher Columbus, John Cabot, Giovanni de Verazzano, and Jacques Cartier paved the way for several other explorers lured by the riches of the new continent. Contact with this part of North America was maintained primarily because of the fishing on the Newfoundland banks and the fur trade with the Amerindians. At the beginning of the 17th century, Acadia was inhabited by about 15,000 Amerindians. The two large tribes living there were the Micmacs and the Malecites.
 Map by Samuel de Champlain
Reproduction of the map
of Acadia by Samuel
de Champlain, 1613

Origin of the word "Acadia"

The earliest known written form of the name Acadia dates to 1524 and is credited to the Italian explorer Giavanni de Verazzano. While exploring the Atlantic coast of North America, he was so impressed by the beauty of the trees of the Chesapeake Bay area that he gave the region the name of "Arcadia" since it evoked images of ancient Greece. With the evolution of the cartography of North America, the name "Acadia" - without the "r" - came to designate the present area of Canada's Maritime Provinces.

Nevertheless, the origin of the name is still somewhat ambiguous. According to linguists, the word "Cadie" (hence "Lacadie" or "Acadie") may have derived from "Quoddy" - a word used by the native inhabitants of the Maritime Provinces to designate a fertile area such as in Passamaquoddy, Shubenacadie and Tracadie. According to linguists, the word " Cadie " used to designate the territory that is now part of the Maritime Provinces, comes from the native dialect. The name Acadia supposedly derives from the Micmac word " Algatig " meaning camp, or from a distortion of the malecite word " Quoddy " indicating fertile areas, such as are found in Shubenacadie, Tracadie, and Passamaquoddy.


Île Ste-Croix

Pierre du Gua, Sieur de Monts, obtained from the King of France exclusive control over the fur trade in Acadia. He organized a company and, together with Samuel de Champlain, crossed the Atlantic in 1604 to colonize his new domain.

After exploring the shores of the Bay of Fundy, they settled on a little island at the mouth of the Sainte-Croix River. The winter of 1604-05 came early and was very hard on the newcomers. Because they were ill-protected and poorly nourished, thirty-six of the company of eighty men perished.
 Île Ste-Croix habitation 1604
Drawing of the first
establishments at Île
Ste-Croix


Port-Royal

Because of the harsh winter spent at Île Sainte-Croix, Sieur de Monts was forced to seek refuge elsewhere. He chose Port-Royal, on the other side of the Bay of Fundy or "Baie française" where a new "Habitation" was built. This new attempt at colonization lasted only eight years. In 1613, the English, led by Samuel Argall, attacked and destroyed Port-Royal.

 Port-Royal
Port-Royal 1605-1613

The growth of Acadia

The first serious efforts to bring true French settlers to Acadia, which included women and children, only began in the 1630s. Isaac de Razilly, the first governor of Acadia, had brought from France some "300 elite men" in 1632, although it is uncertain if some of these included their families.

Acadians numbered about 2,500 in 1713. From 1713 to 1755, the Acadian population grew rapidly. Several new villages were founded. In 1755, there were about 15,000 Acadians. The Acadian territory surrendered by France in 1713 comprised only the Nova Scotia Peninsula. In 1749, England founded Halifax, the colony's new capital. The relations between the Acadians and the English authorities deteriorated and many Acadians had to take refuge in French territories: Île Saint-Jean (Prince Edward Island), Île Royale (Cape Breton) and in the territory which is now New Brunswick.
Map of Acadia 1744.
Cornerstone and chalice of Beaubassin.


The deportation

Tensions between the English and the French resulted in the deportation of a large part of the Acadian population between 1755 and 1763. The first embarkation occurred at Grand-Pré in October 1755.

The following factors explain why the Acadians were deported:
  • The link between Québec and Louisbourg via Acadia worried the English.
  • Some considered Acadia as the key to all the North American colonies.
  • Beauséjour and the settlements along the Saint-John River began to look to much like the nucleus of French colonization with no definitive boundaries.
  • The Acadians had the best lands, and this was detrimental to English colonization.
  • The Acadians persisted in remaining neutral.

The Expulsion of the Acadians



Exile

Approximately 7,000 Acadians were deported from the Bay of Fundy region in 1755; 3,500 from the Île Saint-Jean in 1758 and several hundred more during the next few years.

Most were destined for assimilation in the New England colonies; many were deported to France and England. A large number of those exiled managed to reach Louisiana, a French territory which had been ceded to Spain. Some Acadians also found refuge in Québec along the St. Lawrence River and in the Gaspé peninsula.

The return

After the Treaty of Paris in 1763, the English allowed the Acadians to remain in Nova Scotia on two conditions; they were to swear an oath of allegiance and they were to to disperse in small groups. However, only a small number of the exiled returned to settle permanently in Acadia. They, along with the Acadians who had managed to escape deportation, had to go and live in other areas, since their former lands were now occupied by English settlers.

 Traité de Paris
Oath of allegiance signed
by Pierre Belliveau in 1768

Missionaries

After the dispersion, the Acadians co-operated with the missionaries in an attempt to reorganize their religious life. The missionaries established a religious structure which included all the Acadian settlements.

If there was no priest, one of the respected men in the community said mass (omitting the consecration) and directed the religious activities.

 Display of religious artifacts used by missionaries
Display of religious
artifacts used by missionaries

New Acadia

During their resettlement, the Acadians suffered great hardship. New lands had to be cleared, sometimes under the authority of demanding owners.

The new sites settled by the Acadians were, on the whole, not the same as those they possessed before the Deportation.

Evangeline

Evangeline's poem, written by the American Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, was published in 1847. Today, there are more than 200 different editions of the poem and about 130 translations.

In Acadia, two young people engaged to be married, Evangeline Bellefontaine and Gabriel Lajeunesse, were separated during the Deportation. A single thought dominated Evangeline's life; she wanted to find her Gabriel. Thus she spent her life searching for him across the American Midwest. When she did eventually find him, however, he as an old man, dying in a poorhouse.

The poem created one of the most significant Acadian myths. It was responsible for the awakening of a collective and national consciousness during the second half of the 19th century. The literary and historical criticism it provoked had little effect on the enchanted public.

The Acadians defines this symbol in their handicraft, sculpture, costume, theatre, song, painting, and in the names of people and places.

 Evangeline
Evangeline


Collège St-Joseph

An outstanding feature of the Acadian renaissance was the establishment of institutions of higher learning. The preceding period had contributed to a national awakening, largely due to the circulation of both historical and literary works about Acadians.

In 1854, the first francophone college in the Maritime Provinces was founded at Memramcook through the efforts of François-Xavier Lafrance. His work, which ended in failure in 1862 because of financial difficulties, was resumed by father Camille Lefebvre in 1864, and the institution continued under the name of Saint-Joseph's College. In 1963, Saint-Joseph's College became the Université de Moncton.

 Collège Saint-Joseph
Scale model of
Saint-Joseph's College
in Memramcook


National conventions and the Société l'Assomption (Assomption Society)

The idea of an Acadian national convention originated when about forty Acadian delegates attended the conference of the Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste du Québec in 1880. The following year, the Acadians organized their first convention; and at the conventions which followed, the major topics of discussions were language, education, and religion. It was at Memramcook, in 1881, that the Acadians chose August 15th, feast of the Assumption, as their national commemoration day. In 1884, at Miscouche, the Ave Marie Stella became the national anthem, and the design of the national flag was approved.

It was the first national convention in 1881 that the Société nationale l'Assomption was established. Its function was to ensure organization and continuation of the conferences. Later on, in 1903, a group of Acadians meeting in Waltham, Massachusetts, formed a benevolence and mutual aid society for Acadians which took the name of société mutuelle l'Assomption. Ten years later, the head office was transferred to Moncton where the society expanded quite rapidly. In order to avoid a confusion of names, mention should be made of the fact that it was the Société nationale l'Assomption which became the Société nationale des Acadiens.

 Acadian flag
Original Acadian flag
dating back to 1884





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