The Acadians: Southwest Louisiana Historical and Biographical. by William Perrin. 1891 Submitted for the LAGenWeb Archives by J. B. Craven, Dec. 1999. ************************************************ Submitted to the LAGenWeb Archives http:/www.usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm ************************************************ TIPS FOR SEARCHING RECORDS ON THE INTERNET Netscape & Ms Explorer users: If searching for a particular surname, locality or date while going through the records in the archives or anywhere....try these few steps: 1. Go to the top of the report you are searching. 2. Click on EDIT at the top of your screen. 3. Next click on FIND in the edit menu. 4. When the square pops up, enter what you are looking for in the FIND WHAT ___________blank. 5. Click on DIRECTION __DOWN. 6. And last click on FIND NEXT and continue to click on FIND NEXT until you reach the end of the report. This should highlight the item that you indicated in "find what" every place it appears in the report. You must continue to click on FIND NEXT till you reach the end of the report to see all of the locations of the item indicated. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Page 327. NOTE III. THE ACADIANS. As the Acadians were among the original settlers of the country embraced in this work, so everything pertaining to them are of interest to our readers. To that end we make some extracts from Bancroft's History of the United States, historical of that persecuted people, which, doubtless, will be found of interest to the reader. The colony of Acadia, or Nova Scotia, as now called, was the oldest French colony in North America, dating back sixteen years previous to the landing of the Pilgrims from the deck of the Mayflower on Plymouth Rock. The treaty of Utrecht (1755) conceded Acadia to Great Britain. Yet the name of Annapolis, the presence of a feeble English garrison, and the emigration of hardly five or six English families, were nearly all that marked the supremacy of England. The old inhabitants remained on the soil which they had subdued, hardly conscious that they had changed their sovereign. They still loved the language and the ways of their forefathers, and their religion was graven upon their souls. They promised submission to England, but such was the love with which France had inspired them, they would not fight against its standard or renounce its name. Though conquered, they were French neutrals. For nearly forty years from the peace of Utrecht they had been forgotten or neglected, and had prospered in their seclusion. No tax gatherers entered their folds, no magistrates dwelt in their hamlets. The parish priest made their records and regulated their successions. Their little disputes were settled among themselves, with scarcely an instance of appeal to English authority at Annapolis. The pastures were covered with their herds and flocks, and dykes, raised by extraordinary efforts of social industry, shut out the rivers and the tide from alluvial marshes of exuberant fertility. The meadows thus reclaimed were covered by richest grasses, or fields of wheat, that yielded thirty and fiftyfold at the harvests. Their houses were built in clusters, neatly constructed and comfortably furnished, and around them all kinds of domestic fowls abounded. With the spirining-wheel and the loom, their women made of flax from their own fields, of fleeces from their own flocks, coarse but sufficient clothing. * * * Thus were the Acadians happy in their neutrality and the abundance which they drew from their native land. They formed, as it were, one great family. Their morals were of unaffected purity. Love was sanctified and calmed by the universal custom of early marriage. The neighbors of the community would assist the new couple to raise their cottage, while the wilderness offered land. Their numbers increased, and the colony, which had begun only as the trading station of a company with a monopoly of the fur trade, counted, perhaps, sixteen or seventeen thousand inhabitants. When England began rigorously to colonize, Nova Scotia, the native inhabitants might fear the loss of their independence. The enthusiasm of their priests was kindled into fervor at the thought that heretics, of a land which had disfranchised Catholics, were to surround, and perhaps overwhelm, the ancient Acadians. "Better," said the priests, " surrender your meadows to the sea, and your houses to the flames, than, at the peril of your souls, take the oath of allegiance to the British government." And they, from their very simplicity and anxious sincerity, were uncertain in their resolves; now gathering courage to flee beyond the isthmus, for other homes in New France, and now yearning for their own homes and fields, their herds and pastures. The haughtiness of the British officers aided the priests in their efforts to foment disaffection. The English regarded colonies, even when settled by men from their own land, only as sources of emolument to the mother country; colonists as an inferior caste. The Acadians were despised because they were helpless. Ignorant of the laws of their conquerors, they were not educated to the knowledge, the defense, and the love of English liberties; they knew not the way to the throne, and, given up to military masters, had no redress in civil tribunals. Their papers and records, the titles to their estates and inheritances, were taken away from them. Was their property demanded for the public service? "They were not to be bargained with for the payment." The order may still be read on the Council records at Halifax. They must comply, it was written, without making any terms, - immediately," or " the next courier would bring an order for military execution on the delinquents." And, when they delayed in fetching firewood for their oppressors, it was told them from the Governor, "If they do not do it in proper time, the soldiers shall absolutely take their homes for fuel." The unoffending sufferers submitted meekly to the tyranny. Under pretense of fearing that they might rise in behalf of France, or seek shelter in Canada, or convey provisions to the French garrisons, they were directed to surrender their boats and their firearms; and, conscious of innocence, they gave up their barges and their muskets, leaving themselves without the means of flight and defenseless. Further orders were afterward given to the English officers, if the Acadians behaved amiss, to punish them at discretion ; if the troops were annoyed, to inflict vengeance on the nearest, whether the guilty one or not-" taking an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth." The French had yielded their sovereignty over no more than the peninsula. They established themselves on the isthmus in two forts-one, a small stockade at the mouth of little river Gaspereaux, near Bay Verde; the other, the more considerable fortress of Beau Sejour, built and supplied at great expense, upon an eminence on the north side of the Messagouclie, on the Bay of Fundy. The isthmus is here hardly fifteen miles wide, and formed the natural boundary between New France and Acadia. The French at Beau Sejour had passed the previous winter in unsuspecting tranquillity, ignorant. of the preparations of the crowns for war. As spring approached suspicions were aroused; but DeVerger, the inefficient commander, took no vigorous measures for strengthening his works, nor was he fully aroused to his danger till, from the walls of his fort, he himself beheld the fleet of the English sailing fearlessly into the bay and anchoring before his eyes. The provincial troops, about fifteen hundred in number, strengthened by a detachment of three hundred regulars and a train of artillery, were disembarked without difficulty. A day was given to repose and parade; on the fourth of June (1755) they forced the passage of the Messagouche, the intervening river. No sally was attempted by DeVerger; no earnest defense was undertaken. On the twelfth, the fort at Beau Sejour, weakened by fear, discord and confusion, was invested, and in four days it surrendered. By the terms of the capitulation, the garrison was to be sent to Louisburg; for the Acadian fugitives, inasmuch as they had been forced into the service, amnesty was stipulated. The place received an English garrison, and, from the brother of the King, then the soul of the regency, was named Cumberland. The petty fortress near the river Gaspereaux, on Bay Verde, a mere palisade, flanked by four block houses, without mound or trenches, and tenanted by no more than twenty soldiers, though commanded by the brave De Villerai, could do nothing but capitulate on the same terms. Meantime Captain Rous sailed, with three frigates and a sloop, to reduce the French fort on the St. John's. But before he arrived there, the fort and dwellings of the French had been abandoned and burned, and lie took possession of a deserted country. Thus was the region east of the St. Croix annexed to England, with a loss of but twenty men killed, and as many more wounded. No further resistance was to be feared. The Acadians cowered before their masters, hoping forbearance; willing to take an oath of fealty to England; in their single-mindedness and sincerity, refusing to pledge themselves to bear arms against France. The English were masters of the sea, were undisputed lords of the country, and could exercise clemency without apprehension. Not a whisper gave warning of their purpose till it was ripe for execution. But it had been determined that the French inhabitants of Acadia should be carried away into captivity to other parts of the British dominions. "They have laid aside all thoughts of taking the oaths of allegiance voluntarily," thus, in August, 1754, Laurence, the Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia. had written of them to Lord Halifax. "They possess the best and largest tract of land in this province; if they refuse the oaths it would be much better that they were away." The Lords of Trade in reply veiled their wishes under the decorous form of suggestions: "By the treaty of Utrecht," said they of the French Acadians, "their becoming subjects of Great Britain is made an express condition of their continuance after the expiration of a year; they can not become subjects by taking the oaths required by subjects; and, therefore, it way be a question whether their refusal to take such oaths will not operate to invalidate their titles to their lands. Consult the Chief justice of Novia Scotia upon that point; his opinion may serve as foundation for future measures." France remembered the descendants of her sons in the hour of their afflictions, and asked that they might have time to remove from the Peninsula with their effects, leaving their lands to the English; but the answer of the British minister claimed them as useful subjects and refused them the liberty of transmigration. The inhabitants of Minas and the adjacent country pleaded with the British officers for the restitution of their boats and their guns, promising fidelity, if they could but retain their liberties, and declaring that, not the want of arms, but their consciences, should engage them not to revolt. - "The memorial," said Lawrence in council, "is highly arrogant, insidious and insulting." The memorialists, at his summons, came submissively to Halifax. "You want your canoes for carrying provisions to the enemy," said he to them, though he knew no enemy was left in their vicinity. "Guns are no part of your goods," he continued, "as by the laws of England all Roman Catholics are restrained from having arms, and are subject to penalties if arms are found in their houses. It is not the language of British subjects to talk of terms with the crown or capitulate about their fidelity or allegiance. What excuse can you make for your presumption in treating the government with such indignity as to expound to them the nature of fidelity? Manifest your obedience by immediately taking the oath of allegiance in the common form before the council." The deputies replied that they would do as the generality of the inhabitants should determine; and they merely entreated leave to return home and consult the body of the people. The next day the unhappy men, foreseeing the sorrow that menaced them, offered to swear allegiance unconditionally; but they were told that, by a clause in a British statute, persons who had once refused the oath can not afterward be permitted to take, but are to be considered as popish recusints, and as such they were imprisoned. The chief justice, on whose opinion hung the fate of so many hundreds of innocent families, insisted that the French inhabitants were to be looked upon as confirmed "rebels;" who had now collectively and without exception become "recusants." Besides, they still counted in their villages "eight thousand' souls, and the English not more than "three thousand;" they stood in the way of "the progress of the settlement;" "by their non-compliance with the conditions of the treaty of Utrecht, they had forfeited their possessions to the crown ;" after the departure of the fleet and the troops the province would not be in a condition to drive them out. "Such a juncture as the present might never occur; " so he advised "against receiving any of the French inhabitants to take the oath," and for the removal of all of them from the province. That the cruelty might have no palliation, letters arrived, leaving no doubt that the shores of the Bay of Fundy were entirely in the possession of the British; and yet at a council, at which Vice Admiral Boscawen and the Rear Admiral Mostyn were present by invitation, it was unanimously determined to send the French inhabitants out of the province; and after mature consideration it was further unanimously agreed that, to prevent their attempting to return and molest the settlers that may be set down on their lands, it would be most proper to distribute them amongst the several colonies on the continent. To hunt them into the net was impracticable; artifice was therefore, resorted to. By a general proclamation, on one and the same day, the scarcely conscious victims, "both old men and young men, as well as all the lads of ten years of age," were peremptorily ordered to assemble at their respective posts. On the appointed fifth of September they obeyed. At Grand Pre', for example, four hundred and eighteen unarmed men came together. They were marched into the church and its avenues were closed, when Winslow, the American commander, placed himself in their center, and spoke: "You are convened together to manifest to you his majesty's final resolution to the French inhabitants of this province. Your lands and tenements, cattle of all kinds, and live stock of all sorts, are forfeited to the crown, and you yourselves are to be removed from this province. I am, through his majesty's goodness, directed to allow you liberty to carry off your money and household goods, as many as you can, without discommoding the vessels you join." And he then declared them the king's prisoners. Their wives and families shared their lots; their sons, five hundred and twenty-seven in number, their daughters, five hundred and seventy six; in the whole, women and babes and old men and children all included, nineteen hundred and twenty-three souls. The blow was sudden; they had left home but for the morning, and they never were to return. Their cattle were to stay unfed in the stalls, their fires to die on the hearths. They had for that first day even no food for themselves or their children and were compelled to beg for bread. The tenth of September was the day for the embarkation for a part of the exiles. They were drawn up six deep, and the young men, one hundred and sixty-one in number, were ordered to march first on board the vessel. They could leave their farms and cottages, the shady rocks on which they had reclined, their herds and their garners, but nature yearned within them, and they would not be separated from their parents. Yet of what avail was the frenzied despair of the unarmed youth? They had not one weapon; the bayonet drove them to obey; and they marched slowly and heavily from the chapel to the shore, between women and children, who kneeling prayed for blessings on their heads, they themselves weeping and praying and singing hymns. The seniors went next; the wives and children must wait until other transport vessels arrive. The delay had its horrors. The wretched people left behind were kept together near the sea, without proper food, or raiment, or shelter, until other ships came to take them away; and December, with its appalling cold, had struck the shivering, half-clad, broken-hearted sufferers before the last of them were removed. "The embarkation of the inhabitants goes on but slowly," wrote Moncton from Fort Cumberland, near which he had burned three hamlets; "the most of the wives of the men we have prisoners are gone oft with their children, in hopes I would not send off their husbands without them." Their hope was vain. Near Annapolis a hundred heads of families fled to the woods, and a party was detached on the hunt to bring them in. "Our soldiers hate them," wrote an officer on this occasion, and if they can but find a pretext to kill them, they will." Did a prisoner seek to escape, he was shot down by a sentinel. Yet some fled to Quebec; more than three thousand had withdrawn to Miramichi, and the region south of the Ristigourche; some found rest on the banks of the St. John's and its branches; some found a lair in their native forests; some were charitably sheltered from the English in the wigwams of the savage. But seven thousand of those banished people were driven on board ships, and scattered among the English colonies from New Hampshire to Georgia; one thousand and twenty to South Carolina alone. They were cast ashore without resources, hating the poor house as a shelter for their offspring, and abhorring the thought of selling themselves as laborers. Households, too, were separated: the colonial newspapers contained advertisements of members of families seeking their companions, of sons anxious to reach and relieve their parents, of mothers mourning for their children. The wanderers sighed for their native country; but to prevent their return their villages, from Annapolis to the isthmus, were laid waste; their old homes were but ruins. In the district of Minas, for instance, two hundred and fifty of their homes, and more than as many of their barns, were consumed. The live stock which belonged to them, consisting of great numbers of horned cattle, hogs, sheep and horses, were seized as spoils and disposed of by the English officials. A beautiful and fertile tract of country was reduced to a solitude. There were none left round the ashes of the cottages of the Acadians but the faithful watch-dog, vainly seeking the hand that fed him. Thickets of forest trees choked their orchards; the ocean broke over their neglected dykes and desolated their meadows. Relentless misfortune pursued the exiles wherever they fled. Those sent to Georgia, drawn by a love for the spot where they were born as strong as that of the captive Jews who wept by the side of the rivers of Babylon for their own temples and land, escaped to sea in boats, and went coasting from harbor to harbor; but when they had reached New England, just as they would have set sail for their native fields, they were stopped by orders from Nova Scotia. Those who dwelt on the St. John's were torn once more from their new homes. When Canada surrendered, hatred, with its worst venom, pursued the fifteen hundred who remained south of the Ristigourche. Once those who dwelt in Pennsylvania presented an humble petition to the Earl of Loudon, then the British Commander-in-Chief in America, and the cold hearted peer, offended that the prayer was made in French, seized their five principal men, who in their own and had been persons of dignity and substance, and shipped them to England, with the request that they might be kept from ever becoming troublesome, by being consigned to service as common sailors on board ships of war. No doubt existed of the King's approbation. The Lords of Trade, more merciless than the savages and than the wilderness in winter, wished very much that every one of the Acadians should be driven out; and when it seemed that the work was done, congratulated the King that "the zealous endeavors of Lawrence had been crowned with entire success." I know not if the annals of the human race keep the record of sorrows so wantonly inflicted, so bitter and so perennial as fell upon the French inhabitants of Acadia. "We have been true," they said of themselves, "to our religion and true to ourselves; yet nature appears to consider us only as the objects of public vengeance." The hand of the English official seemed under a spell - with regard to them, and was never uplifted but to curse them. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Southwest Louisiana Historical and Biographical by William Henry Perrin. Published 1891 by Gulf Publishing Company. PP 327 - 333 # # #