[A-List] Re-Accommodating the Acadians

["Jim Yarker" <sjy_estrien@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

http://www.histori.ca/

"When Memory Fails"


Le Devoir, Friday, August 27, 1999
(Excerpt of an article from the August edition of Action nationale)

This year, the city of Moncton, in Acadia, will host the Summit of 
francophone countries. One must rejoice to have the Acadians host this 
important event, because justice is being served. Indeed, few people so 
richly deserve their place in history. Victims of cruel genocide in the 
mid-18th century, the Acadian people were able to get back on their feet and 
fight for their right to exist despite unheard-of hardships. [...]

But the city of Moncton, New Brunswick, owes its name to the British officer 
Robert Monckton, who was active in Acadia from 1755 to 1758 and in the 
Quebec City region during the siege of that city by Wolfe in 1759.

The act of naming the city after this soldier raises serious social, 
political, and ethical problems. As a soldier in Acadia and the Quebec City 
area, Monckton committed terrible acts of great cruelty which are the 
equivalent of genocide, crimes against peace, war crimes and crimes against 
humanity in the sense that we recognize and label them today.

---

"Acadian Genocide"


Le Devoir, Friday, August 27, 1999

In the July 28, 1755 council session, the Lieutenant Governor of Nova 
Scotia, Charles Lawrence decided to deport the Acadians. The minutes of the 
meeting stipulate:

"After mature consideration it was unanimously agreed, that, to prevent as 
much as possible their attempting to return and molest the settlers that may 
be set down on their lands, it would be most proper to send them to be 
distributed amongst the several colonies on the continent, and that a 
sufficient number of vessels should be hired with all possible expedition 
for that purpose."
Three days later, on the 31st, Lawrence sent his instructions to Colonel 
Robert Monckton.
"In the mean time, it will be necessary to keep this measure as secret as 
possible, as well to prevent their attempting to escape, as to carry off 
their cattle; and the better to effect this you will endeavour to fall upon 
some stratagem to get the men, both young and old (especially the heads of 
families) into your power and detain them till the transports shall arrive, 
so as that they may be ready to be shipped off; for when this is done it is 
not much to be feared that the women and children will attempt to go away 
and carry off the cattle. But least they should, it will not only be very 
proper to secure all their Shallops, Boats, Canoes and every other vessel 
you can lay your hands upon; But also to send out parties to all suspected 
roads and places from time to time, that they may be thereby intercepted.

As their whole stock of Cattle and Corn is forfeited to the Crown by their 
rebellion, and must be secured & apply'd towards a reimbursement of the 
expense the government will be at in transporting them out of the Country, 
care must be had that nobody make any bargain for purchasing them under any 
colour or pretence whatever; if they do the sale will be void, for the 
inhabitants have now (since the order in Council) no property in them, nor 
will they be allowed to carry away the least thing but their ready money and 
household furniture."

----

DECLARATION AT THE GRAND PRE CHURCH


Quoted by John Winslow Acadia; Sketches of a Journey. P.52 / Journal of 
Colonial Winslow, published in 1883 and 1885 in volumes III and IV of the 
Nova Scotia Historical Society's collections

"Gentlemen, I have received from His Excellency Governor Lawrence the King's 
commission which I have in my hand and by whose orders you are conveyed 
together to manifest to you His Majesty's final resolution to the French 
inhabitants of this his province of Nova Scotia who for almost half a 
century have had more indulgence granted them than any of his subjects in 
any part of his Dominions. What you have made of them you yourself best 
know."

---

http://www.toplumpostasi.net/index.php/cat/12/col/85/art/1364/PageName/Dunya

Britain's forgotten genocide in the land of Évangéline
Alkan CHAGLAR
alkanchaglar@xxxxxxxxx

Yazarýn tüm yazýlarýný görüntüle


  7 Þubat 2007, Çarþamba Yorum Yaz         Yazdýr         Arkadaþýna Gönder

252 years ago Britain committed one of the most sinister crimes against 
humanity. This is not the better documented African Slave Trade, Boer War 
concentration camps or even the dire treatment of Aboriginal Australians, 
but the lesser known ethnic cleansing and genocide of the Acadians. It is a 
crime Britain wishes to forget and conceal even to this very day.

Perhaps hidden to avoid detection by Anglo Saxon adventurers along the 
rugged littoral of Nova Scotia live small pockets of communities of 
repatriated Acadians; the Acadians are descendants of the first Europeans to 
inhabit Atlantic Canada, which includes the three provinces of New 
Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. Originally French settlers, 
the Acadians had within a century after their arrival developed into a 
distinct community with their own culture, while intermarrying with the 
native Mic?maq with whom they developed amicable relations.

By the early 18th century, Britain and France fought bitterly over Atlantic 
Canada, with the region exchanging hands time and time again, but in the end 
coming under British control.  The Acadians who had developed a sense of 
neutrality amid the chaos of a long fought conflict between British 
red-coats and the French soldat found their loyalty questioned by both 
nations. However, in the end their neutrality, which John Mack Faragher?s 
defines in his book ?A Great and noble scheme, the tragic story of the 
expulsion of the French Acadians? as ?their intimate and cooperative 
connection to the Mic?maq,? and their ?attachment to place, local practice 
and newly developed traditions? was not enough to save them from 
destruction.

Briefly after having been appointed the Governor of the new British colony 
of Nova Scotia (replacing defeated Acadia), General Charles Lawrence, wrote 
to London about the Acadians: "As they possess the best and largest tracts 
of land in this Province, it cannot be settled with any effect while they 
remain in this situation ... ?It would be much better ... that they were 
away".  General Lawrence who seemed to have their plans prepared carefully 
wrote to the British Secretary of State revealing his intentions: "I will 
propose to them the Oath of Allegiance a last time, if they refuse we will 
have a pretext for their expulsion: If they accept I will refuse them the 
Oath ... In both cases I shall deposit them."

Director of Acadian studies at Moncton University, James Laxer lends 
credence to this by quoting a letter sent on July 18 1755 to the Board of 
Trade, which explained how the Acadians had ?since earnestly desired to be 
admitted to take the oath, but were refused.? Describing the consequent 
upheaval and exile of the Acadians,  in his book: ?The Acadians, A people?s 
story of exile and triumph,? historian Dean Jobb recounts how the Acadians 
were forcibly rooted from their homes. ?Columns of smoke and flame rose 
skyward as homes and barns were put to the torch. ?Cattle were slaughtered 
or confiscated. ?Their only crime had been to insist on the right to live in 
peace as England and France rushed headlong into another war.?

Describing events during ?le Grand dérangement", (Great Upheaval), Jobb 
described how families were torn apart as children were taken from their 
parents to become servants. Around 15,000 Acadians out of a population of 
18,000 were deported in 1755 with around half dying on ship wrecks or in 
poverty on British ships.

Providing the Acadians with a trap proposal, British military leader Charles 
Lawrence knew he was leading them to their obliteration. The rapacity for 
control over the natural resources of Atlantic Canada and the growing need 
to reap the benefits of the New World was the motivation behind the forced 
expulsion of the Acadians. Later British generals with their oblique 
principles of democracy driven by avarice, convinced themselves that the 
Acadians were a security risk, and therefore a consequence of war.

The agony of the Acadians in exile after ?le Grand dérangement", is 
reflected in the poem Évangéline, A Tale of Acadie by American poet Henry 
Wadsworth Longfellow. Longfellow describes the betrothal of an Acadian girl 
named Evangeline to her lover, Gabriel and their forced separation after the 
expulsion of Acadians. Spending a lifetime of poverty on the road, 
Évangéline finds work as a nurse finding Gabriel who is impoverished and 
weakened by disease, before he dies in her arms.



Apology and reconciliation

Despite the harrowing events that make human hearts ache with emotion, even 
now there remains a prevailing psyche among many that the Acadians brought 
on this tragedy themselves. Alarmingly, the attitude is not only confined to 
the average Nova Scotian lumberjack but spills into the palaces of the 
British Haut Monde and in the corridors of power where elected 
parliamentarians sit.

When seeking an apology, Acadian Canadian  MP Stephane Bergeron?s bill  was 
defeated by Anglophone Liberals whose opposition was based upon not facts 
but an invisible emotional cord of British loyalty stretching all the way 
from Ottawa to London. Their meticulous efforts to conceal this past crime, 
blocked the bill and the consequent apology it would have sought from 
Westminster, while also freezing the process of reconciliation.

Those in power will try to justify opposition to a British apology by 
suggesting, ?but this transpired 252 years ago?. therefore it is not so 
important today.? A feeble argument, if the issue in question was ?history? 
then Acadian Canadian today would not be fighting for equality in their 
status as citizens or reduced to a small minority living in pocket 
communities.  Past actions have consequences beyond a few years.

The current status of the Acadian minority in Canada today as in other parts 
of the globe reflect the 252 years of suffering in re-adjusting oneself and 
re-building ones life. Until recently many still faced overt discrimination. 
If past wrongs are not addressed then how can those whose misery today was 
founded in 1755 move on and reconcile with their neighbours?

A paradigm that re-appears again and again in the thought-process of 
sceptics, people will typically enquire as if seeking to trivialize the 
Acadian tragedy, ?Well?what about all the other injustices committed in 
history?? To which I ask, Well?what about them? Is there a queuing system 
for seeking an apology for past injustices? Are injustices weighed against 
those who fall under a ?priority list? ?

Apologies may be mere words to some, but they can act as a foundation that 
is requisite to the process of reconciliation in a modern society. 
Historical injustices represented by centuries of suffering of a people are 
not history as they are easily transferred to one?s standing in that society 
today. Past acts have far-reaching consequences dividing people, and 
fuelling resentment and distrust, especially if those enjoying the fruits of 
power are still benefiting from their callous actions yesterday.