From: Macdonald Stainsby <mstainsby@xxxxxxxxx>
Reply-To: The A-List <a-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: The A-List <a-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [A-List] Re-Accommodating the Acadians
Date: Mon, 14 Jan 2008 15:51:14 -0700
Get rid of all of em, French or English Colonialist! Now you're getting it!
No celebrations of genocide!
Macdonald
Jim Yarker wrote:
or "McGill" University. Or rue "McGill", named for the racist
land-grabbers of the farms of les Patriotes, and who advocated fascistic
repression of their struggle. Or "Moncton", named after one of the
principal génocidaires of the Acaadians. Or chemin "Craig" which
traverses many francophone munipalities and all the place names based on
the executioners of the les Patriotes. And "Dorchester" and "Wolfe",
"Durham", "Sir George William" (of "Sir George William College" faime at
Concordia). Unlike English Canadian asshole pontificators, French
Canadians are quite used to seeing the names of those who conquered them,
lorded over them, committed genocide on them etc honoured in public place
names in their own country. And absurdly, they're supposed to take lessons
from their conquerors' collectivity, which they'll never do, whether
they're coming from the likes of the Trudeau Institute, the Montreal
Gazette, Maoists for Canadian Unity, or "rabble."ca.
http://www.histori.ca/peace/page.do?pageID=275
The Deportation of the Acadians
Tension and mistrust arising from the war between New France and 13
English colonies led to the expulsion of the Acadians. The British thought
the Acadians were a threat to appropriation of the land.
HISTORICAL CONTEXT
Living successively under French and then British rule (in 1604 and 1713,
respectively), the Acadians were often forced to adapt. And when the
British conquered Port Royal in 1710 after being ceded Acadia under the
terms of the Treaty of Utrecht, they found themselves up against a people
who had developed a strong sense of independence against British and
French rule. The Acadians initially refused to recognize British rule,
wanting to keep their religious freedom and not wanting to be obliged to
bears arms in the event of war. These conditions were accepted only in
1730 and, at that point, the Acadians were recognized as neutral subjects
within the colony.
SUMMARY OF THE CONFLICT
Wanting to settle permanently in the colony, the English founded the city
of Halifax in 1749 to reduce the influence of Louisbourg. The new capital
city would not need to be dependent on the Acadians for supplies and it
could serve as the landing site for new Protestant colonists - and
significant troops of soldiers. This military deployment made the Acadians
nervous; some of them left for the west of Nova Scotia and others went as
far as Prince Edward Island. In 1753, Charles Lawrence was appointed
governor of Nova Scotia. Not trusting the Acadians, whom he believed were
in cahoots with Natives, he threatened them with deportation to France if
they refused to take the oath of allegiance to the British Crown, despite
their status as a politically and commercially neutral people, both in
terms of the British and the French. He petitioned the colony's court and
was granted permission by the top court to carry out his threats. The
decision was made easier by the fact that while most Acadians were
neutral, some had already taken up arms for France. On July 28, 1755,
Lawrence ordered his men to start arresting Acadians with a view to
deporting them. But it took until September 5 of that year for Charles
Lawrence to gather the Acadians in the St. Charles Church in Grand Pre in
order to read the declaration that they must relinquish their possessions
to the British Crown and that they would be deported. Unaware of what
awaited them in the church, many Acadians were taken prisoner and deported
to American colonies, France, and England, and many died during the long
ocean voyage. The survivors roamed, looking for a new place to call home.
In 1763, after the Seven Year War and the signing of the peace treaty,
some Acadians returned to Nova Scotia, only to find that they no longer
owned land; it had been redistributed to Protestant settlers. In all,
several thousand Acadians died during deportation: of illness, drowning,
misery and starvation.
Concepts
Acadian
The Acadians are the descendants of the first French colonists who settled
in what are today the Maritime provinces, and they developed a cultural
independence that is recognized to this day.
Treaty of Utrecht
Treaty signed in Utrecht, in the Netherlands, to end the hostilities
between France and England after Spain's Civil War. Spain was the enemy of
France and of a coalition of European countries, including England.
England benefited most from the agreements, as France ceded Newfoundland,
Acadia, Hudson's Bay and St. Christopher's Island in the West Indies.
Deportation
The forced expulsion of one or several people from a place and their
relocation to a different place.
From: Macdonald Stainsby <mstainsby@xxxxxxxxx>
Reply-To: The A-List <a-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: The A-List <a-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [A-List] Re-Accommodating the Acadians
Date: Mon, 14 Jan 2008 15:23:17 -0700
Jim Yarker wrote:
d-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.
Fair enough. Let us get rid of all the colonial names available... There
are many, many throughout the "Maritimes" and Québec. We could start with
the Cartier bridge, for example.
--
Macdonald Stainsby
Coordinator, http://oilsandstruth.org
--
moderated radical news & discussion list:
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/rad-green
In the contradiction lies the hope.
--Bertholt Brecht.
--
Macdonald Stainsby
Coordinator, http://oilsandstruth.org
--
moderated radical news & discussion list:
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/rad-green
In the contradiction lies the hope.
--Bertholt Brecht.