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.