The Acadians () are the descendants of 17th and 18th century French settlers in parts of Acadia (French: Acadie) in the northeastern region of North America comprising what is now the Canadian Maritime Provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, the Gaspé peninsula in eastern Québec, and the Kennebec River in southern Maine.
The settlers whose descendants became Acadians primarily came from the southwestern and northern regions of France, historically known as Occitania and Normandy while some Acadians are claimed to be descended from the Indigenous peoples of the region. Historically, the Acadians have been associated with the first settlers of Poitou, Angoumois, Aunis and Saintonge, however recent genealogical research has shown that many also came from northern France, from provinces such as Normandy and Brittany.
Today, due to assimilation, some Acadians may share other ethnic ancestries as well.Exiles and Islanders: The Irish Settlers of Prince Edward Island By Brendan O'Grady, McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP, Aug. 17, 2004, page 81,
The history of the Acadians was significantly influenced by the six colonial wars that took place in Acadia during the 17th and 18th centuries (see the four French and Indian Wars, Dummer's War and Father Le Loutre's War). Eventually, the last of the colonial wars—the French and Indian War—resulted in the British Expulsion of the Acadians from the region. After the war, many Acadians came out of hiding or returned to Acadia from the British colonies. Others remained in France and some migrated from there to Louisiana, where they became known as Cajuns, a corruption of the word Acadiens or Acadians. The nineteenth century saw the beginning of the Acadian Renaissance and the publication of Evangeline, which helped galvanize Acadian identity. In the last century, Acadians have made achievements in the areas of equal language and cultural rights as a minority group in the Maritime Provinces of Canada.
As French settlers
Port Royal Habitation (1604-1613)
Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Monts built the Habitation at Port-Royal in 1605 as a replacement for his initial attempt at colonizing Saint Croix Island (present day Maine). The trading monopoly of de Monts was cancelled in 1607, and most of the French settlers returned to France, although some remained. Jean de Biencourt de Poutrincourt et de Saint-Just led a second expedition to Port Royal in 1610.
Arrival of the first European families The survival of the Acadian settlements was based on successful cooperation with the Indigenous peoples of the region. In the early years of Acadian settlement, this included recorded marriages between Acadian settlers and Indigenous women. Some records have survived showing marriages between Acadian settlers and Indigenous women in formal Roman Catholic rites, for example, the marriage of Charles La Tour to a Mi'kmaw woman in 1626.Buckner, P. and Reid J. (eds), The Atlantic Region to Confederation: A History, Toronto University Press. 1994. There were also reported instances of Acadian settlers marrying Indigenous spouses according to Marriage à la façon du pays, and subsequently living in Mi'kmaq communities. Settlers also brought French wives with them to Acadia, such as La Tour's second wife, Françoise-Marie Jacquelin, who joined him in Acadia in 1640.
Governor Isaac de Razilly's administration at LaHave, Nova Scotia, prepared the ground for the arrival of the first recorded migrant families on board the Saint Jehan, which left La Rochelle on 1 April 1636. There were a number of sailings from the French Atlantic Coast to Acadia between 1632 and 1636, but this is the only one for which a detailed passenger list has survived. Nicolas Denys, who was stationed across the LaHave River at Port Rossignol (Liverpool Bay), acted as agent for the Saint Jehan.Griffiths, 2005, p. 50 After a 35-day crossing of the Atlantic, the Saint Jehan arrived on 6 May 1636 at LaHave, Nova Scotia. There were seventy-eight passengers and eighteen crew members. With this ship, Acadia began a slow shift from being primarily a matter of explorers and traders, of men, to a colony of permanent settlers, including women and children. While the presence of European women is a signal that settlement was seriously contemplated, there were yet so few of them in this group of migrants that they did not immediately affect the status of Acadia as basically a colony of European transients. By the end of the year, the migrants were moved from LaHave and re-established at Port Royal. At Port Royal in 1636, Pierre Martin and Catherine Vigneau, who had arrived on the Saint Jehan, were the first European parents to have a child in Acadia. The first-born child was Mathieu Martin. In part because of this distinction, Mathieu Martin later became the Seigneury of Cobequid (1699).
Kennedy (2014) argues that the emigrants from the Vienne and Aquitaine regions of France carried to Acadia their customs and social structure. They were frontier people, who dispersed their settlements based on kinship. They optimized the use of farmland and emphasized trading for a profit. They were hierarchical and politically active. The French and the Acadian villages were similar in terms of prosperity, egalitarianism, and independent-mindedness. The emergence of a distinct Acadian identity emerged from the adaptation of traditional French methods, institutions, and ideas to the Indigenous North American methods, ideas, and political situations.Gregory M.W. Kennedy. Something of a Peasant Paradise? Comparing Rural Societies in Acadie and the Loudunais, 1604-1755 (MQUP, 2014)
Civil war
With the death of Isaac de Razilly, Acadia was plunged into what some historians have described as a civil war (1635–1654).M. A. MacDonald, Fortune & La Tour: The civil war in Acadia, Toronto: Methuen. 1983 Acadia had two legitimate Lieutenant Governors. The war was between Port Royal, where Governor Charles de Menou d'Aulnay de Charnisay was stationed, and present-day Saint John, New Brunswick, where Governor Charles de Saint-Étienne de la Tour was stationed.
In the war, there were four major battles. La Tour attacked d'Aulnay at Port Royal in 1640. In response to the attack, D'Aulnay sailed out of Port Royal to establish a five-month blockade of La Tour's fort at Saint John, which La Tour eventually defeated (1643). La Tour attacked d'Aulnay again at Port Royal in 1643. D'Aulnay and Port Royal ultimately won the war against La Tour with the 1645 siege of Saint John. After d'Aulnay died (1650), La Tour re-established himself in Acadia.
English colony (1654–1667) In 1654, war between France and England broke out. Led by Major Robert Sedgwick, a flotilla from Boston, under orders from Cromwell, arrived in Acadia to chase the French out. The flotilla seized La Tour's fort, then Port-Royal. La Tour, nevertheless, managed to find himself in England, where, with the support of John Kirke, succeeded in receiving from Cromwell a part of Acadia, along with Sir Thomas Temple. La Tour probably remained at Port-Royal until his death in 1666 at the age of 73.
During the English occupation of Acadia, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Louis XIV's minister, forbade the Acadians from returning to France. As a result of the English occupation, no new French families settled in Acadia between 1654 and 1670.
Post Treaty of Breda
The Treaty of Breda, signed 31 July 1667, returned Acadia to France. A year later, Marillon du Bourg arrived to take possession of the territory for France. The son of LeBorgne, Alexandre LeBorgne, was named provisionary governor and lieutenant-general of Acadia. He married Marie Motin-La Tour, the eldest child of the marriage between La Tour and d'Aulnay's widow.
In 1670, the new governor of Acadia, the chevalier Hubert d'Andigny, chevalier de Grandfontaine, was responsible for the first census undertaken in Acadia. The results did not include those Acadians living with local First Nations. It revealed that there were approximately sixty Acadian families with approximately 300 inhabitants in total. These inhabitants were predominantly engaged in aboiteau farming along the shores of the present-day Bay of Fundy. No serious attempt was made to increase the population of Acadia.
In the spring of 1671, more than fifty colonists left La Rochelle aboard the l'Oranger. Others arrived from Canada (New France) or were retired soldiers. During this time, a number of colonists married with the local First Nations. Some of the first to marry were Charles de Saint-Étienne de La Tour, Martin, Pierré Lejeune–Briard, Jehan Lambert, Petitpas and Guedry. The captain, Vincent de Saint-Castin, the commander at Pentagoet, married Marie Pidikiwamiska, the daughter of an Abenakis chief.
In 1674, the Dutch briefly conquered Acadia, renaming the colony New Holland.
During the last decades of the seventeenth century, Acadians migrated from the capital, Port Royal, and established what would become the other major Acadian settlements before the Expulsion of the Acadians: Grand Pré, Chignecto, Cobequid and Pisiguit. Although not common, on occasion epidemics ravished the population of Ile St.-Jean, Ile Royale and Acadia. In 1732/33 more than 150 people died of smallpox on Ile Royale.
The history of the settlers of Ile St.-Jean prior to the expulsion includes extreme hardship. For almost every good harvest year it seems that there was one in which crops failed. In one or two instances widespread fires destroyed crops, livestock and farms. Famine and starvation were common and frequently occasioned desperate pleas for supplies from Louisbourg, Québec and even France itself. In 1756, famine on Ile St.-Jean prompted authorities to relocate some families to Québec.
Prior to the founding of Halifax (1749), Port Royal/ Annapolis Royal was the capital of Acadia and later Nova Scotia for most of the previous 150 years. During that time the British made six attempts to conquer Acadia by defeating the capital. They finally defeated the French in the Siege of Port Royal (1710). Over the following fifty years, the French and their allies made six unsuccessful military attempts to regain the capital.
Colonial Wars
There was already a long history of Acadian and Wabanaki Confederacy resistance to the British occupation of Acadia during the four French and Indian Wars and two local wars (Father Rale's War and Father Le Loutre's War) before the Expulsion of the Acadians. The Mi'kmaq and the Acadians were allies through Catholicism and through numerous inter-marriages. The Mi'kmaq held the military strength in Acadia even after the conquest of 1710. They primarily resisted the British occupation of Acadia and were joined in their efforts on numerous occasions by Acadians.
While many Acadians traded with the New England Protestants, Acadians' participation in the wars clearly indicated that many were reluctant to be ruled by the British. During the first colonial war, King William's War (1688–97), the crews of the very successful French privateer Pierre Maisonnat dit Baptiste were primarily Acadian. The Acadians resisted during the Raid on Chignecto (1696). During Queen Anne's War, Mi’kmaq and Acadians resisted during the Raid on Grand Pré, Piziquid and Chignecto in 1704. The Acadians also assisted the French in protecting the capital in the Siege of Port Royal (1707) and the final Conquest of Acadia. The Acadians and Mi’kmaq were also successful in the Battle of Bloody Creek (1711).