Almost from
the beginning of their regime in 1713, the British governors of
Acadia faced a dilemma. They feared and distrusted the
Acadians, but could do nothing but to keep them on the land.
It wasn't
their first choice. Indeed, almost from the beginning, the
British thought about expelling the Acadians. In a letter sent
to Queen Anne announcing the fall of Port Royal, the army
commanders Francis Nicholson and Samuel Vetch proposed, "In
order to bring the native Indians entirely under your Majesty's
subjection as well as to convert them to the protestant (sic)
religion it will be necessary to transport all the French from
the country save such as shall come over to the Protestant
religion."
The big problem was that there were
nearly 2,000 Acadians in 1713 and fewer than 500 British at
Annapolis Royal. The Acadians knew how to nurture the land - and
provide the food the British garrison needed. As much as the
British wanted to send the Acadians away, it just wasn't
practical.
Instead, the British tried to force
the Acadians to take an oath of allegiance to Great Britain.
Most Acadians steadfastly refused.
The oath would become the nominal bone of contention that would
finally bring about the Acadian exile. The fact that the
Acadians owned some of the richest farmland on the Eastern
seaboard and that the British lusted for it didn't help matters.
The Acadians had good reason to
refuse the oath. They feared it would require them to give up
the independence they had begun to enjoy, and that it might one
day force them to fight against France. Also, they didn't want
to make promises to a government that they hoped might not be
around for long. Their fathers and grandfathers had each lived
for a while under British rule, but it never lasted. They
thought that this episode would turn out the same.
They also knew that, at least for a
while, they held the upper hand. There were more Acadians than
Britons in the Annapolis Basin, and the British needed the
Acadians to feed the garrison there.
The Treaty of Utrecht that ceded
Acadia to the British gave the Acadians certain rights,
providing, for example, that they "may have liberty to remove
themselves within a year to any other place as they shall think
fit, with all their moveable effects. But those who are willing
to remain here, and be subjects to the Kingdom of Great Britain,
are to enjoy the free execise of their religion according to the
usage of the Church of Rome as far as the laws of Great Britain
allow the same."
Queen Anne later agreed to relieve
the Acadians from any time limit for moving. On June 23, 1713,
she wrote to her governor in Acadia: "Whereas our good brother,
the Most Christian King (of France) hath, at our desire,
released from imprisonment...such of his subjects as were
detained on account of their... Protestant religion; we, being
willing to show...how kind we take his compliance herein, have,
therefore thought fit...to...permit such of them as have any
lands or tenements in the places under our Government in Acadia
and Newfoundland...and are willing to continue our subjects, to
retain and enjoy their said lands and tenements without
molestation, as fully and freely as our other subjects do...or
sell the same, if they shall rather choose to remove elsewhere."
Thus, the Acadians who decided to
stay were guaranteed freedom of religion and equal rights with
other British subjects. Those who planned to leave thought they
could do so at any time they wanted to. But now the struggle
began for their hearts and minds, and warm bodies.
In January 1714, Pastour de
Costebellow, the last French governor of Newfoundland, became
the first governor of Cape Breton, which was still French, and
built the historic fort at Louisbourg. He immediately tried to
convince the Acadians that they should migrate there. The
British, meanwhile, wanted to keep the Acadians where they were,
at least for a while longer.
Vetch wrote to his superiors in
London on November 24, 1714, "One hundred of the Acadians (who)
were born upon this continent and are perfectly at home in the
woods, (and) can march upon snowshows and understand the use of
birch canoes, are of more value and service than five times
their number of raw men newly arrived from Europe. So their
skill in the fishery, as well as the cultivating of the soil
must make at once of Cape Breton the most powerful colony the
French have in America, and to the greatest danger and damage to
all the British colonies as well as the universal trade of Great
Britain."
He also wrote to the Board of Trade
in London, "The removal of (the Acadians) and their cattle to
Cape Breton would be a great addition to that new colony, so it
would wholly ruin Nova Scotia unless supplied by a British
colony, which could not be done in several years, so that the
Acadians with their stocks of cattle remaining here is very much
for the advantage of the Crown."
Most Acadians didn't want to move,
anyway. These had been their lands for generations, and Cape
Breton, though French, offered them little. A delegation visited
there during the summer of 1713. Delegates reported: "On the
whole the island is no land fit for the maintenance of our
families, since there is (sic) no grass lands large enough to
feed our cattle which is our principal means of livelihood....To
leave our homes and cleared lands for new uncultivated land
which must be cleared without help or credit would expose our
families to perishing by famine."
Some young Acadians moved to New
Brunswick, which they regarded as French soil, but most of the
established families decided to stay put on farms and homesteads
they had worked long and hard to build.
Efforts to require an oath of
allegiance from these families began in earnest after Queen Anne
died in 1714, when George Thomas Caulfield, the new British head
of the government in Acadia, took advantage of King George's
accession to require sworn fealty to the new ruler.
The Acadians of Grand Pré and
Beaubassin refused to take the oath, period. They argued that
France and England were still arguing over boundaries and
whether their land had been ceded under the treaty. They said
they could take no oath until the issue was decided.
That argument could not be made at
Annapolis Royal, however, and 36 Acadians signed a provisional
oath on January 13, 1716, to "be faithful and maintain true
allegiance to His Majesty King George, as long as I shall be in
Acadia or Nova Scotia and that I shall be permitted to withdraw
where so ever I shall think fit with all my moveable goods and
effects when I shall think fit without any one...to hinder me."
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