The Expulsion of the Acadians
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The fall of Louisbourg
The Expulsion of the Acadians
Acadia and Louisbourg
(Canadian War Museum, 1.D.1.4-CGR5)
A View of the Plundering of
and Burning of the City of Grymross
Painting by Thomas Davies, 1758
Courtesy of the National Gallery of Canada,
6270
After New England troops captured Port Royal in 1710, Acadia
became Nova
Scotia. Now British subjects, the Acadians refused to take an oath of
allegiance to Britain. Their close ties to the French and Mi'kmaqs alarmed the
British authorities. In 1755, Governor Charles Lawrence expelled 7,000
Acadians. Every Acadian farm was burned to the ground, families were torn
apart, and hundreds died of shipwreck and disease.
After the fall of Louisbourg in 1758, the Royal Navy and the
British army
hunted down and deported about 3,000 Acadians. This relentless pursuit took
them 70 kilometres inland up the Saint John River to burn an Acadian refugee
community.
When peace returned, Acadian refugees rebuilt their society
on the south
shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
The Fall of Louisbourg
Louisbourg flourished as a naval base, fishing port, and commercial centre
until 1758. In that year, 13,000 British soldiers and a massive fleet attacked
the fortified city and overwhelmed 4,000 French defenders. The British deported
Louisbourg's residents to France and abandoned the remains of the fortified
city at the end of the war.