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A Disputed Territory
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Continuing French and British Conflict
While the French claimed Acadie as their own, the British were competing with them for territorial claims over similar areas. Located strategically between New England to the south and New France to the west, Acadie from the early 1600s onward was often a battleground for control of key settlements and military positions. There were numerous violent incidents and, occasionally, outright wars. The struggles were sometimes between French and Anglo-Americans, sometimes among rival groups of French colonists, sometimes between French and British forces, and sometimes between the Mi’kmaq and British or Anglo-American forces. All skirmishes, battles, and raids during the 17th and 18th centuries occurred in the broader context of European conflicts resulting from the race to colonize new worlds, dominate lucrative trading routes, and expand empires in Europe and abroad.
The conflicts resulted in the colony of Acadie changing hands frequently. It was under French authority six times and British authority (which, after 1621, sometimes referred to the land as Nova Scotia) four times over 155 years until the French lost Canada in 1763. During that era, Acadians were actively establishing their communities along the Bay of Fundy, the Atlantic Coast, Ile Royale (now Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia), and Ile Saint-Jean (now the province of Prince Edward Island).
The Minas Basin area was not spared the negative effects of the conflicts. In both 1696 and 1704, expeditions from New England, led by Benjamin Church, came to different parts of Acadie. In the latter expedition, the attackers devastated the community at Grand Pré. They burned houses, carried off prisoners, and broke the dykes to let in sea water, because they knew that the enclosed dykeland was crucial to the Acadians’ agricultural output. A contemporary account says that the soldiers dug “down the dams [dykes], and let the tide in, to destroy all their corn, and everything that was good.” Once the force left, the Acadians returned to the area, rebuilt their houses and repaired their dykes to begin anew.
This incident took place during the War of the Spanish Succession, a European conflict that had many repercussions in North American colonies. When the war ended with the signing of the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, one of the terms of the peace agreement was to have a major impact on the Acadians and their settlements. The clause in question saw France transfer sovereignty over Acadie/Nova Scotia to Great Britain. The British presence in Nova Scotia was small at the time, with few British settlers and small garrisons only at Annapolis Royal and Canso. Most of the territory either remained under the control of the Mi’kmaq or was home to growing Acadian villages. Nonetheless, beginning in 1713 and increasingly in the years that followed, British officials regarded Acadians as a people owing obedience to their monarch, with all the obligations that this entailed. The question of the Acadians’ loyalty was one that would not be settled – to the satisfaction of the British officials – between 1713 and 1755. In fact, this question played a major role in the sequence of events that led to the forcible removal of Acadians from Grand Pré and elsewhere beginning in 1755.
Despite these conflicts and transfers of power, the settlers managed to expand the colony and grow roots in Acadie.
The conflicts resulted in the colony of Acadie changing hands frequently. It was under French authority six times and British authority (which, after 1621, sometimes referred to the land as Nova Scotia) four times over 155 years until the French lost Canada in 1763. During that era, Acadians were actively establishing their communities along the Bay of Fundy, the Atlantic Coast, Ile Royale (now Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia), and Ile Saint-Jean (now the province of Prince Edward Island).
The Minas Basin area was not spared the negative effects of the conflicts. In both 1696 and 1704, expeditions from New England, led by Benjamin Church, came to different parts of Acadie. In the latter expedition, the attackers devastated the community at Grand Pré. They burned houses, carried off prisoners, and broke the dykes to let in sea water, because they knew that the enclosed dykeland was crucial to the Acadians’ agricultural output. A contemporary account says that the soldiers dug “down the dams [dykes], and let the tide in, to destroy all their corn, and everything that was good.” Once the force left, the Acadians returned to the area, rebuilt their houses and repaired their dykes to begin anew.
This incident took place during the War of the Spanish Succession, a European conflict that had many repercussions in North American colonies. When the war ended with the signing of the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, one of the terms of the peace agreement was to have a major impact on the Acadians and their settlements. The clause in question saw France transfer sovereignty over Acadie/Nova Scotia to Great Britain. The British presence in Nova Scotia was small at the time, with few British settlers and small garrisons only at Annapolis Royal and Canso. Most of the territory either remained under the control of the Mi’kmaq or was home to growing Acadian villages. Nonetheless, beginning in 1713 and increasingly in the years that followed, British officials regarded Acadians as a people owing obedience to their monarch, with all the obligations that this entailed. The question of the Acadians’ loyalty was one that would not be settled – to the satisfaction of the British officials – between 1713 and 1755. In fact, this question played a major role in the sequence of events that led to the forcible removal of Acadians from Grand Pré and elsewhere beginning in 1755.
Despite these conflicts and transfers of power, the settlers managed to expand the colony and grow roots in Acadie.
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Settling in Grand Pré
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When the French settlers came to Les Mines (Grand Pré) from Port Royal in the 1680s, they occupied lands that were initially part of the seigneurie of Alexandre LeBorgne de Bélisle who was the seigneur of Port Royal. As was the custom in New France, the settlers were granted lands shaped as long strips that extended away from the nearest water course. This seigneurial pattern, common to New France and somewhat to Acadie, allowed each settler to have access to the water, to varying degrees of land quality, and to woodlots. It was the task of the settler to clear the land for farming. The seigneur would collect rent and build a mill for the community.
For Grand Pré, little is known about the strength of the relationship between the seigneur and his settlers, or about the first years of settlement. LeBorgne de Bélisle had tried to reinstate the authority of the seigneur after years of nominal British authority (1654–1670), but he seems to have failed. Even so, it is most likely that the settlers adopted the typical seigneurial land pattern, although no maps or description have survived to confirm that. From the archival evidence and landscape analysis described earlier in section 2.a., historians and archaeologists believe that the settlers of Les Mines did in effect implement a seigneurie, and that tangible and visible evidence of that landscape form exists today.
While the first settlers may have adopted the seigneurie, their settlement pattern evolved in response to the creation of the dykeland. They created farmland by transforming marshland rather than by clearing woodland. In order for the community to be close to their work area without settling on the newly created land, they built their homes alongside the marsh. The Acadians erected their houses, barns, mills, and other buildings on the adjacent upland and created a system of roads and footpaths to link them with other Acadian villages.
Over time, they cleared land from the uplands to make way for the buildings, roads, and paths, as well as to create some farmland and allow access to the woodlots. From these lots they extracted the building material for their houses, barns, aboiteaux, and dykes. From the 1680s onwards, three generations of Acadians gradually enclosed and converted the marsh (la grand pré). The resulting agricultural abundance brought prosperity to the local community and allowed it, along with other similar Acadian communities, to enjoy a remarkable population growth.
For Grand Pré, little is known about the strength of the relationship between the seigneur and his settlers, or about the first years of settlement. LeBorgne de Bélisle had tried to reinstate the authority of the seigneur after years of nominal British authority (1654–1670), but he seems to have failed. Even so, it is most likely that the settlers adopted the typical seigneurial land pattern, although no maps or description have survived to confirm that. From the archival evidence and landscape analysis described earlier in section 2.a., historians and archaeologists believe that the settlers of Les Mines did in effect implement a seigneurie, and that tangible and visible evidence of that landscape form exists today.
While the first settlers may have adopted the seigneurie, their settlement pattern evolved in response to the creation of the dykeland. They created farmland by transforming marshland rather than by clearing woodland. In order for the community to be close to their work area without settling on the newly created land, they built their homes alongside the marsh. The Acadians erected their houses, barns, mills, and other buildings on the adjacent upland and created a system of roads and footpaths to link them with other Acadian villages.
Over time, they cleared land from the uplands to make way for the buildings, roads, and paths, as well as to create some farmland and allow access to the woodlots. From these lots they extracted the building material for their houses, barns, aboiteaux, and dykes. From the 1680s onwards, three generations of Acadians gradually enclosed and converted the marsh (la grand pré). The resulting agricultural abundance brought prosperity to the local community and allowed it, along with other similar Acadian communities, to enjoy a remarkable population growth.