![]() ![]() Their competition in Europe played out in North America as well. Living in a contested borderland region between French Canada and the British territories on New England and the coast, the Acadians often became entangled in the conflict between the powers. The Acadians lived mainly in the coastal regions of the Bay of Fundy they reclaimed farming land from the sea by building dikes to control water and drain certain wetlands. They developed relations with the peoples of the Wabanaki Confederacy (particularly the regional Mi'kmaq). ![]() Pre-deportation history ĭuring the early 17th century, about 60 French families were established in Acadia. However the Canadian Encyclopedia estimates that there are at least 500,000 of Acadian ancestry in Canada, which would include many who declared their ethnic identity for the census as French or as Canadian. The Canadian census of 2006 reported only 96,145 Acadians in Canada, based on self-declared ethnic identity. The Louisiana Cajun descendants tend to speak English, including Cajun English, and/or Louisiana French, a relative of Acadian French from Canada.Įstimates of contemporary Acadian populations vary widely. ![]() Īcadians speak a variety of French called Acadian French, which has a few regional accents (for example, Chiac in the southeast of New Brunswick, or Brayon in the northwest of New Brunswick). British policy was to establish a majority culture of Protestant religions and to assimilate Acadians with the local populations where they resettled. After the war, it made land grants in Nova Scotia to Loyalists. Before the American Revolutionary War, the Crown settled Protestant European immigrants and New England Planters in former Acadian communities and farmland. The British prohibited them from resettling their lands and villages in what became Nova Scotia. In time, some Acadians returned to the Maritime provinces of Canada, mainly to New Brunswick. These Acadians settled into or alongside the existing Louisiana Creole settlements, sometimes intermarrying with Creoles, and gradually developed what became known as Cajun culture. After being expelled to France, many Acadians were eventually recruited by the Spanish government to migrate to Luisiana (present-day Louisiana). Some Acadians were deported to England, some to the Caribbean, and some to France. Most Acadians were deported to various British American colonies, where many were put into forced labour or servitude. In retrospect, the result has been described as an ethnic cleansing of the Acadians from Maritime Canada. Approximately one-third perished from disease and drowning. They forcefully deported approximately 11,500 Acadians from the maritime region. Though most Acadians remained neutral during the war, the British, together with New England legislators and militia, carried out the Great Expulsion (Le Grand Dérangement) of the Acadians between 17. ĭuring the French and Indian War, (known in Canada as The Seven Years War ) British colonial officers suspected that Acadians were aligned with France, after finding some Acadians fighting alongside French troops at Fort Beauséjour. In some cases Acadians intermarried with Indians of the region, such as Mi'kmaq and other Wabanaki tribes, and were considered Métis people. The settlers whose descendants became Acadians primarily came from the southwestern region of France, also known as Occitania, such as the rural areas of Poitou-Charentes and Aquitaine ( Gascony). As a result, the Acadians developed a distinct history and culture. It was ethnically, geographically and administratively different from the other French colonies and the French colony of Canada. Acadia was located in what is now Eastern Canada's Maritime provinces, as well as parts of Quebec and present-day Maine to the Kennebec River. Most Acadians in Canada continue to live in majority French-speaking communities, notably those in New Brunswick where Acadians and Francophones are granted autonomy in areas such as education and health.Īcadia was one of the five regions of New France. Most Acadians live in the region of Acadia, as it is the region where the descendants of a few Acadians who escaped the Expulsion of the Acadians (aka The Great Upheaval / Le Grand Dérangement) re-settled. The Acadians ( French: Acadiens, Acadian French: ) are an ethnic group descended from the French who settled in the New France colony of Acadia during the 17th and 18th centuries. Basques) can be considered as separate (ethnically) or French migration (by nationality). ![]()
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