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From: "Lucie M. Consentino" <>
Subject: EARLY ACADIAN HISTORY II
Date: Mon, 01 Feb 1999 16:59:09 -0500


By the 1740's, New England's traditional wariness of the Acadians was
compounded by militant Protestantism and economic competition from
Louisbourg in the fisherin. thus in 1745, during the War of the
Austrian Succession, a force from New England defeatred the French at
Louisbourg and deported the inhabitants to France. France responded by
sending out a naval armada under the Duc d'Anville in 1746 to reconquer
Acadia and Louisbourg. However, d'Anville's fleet was decimated by
storms and disease while crossing the Atlantic, and the attempt was
abandoned.

There was surprise and anger in New England in 1748 when the British
returned Louisbourg to France by the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. In the
wake of the treaty, both Britain and Frane took steps to strengthen
their positions in the region. To maintain the overland communications
network between Canada and Isle Royale, and to keep the British at a
safe distance from Canada, the French set out to solidify their claim to
the disputed part of Nova Scotia north of the Missaguash River, i.e.
present-day New Brunswick. In 1749, Charles Deschamps de Boishébert was
sent from Canada to fortify the mouth of the Saint John River, a key
element of the communications network. This was followed by the
dispatch of the Chevalier Louis de La Corne to the Isthmus of chignecto,
where in 1751 he established Forts Beaséjour and Gaspéreau. The
Chignecto Acadians were then pressured into emigrating north of the
Missaguash in order to strengthen France's claim to New Brunswick.

The British reacted by founding a new capital at Halifax in 1749 as a
counterbalance to Louisbourg. Governor Edward Cornwallis was also
supposed to push British settlement north of the Missaguash, but plans
to settle foreign Protestants on the isthmus were abandoned in the face
of superior French military strength. Nevertheless, Major Charles
Lawrence succeeded in erecting Fort Lawrence on the south bank of the
Missaguash in 1750; the foreign Protestants ended up settling the
strategically remote south shore community of Lunenburg.

With both sides stepping up their efforts to control Nova Scotia, the
Acadians realized that change was afoot. To avoid trouble, some began
emigrating toi Isle Saint Jean Cornwallis had tried to force them to
take an unqualified oath, but relented when they threatened to leave
Nova Scotia EN MASSE. His successor, Peregrine Hopson, did not push the
issue, and it seemed as though Acadian neutrality would continue to be
respected. However, when Hopson returned to England with health
problems, his acting successor, Charles Lawrence (appointed
lieutenant-governor in 1754) proposed drastic action to resolve the
Acadian problem. A career soldier, Lawrence saw the Acadian problem
strictly in military terms, especially in view of the outbreak of
hostilities between Britain and France in the Ohio valley. In August
1754, he informed his superiors in London, the Board of Trade and
Plantations, that if the Acadians refused to take the oath, it would be
better to remove them from Nova Scotia an replace them with British
subjects.

Lawrence had an important ally in William Shirley, the Governor of
Massachusetts. Both men considered Fort Beauséjour the key to the
French presence in Nova Scotia. After General Edward Braddock,
Commander-in-Chief of British forces in North America, authorized the
expedition, 2,000 Provindial troops departed Boston on 19 May 1755.
reinforced by 250 British regulars, they commenced the attack on
Beauséjour on 14 June. Two days later, the French surrendered.

Lucie LeBlanc Consentino
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Pointe/6106
Our Acadian & French Canadian Ancestral Home

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