|
an ACADIAN EXILE article
Cultures
of Acadiana |
Lafayette (LA) Daily Advertiser, March 30, 1999
"Important dates during the period of exile"
by: Jim Bradshaw
1760
King George III begins his 60-year reign in England. Forces from Montreal make on last effort to rescue New France from the British. They are surrounded and captured. Another 300 Acadian refugees swept up form the St. John River area are imprisoned in Halifax. Some 2,000 British Settlers are brought to former Acadian lands. Caraquet, New Brunswick, is founded by Stephen Landry, who fled from Grand Pre'.
1761
In Louisiana, the first Acadian name appears in the cattle industry's brand book: Bernard.
1762
In September, Louis Jules Mancini Mazarini, Duc de Nivernais, is sent from France to London to negotiate an end to the Seven Year's War. In October, Nivernais finds our about Acadians being detained in England and writes to the French foreign minister for instructions about how to deal with them. Nov. 3, the secret Treaty of Fontainebleau gives Louisiana to Spain. Dec. 31, Nivernais sends a secret message to Acadians imprisoned at Liverpool, England, letting them know that their fate is being negotiated.
1763
The Treaty of Paris ends French control of land east of the Mississippi River and confirms the cession of Louisiana to Spain. Spain cedes Florida to England in return for Cuba. On Jan. 20, King Louis XV of France refuses to sign an armistice with England unless the Acadians there are returned to France or to Canada. Acadians who were held in England are sent to France. Some 2,500 of them are scattered among French cities by years' end. In July, refugees in Pennsylvania protest the conditions there, claiming to be held in virtual slavery. They beg to be allowed to return to France. In August, exiles in Georgia write to the French government charging that they have not been allowed any religious rites for eight years and that many of their children have been indentures, kidnaped, or sold outright into slavery. In December, refugees in Maryland write that their numbers have dwindled from 2,000 to 810. They also report stories of slavery and indentured servitude.
1764
Lord Hailfax flatly refuses to permit the return of refugees to Quebec or Nova Scotia. A census shows, however, that there are still 1,762 Acadians in Nova Scotia, most of them in prison in Halifax.
1765
On Feb. 27, 200 Acadians arrive in Louisiana by way of Saint-Domingue. April 8, Joseph (Beausoleil) Broussard is appointed commandant of the Acadians at Poste des Attakapas, as St. Martinville was first called. April 24-Acadians contract with Bernard Dauterive to "sharecrop" cattle in the Attakapas region. May 13- Another 48 Acadian families arrive in Louisiana, bringing the total since the first of the year to 650 people.
1766
Louisiana's first Spanish governor, Antonio de Ulloa, arrives in Louisiana on March 5. More than 200 refugees arrive shortly after Ulloa.
1767
Expeditions of Acadian refugees are sent from France to settle the islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon off Newfoundland. They return to France within a few months. Another 210 arrive in Louisiana by way of Saint-Domingue. Ulloa sends them to St. Gabriel on the Mississippi River near Baton Rouge.
1770
The Acadian chapel at St. James is made a separate parish.
1771
The first of several proposals is advanced in the French Court to send Acadian refugees to Corsica. Land is granted to Acadian refugees who walked to Clare, Nova Scotia, from Boston and then refused to leave.
1772
The Belle-Isle-en-Mer settlement collapses, and the Acadians there go back to France. A census shows that 1,249 Acadians still live in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. Our Lady of the Ascension Church is built on the so-called "Second Acadian Coast" of Louisiana, the area around what is now Donaldsoneville.
1776
The U.S. Declaration of Independence is adopted.
1777
Word of the American Revolutionary War stirs new interest in Louisiana among Acadian exiles in France. They send delegates to Versailles who ask that the Acadians in France be sent to Louisiana. The French government decides instead to send Acadian exiles in France to Corsica.
1778
France intervenes in the American Revolution on the side of the colonists.
1779
On May 8, Spain authorizes Louisiana governor Bernardo de Galvez to aid the American cause by harassing English colonies on the Gulf Coast. On Aug. 27, Galvez leaves New Orleans with a force that includes some 600 Acadian volunteers. Sept 7, Galvez captures a British fort on Bayou Manchac acrossfrom the Acadian town of St. Gabriel. Sept. 21, Galvez captures Baton Rouge.
1780
Mobile surrenders to Galvez' army on March 14.
1781
On May 9, Pensacola surrenders to Galvez.
1783
The Treaty of Paris ends the American Revolution. The last of some 100,000 British loyalists flee from the Unites States to Canada, many of them settling on old Acadian lands. A Catholic Emancipation Acts is adopted in Nova Scotia. The French government approves a plan offered by Peyroux de la Coudreniere to relocate Acadian exiles from France to Louisiana.
1784
On Sept. 13, some 1,500 Acadian refugees in France agree to migrate to Louisiana. New Brunswick is separated from Nova Scotia.
1785
On May 10, Le Bon Papa sails from France to New Orleans with 159 Acadians aboard. On May 12, La Bergere departs France with 273 Acadians aboard. On June 11, Le Beaumont leaves France carrying 180 Acadians. On June 20, Le St-Remy sails from France with 341 Acadians. On Aug. 12 La Amistad leaves with 270 Acadians aboard and La Villa de Arangel sails with another 309 Acadians bound for Louisiana.
1789
The French Revolution begins with the storming of the Bastille.
1791
A slave revolution in Saint-Domingue sends white refugees fleeing to New Orleans.