Expulsion of The Acadians - Fate of The Acadians

Fate of The Acadians

Acadians left France, under the influence of Henri Peyroux de la Coudreniere, to settle in Louisiana, which was then a colony of Spain. The British did not deport Acadians to Louisiana. Louisiana was transferred to the Spanish government in 1762. Because of the good relations between France and Spain, and their common Catholic religion, some Acadians chose to take oaths of allegiance to the Spanish government. Soon the Acadians comprised the largest ethnic group in Louisiana. They settled first in areas along the Mississippi River, then later in the Atchafalaya Basin, and in the prairie lands to the west—a region later renamed Acadiana. During the 19th century, as Acadians reestablished their culture, "Acadian" was elided locally into "Cajun".

Of the 12,000 or so Acadians deported, thousands either drowned aboard ill fated ships or succumbed to illness or starvation. Of the 60,000 French sailors captured by the British Royal Navy, 8,500 prisoners died aboard old British pontoons. In 1763, after the signing of the peace treaty, some Acadians returned to Nova Scotia. Under the deportation orders, Acadian land tenure had been forfeited to the British crown and the returning Acadians no longer owned land. Beginning in 1760 much of their former land was distributed under grant to the New England Planters. The lack of available farmland compelled many Acadians to seek out a new livelihood as fishermen on the west coast of Nova Scotia, known as the French Shore. The British authorities scattered other Acadians in small groups along the shores of the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. It was not until the 1930s, with the advent of the Acadian co-operative movements, that the Acadians became less economically disadvantaged.