| MASSACHUSETTS - 735 Acadians |
| In the 3rd week of November, there were
2000 Acadians aboard ships in Massachusetts Bay. Many of them were to move
down to other colonies. The first group to land for settlement in
Massachusetts consisted of 206 Pisiquid settlers who disembarked the Seaflower on November 19, 1755. Capt. Salt sailed the Hornet from Annapolis
Royal on Oct. 28, 1755. After reaching Boston on Nov. 17, he continued
on to Spithead. Capt. Sylvans Cobb sailed the York from Annapolis Royal on Oct. 13, 1755 and made it to Boston on Nov. 17. The Swallow brought in 136 Minas Basin
settlers on December 13, 1755. Another group arrived for resettlement on
December 26, 1755; and four more ships of Acadians arrived on January 15,
1756. |
ACADIANS IN THE HARBOR by Robert Dafford
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The sloop Eagle, captained by McKown,
is said to have left Halifax (April 1, 1756) with some Acadians (including
LeBlancs) and sailed to Boston by May 29, 1756. ["Acadian
Deportation Ships", Connecticut Maple Leaf, V. 6, Albert LaFreniere]
Lauviere also mentions that a ship called
the Race Horse brought Acadians to Boston.
The final group of 90 Acadians were part of
a group of 200 Acadians that had been sent to Georgia, but were trying
to sail back to Canada.
When they landed south of Boston
in August 1756, officials put an end to their journey. As with most of
the ships, smallpox killed many of the Acadians before they disembarked.
When they were allowed to settle down, they were afforded some freedom
of movement. Some escaped to Canada, while others took jobs as sailors
and left. Realizing this, the government sought to restrict the Acadians’
freedom. On April 15, 1756, they passed a law forbidding anyone from hiring
Acadians as sailors. The following month, a law was passed forbidding Acadians
from leaving their assigned towns. |
As in the other colonies, the Acadians
lived in squalor. Children were indentured by British colonists. Work was
hard to come by. When the war ended in 1763, the Acadians tended to move
to urban areas. An entry in the Aug. 25, 1763 Pennsylvania Gazette said "We hear that the Acadians , commonly known by the Name of the French Neutrals, who were removed from Nova Scotia in the Year 1755, are to be sent to Old France:--- A List of those in this Province is taking to send Home, for Transports to be sent to carry them." They petitioned to go to France, but the plans never materialized.
Soon after, over 300 of the Acadians went to Saint Domingue. When an additional
300 tried to follow, they were stopped. Several hundred made their way
north over land to Quebec. Another group of 116 Acadians sailed to St.
Pierre and Miquelon, arriving there on October 1, 1763. The remaining Acadians
asked for better living conditions or to be allowed to go to Canada. The
Massachusetts officials asked them to take an oath of allegiance to England
and allowed them to go.
On June 2, 1766, a large number of Acadians (including
720 from Boston and 140 from Salem) took the oath. Since most were poor,
they tried to make it to Quebec or Nova Scotia by land. Those with the
funds went by ship. When some of the Acadians arrived in Nova Scotia, they
found their land settled by English colonists. Though some recieved small
amounts of land, many went to the Petit Codiac River Valley in New Brunswick.
The journals of the Massachusets House of Representatives (1755-56) contains the actions taken with the Acadian arrivals. Two volumes (23, 24) in the Massachusetts Archives - marked "French Neutrals" - give details of the Acadian support by the various towns. |
| LINKS: |
• Massachusetts Maps
• Le Grand Derangement: The Acadian Exile in Massachusetts 1755-1766
• Atlas of Boston in 1798
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