Last Acadian village found?
The Acadians were the first French people to establish a permanent settlement in North America at the beginning of the 17th c. They happily went about their business, staying neutral even as France and Britain duked it out all over them until 1754 when the British decided to up the ante and demand the Acadians take an oath of allegiance and fight for them.
Not wanting to kill their family members still living under French rule and having a religious problem swearing an oath to the British king anyway, the 10,000+ Acadians in British territory in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island refused and were expelled, their villages burned to the ground.
Now a Qebec archaeologist thinks he may have found La Petite-Rochelle, the last village British Commodore John Byron burned down after the ethnic cleansing of the Acadians.
“We’re pretty confident that we’ve located the village that the Acadians had fled to, to get away from the deportation,” said Michel Goudreau, vice-president of Quebec-based La Société Historique Machault, the organization that sponsored the survey.
“These are the people who did get away, and they’re why we still have an Acadian population in northern New Brunswick.”
Located in Quebec, just across the Restigouche River from Campbellton, N.B., La Petite-Rochelle was a community of about 200 houses, founded after the expulsion of the Acadians, an event that has since become known to history as the Great Upheaval.
The article is a bit unclear on the timeline. I guess Commodore Byron just kept burning even after the expelling was over?
Fun fact: John Byron was the grandpappy of George Gordon, Lord Byron, the famous Romantic poet.
The Acadians had fled to La Petite-Rochelle after the Expulsion. There is considerable dispute that the “new” alleged site of the village is correct as long tradition puts it further up river. It may be that the new discovery was a settlement of refugees, whereas La Petite-Rochelle was further up the river and longer established. It was not technically in L’Acadie, by the way, but in New France as it was on the north side of the Restigouche River/Baie des Chaleurs. Why was Byron there? Because a French fleet was on its way to supply Quebec, but in the meantime, Quebec had fallen to the British. The French fleet hid at the upper end of the Restigouche Estuary while it awaited orders from Montreal, which had not yet fallen. The British at Louisbourg (the first to fall) got wind of it, and Byron was sent to destroy it. There was a naval battle over several days in early July, 1763, the last naval battle in North America during the 7 years war. The French essentially scuttled their fleet and headed through the woods to Montreal when they realized they could not escape, since larger British warships were stationed at the mouth of the river. The unfortunate Acadians had their villages burned. The traditional account says Byron did it, but I’ve read newer accounts which say the French themselves burned them. You want to learn more, go to
http://www.pc.gc.ca/eng/lhn-nhs/qc/ristigouche/index.aspx You should also remember that the Acadians in Nova Scotia in 1755 were living in what was indisputably British territory, had been since 1713, which is why legal issues were raised even at the time as to the legality of the Expulsion. Many if not most had been born subjects of the king, and thus would have been entitled to a proper trial under English law if suspected of treasonous activities. Otherwise they should have been assumed to be loyal to the king until the contrary was proved, like any other subject of the king.