What was the deportation of the Acadians?

The deportation of the Acadians (le Grand Dérangement) was the forced removal of about 11,500 French-speaking Acadians from Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and surrounding regions by British authorities between 1755 and 1763. About 1,500 to 2,000 Acadians died during the deportation from disease, drowning, and starvation. The deportation began on September 5, 1755 at Grand-Pré, where British officer John Winslow read the deportation order to assembled Acadian men in the parish church. Acadian historians and descendants regard the deportation as a foundational trauma of the Acadian people.

The deportation was ordered by Nova Scotia Lieutenant-Governor Charles Lawrence and the colony's Council on July 28, 1755, with British military support. Lawrence acted in the context of the French and Indian War (1754 to 1763) and on his interpretation that the Acadians' refusal to swear an unconditional oath of loyalty to the British Crown made them a security risk. The Acadians had previously sworn conditional oaths exempting them from bearing arms against the French. Lawrence's deportation order had not been authorised by London but was retroactively endorsed.

British troops rounded up Acadian families, burned their homes and farms, and packed them onto British transport ships. Families were often separated. The ships scattered the Acadians among the Thirteen Colonies (especially Massachusetts, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and South Carolina), the Caribbean, and France. Many ships were lost at sea, including the Violet which sank on January 21, 1759 with about 280 Acadians aboard, and the Duke William which sank on December 13, 1758 with about 360 Acadians.

The deportation continued in waves through 1763. The Battle of Restigouche of July 8, 1760 effectively ended Acadian armed resistance. The 1763 Treaty of Paris's transfer of New France to Britain ended the war but not the deportation; final removals took place in 1763. After 1764 some Acadians were allowed to return on condition that they take an unconditional loyalty oath and settle in dispersed locations. About 3,000 Acadians eventually returned to the Maritimes, while others remained in France or migrated to Louisiana, where they became the ancestors of today's Cajun people. On December 9, 2003, Queen Elizabeth II issued a Royal Proclamation acknowledging the harm done to the Acadian people, designating July 28 as a Day of Commemoration of the Great Upheaval.