Farming and life in Acadia before and after the "Grand Derangement"

Thèmes abordés

Acadia , Farming , Grand Derangement

Résumé du document

In the early 1700's, Acadia was a thriving community. It was officially part of New France but the early settlers were torn between two rival European Na-tions (France and England). Tragically in 1755 many Acadians were deported during the “Grand dérangement” towards Louisiana and for some all the way to Europe. The land they occupied was seized and given to new settlers coming mostly from the New England colonies (then under British rule). This settlement was more important than the previous one. The two countries had a different settlement policy and took a different advantage of the land. They both transformed the environment while taking advantage of one another's knowledge of the land.

France was the first European nation to settle in what is now called Nova Scotia. The Acadians sought to settle near the sea. They mostly descended from settlers who came from the west of France, the south of the Loire or the Poitou, where water and marshes were part of the farmers' everyday life. Dur-ing the seventeenth century, mostly under Louis XIII, the French had reclaimed many tidal lands, near La Rochelle . Those first settlers, the Acadians had a different way of cultivating the soil. They built levees (dikes) to turn salt marshes into arable land. Their farms were also different from those built in other parts of New France (Quebec). Their farming was in fact unique in North America.

Extraits

[...] They were not fearful of the wilderness. Unlike the early British farmers, the heart of the Acadian farming strategy was the building of levees, which required co-operation and countless hours of manual labor. Whereas a British farmer would clear his own land and farm his own small patch; many Acadian families would rely on the communal dike, which allowed farming in the valley soil[4]. Some levees were privately owned but the dykes required a lot of work that could not be done by a single family. [...]

[...] Life was harsh in Acadia but famine was not a threat. The woods were full of wild game that the farmers hunted freely. They were also allowed to sell the furs of the animals they had killed. This was a great change for French settlers. In France, the forests belonged to rich aristocrats and were used as their hunting grounds. The peasants were very often sentenced to death when they were caught poaching. II) Their secret: the building of the dykes The sea was an easy way to travel around the land. [...]

[...] However all Acadians were not of French descent, and it can be proved by studying some of the last names which have an English origin. In 1700 the colony was both demographically self-generating and economically self-sustaining. The population increase was largely due to the natural increase of the population that had already settled there. The fertility rate was comparable to the highest rates then found in France[16]. After a generation, the Acadians became more than French settlers because they had created their own identity. [...]

[...] The rain and the melting snow washed the exposed lands that became fertile after a few years. The Acadians found that their hard won farmlands required no manure or other fertilizers, to the contrary of cleared lands. The land thus reclaimed was rich in organic and inorganic nutrients. The Acadians could then grow many kinds of vegetables, fruit and herbs. The nearby undiked salt marsh was also rich of salt hay. It was a primordial resource for the settlers as it enabled them to feed their cattle during winter. [...]

[...] The Acadians were able to feed their large families. They got married when they were very young and had many children who were very often healthy and chubby. It was not exceptional for Acadians to have ten, fifteen or twenty children. It was also frequent for an octogenarian to be able to claim about one hundred descendants, children, grandchildren or great grand children[13]. Trade was also needed by the colony for all kinds of tools and weaponry. Nevertheless, they bought very little products. [...]