THE ACADIAN STORY
Our Johnson ancestry has its roots in Acadia, located on the Bay of Fundy in what is now Nova Scotia. The area was colonized in 1604 by hardy French farmers and fishermen, industrious workers who knew how to develop their resources, till the soil and live heartily off the land, which yielded such a rich natural bounty in their hands that there was little need for currency. Goods and services were bartered, families and neighbors helped each other, and lived peaceably with the native Micmacs. Early Acadian settlers came to make their home in the new world and found such a peaceful, fruitful environment that they chose to give it a name derived from the Greek legend of the nearly Utopian province of Arcadia. The French colony became Acadia, and its people were called Acadians. They lived a simple life and developed strong ties between families and friends, with a distinct culture of customs and traditions.
When the rule of their land passed from the French to the British, eventually conflict arose. The British were uneasy with these French Acadians living in their midst. When the Acadians were asked to sign an oath of allegiance to the British Crown, most refused unless it contained provisions for them to continue in their Catholic religion and protect them from having to bear arms against the enemies of the British Empire. The term could have included not only their French countrymen, but their friends, the native Micmac Indians. The story is long, but as tensions grew, by 1755 the Acadians found their villages destroyed and themselves being herded aboard British ships to be dispersed throughout the colonies and other countries. They were deported from their homeland to various locations, often separated from their families and loved ones. Over 10,000 were deported between 1755 and 1763 alone, with more later. This movement of an entire population was unusual because so many people were sent not to their motherland or to another French colony, but to British possessions.
The first groups were dispersed among the American Colonies. However, they were not welcomed or accepted in many places. Maryland, largely Catholic at the time, accepted those who arrived, but in other ports they were not allowed to disembark, and many died in the cramped holds of the ships, which were most often designed for cargo and not people. Anti-Catholicism was prevalent, as was anti-French sentiment. Many Acadians died before reaching the colonies because of the overcrowding and unclean conditions, and make-shift accomodations in the seaports caused rampart disease. Families were often broken up during in the move, and children were even taken from their parents in some cases, bound out to members of the communities. At some ports, they were allowed ashore, only to be pressed into indentured servitude.
Due to these unhappy conditions, many Acadians began a determined quest to return to Nova Scotia or else find new and more suitable homelands. One incident involved about 250 Acadians who were issued passes in South Carolina and Georgia, which were anxious to see them leave. They set out in small vessels to make their way up the coast to Nova Scotia. Charles Lawrence, who had been appointed Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia in 1754 and later Governor, had proposed the drastic removal of the Acadian people to take care of what he saw as a military issue, and what he called "the Acadian problem." When he heard of the Acadians' journey homeward, he urged fellow governors to prevent their return. Most were captured in New York and Massachusetts, but a few managed to reach the St. John River.
Another group sailed from Massachusetts to Québec in 1766, joining forces with the Acadians who had escaped and fled there from Nova Scotia in 1755, and settled near Québec City.
Acadian exiles in the middle and southern colonies gravitated towards the former French colony of Louisiana, whose new Spanish rulers were sympathetic to the Catholic religion. Many people were shipped to France, which made several unsuccessful efforts to establish colonies in Brittany, Bell-Isle-en-Mer, Poitou, Corsica, French Guiana, Santa Domingo, and the Falkland Islands. The Spanish government finally came to the rescue with an offer of land in Louisiana, and in 1783 nearly 1,600 Acadians left for the Spanish colony. There was much movement between various settlements as families tried to unite and find their lost relatives. The forced migrations were over by the early 1800s.
Although the great movement left the Acadians scattered around the Atlantic rim, their sense of their own identity remained intact, and their intense pride and determination to remain true to their culture and traditions prevails even to this day. The five main concentrations of Acadian descendants are found in the Maritime provinces, Québec, Louisiana, New England, and France. The Acadians might well have been destroyed as a culture and people, considering the mistreatment, separation from loved ones, and suffering they endured. But they survived. In the new lands where they settled, their culture was preserved. They continued the same family spirit among neighbors and the same zest for living, undaunted by one of the most brutal ordeals in history.
REFERENCES:
Floyd E. Johnson, Genealogy of the Johnsons and Related Families, 10th ed.
Columbia Johnson - Database, genealogy and history.
The Deportation of the Acadians. 1986, Publication of the Minister of Supply and Services, Canada.
© 1997-2001 Ann Johnson Donovan. Updated - September 2001
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