Needham History: Le Grand Dérangement

Even in Arcadia, there am I.
(Virgil, The Eclogues V.42)

“A View of the Plundering and Burning of the City of Grimross,” Thomas Davies (1758). Grimross (now Gagetown) was a town in New Brunswick, up the St John’s River from the current city of St John. Many Acadians first fled Nova Scotia by crossing the Bay of Fundy into New Brunswick, but the British pursued them there. The St John’s River campaign, including the destruction of Grimross and Fredericton, is considered to be the most brutal event of the expulsion. (Image: Wikimedia Commons)

Le Grand Dérangement

This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks…
Loud from its rocky caverns, the deep-voiced neighboring ocean
Speaks, and in accents disconsolate answers the wail of the forest.

Thus begins Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s epic saga, Evangeline. The poem tells the tale of the Acadian (French) villagers of Grand-Pré in Nova Scotia, expelled from their home by the British during the French and Indian War (1754-1763). The British arrive in the harbor without warning, imprison and transport all of the men, and burn the village to the ground, abandoning the women and the elderly to find their own way in the world. The lovely and gentle Evangeline, the “pride of the village,” is engaged to the blacksmith’s son, Gabriel Lajeunesse; in fact, the village is celebrating their betrothal when the British arrive. Gabriel is taken away on a British ship and Evangeline spends the remainder of the poem trying to find him. (No spoilers here – if you want to know how it ends, you’ll have to read it).

Longfellow’s tale was, as they say, based on a true story – known in Canada as le grand Dérangement, or The Great Upheaval. The region known as Acadia included the Canadian Maritime provinces (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island) and parts of Maine. The colonization of New France began in the 1530s, and by the mid-1700s the French population in the region totaled about 14,000. Following the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1715), France lost the territory to Great Britain, but under the Treaty of Utrecht the Acadians were allowed to remain on their land. However, the Acadians refused to swear allegiance to Britain and while most remained neutral, some joined in the ongoing French military conflicts against the British. To eliminate this threat to their control of Canada, the British began expelling the Acadians from the provinces. From 1755 to 1764, roughly 11,000 people were summarily deported or expelled from the territory, about 5000 of whom died of disease or starvation, or were drowned in shipwrecks. Villages and possessions were burned, and the land was given to new settlers, mainly loyalists from the New England colonies or Scotland. Some of the refugees ended up in France or eventually made their way to the Francophone colonies such as Quebec and Louisiana (hence, “Cajuns”); others were transported and scattered by the British throughout their North American colonies.

In 1755 and the years following, nearly 2000 of these “French Neutrals” were deported to Boston. These refugees were penniless and often ill, and therefore became a charitable responsibility of the colony. To defray the costs, the refugees were further dispersed to Massachusetts towns. Of the 220 or so towns in Massachusetts during this period, 147 towns were assigned some number of Acadian refugees.

“Cornwallis, Grand-Pré and Basin of Minas from the North Mountain,” painting by William Eagar (1830-1835). The village of Grand-Pré lies on the southern shore of the Minas Basin, at the mouth of the Cornwallis River. The site is now a Canadian National Historic Site and a UNESCO World Heritage site, commemorating the expulsion of the Acadians. 97% of the current population is Anglophone, and 1.5% Francophone. (Image: Nova Scotia Archives)

These folks were not always welcome; possibly truer to say that they were not at all welcome. They were destitute, and the towns were responsible to pay for their maintenance until they could become self-sufficient (assuming they were able). Many, however, were elderly or sick, and would remain a charge on the town’s poorhouse. They were also foreigners and Frenchmen – France and Britain had been in military conflict for centuries, so there was no reservoir of sympathy between the two populations.

“April 25, 1757. A Petition of [Selectman] Amos Fuller of Needham – Setting forth that there are Twelve of the French Inhabitants of Nova Scotia placed there, and as the Town is very small – Praying that they may be removed elsewhere.”

In 1756, twelve “Nova Scotia People” were sent to Needham by the General Court, which had been directed “to alot to every Town in the County of Suffolk* There proportion of the late Inhabitants of Nova Scotia Called French Neutures [Neutrals].” The town’s allotment was five, but the sheriff sent the large family of Francis LeBlanc, his wife Margaret, and numerous children to Needham – overall, thirteen people (the stated twelve, plus another later). M. and Mme. LeBlanc were elderly, so presumably their children were adults. As a result of the Selectmen’s petition, seven of the thirteen were sent to Stoughton in 1757, and the remaining six stayed in Needham. [*Needham was in Suffolk County until Norfolk County was formed in 1793].

Several years later, these six were still in Needham, and in the care of the town, including “an aged man and his wife [the LeBlancs] near Seventy years of age; and has a Daughter Weekly [sickly] not able to Labour But Little for her Maintainance.” In the year 1759, the town paid about 25 pounds (around $27,000 in current dollars) in provisions for the LeBlanc family, including rent for their dwelling, fire wood, corn meal, rye grain, 141 pounds of salt pork, 353 pounds of fresh pork, 89 pounds of beef, 124 pounds of mutton, 1 bushel of fresh fish, 35 pounds of cheese, 11 gallons of milk, and bushels of beans, potatoes, turnips, cabbages, and salt. Over the next few years, additional charges included ticking to make a mattress, rent, medical bills, and in 1761 the burial of Francis LeBlanc. In 1763 the town was still paying maintenance, and the final recorded cost for their support was in 1765. What happened to them after that year, I cannot find a record.

In July 1764, the British agreed to let a limited number of Acadians return to the Maritimes, to settle into some of the less-occupied areas of Cape Breton Island, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and northern parts of Maine. This is around the same time that the LeBlancs disappear from the town’s records, so I’d like to think that they made their way back home. I guess it is possible, but with an elderly mother, a sickly sister and seven siblings scattered to other towns, it seems more likely that they simply dwindled over time and passed from the notice of history.

Still stands the forest primeval; but under the shade of its branches
Dwells another race, with other customs and language…
While from its rocky caverns the deep-voiced, neighboring ocean
Speaks, and in accents disconsolate answers the wail of the forest.

Gloria Polizzotti Greis is the Executive Director of the Needham History Center & Museum. For more information, please see their website at www.needhamhistory.org.