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Acadians

© David Newman

This is sort of a continuation of the Article: French Canadians. Now we look at the Acadians.

Acadians are the descendants of the first French settlers in Canada. The difference was that when Canadians were doing fur trading, Acadians resembled more like the English of New Britain, who took up farming and who's population was growing faster than the Canadian one. The French settled in Acadia in 1604 (before Jamestown), and founded Port Royal (1605) in present Nova Scotia. Acadia is now New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Eastern Quebec (Gaspe) and Northern Maine (United States).

The area has been disputed between the English and the French. The English claimed it was theirs when John Cabot explored there (1497). Unfortunately for them, the area was already colonised by the French. The Area was, for a brief period of time, British, but was French until 1713. The French lost the Area for good when the Treaty of Utrecht was signed. The only remaining French Possession in the Atlantic was Cape Breton Island, protected by Louisbourg, and New Brunswick which was claimed by the British was still under French rule.

Since the Acadians weren't really French anymore, having nothing much to do with France or New France the British let them do whatever they wanted. In 1755, the British decided that the lands should be theirs and when the Acadians wanted to remain neutral in the Anglo-French Conflict (not wanting to turn against their roots). 7 000 were deported in 1755 to Louisiana (and those who are still there call themselves Cajuns (deformation of the word Acadians). Many fled to the French Part of Acadia and others into Quebec or back to France. Many still reside in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.

The Acadians are represented by a flag that looks a lot like the flag of the French Republic with a yellow flag at the top left corner. The Tricolour flag obviously symbolises the French Heritage (although many Acadians thought that a fleur-de-lys flag would have been better) and the star symbolises Mary, the Patron Saint of the Acadians. The Flag was chosen in 1884.

I cannot be specific about the number of Acadians in Canada since there are French Canadians and Former French Citizens and all that. So I will just write the number of French speaking citizens in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. In Nova Scotia there are 19,970 French speaking residents (at home) and another 1,440 residents who speak both English and French at home. Which makes a total of 21,410 residents who speak French at Home. In New Brunswick, where French is one of the Official Languages, there are 219,385 people who speak only French at Home, then 6,080 who speak both official Languages for a total of 225,465 people. P.E.I is the least French Speaking with 2,910 only French Speakers (at home) and 260 bilingual residents which add up for 3,170 French speakers.