Prince Edward Island Acadians in the 1760s and Beyond, and Their Ambivalence in Taking the Oath of Allegiance

Abstract

Prince Edward Island Acadians in the 1760s and Beyond, and Their Ambivalence in Taking the Oath of Allegiance Earle Lockerby (bio) OATHS OF ALLEGIANCE DATE BACK TO FEUDAL TIMES in Europe.1 Oaths, or pledges, were an essential part of the contracts between land-holding nobles and lower class persons benefitting from the use of land. In the 17th century it became common for the monarchs of European countries to require subjects to pledge loyalty through an oath of allegiance in return for certain protections and rights. This was particularly important to monarchs in times of political turmoil, rebellion, and civil war, when royal authority could be challenged and sovereigns overthrown. During the Jacobite uprising of 1745 and 1746, for example, it was very important for the Protestant George II and his government officials to know whom among the populace supported them and who did not. Kings and queens relied on oaths of allegiance as a means of obtaining or demanding loyalty; those who refused could be banished or face other penalties. Concerns relating to loyalty to the British Crown spilled over into the colonies, including Nova Scotia, particularly in the early 1750s, as this was a time when tensions between Great Britain and France were significantly increasing. The Roman Catholic Acadians greatly outnumbered British settlers in Nova Scotia, and they were suspected by colonial officials to be still yearning for a restoration of Acadia to France.2 The oath of allegiance of the 17th century, both in England and France, was infused with religious overtones, and taking the oath was not something to be done lightly. As pointed out by Yves Durand, a 17th-century French dictionary compiler by the name of Furetière wrote: "The oath is therefore not a simple contract one can easily renounce; it is an engagement before God."3 More modern versions of [End Page 71] oaths of allegiance may have fewer words that speak to a religious element within them, but they have generally retained at least a reference to God. As we shall see, the oath of allegiance was taken more seriously by Acadians at certain times of their history than others. The oath of allegiance played an important role in the political life of the Acadians of Acadie, or Nova Scotia, from 1670 until 1755, and for some years beyond, but most notably from 1710 until 1755. Indeed, in the latter year it played a pivotal role. Their refusal to take an unqualified oath of allegiance in 1755 was the principal justification cited by Nova Scotia Lieutenant-Governor Charles Lawrence and his council for their decision to deport all of the Acadians to the American colonies. In the fall of that year Lawrence succeeded in deporting about 7,000 of an estimated population of 10,000.4 During the seven years that followed, there would be additional waves of Acadian deportations from Nova Scotia, Île Saint-Jean, and Île Royale. In 1758 roughly 3,000 Acadians from Île Saint-Jean (about two-thirds of the population) were deported to France while the remainder escaped to Miramichi or Bay of Chaleur. Of those deported from Île Saint-Jean, one-half died from drowning and shipborne disease during the passage to France and still more died of disease soon after arriving.5 Some of those who had escaped to the mainland began to filter back to the renamed Saint John's Island in the early 1760s.6 It has been estimated that by the time that the Seven Years War officially ended in 1763, some 10,000 Acadians had died of disease, drowning, and/or malnutrition as a direct result of the Grand Dérangement–a term that refers to the colossal upheaval in the lives of Acadians as a result of the British campaign to remove them from the Maritime region between 1755 and 1763.7 The Acadian attitude about taking an oath of allegiance during the one or two decades immediately after the Treaty of Paris, signed in 1763, is a subject that has been seldom explored by historians. This research note examines the attitude of Acadians who returned to Saint John's Island during the 1760s towards the oath of...