Conceived in Liberty Volume 2 - Ludwig von Mises Institute

38
The Persecution of the Acadians
Thus the British, during 1755, went down on many fronts to ignominy
and crushing defeat. However, the British took advantage of their lone
victory in Nova Scotia to exert their power over the hapless French citizens
of British Acadia. Frustrated by their lack of victory over French arms,
they presumably decided to levy barbaric vengeance on helpless and peaceful
French citizens in their midst.
Acadia had first been settled by Frenchmen in 1605, but was sacked
and destroyed by Virginia's Captain Argall in 1613. French settlement regained
Acadia during the seventeenth century, but it was seized from
France along with Newfoundland at the Peace of Utrecht, ending Queen
Anne's War in 1713. A treaty provided that the French population of
Acadia would have liberty for at least a year to emigrate from Nova Scotia
with their property, presumably to nearby Cape Breton Island, which remained
in the hands of France. The treaty also provided that Acadians
choosing to remain would, upon taking an oath of allegiance to Britain,
enjoy complete religious liberty.
Many Acadians applied for permission to leave as promised by the treaty,
but the British authorities peremptorily refused. Colonel Samuel Vetch,
governor of Nova Scotia, had financial interests in the island and urged the
Board of Trade not to permit its labor force to leave. The Acadians were
prohibited from using British-owned vessels to leave. When the desperate
Acadians began to build their own small boats to sail to Cape Breton, the
new governor Francis Nicholson brutally confiscated the boats and prevented
them from departing. By that time, the supposed year of grace for
the Acadians was over, and they were from then on prohibited from
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