Conceived in Liberty Volume 2 - Ludwig von Mises Institute

leaving the island. Since the year was up, the British presumed to prohibit
Acadian emigration with complete self-righteousness. After this British display
of bad faith capped by hypocrisy, the Acadians naturally though
courageously refused to take an oath of allegiance to the new King George
I. In 1720, the new governor of Nova Scotia, Richard Philips, ordered the
Acadians to take the oath in four months or leave the island, but taking
with them no more than two sheep per family. When the despairing
Acadians, deprived of all boats, tried to leave by cutting a road to nearby
Cape Breton by land, Philips forced them to stop. He too did not want to
lose the benefits of Acadian labor, that is, forced labor, since the Acadians
were forced to stay on this alien-run island.
During the same year, Philips sent Lieutenant Governor Paul Mascarene
to London. Mascarene converted the Board of Trade to a diabolic plan:
eventually the Acadians should all be coercively expelled from the island,
where they were too much under the influence of wicked French priests.
But this should not be done until the French could work to build up and
complete English fortifications on the island.
The Acadians, meanwhile, were neither allowed to leave the country
nor permitted to settle down as full citizens. Instead, they were forced to
supply the needs of the British troops and to strengthen the fortifications
of their British masters. Despite these provocations, the Acadians remained
peaceful.
In 1726, Lieutenant Governor Laurence Armstrong, a tough hard-liner,
forced a public oath of allegiance on the Acadians of Annapolis (Port
Royal), capital of Nova Scotia. The following year, however, the issue arose
again with the ascension to the throne of George II. Armstrong sent naval
troops to enforce a loyalty oath on the Acadians, but the persecuted
Frenchmen continued to refuse. At least they would not lend their public
sanction to their own tormentors.
The day was saved for the heroic Acadians by Ensign Robert Wroth,
who, on his own initiative, promised the Acadians freedom of religion,
exemption from the draft, and freedom to leave the island. In return for
these rights, the Acadians took the oath of allegiance. Governor Armstrong,
of course, angrily refused to ratify these "unwarrantable concessions"
(which had already been promised them at the Peace of Utrecht). Having
gained the public oath, however, Armstrong vaguely and grudgingly promised
the Acadians the "liberties of English subjects."
The Acadians of Annapolis had not yet taken the oath. When ordered
to do so by the governing Council, the leading men in Annapolis resolved
instead to follow the other Acadians in taking the oath only under
the Wroth conditions. The Council called this action "insolent and defiant,"
and arrested the four leading Acadian deputies for contempt and disrespect
to the king. Lieutenant Governor Armstrong then announced that the
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