The Grand Dérangement

Founded by France in 1604, Acadia was a strategically located colony that passed to England in 1713 and was renamed Nova Scotia. After Halifax was founded in 1749, part of the Acadian population moved to French territory, while those who remained were seen as a threat by British authorities, who began a systematic deportation in 1755 that split families and communities and seized lands and possessions. Nearly 10,000 Acadians were deported to Anglo-American colonies, England, and France, while others escaped to French territory and formed a resistance. Over the next ten years, almost half of the Acadian people were lost at sea or died from disease and famine, and by 1765 only 1,600 survivors remained in Nova Scotia on land occupied by other settlers. Some families returned, but most never saw Acadia again; many settled in Quebec and France, and in Louisiana they gave rise to the Cajun culture. After the deportation, Acadians reached the nearby seigneuries of Bécancour, Godefroy, and Roquetaillade in three waves from Beaubassin, Sainte-Anne-des-Pays-Bas, and the Anglo-American colonies. Between 1755 and 1758, hundreds fled to Quebec, and by 1758 some had settled in the seigneurie of Bécancour south of Lake Saint-Paul. A second group traveled along the Saint John River and the Grand-Portage to Cacouna and around 1764 arrived in the Godefroy seigneurie, while other families deported to colonies along the American coast joined relatives and developed the Roquetaille seigneurie. By 1787 these three groups sought their own parish, called Sainte-Marguerite or Godefroy, which the clergy officially established in 1802 as Saint-Grégoire-le-Grand. In 1965 it became part of the City of Bécancour, and the descendants of these refugees form one of the largest Acadian communities in Quebec.

Quebec · Canada