Despite the deadly setback
in their first months in the colony, during the following years,
motivated by "[t]he persistent frontier spirit among many exiles"
and the pressure of overcrowding in their original settlements, Attakapas Acadians moved from
Fausse Pointe, La Pointe, Côte Gelée, Bayou Tortue, and La Manque to
new settlements farther out on the prairie. These included
Grand Prairie on the upper Vermilion,
Carencro at the northern edge of the district,
Beaubassin on the upper Vermilion east of Carencro, the middle
and lower Vermilion River down towards the Gulf, Bayou Petite Anse
near a prominent rise in the marshy prairie that proved to be the
tip of a huge salt dome, the shores of Lake Tasse west of Fausse
Pointe, Lake Peigneur south of Côte Gelée, and Chicot Noir on the
lower Teche at the southern edge of Acadian settlement.327 map
Other early settlers in
the Attakapas District were a family from Mobile who settled at the
lower edge of Fausse Pointe. Antoine Bonin dit
Dauphine of Grenoble, France, for reasons of his own, preferred to
live on the lower Teche, closer to the Acadians than to his fellow
Alibamons far up on Bayou Courtableau.328
La Nouvelle-Acadie: More Halifax Refugees Find a
New Home in Louisiana, 1765
In 1763, the caretaker French government at New Orleans had created
the Poste des Opelousas on upper Bayou Teche and appointed former
infantry lieutenant Louis-Gérard
Pellerin as the first commandant of the post and the
Opelousas District. At the time, the huge district was
inhabited only by a hand full of Indian traders and cattlemen, the
most prominent being Jacques Courtableau. This changed in late
1764 and early 1765, when French authorities at New Orleans opened
the prairie districts to large-scale colonization.329
The first large group of
settlers in the district were the Alibamons from Mobile and the Alabama River valley. These colonists were
mostly retired French Marines on half-pay who had refused to live
under British rule. About the time that the Opelousas post had
been created, France, in the Treaty of Paris of February 1763, had
ceded eastern Louisiana to Britain. In late October of that
year, Louisiana's director-general d'Abbadie had gone to Mobile to
supervise the transference of the area to British rule. The
British tried to entice the Frenchmen in the region to remain, but
their efforts failed. Some of the French Marines who had
served at Mobile and in the frontier forts above Mobile Bay had
families and were eligible for retirement on half-pay. Rather
than remain in a province ruled by the hated British, they chose to
migrate to western Louisiana. They followed d'Abbadie back to
New Orleans in late 1763 and early 1764. Some of them honored
the director-general's wishes and settled on the Upper German Coast,
while others moved farther up to Pointe Coupée, an established
French-Creole settlement. For some reason, the river
settlements did not please many of the Alibamons, so, when
d'Abbadie's successor, Charles-Philippe Aubry, opened up the region to colonization,
they crossed the Atchafalaya Basin to the western prairies, and
there most of them remained. They settled at "The Coast of the
Old Opelousas" and "at New Opelousas on the Right Bank" of Bayou
Courtableau before securing land farther out on the prairies.
Heads of some of these Alibamon
families bore the names Aulien, Baptiste, Bello,
Bertrand, Bissan, Brignac, Carrière,
Carron, Cretien, Daquan, Demarest,
Doucet, Duplechin, Durand, Fontenot,
Guillory, Henry,
Labeau, LaCasse, LaFleur, Langlois,
LeBrande, Mane, Moreau, Patin, Penelle,
Pillet, Rivard, Ste.-Manne, Taumelette,
and Tesson--some of them, like Guillory and Rivard,
among the oldest names in the colony. Other families came to
Opelousas from Illinois, the eastern part of which also had been
ceded to Britain in 1763.330
Not long after
the Alibamons and Illinoisans settled on Bayou Courtableau, 10
Acadian families, most of them also from Chignecto, reached New
Orleans from Halifax via Cap-Français soon after the Broussards.
During the two months between the arrival of the Broussard
party in late February and their movement to Attakapas in late
April, these 40 or so other Acadians evidently joined the larger
party in the city. Heads of these new families bore the names
Comeau, Cormier,
Guénard, Hébert, Léger, Pitre,
Richard,
Savoie, Saulnier, and Thibodeau. Like the
Broussard party, most of these exiles were from the Chignecto
area, but two families had escaped from the Annapolis Royal valley.331
These Acadians, too,
celebrated at least one birth and mourned at least one death during
their odyssey to the New Acadia. On May 16, Michel
Comeau and his wife, Marie-Madeleine Girouard, baptized
their son Louis,
who had been born on April 20, perhaps aboard ship;
Opelousas District commandant Louis Pellerin and his wife
Marie-Marthe
Belaire served as the boy's godparents. Michel
Comeau, age 31, was from Chepoudy; Marie-Madeleine, whose
mother was a Thibodeau, was age 28 when she came to
Louisiana. Their older son Jean, only 5 years old, had been
born in the prison compound at Halifax. The oldest family head
among these later-arriving Acadians would have been Timothée, called
Mothé,
Guénard, a native of Maryland, his father an Irish soldier
who had married an Acadian girl in the early 1710s. Mothé
would have been 49 years old when the party reached New Orleans.
Like Michel Comeau, Mothé also had married a Thibodeau--Anne-Marie,
daughter of Pierre le jeune of Annapolis Royal. Mothé
and Anne-Marie were living at Annapolis Royal in 1755. Unable
to escape the British dragnet there, they were deported to
Massachusetts probably aboard the transport Helena, which
reached Boston in late November. Mothée and Nanny, as she was
called, appeared on a list of Acadians at Marlborough,
Massachusetts, in 1761, with seven children. When the war with
Britain ended, most of the Acadians in New England migrated to
Canada, but Mothé and Anne returned to Nova Scotia, probably in
search of her Thibodeau kin. Colonial officials sent
them to one of the prison compounds, where they likely reunited with
her family. The records are not clear, but Mothé may have died
on the voyage to Louisiana, or perhaps he was one of the "seven or
eight who ... died" at New Orleans. Just as sadly, Anne
reached the prairie only two of their children: Joseph, age
19, and Anastasie, 14.332
The other family heads in
the party were relatively young men; the eldest, after Mothé
Guénard, was Pierre Thibodeau, who was only 41 when they
reached New Orleans. One of the youngest family heads, Joseph
Cormier
of Chignecto, was only 25. His wife, Marguerite Saulnier,
probably of Petitcoudiac, was pregnant when they left Halifax.
She gave birth to twin daughters, Félicité and Marie-Louise,
probably soon after they reached the colony. Their daughter
Susanne had been born in the prison compound at Halifax and was just
a toddler when the family reached Louisiana. Accompanying
Joseph and Marguerite was Joseph's younger brother, Michel, age 24
and still a bachelor, who may have been pining for Marguerite's
sister, Anne, called Nanette, widow of Basil Babin, whom he
had known at Halifax but who had not yet come to the colony.
The
Cormier brothers were first cousins of the Jean-Baptiste
Cormier, fils who would reunite with his parents and
sisters at
Cabahannocer on the trip up to Bayou Plaquemine. The
brothers,
anxious to see their uncle and aunt and five female cousins who they
also had not seen for over a decade,
likely visited their relatives at
Cabahannocer before moving on to the prairies.
(One of the family heads among these later-arriving Acadians, Pierre
Richard, was a nephew of the Cormier brothers' aunt,
Madeleine Richard and Madeleine's brother, Jean-Baptiste, who
also lived in the little river community, so Pierre Richard
also would have had good reason to linger at
Cabahannocer.)333
The Cormier brothers could have told a tale of their own of
loss and separation. When they were boys, their large family
had been forced by Canadian militiamen and Mi'kmaq warriors to
abandon their home at
Riviére-des-Héberts
and move to Aulac, west of the Missaguash. By 1755, their
father, Pierre dit Palette Cormier, had died, so their
older brother, Pierre dit Pierrot, stood as head of the
family. Pierrot, age 21, and probably some of his brothers,
perhaps including Joseph and Michel, now 15 and 14, were among the
dozens of Acadians captured at
Fort Beauséjour in June 1755. If Joseph and Michel had been in
the fort, their ages would have secured their release. Not so
brother Pierrot, who, along with other Acadian militiamen, was put
under arrest and held aboard one of the British transports bound for
South Carolina. Pierrot slipped off the vessel, swam to shore,
slipped past British guards, clambered over dykes and aboiteaux, and
disappeared into the woods, where he eluded British soldiers
tracking him with dogs. Hearing that his family had escaped
the British roundup and were heading towards Québec, he went in
search of them. He re-united with his wife, Anne dite
Nanette Gaudet, whom he had married earlier in the year, his
widowed mother Cécile Thibodeau, and some of his siblings at
Ste.-Anne-du-Pay-Bas on Rivière St.-Jean, an Acadian community
as yet unmolested by British and New England forces. But
their respite on the river was a short one. British raiding
parties drove them to Kamouraska, Québec, in 1758. Family
tradition says that Pierrot and his brothers Jacques and François
were serving in the Canadian militia at the fall of Québec in
September 1759, escaped the British, and then boarded a French
frigate at Pointe-Lévy, near Québec, bound for France. As
crewmen aboard the frigate, they may have fought at Cap-Rouge, above
Québe, in May 1760; if so, the brothers would have been among the
ship's relatively few survivors. Pierrot and his wife lived at
L'Islet, Québec, on the lower St. Lawrence, from 1761-64, and then
he and four of his brothers, along with their widowed mother,
returned to Ste.-Anne-du-Pays-Bas in 1765.
But Joseph and Michel were not among the brothers who followed him
there. Somehow they had become separated from the family early
in its flight from Chignecto. Unaware of where the rest of
their family had gone, the boys may have hooked up with their
Thibodeau cousins, who made up a significant part of the
Beausoleil Broussard resistance force operating in the upper
Petitcoudiac valley, on the Bay of Fundy, and along the Gulf of St.
Lawrence shore. Like the Broussards and
Thibodeaus, the Cormier brothers ended up at Georges
Island, Halifax, where they were counted by colonial officials in
August 1763. Joseph had married Marguerite Saulnier by
then, and when the Acadians at Halifax left Nova Scotia in late
1764, the Cormier brothers followed Joseph's Saulnier
kin to Cap-Français and then on to New Orleans. They, along
with their first cousin, Jean-Baptiste, fils, were the only
Cormiers of their generation to emigrate to Louisiana.
After they had become separated from their widowed mother and the
rest of their family, Joseph and Michel,
while still in their teens,
never laid eyes on their immediate family again--a story all too
common among the Acadian exiles.334
The Broussard party
left New Orleans in late April, and the later-arrivers likely
followed them. Judging by the date of Louis
Comeau's baptism, however, Michel Comeau and his
family, at least, may not have left the city until after May 16,
unless the boy was baptized at Opelousas. Professor Carl A.
Brasseaux, the leading authority on the Acadians in Louisiana, hints
that the later-arrivals followed the
Broussards to Attakapas but that during the summer, after a
mysterious epidemic struck the Teche valley Acadians, "At least
thirty-two other immigrants sought refuge at the Opelousas post,
then located along Bayou Teche below present-day Port Barre.
Apparently moved by pity for the latter group, militia captain
Jacques Guillaume Courtableau personally settled the exiles at
Prairie des Coteaux, along the Teche Ridge in an arc contiguous to
the eastern and southeastern corporate limits of modern-day
Opelousas."
Most of these Chignecto cattlemen remained at Opelousas, determined
to create vacheries of their own.335
When the new Spanish
governor, Antonio de Ulloa, came to the colony in March 1766, he
maintained the post at Opelousas but did not send more Acadian
immigrants to the district. During his tour of the lower
colony's settlements soon after his arrival, the governor gave only
"verbal" land titles to the Opelousas Acadians. During the autumn of
1767, Spanish authorities urged Acadian families to move from the
Attakapas to the Opelousas District "because, when the rivers are
low, the waters of Attakapas form very toxic puddles from which
develop many sicknesses and therefore become a threat to the
families." In late November 1767, Governor Ulloa announced to
his superior, the Spanish Minister of State, that he had
consolidated the two prairie districts under one commandant, the
unpopular Louis Pellerin of Opelousas. Evidently the
consolidation had been in the work for weeks. A petition dated
27 August 1767, signed by nine of the Attakapas District's "most
distinguished settlers"--Jean-Baptiste Broussard, Olivier
Thibodeau, René Breau, Jean Trahan, Michel
Trahan, Paul Thibodeau, Charles Dugas, Charles
Guilbeau, and Amand Thibodeau--criticized Pellerin's
performance as Opelousas commandant. The Acadian leaders
recounted for the governor the unseemly conflict between Pellerin,
whose morals they openly questioned, and Capuchin Father Valentin, a
priest from Pointe Coupée who administered the sacraments to
residents of the prairie districts and whom the Acadians cherished.
They accused the commandant of "forcing the Indians to trade only
with him, telling them that as 'chief' of the post, only he had that
right. It was alleged that at the most inopportune times--the
planting and harvest seasons, for instance--he would demand public
improvements and exact these labors from the inhabitants." Pellerin also had built a tavern
within five arpents of what passed for a church at Opelousas and
thereby alienated Father Valentin.
The Attakapas Acadians accused Pellerin of misusing
supplies the governor had sent to the prairie settlements for their
relief. They beseeched the governor to appoint a new
commandant for the prairie districts "more experienced at directing settlers in the
establishment of a new post and less apathetic about the royal
service." The petition worked. In late November, Ulloa
relieved Pellerin of his post and brought him up on charges
the following year. Meanwhile, Ulloa allowed the settlers at Opelousas
"two majors elected by the majority of the community and confirmed
by the government. This is enough for now," Ulloa informed the
Minister, "but, in the future, it will be necessary to elect a
corregidor who will lead them so that there won't be any discord
or disorder, because the distance of about 100 leagues that
separates them from us and the growth of the population require it."336a
Acadian families who
settled at Opelousas after 1765, including perhaps some of the ones
who were sent there in 1767,
bore the names Boudrot, Bourg,
Broussard, Doucet, Forest, and Landry.
Several families--Boutin, Brasseur, Chiasson,
Granger, Guédry, and Jeansonne--came to the
colony from Halifax in 1765 or from Maryland in 1766 and 1767
and settled on the river before moving to the Opelousas prairies.
Three more Acadian families, named Benoit, Lejeune, and Trahan, who,
in 1769,
had come to the colony from Maryland
aboard the ill-fated English ship Britannia, chose to
join their compatriots at Opelousas after their harrowing ordeal in
Spanish Texas.337
A land dispute in the early 1770s drove the Opelousas Acadians from
Prairie de Coteaux south to
Prairie Belleveu and Bayou Bourbeaux.
In 1773, a hurricane
damaged many of their homesteads.
Dissatisfied with life in a district where they were a distinct
minority, some of the Opelousas Acadians asked Governor Luis de Unzaga
for permission to migrate to St.-Domingue, today's Haiti. Unzaga refused to let them go, so they sought permission at least to
move south into the Attakapas District, where many of their relatives
lived and probably where they sought to go all along. Again, Unzaga refused to let them leave, but some
of them sold their lands and moved to Attakapas anyway.
Unzaga, like many another powerful official who thought he could
control these people, was learning a lesson in Acadian stubbornness;
in the end, the governor relented. Most of the Opelousas
Acadians remained in the district, however, and built up their
livestock herds.336
map
La Nouvelle-Acadie: Even More Halifax Refugees
Find a New Home in Louisiana, 1765
With the arrival of the Cormier, Landry,
Poirier, and Richard families on the Upper German Coast
in the spring of 1764, the stretch of river called
Côte Cabahannocer became the first Acadian community in
French Louisiana, predating the Acadian settlement on Bayou Teche by
a year. After a flood of more Acadians came to the
Côte Cabahannocer in 1765 and 1766, Louisianans began
to call it by another name: Côte des Acadiens, the
Acadian Coast.
On 18 December 1764, Nova Scotia governor Montague Wilmot wrote to
his superior, also his uncle, the Earl of Halifax, about the Acadian
prisoners who had been held in the colony in the final months of the
Seven Years' War: "... no reasonable proposals being able to
overcome their zeal for the French and aversion to the English
government, many of them soon resolved to leave this Province, and
having hired Vessels at their own Expense, six hundred
persons including women and children, departed within three
weeks for the French West Indies, where, by the last information I
have had, they are to settle for the cultivation of lands unfit for
the sugar cane. And although they had certain accounts, that
the climate had been fatal to the lives of several of their
countrymen, who had gone there lately from Georgia and Carolina,
their resolution was not to be shaken; and the remainder of them,
amounting to as many more, in different parts of the Province have
the same destination in view, when the Spring shall afford them
convenience and opportunity." Wilmot was not sad to see them
go. "Thus my Lord," he gushes on, "we are in the way of being
relieved from these people who have been the bane of the Province,
and the terror of its settlements."338
The British governor would not know it for many more months, but
these "six hundred persons" did not remain in the French West
Indies. After lingering at Cap-Français, the gateway to the
French Antilles, they moved on. By late winter, nearly half of
them had reached French Louisiana; by mid-spring, 231 Acadians who
had survived the long voyage from Halifax were on their way to the
prairie region west of the Atchafalaya Basin. But what of the
remaining 400 exiles who had left Halifax for the West Indies the
previous December? Were they also heading to the lower
Mississippi valley, following the Broussards and the
Thibodeaus to that New Acadia?
Another letter from a governor to his superior, this one written by
Charles-Philippe Aubry to the duc de Choiseul-Stainville, the French
Minister of Marine, from New Orleans
on 14 May 1765, answers the question: "When I first had
the honor of informing you of the arrival of the sixty Acadian
families from St. Domingue and their subsequent departure for the
Attakapas with Mister Andry for the purpose of establishing a
village," Aubry informed his superior, "I did not anticipate that
they would be followed by so many others. This uninterrupted
influx of new families will soon turn Louisiana into a New Acadia.
At this moment I am informed that 300 men, women and children are on
the lower river. Rumors presently indicate that we are no
longer dealing with hundreds (of Acadian immigrants), but thousands.
It appears that there are approximately 4,000 who would like to put
an end to their long years of exile by settling in Louisiana."
The rumors of more arrivals were largely true; only the numbers were
exaggerated.339
The day before Aubry's letter of May 14, Louisiana's ordonnateur,
Denis-Nicolas Foucault, had informed the Minister of Marine that he
had just learned "of the arrival on the lower river of 48 Acadian
families. Like the families who preceded them, they came from
Saint-Domingue. It appears more than 1,000 families are
expected in this colony any day now." So he, too, had heard
the amazing rumors that Aubry soon would report to the Minister.
Foucault lamented to the Minister, "The 80 persons whom I discussed
in my letter ... dated May 4, and these 48 additional families are
causing me a great deal of concern." It was the ordonnateur's
duty to oversee the colony's finances, which metropolitan neglect
had left in dire straights. But neglect was not the only thing
that had driven the colony's finances to its knees. Only a few
weeks before, Foucault had overseen the expenditure of 15,500
livres, 15 sols, for "provisions, ammunition and
merchandise provided by the king's warehouses in New Orleans to the
Acadian families..." who were settling at Attakapas. The
King's warehouses were empty now, and yet hundreds, perhaps
thousands, of more Acadian exiles were on their way to New Orleans!
"There is nothing easier than to give them land in the areas where
the other Acadians have already settled," Foucault lamented.
"However, how can we prepare them for the trip? They will need
provisions, tools, ammunition and boats. These items will have
to be purchased, since the royal magazines are completely empty at
present. This will be very expensive," he assured the
Minister, "particularly if the additional 1,000 families arrive as
expected." Aubry's communication to the Minister the following
day repeated the same litany of complaints, with the added,
unnerving detail: "To make matters worse, the Acadians have
smallpox, and will inflict a new calamity upon the colony."
Aubry, like Foucault, also assured the Minister that they would do
all they could for the new arrivals with what little they had to
offer.340
.
These new arrivals were the remainder of the 600 Acadians who had
refused to remain in Nova Scotia, who also had chartered British
commercial vessels to Cap-Français, had refused to remain in French
St.-Domingue, and had chartered commercial vessels for the final leg
of their journey to French Louisiana. The first party of these
later-arrivals from Halifax came in May. By early August,
Foucault was notifying the Minister that "Small groups ... are
coming aboard the ships arriving daily from Saint-Domingue." They
were still coming as late as December. However, as Aubry's and
Foucault's reports to the Minister show, they did not--could
not--settle these newcomers near their fellow Halifax exiles who had
come before. The caretaker government did not have the resources to
stage another exodus to the western prairies. After spending
weeks in New Orleans recuperating from their journey, during which
they also turned in their Canadian currency for possible
reimbursement, the newcomers moved on to their New Acadia.
Aubry and Foucault sent them to the nearest area of vacant lands
above the city--to Côte Cabahannocer, near the hand full of
Acadians from Georgia who had come to the colony the year before.340a
Many family heads among these later arrivals bore the same names as
the Acadians who had gone to the prairies: Arseneau,
Bergeron, Bernard, Boudrot, Bourg,
Bourgeois, Breau, Doucet, Forest,
Gautrot, Girouard, Godin dit Bellefontaine
and also Lincour, Guilbeau, Hébert, Landry,
LeBlanc, Léger, Martin dit Barnabé,
Richard, Robichaux, Savoie, Saulnier, and
Thibodeau. And another Poirier had come to the
colony. But other Acadian names could be found among the
family heads of these later arrivals: Arosteguy,
Babin, Barthélémy, Berteau, Blanchard,
Chiasson, Doiron, Duhon, Dupuis, Gaudet,
Gravois, Jeansonne, Labauve, Lachaussée,
Lafaye, Lambert, Lanoux, Damours dit
de Louvière, Marant, Melanson, Michel,
Mire, Mouton, Part, Préjean, Caissie
dit Roger, Thériot, and Vincent.
Here also was a mix of Acadians from every settlement of the Fundy
region, but these later-arriving parties contained a somewhat larger
percentage of exiles from the Minas Basin than could be found among
the Acadians who had settled on the prairies. Still,
many of
the newcomers had lived in the
Chignecto/Chepoudy/Petitcoudiac area, as well as at Cobeguit and
along Rivière St.-Jean, so they would have found relatives
among the prairie Acadians.341
Documents generated by the Canadian money exchange at New Orleans
reveal at least two leaders among the Halifax Acadians who settled
at Cabahannocer. Jean-Baptiste, son of
Barthélémy Bergeron dit d'Amboise, fils and
Marguerite Dugas, was born probably at Annapolis Royal in
c1722. He married Marguerite Bernard, and they moved to
Ste.-Anne-du-Pay-Bas on Rivière St.-Jean. During Le Grand
Dérangement, the Rivière St.-Jean settlements became a refuge
for Acadians who had escaped the British at Annapolis, including the
party who had captured the North Carolina-bound Pembroke and
sailed it to the mouth of the St.-Jean in February 1756; and
fugitives who had traveled overland from the Chignecto area and from
as far away as South Carolina. This ended in the summer of
1758, following the fall of the French fortress at Louisbourg, when
British forces under Brigadier Robert Moncton took control of the
lower river. The following February, New England rangers led
by Lieutenant Moses Hazen struck the settlement and massacred some
of the refugees. Those Acadians who had not already left the
St.-Jean valley either moved on to Canada or joined their fellow
exiles on the Gulf of St. Lawrence shore. Jean-Baptiste
Bergeron
dit d'Amboise and his family, including at least three
children, went to the shore. According to a document dated 8
March 1766, "one Bergeron" handed over "the sum of 47,076
livres (pounds), 19 sols (schillings), 6 deniers
(pence), belonging to 73 families, some of whom arrived in June
1765...." Also handing in Canadian currency was "one
Lachausée, 27,044 livres, 7 sols, 8 deniers,
belonging to 37 families, some of whom reached this colony in
various ships--in August, September, October and November...."
This was Philippe de St.-Julien Lachaussée, a French
physician born in Picardy in c1727. He also settled on Rivière
St.-Jean, where he married Françoise, daughter of Acadian
Jean-Baptiste Godin dit Lincour in c1754.
Philippe's wife died soon after their marriage, perhaps from the
rigors of childbirth, and he remarried to Marguerite, daughter of
Charles Belliveau, on the St.-Jean in 1756. Belliveau,
from Annapolis Royal, was a leader of the Acadians who captured the
ship Pembroke on its way to North Carolina and who, along
with other Acadians from the ship, had taken refuge on the river.
When the British struck the St.-Jean settlements in 1758, the
physician and his family, including an infant daughter, moved to the
Gulf of St. Lawrence shore. Philippe's son Pierre-Philippe was
baptized at Restigouche, at the head of the Baie des Chaleurs, in
March 1761 but died probably at Halifax a year or so later.
Philippe's second wife also died in the early 1760s, probably in the
prison compound at Halifax. When he came to Louisiana in the
summer of 1765, the physician was accompanied only by his
10-year-old daughter Louise-Françoise. He remarried at
Cabahannocer, his third marriage, to Marie-Rose, called Rose,
Bourgeois, widow of Pierre
Gravois, in October 1766, and she gave him two more sons, the
youngest of whom perpetuated the family line in Louisiana.342
Aubry and Foucault sent these 300 late-comers to the right, or west,
bank of the river above the concessions of Cantrelle,
Judice, and Verret. Some of the families among the new arrivals--especially the
Landrys, Poiriers, and
Richards--would have reunited with their kinsmen who had settled
just downriver a year and a half before. In September 1765,
Aubry appointed Louis Judice and Nicolas Verret as
provisional co-commandants of a new district created for the
Coast of Cabahannocer, and soon two companies of militia
were organized under command of the co-commandants. Meanwhile,
Aubry and Foucault could report to the Minister in late September:
"All these families are hard at work getting settled...."343
Sometime that autumn, a few dozen Acadians from Attakapas,
escaping an epidemic raging along the Teche, joined the newcomers at
Cabahannocer. Their family names included Arseneau,
Bergeron, Bourg, Bourgeois, Darois,
Dugas, Guédry, Landry, Martin dit
Barnabé, Poirier, Roy, and Thibodeau.
Some of them returned to the prairies, but most of them remained on
the river.345
One of the duties of the new commandants was to oversee the marriage
of couples in their districts by the visiting priest from the German
Coast, Capuchin Father Barnabé. The earliest marriages,
recorded at the end of March 1766, were those of two of
Jean-Baptiste Cormier, père's daughters, Madeleine and
Marie, to new arrivals Simon Mire and Michel Poirier.
These early marriages were conducted in the homes of the commandants; in the case of these two
couples, that of Nicolas Verret.344
Among the new settlers at
Cabahannocer were members of a small extended family that
would contribute much to the history of South Louisiana.
The
Moutons came to Acadia later than most of the
families who populated the colony. In 1703, during the early
months of France's second long war with England, Jean Mouton
of Marseille, age 14, arrived from France and settled at Port-Royal.
At age 22, in 1711, the year after the British captured Port-Royal
from the French, Jean married Marie
Girouard of Port-Royal, a member of one of the
first families of Acadia. The next year, they moved to
Grand-Pré, where he earned his living as a surgeon and was called
Sr. Jean by his contemporaries. Sons Jean, fils,
Jacques, Charles, and Justinien, and daughters Marie-Josèphe and
Marguerite were born at Grand-Pré before the family resettled at the
even more distant Acadian community of Chignecto in c1725.
Four more children were born to Sr. Jean and Marie at
Chignecto: sons Pierre, Salvator, and Louis, and daughter
Anne.
The
Moutons lived at Chignecto for thirty years and
may have been among the dozens of Chignecto families living east of
Rivière Missaguash in 1750 who were forced to relocate west of the
river, in French-controlled territory. During the fall of
1755,
British forces rounded up the older
Mouton sons and their families and deported them along with other
Chignecto Acadians to South Carolina. The three younger sons,
Salvator, Louis, and Pierre, somehow escaped the British roundup.
With Salvator's wife, Anne Bastarache, whom he had married at
Annapolis Royal in January 1752, and their children, the Mouton
brothers fled to the Gulf of St. Lawrence shore and found refuge at
Restigouche, at the head of the Baie des Chaleurs. There,
Louis married Marie-Modeste Bastarache, a younger sister of
Salvator's wife, in October 1760. But they did not live there
in peace.
The war caught up to them the year of Louis's marriage when, in
July, the British attacked the fort at Restigouche with overwhelming
force. Pierre died in the fight, and Salvator and Louis fell
into the hands of the victorious British, who imprisoned them in
Fort Edward, Nova Scotia, at the former Acadian settlement of
Pigiguit, for the rest of the war. Louis's
daughter Anne-Charlotte was born in one of the prison compounds in
February 1764. In late 1764 or early 1765, Salvator, Louis,
and their families joined hundreds of other Nova Scotia detainees in
their exodus to Louisiana. The Mouton brothers were
among the dozens of Acadians who settled at Cabahannocer. With
them was nephew Jean dit Neveu, son of Salvator's and Louis's
older brother Jacques, and Neveu's wife Élisabeth Bastarache,
whom he had married in Nova Scotia; their daughter
Marguerite-Françoise was born at New Orleans on November 20, so
Élisabeth had been pregnant on the long voyage down from Halifax.
Salvator's wife Anne died soon after they reached
Cabahannocer,
and he remarried to fellow Acadian Anne
Forest
at New Orleans in c1768. Salvator and Louis's older brother
Charles, who had been deported to South Carolina in 1755, reached
Louisiana from Martinique during the late 1760s. Typically,
Charles, his wife Anne Comeau, and their son Georges joined
his kinsmen at Cabahonnocer, now being called the Acadian Coast.
Salvator died in a New Orleans hospital in April 1773, age 40; he
was survived by his wife and three children from his first marriage:
sons Marin, age 20 at the time of his father's death, and Jean, age
19, and daughter Marie-Geneviève, only 8 years old. A few
years after their father died, Marin, Jean, and Marie-Geneviève,
along with their cousin Jean dit Neveu and his family, moved
to the Attakapas District. It was there that the Mouton
brothers made names for themselves as land speculators.346
La
Nouvelle-Acadie: A New Spanish Governor, 1766
The
Spanish took their time sending a government to Louisiana. Not
until June 1765, while Teche valley Acadians were struggling with a
mysterious "fever" and more Acadians from Halifax were coming up to
New Orleans, did Antonio de Ulloa y de la Torre-Guiral, age 49,
receive notice of his appointment, made the month before, as
governor of the Spanish province of Luisiana--an appointment secured
by "influential friends at the Spanish court." On the surface,
the native of Seville, son of a Spanish economist, seemed a wise
choice for the position. He was fluent in both French and
English, and he had governed before. He was not, however, one
of those professional colonial bureaucrats Spain produced in such
numbers, nor was he a soldier, though, as a young man, he served for
a short time in the Spanish navy. He was "perhaps
Spain's greatest eighteenth-century scientist," which made him well
acquainted with some areas of New Spain. While in Ecuador on a
scientific expedition, he and a colleague discovered the element
platinum. On his way home from South America in 1745,
during the War of the Austrian Succession, he was captured by the
British and held in England as a prisoner of war. He
befriended British scientists, who were so impressed with his
attainments in the fields of astronomy, mineralogy, and natural
history, they made him a fellow of the Royal Society of London.
Although the war was still raging, the president of the Royal
Society helped secure Ulloa's early release. In Spain, he
published an account of many years in South America, established the
first museum of natural history and the first metallurgical
laboratory, and oversaw the construction of a celestial observatory
at Cadiz. By 1751, he had become so well-known in the world of
science that he was elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of
Sciences. In 1758, two years before Spain entered another war
against Britain on the side of their Bourbon ally France, the
Spanish Crown "sent him as governor to Huancavelica, a Peruvian
province, with orders to revive production of a valuable mercury
mine which had become almost inoperative during the previous decade.
Ulloa not only failed to achieve this goal, but so alienated the
powerful Peruvian aristocracy, upon whom the success of the venture
rested, that they expelled him from the province." He left
Peru in 1764, and was in Havana a year later, holding the rank of
naval captain, when he was notified of
his appointment as governor of Louisiana.347
Ulloa did
not arrive at New Orleans until 5 March 1766--nearly four and a half
years after France had surrendered western Louisiana to Spain.
The new governor brought with him six military officers; a
commissioner; commissary of war and military intendant Juan José de Loyola,
who could not speak French; Estevan Gayarré, a
government auditor or comptroller called a contador; and
treasurer Martin Navarro. Amazingly, Ulloa brought with him
only 90 Spanish soldiers, "more than twenty of whom soon deserted."
To the amazement of the French, Ulloa failed to register his commission with the Superior
Council, "a routine requirement in both the Spanish and French
empires." This only
compounded his perceived weakness in the eyes of the colony's
French-Creole elite, who had opposed the transfer of western
Louisiana to Spain from the moment they had learned of it.
Ulloa's failure to register his commission was tantamount to refusing to take formal
possession of the colony, which greatly confused Aubry, Foucault,
and the other French officials, who had expected to hand over the
reins of government to Spanish authority and then be on their way. "Sensitive about
the weakness of his position," and displeased with the
unenthusiastic reception, "Ulloa may have feared that to submit his
orders for inspection" by the Superior Council "would give the
appearance of subordination to the more secure French authorities.
Whatever the reason for his action, it was a tactical error.
Certification of his letters patent would have extended legal
recognition to Ulloa's status as the official representative of the
Spanish king. In the eyes of French Louisianians, the action
would have constituted the legal act of transfer.
Ulloa's refusal to go through normal legal channels created doubts
in the minds of some colonists about the the validity of the cession
itself." Adding to the confusion, Ulloa retained both Aubry
and Foucault in their positions, Aubry as what Ulloa called
commanding-general, and Foucault as colonial commissary or deputy
auditor. Amazingly, because Ulloa had not formally taken
possession of western Louisiana, the French government was still
obligated to provide financial support for the colony! The new
French Minister of Marine, Césair-Gabriel de Choiseul-Sevigny, duc
de Praslin, who succeeded the duc de Choiseul-Stainville in April
1766, would no more inclined to send money and provisions to
Spanish Louisiana than Choiseul-Stainville had been.
Moreover, attempts to coax French officers and soldiers to join the
Spanish service, thereby supplementing Ulloa's meager force, failed
miserably. "There is no longer any hope that the (French)
soldiers in the local garrison will decide to serve the Spanish
king," Foucault wrote the retiring French Minister on April 2.
"Mister Aubry has tried every means to change their minds, but his
efforts have been in vain." Foucault lamented that this
failure likely would delay the formal Spanish takeover; while
awaiting further orders from Spain, Ulloa would have to secure
reinforcements for his meager Spanish force before he could relieve
Foucault, Aubrey, and the other French officials of the onerous
duties they had performed for much too long. Foucault also
informed the Minister that Ulloa, with Aubry and a large entourage,
had begun a tour of the colony's settlements, which would further
delay the formal Spanish takeover and place an even greater burden
on French colonial resources.348
The
Acadians on the prairies and at
Cabahannocer,
meanwhile, faced more personal concerns. By early March 1766, the Teche Acadians
in their scattered communities
were busy improving their simple dwellings and preparing the soil
for spring planting. They also were facing the troublesome
question of land ownership. No sooner had Andry escorted the
Broussards to Fausse Pointe than one of the district's cattle
barons, French Creole Jean-Baptiste Grevemberg, accused the Acadians
of encroaching on his land. Grevemberg claimed all of the vast
prairie area west of Fausse Pointe on the lower Teche
westward to the lower Vermilion River. The Acadians were
living on the east bank of the Teche at Fausse Pointe, but,
in July, Grevemberg nevertheless sent a "memorial" to both the
acting director-general and the ordonnateur "asserting his
right to the land and requesting a patent to his fourteen-year-old
vacherie." Aubry and Foucault, aware not only of
Grevemberg's wealth and influence but also of the delicate state of
the new arrivals, "permitted the Acadians to remain on their
farmsteads. Grevemberg could console himself with a concession
of 7.5 square leagues (18.75 square miles)" west of Bayou Teche.349
Grevemberg's land dispute with his unwelcome neighbors did not
prevent him from selling to them precious cattle with which they could
create vacheries of their own. Up on the Opelousas
prairie and at Cabahannocer, Acadians there also were preparing for
spring planting. Meanwhile, colonial officials in New Orleans
were doing what they could "to furnish subsistence to the Acadians
until the next harvest," especially to the newest arrivals. When word reached the settlements that
the new Spanish governor had finally reached New Orleans, the
typical Acadian reaction would have been a shrug of the shoulders, a
bon mot or two, and a resumption of whatever work he or she
was doing. Their ancestors had endured changes of imperial
masters more often than they could remember, and they, too, had
changed rulers when they came to this colony, the great majority of
them arriving after the world had been told that the western half of
French Louisiana now belonged to Spain. They would always call France their mother
country, as they had done in Nova Scotia, and as they would do here.
As long as the Spanish recognized their land grants and protected
them from the British, they would find them to be the most loyal of
subjects. As to their cherished religion,
the British had failed to convert any of them to their noxious heresies,
but the Spanish were Roman Catholics, too. The Spanish
priest who would come to their settlement to administer the
sacraments would have to know French; they would not bother to learn
Spanish here any more than they had bothered to learn English back in
Acadia. Mass was celebrated in Latin anyway, a language few,
if any of them, understood.
At least the new governor was not
British, who were settling much too close to this province for
their liking. He was no Belcher, no Wilmot, no Lawrence (damn
his name!). How much trouble could this
new governor bring to a people who were accustomed to nothing
else but trouble?350
In late March, Ulloa and his entourage, in four boats, began their
tour of the lower Louisiana settlements, first of the German Coast,
which included
Cabahannocer, then Pointe Coupée, Opelousas, Attakapas, and
Natchitoches, as well as the various Indian tribes in that part of
the colony. The Acadians, now, would have an opportunity
to take the
measure of the man. They could care less that Ulloa had not
bothered to present his letters patent to the French-Creole
busybodies on the Superior Council. He was here, representing
a still-powerful nation. They may have been puzzled that he
had brought so few soldiers to Louisiana, but they guessed
that many more of them were stationed at Havana, from whence he had
come.351
The Acadians were impressed with the new governor, who seemed to
understand their immediate needs as well as their ultimate desire.
Struggling on what little the French caretakers could give them, the
Acadians asked for powder and shot so that they could supplement
their diet with hunting, and Ulloa complied. Their response,
and what they told them about their struggles during their Grand
Dérangement, affected him deeply. Back in New Orleans,
following his month-long tour of lower Louisiana, Ulloa wrote a
series of long reports to his immediate superior, the Marques
Jeronimo Grimaldi, Spanish Minister of State. His impressions
of the Acadians filled each letter. His missive of May 19 was
especially revealing: "In order to assist (the exiles in
becoming self-sufficient), each Acadian settlement was given a small
gift of gunpowder and ammunition to be divided among themselves.
When we assured them that they would enjoy full protection of His
Majesty, of Your Excellency, and of myself in his royal name as long
as they remained here they thanked us profusely, with indescribable
joy that moved us to great tenderness and affection, and used part
of the few pounds of gunpowder that were given to them to salute
with their guns [which the French caretakers had given them] the
monarchs of Spain and France." And then the Acadians expressed
their ultimate desire to their new governor: "After indicating
that they will be as loyal to His Majesty [Carlos III] as they have
hitherto been to the Most Christian King [Louis XV], they requested
my permission to write to their Acadian countrymen in the New
England provinces so that they would get ready to flee their present
captivity. They did the same with commanding General Aubry,
and, although they were told to desist until the Spanish court was
informed and able to reach a decision about it, I am persuaded that
they will not do so because of their desire to be reunited with
their friends and because of their repugnance towards the English
nation."352
Ulloa was correct in assuming that the Acadians were only being
polite when they asked him for permission to communicate with their
kinsmen in the Acadian Diaspora. Jean-Baptiste Semer,
only a month before, had sent a letter to his father at Le Havre,
France, containing a glowing description of the Attakapas country
and a plea for his kinsmen to join him there. In Maryland,
over 200 Acadians, having received word from their kinsmen in
Louisiana that French officials would welcome there, were preparing
to charter a British merchant vessel to take them down to
Cap-Français, from whence they would repeat their kinsmen's' journey
on to the New Acadia. "The Acadians [still in the British
domains] have been offered the most advantageous inducements by the
English government to settle among them and to recognize the English
king as their sovereign," Ulloa went on. "They have written
the French government regarding their wish (to leave) and have sent
me a copy; yet none of the offers has changed the Acadians' minds
and their sole intention is to leave the English domain which they
hate unabashedly."353
Ulloa, in
turn, had taken the measure of these determined exiles. "I
have told Your Excellency," he continued, "that they are good and
industrious people; quiet, without vices and able farmers.
Mister Aubry and the other officers who have served in the last two
wars in the territories from there to Canada assure me that they are
good marksmen. As they proved in expeditions against the
English, they are equally capable of effectively waging war against
the Indians, this being especially important in this colony, where
one must always rely on the inhabitants for its defense and and
where skill and stratagems very different from those used against
other people are required against the Indians." He was
alluding, of course, to the Acadian resistance in Nova Scotia.
On his visit to Attakapas, Ulloa could not have met the fierce
resistance leaders; they had been in their graves a number of months
now. But he would have met their sturdy sons:
Jean-Baptiste, Sylvain, Simon, Pierre, and perhaps Anselme, sons of
Alexandre dit Beausoleil; and Petit Jos, Victor, Athanase,
François, Claude, and Amand, sons of Joseph dit Beausoleil.
The older ones had fought beside their fathers in the woods and
on the bay, and the younger ones carried memories of those terrible
years. Other family heads and their sturdy older sons, at
Attakapas, Opelousas, and Cabahannocer, also had fought the British
and their New English minions from Fort Beauséjour up to
Restigouche.354
Ulloa had
seen and heard much on his visit to the Acadian settlements.
Aubry and the other French officers had sung their praises to him,
and the governor had seen for himself the handiwork of these
long-suffering farmers and fishermen: "These people are
naturally good, quiet, hard-working and industrious," he informed
the Minister the State. "It is to be admired that they have
all prospered in very little time. In only one year, a single
man, having under his care a wife, children and, in some cases, a
widow, sister, sister-in-law or mother living with his own family,
has cleared the 4 arpents or tanegas (1.59 acres) that have
been given to him; has built a dyke to contain the river within its
banks (and to keep it from) flooding the land; (and has cleared) a
road over which a cart can travel. He had built a house, and
cultivated land, and (built) wooden fences, although those enclose
small areas. One can say that two black day laborers would not
have been able to advance as much as a single one of these men,
whose untiring application of work has been the cause of several
deaths from fatigue. This progress shows all that necessity
and perseverance can do when one puts his heart into it. The
French officers were astonished by the progress made by these
people" and vowed to extend them aid as long as they could.
"While His Majesty determines what he wishes to do," Ulloa
continued, "I have agreed to do it (assist the Acadians) also,
because the sooner they begin to get some rest, the sooner they will
succeed in earning a livelihood, and we will be relieved of having
to provide them with the necessities of life."354a
In the
concluding paragraph of his May 19 report to the Minister, Ulloa's
final comment about the Acadians revealed a keen
understanding of who they were: "I must tell Your Excellency,"
he concluded, "that the Acadians are the type of people who live
among themselves as though they were a single family. (They
do) not make any alliances with other French people, nor do they
give their daughters in marriage to those who are not of their kind,
as occurs in Spain among the highlanders of Santander. They
settle their differences among themselves and help each other in
every way, as if they were brothers. This quality makes them
preferable for settlement over other types of people. And the
government must be careful to keep them as they are, because as long
as they remain unchanged, the king will be able to count on good
vassals who, when the time comes, will gladly take up arms and
sacrifice themselves to his royal service, in defense of his
domains."355
An
important element of Ulloa's tour was a general census conducted by
the commandants in the lower colonial districts. Here was a first
systematic counting of the Acadian exiles in Louisiana. In a document dated 9 April 1766, Cabahannocer commandant Louis Judice reported to the colonial
authorities his count of the settlers in his district, the great
majority of them Acadians. His survey began "on the right bank of the Mississippi
River from the habitation of Jacques Cantrelle to Bayou
Lafourche," and continued on the "left bank of the river from the habitation
of Joseph Hébert to the village of the Alibamon Indians."
Judice counted 43 men, 43 "wives," 55 boys above age 15, 56
boys below the age 15, 17 widows, 17 girls above age 15, and 35
girls below age 15, for a total of 266 men, women, and children at
Cabahannocer.
Living among the settlers were 16 slaves, 5 of them belonging to
Jacques Cantrelle and 11 held by Judice himself.
No Acadian held a slave. The commandant also counted 687
arpents of land, 95 hogs, and 97 guns, but no horses.
Judice's report mentioned two Indian villages in his district,
those of the Alibamon and Houma. Only 14 inhabitants in the district were non-Acadians: Commandant
Judice, his wife, their two sons Louis, fils and
Michel, the co-commandant's father-in-law, Jacques Cantrelle,
Nicolas Verret's sons Michel and François, Joseph Wiltz,
___ Popolus, ___ Ducros, Marc Maulet, Pierre Bidau, Saturnin
Bruno, and Félix Pax, the last two "established above the
village of the Houma Indians" on the east bank of the river, leaving
252 Acadians on that part of the river. Two years later, Bruno, age
28, would join the Acadians on the Acadian Coast by marrying
Scholastique, 22-year-old daughter of François Léger, one of
the earliest exogamous marriages among the Louisiana Acadians.356
At
Attakapas, in a report dated 25 April 1766, Commandant Massé
counted, besides himself, only 130 individuals, 121 of them
Acadians. Thirty-eight of the Acadians he counted in the
"District of the Pointe"--that is, Fausse Pointe. Another thirty-eight lived
at what he called "Bayou Queue de Tortue," but he obviously meant
Bayou Tortue. Forty-five other Acadians lived in the "District
of La Manque." The nine non-Acadian settlers were the
Bonin family, the only Alibamons in the district. No
Acadian, and no Bonin, owned a slave. Massé held 20 of
them on his large vacherie. Up in the
Opelousas District, Commandant Pellerin's census, undated,
revealed a very different pattern of settlement. Pellerin
counted himself and 154 other non-Acadians, most of them
Alibamon, at "The Coast of the Old Opelousas" and at "New Opelousas
on the Right Bank" of Bayou Courtableau. The commandant owned
the largest number of slaves--24--but militia captain M. Courtableau
owned 21, Alibamon Grégoire Guillory owned 10, and a dozen others,
all Alibamons,
owned as many as 6 and as few as 1. Pellerin counted only 38 Acadians in
his district, none of whom owned a slave. Massé and
Pellerin's censuses thus revealed that of the 231 Acadians who
had gone to the prairies, only 159
remained--testimony to
the devastation wrought by the epidemic of the previous summer and
the number of Acadians who had left the prairies.357
Sadly, the
Spanish general census of April 1766 counted only 411 Acadians left
in Louisiana of the slightly more than 600 who had gone there.
One wonders what accounts for
this amazing reduction in their numbers. Did the commandants
conduct their censuses in haste and fail to count all of the
inhabitants? Were there still Acadians at New Orleans who were
not counted in the district surveys? Did the Cabahannocer
Acadians also endure a devastating epidemic during their first
summer in the colony? In May 1765, before the epidemics broke out, Aubry had told the Minister of Marine that
"the Acadians have smallpox." Was he referring to the Acadians
who had just reached Balize, where
they could be quarantined before moving up to the city, or was there
smallpox among the Acadians who already had reached New Orleans?
In his report to Minister Grimaldi, dated 9 May 1766, Ulloa provides
another clue as to why so few Acadians had been counted that spring:
"Those who come here are being settled in an area ten leagues above
this capital at its nearest point," he said of the Acadians at Cabahonnocer. "Each of them has been assigned land and
housing, given tools so they can work the land, and some provisions,
though only in small quantities. Consequently, many of them
have died in misery because there was not enough (food)." He
lamented the loss of these valuable settlers and its impact on the
colony. "[T]he French leaders have aided them as much as
possible, assigning them two leaders to govern and guide them, but, since this does
not provide their daily bread and shelter, we lose in those who die
what is gained in those who come to increase the population."
How did the Acadians reconcile themselves to the loss of so many
loved ones during their first year in Louisiana? Ulloa, in his
report of May 19, sheds light on this as well: "The Acadians
themselves tell me that everyone [of them] in the English colonies
will come," he assured the Minister, "and those in Canada will do
the same. This is due to the fact that, despite the many
(Acadian deaths) on the island of Saint-Domingue and even here
during last summer, they would rather expose themselves to
mortal dangers while searching for the desired freedom of religion
and civil treatment than remain in the relative safety of their own
land under English rule."358
Ulloa soon
would see for himself how true was this observation.
La
Nouvelle-Acadie: Exiles from the British Atlantic Colonies
Find Refuge in Louisiana, 1766-69
Like the
Acadians from Georgia, the exiles in Maryland and Pennsylvania were deportees who
had been shipped off to a British colony and forced to remain there
until the war finally ended. And like the Acadians from both
Georgia and Halifax, the exiles from Maryland decided for themselves
where they would create their own New Acadia. In late June
1766, following riots at Baltimore and Annapolis in reaction to
Britain's notorious Stamp Act of 1765, over 200 Acadians, mainly from
the scattered communities of Oxford, Snow Hill, and Newtown on Maryland's Eastern Shore,
but also from Port Tobacco on the lower Potomac River, departed the
colony on a chartered English sloop and headed to New Orleans via
Cap-Français. When they reached New Orleans at end of
September, they numbered 224 "men, women and children, 150 in the
last two categories." Fourteen of them had died during the
three-month voyage, and three more died on the journey up from Balize to the city. Three of the new arrivals were newborns,
but only one of them survived the rigors of the voyage. The
sloop on which they came did not wait at Balize for the lighters
that normally came down to take ship's passengers on the
100-mile-long trip up to New Orleans; after its stop at Balize to
answer to colonial customs, it continued upriver, fighting the
river's powerful current, until the lighters finally reached it on a
stretch of the lower river.359
These new
arrivals had not secured permission to emigrate to the Spanish
colony; they probably were not even aware that the Spanish had
reached French Louisiana. No matter, heeding what the Halifax
Acadians had been telling colonial authorities for months now,
Ulloa, Aubry, and Foucault were expecting more Acadian arrivals, from whence they did
not know. The physical state of the Maryland exiles when they
reached Louisiana is best described by Ulloa himself: "Because
these people arrived in misery and in great need (of assistance),
they were helped immediately, by which had been reserved for the
first needy (Acadians) who might arrive," the governor told his
superior, the Spanish Minister of State, the day after the newcomers
reached New Orleans. "I gave them a bull and a calf, which I
had brought from up-river for consumption by myself and my
companions. I did so the same night in which the boat carrying
them was discovered. The shipmaster assured me that as soon as
they (the Acadians) received the animals, they killed them and ate
the meat raw." Ulloa, from his refuge at Balize the following
December, described this act of charity as the giving of "alms ...
which I hope was very pleasing to God." It certainly was most
pleasing to the starving Acadians!360
Following
his policy of giving new Acadian arrivals "land next to those who
are already settled," Ulloa sent the exiles from Maryland to what
Louisianians would soon be calling the Acadian Coast, where they were
given small lots in the vacant lands between the Acadians from Georgia and the
upper end of the German Coast in Nicolas Verret's district on
the west bank of the river. Having come to Louisiana from
Maryland, these Acadians were not from Chignecto, Rivière St.-Jean,
and Annapolis Royal, like the majority of the Halifax Acadians.
With few exceptions, the Maryland exiles had
lived in the Minas Basin before Le Grand Dérangement.
This group included a large contingent
from Pigiguit. Nevertheless, many of them bore the surnames of
Acadian families already living in the colony: Babin,
Blanchard, Bourg, Breau, Broussard,
Dupuis, Forest, Gautrot, Godin, Hébert,
Landry, LeBlanc, Melanson, Poirier,
Richard, Thériot. But a few of them bore Acadian
family names not yet seen in Louisiana: Bujole,
Corporon, Daigre, Granger. The Landrys
and LeBlancs,
so prominent among the families of the Minas Basin, were especially
numerous among the new arrivals, as were the Babins and Melansons. One family
head among the new arrivals was not Acadian.
François Simoneau, age 38, a native of Lorraine in northeastern
France, had emigrated to Maryland by c1759, when he married Acadian
exile Marie-Anne-Osite Corporon, a native of Annapolis Royal,
who was 31 in 1766. They brought four children with them to
Louisiana,
three sons and a daughter, ages 6 to only a few weeks old.
Anne, as she was called, had been pregnant when the family left
Maryland in late June, and son Alexis was born aboard ship on August 10,
a month and a half before they reached New Orleans.361
The
September 1766 arrivals were not the only Acadians who appeared
suddenly at New
Orleans that year. On October 6, only a week after 224
Acadians from Maryland had reached the city, Étienne-Michel, called
Michel, David dit St.-Michel, age 46, his wife
Geneviève Hébert, age 40, and their eight children, four sons
and four daughters, ages 22 to 1, appeared at New Orleans.
Michel, a native of Louisbourg, Île Royale, was, like his father, a
blacksmith by trade. He had married Geneviève at her native
Grand-Pré in January 1744, and they were still living there in the
fall of 1755 when the British deported them to Maryland.
Evidently Michel's skill stood him in good stead in the British
colony, where they were counted at Snow Hill on the Eastern Shore in
July 1763. A report on Acadians at New Orleans in July 1767
notes: "Michel David has arrived in the Colony on the 6th of
October 1766 and he did not ask for any farming land. He has
always been a blacksmith in a city and dwells on the King's
property. This family has received the food supplies for the
month of July." So even an Acadian family that could pay its
own passage to Louisiana still needed the largesse of colonial
officials until they could become self-sufficient. Michel and
his family did not remain at New Orleans. By the early 1770s,
they had moved on to the Acadian Coast, where Michel practiced his
blacksmith trade, as well as farming, on the east bank of the river
near his fellow exiles. Michel's oldest son Joseph, who was 18
years old when he came to Louisiana, also worked as a blacksmith.363
.
By the
time the first Maryland Acadians reached the colony, relations between
Governor Ulloa and some of the French officials in New Orleans had
reached the boiling point. Ulloa's refusal to
take formal charge of the colony placed Ordonnateur Foucault,
especially, in a precarious position. He and Aubry were
operating more or less without instruction from their superiors in
France; the last detailed directive from the Minister of Marine
concerning the transfer of the colony from France to Spain had been
issued to the now-dead d'Abbadie back in February 1763! As
ordonnateur, Foucault was tasked with inventorying the French
King's property in every corner of the colony and accounting for all
expenditures so that someday French Court officials could hand to
Spanish Court officials an accurate tally of what Carlos III owed
his cousin Louis XV in the way of financial compensation. The
fate of his predecessor Rochemore fresh in his memory, Foucault
understood the consequences of failing to take proper care of the
French King's finances. Moreover, Foucault and Aubry no longer
were on speaking terms and in fact had become hated rivals.
Despite Ulloa's failure to take charge of Louisiana and his demands
on the colony's finances, Aubry still supported him, even
rationalized his behavior, and this Foucault could not abide.
In his fight with Ulloa and Aubry, Foucault was not above using the
Acadians as a potential weapon against them. "Since I was
reluctant to incur new and increased disbursements," he wrote to the
new Minister of Marine on 18 November 1766, "I devised a plan,
whereby, by refusing to help these wretched people [the Acadians
from Maryland], I would force Mister Ulloa into assisting them.
I was unable, however, to refuse the urgent pleas made on their
behalf by Messrs. Aubry and Ulloa. The latter assured me that
all the moneys spent since the arrival of the Spaniards, as well as
necessary future expenditures, will be born by the Spanish king."365
Ulloa quarreled also with
the French-Creole
elite who controlled, among other things, Louisiana's influential Superior Council.
Foucault, as ordonnateur, was the council's chief judge, but,
taxed by his other duties, he had long deferred that role to the
colony's influential attorney general, French-Creole Nicolas Chauvin
dit Lafrénière. As a result, the Superior Council,
"which also possessed administrative and quasi-legislative powers,"
had become "an autonomous body which, through legal and extralegal
means, was able to control much of the lower colony."
Ulloa was fully aware of the power of the Council. "Ulloa's
delay [in registering his commission with the Council and thus
assuming control of the colony] may well have been due, as he wrote
in 1769, to his fear that 'they (the councillors) wanted the Spanish
governor to make himself dependent on the Council in order to
subjugate him to the wishes of that tribunal.'"
Lafrénière had opposed the cession of the colony from France to
Spain from the moment he learned of it, so he , like Foucault, opposed Ulloa, which made him an enemy
also of Aubry. Soon after his arrival, Ulloa immediately
alienated the French Creoles by removing
supervision of the colony's slave trade from the Superior Council,
which they dominated, and entrusting it "to a board of his own selection." Just as
troubling to the Creole elite, Ulloa's economic policies, made in compliance with
instructions from Spain and that nation's strict mercantilist
policies, angered the city's merchants and shippers, many of whom
the new governor suspected were deeply engaged in the smuggling
trade. Within a year of Ulloa's arrival, "acting on the
governor's suggestions," the Spanish Minister of State ordered Ulloa
to abolish the Superior Council and replace it with a Spanish
cabildo as soon as he took formal possession of the colony.
Ulloa was instructed to appoint an asesor letrado, or Spanish
attorney general, on the eve of the formal transfer so that the
transition could be a smooth one. Although, by the spring of
1767, he possessed the power to abolish the Superior Council and
impose Spanish institutions in its place, Ulloa still was not ready
for formal transfer of power. Meanwhile, he would try his best
to keep secret the ultimate fate of the Superior Council.
Unfortunately for him, word of it got out and "caused much
consternation among the French colonial population," especially the
New Orleans Creoles.362
Fully aware of this dangerous dynamic and his inability to
control it, during the summer of 1766 Ulloa had retreated from New Orleans to the mouth of the river,
where he ensconced himself at a new post near Balize, over which he
flew the flag of Spain. Ulloa could rest assured that Aubry
supported him, and that the Acadians, now a substantial part of the
colony's population, still held him in high esteem. The
Acadians were too busy fighting illness, the elements, and the
endless struggle for their daily bread to pay much attention to
colonial politics, though some of them may have wondered why the
French fleur de lis still flew over the capitol in New
Orleans and the Spanish flag flew over the new post near Balize.
As long as the Spanish governor maintained pressure on the French
officials to assist them when they needed it, they could not
complain.
They had seen their cousins newly arrived from Maryland settled near
their fellow Acadians, so that was good.
More were coming, of that they were certain, and the governor had
said he would welcome them all.
Ulloa, so far, by his words and deeds, seemed to understand their
determination to reunite with as many of their kin as possible.
If their New Acadia was to be a Spanish one, then so be it.364
Although Ulloa was genuinely concerned about the Acadians' welfare and understood their need to reunite
with their families, as governor his principal focus had to be on
larger issues, such as the colony's defense. His
tour of the lower colony in the spring of 1766 and many hours of
conversation with Aubry, the professional soldier, revealed serious
flaws in the colony's defenses. Before 1763, the British dwelled hundreds of
miles from the Louisiana frontier, so only by securing alliances with
the Indians could they hope to attack any part of French
Louisiana. After 1763, that circumstance changed dramatically.
The imperial wolf was at the door! British territory, and the
certainty of British settlement, began at Bayou Manchac and
continued along the east bank of the Mississippi all the way up to
the pays d'en haut. Britain now held Fort des Chartres,
Kaskaskia, and Cahokia in Illinois. The French had been forced
to build new fortified outposts on the west bank of the river there,
at St.-Geneviève and Paincourt, the future St. Louis. And Britain held Canada. In the lower colony,
Aubry and Ulloa could see that the frontier with Britain was one vast avenue of invasion.
"These new inhabitants [the Acadians at
Cabahannocer] and those who have been living along the
(Mississippi) River, in Des Allemands, Pointe Coupée, Arkansas, and
even up to Illinois occupy very little space, considering the great
distances that exist between them," Ulloa informed Minister of State
Grimaldi in May 1766, soon after his tour. "As I told Your
Excellency ..., it is ludicrous to think that our frontier will be
defended by the inhabitants who are presently there because there is
no place through which the enemy cannot penetrate with no more
effect than by crossing the river. Once on our side, he can go
with an army unchallenged, freely, wherever he pleases, since the
country is completely flat, with nothing more to obstruct his path
than its trees and woods."366
With the limited resources at hand, Ulloa did what he could to place
obstructions into the path of a potential invader; that is to say,
the British. At the mouth of the Mississippi, he abandoned the
broken down French post at Balize, which Bienville had built on the
east pass in 1722, and constructed
a new fortified post, Fort San Carlos, on what he called Isla
Reina Católica, beside the northeast pass, not far from old Balize.
He then turned his attention to vulnerable points on the river above
New Orleans
where the British had gotten ahead of him. As soon as
they had created their new colony of West Florida in 1763, its
capital at Pensacola, the British turned to their western frontier
and saw the importance of the Bayou Manchac/Amite River/Lake
Maurepas/Lake Pontchartrain/Rigolets line of communication between
the Mississippi and the Gulf. If Bayou Manchac could be
cleared of its natural obstructions, the route would allow them to
avoid the natural and manmade obstructions, not to mention the
fortifications, at Balize and New Orleans, which still belonged to a
potential enemy. Cleared of its natural obstructions, the
Bayou Manchac route would become an all-water approach to the river
above New Orleans and, in case of war, would allow British forces to
attack New Orleans and its upriver settlements from two approaches,
including the vulnerable rear. Most importantly, an all-water
route from the Gulf through Bayou Manchac would be a commercial boon
for Baton Rouge and Natchez, which the British intended to fortify.
Meanwhile, in 1765, the British built Fort Bute on the west bank of
river north of Bayou Manchac to protect the turn into and out of the
little bayou as well as the approach to the bluff at Baton Rouge,
which they renamed New Richmond. In August of that year,
instigated, no doubt, by Aubry, a force of Alabama Indians attacked Fort
Bute and drove the small British garrison back to New Richmond.
The governor of West Florida, British naval captain George Johnstone,
refused to abandon the position. When Ulloa finally reached
New Orleans in March 1766, the British were hard at work rebuilding
Fort Bute. By then, they had failed, and would continue to
fail, to clear Bayou Manchac of it many obstructions, but the fort
still held strategic value, and so it would stand.367
The governor's path was clear: he must build more fortifications of
his own to counter the British presence along the river. In
April 1767, while Ulloa was still at Fort San Carlos, he sent an
expedition of seven boats, filled with soldiers, sailors, and
supplies, to several upriver sites. The first contingent,
commanded by Lieutenant Frederick José de Orieta, stopped on the
west bank of the river near the mouth of Bayou Manchac, where they
constructed Fort Infante San Gabriel across the bayou from Fort Bute. A second contingent
under Lieutenant Pedro Piernas continued upriver to Natchez, where
they built
Fort San Luìs de Natchez "on the west side of the Mississippi about
a league from British Natchez," where the West Floridians were
building a fort of their own. The third contingent, under
Captain Francisco Riu, "continued to the mouth of the Missouri where
he constructed Fort El Principe de Asturias on the south bank and a
blockhouse named Don Carlos Tercero El Rey on the north."368
And then there were the Indians. For decades, in fact, since
the first days of French Louisiana, native tribes had played a major
role in the colony's defense. With only a few exceptions Iberville had befriended the petit tribes of the lower
Mississippi and brought them into the French orbit. By the
1710s, Bienville, with the help of the friendly petit tribes, drove
one of the tribes that resisted him, the Chitimacha, deep into the Atchafalaya
swamp and, after relocating the center of the colony from Mobile Bay
to the lower Mississippi, moved the petit tribes about like chess
pieces to protect New Orleans and its satellite settlements.
Meanwhile, Bienville befriended the Choctaw, the Chickasaw, and even
some of the Alibamon and made them an important part of the colony's
defenses. Everything changed after 1763, when France lost
western Louisiana to Britain. Many of the tribes in the
region, large and small, moved to the French-controlled side of the
Mississippi to avoid British governance. Ulloa inherited this
chaos, which he witnessed first hand during his tour of the lower
Louisiana settlements. He wasted no time informing his
superiors in Spain that he would do what he could to maintain the
alliance system cobbled together by his French predecessors.368a
But it was not enough to construct new fortifications, man them
with the few soldiers and sailors the colony could muster, and
depend on the local Indians to come to their aid.
Each fort must have a contingent of settlers who would provide a
militia force to supplement the regulars and the Indians in the
event of attack. If Ulloa could
coax bands of friendly Indians to move closer to his new forts, then
so much the better. If he was planning to move some of the
Cabahannocer Acadians to the new posts on the river, he did
not have to bother.
"On July 12 an English vessel arrived at Isla Reina Católica,"
he informed the Minister of State from New Orleans on 23 July 1767.
"It is carrying 211 Acadians from Virginia, of all sexes and
ages...," he added. Here was his militia force for Fort San
Gabriel.369
In truth, the new arrivals were not from Virginia; all of the Acadians
there had been shipped off to Britain 11 years before and were now
in France. Ulloa was describing a second contingent of exiles from Maryland. Their chartered
ship, the English schooner Virgin, 60 tons, under master Thomas Farrold, had left Baltimore the previous April, spent 17
days at Cap-Français, and then sailed on to Louisiana. Ulloa
was thrilled with the new arrivals. "I have assigned all
these people to Fort St. Gabriel, next to (the) Iberville
(district), so that they may settle below it (the fort) toward the
city (New Orleans)," he informed the Minister of State. "I
immediately ordered them to continue their trip in the same boats in
which they made the crossing. They (the ships) have already
returned. I advised the (fort's) commander to give them land,
following the same procedures that have been used in other places
where the first families have settled. As a result, that
settlement is entirely composed of an able body of settlers and (it
was populated) with such precision that the stockade fort and the
dwellings of the employees and the Spanish troops were hardly
finished when, quite opportunely, a complete suburb of a large town
was added to it. If one had intentionally asked to have
families sent at great expense for this purpose, one would [could
not?] arrange a more timely arrival than as when they appeared."370
Ulloa's cheerful summation to the Minister obscured what really
happened between him and the Acadians. Having received many letters
from their relatives in Louisiana, these recently-arrived Maryland exiles expected to
be settled at
Cabahannocer as well. When the governor informed them that
they would be set farther upriver, to a new post at San Gabriel, 25
miles above
Cabahannocer,
they protested loudly and said "they had no intention of
establishing themselves at their frontier post."
Ulloa was stunned by their "ingratitude." He wrote later in a
memoir of this time in Louisiana: "'A group of Acadians
arrived (at New Orleans) in the month of July or August 1767.
We destined them for Fort St. Gabriel, but, as they put it into
their heads (that we) must permit (some of them) to remain vagrants
in the city (and allow) the others to occupy lands contiguous to
those of the other Acadians who were established opposite the
Cabannocé coast, we had all of the trouble in the world to subject
them to our arrangements. It was necessary to tell them that,
if they did not wish to take themselves there, it would be necessary
to expel them from the colony, as it (their intransigence) was
unprecedented, for His Majesty, who satisfied all needs of a
destitute nation, must be allowed to prescribe these conditions (of
settlement)."371
Spanish officers escorted the Acadians to the new fort beginning on
August 7, they arrived there on August 17, and on the following day
"they began to divide the land."
Once the newcomers arrived at San Gabriel, however, they could see
that they were in easy communication with their relatives at
Cabahannocer. They soon learned
that their position on the river
just below and opposite the mouth of Bayou Plaquemine also placed
them closer to their relatives in the prairie districts.
"Their leader let me know that they were very pleased and happy,"
Ulloa insisted. But he had made a serious faux pas not only with these Acadians but
also with the rest of them, at least the ones at
Cabahannocer. He had threatened to deport these
Maryland exiles if they did not obey his instructions, an
arbitrariness that reminded them entirely too much of certain
British governors in Nova Scotia (damn their names!). He
probably did not communicate it to the Acadians, but in his July 23
missive to the Minister of State, the one in which he had failed to
mention his conflict with the San Gabriel-bound Acadians, Ulloa included this ominous statement: "The next
Acadian immigrants will be sent to Fort San Luìs de Natchez," which
lay far upriver, many leagues away from any the other Acadian
settlements, including the new one at San Gabriel.372
map
The 200-plus Acadians who came from Maryland in July 1767, like the
September 1766 arrivals, were mostly
exiles from the Minas Basin. During their 12-year
sojourn in Maryland,
they had lived in scattered communities throughout the eastern half
of the colony: at Baltimore, Annapolis, Georgetown (on the upper
Eastern Shore), Fredericktown, Newtown, Oxford, Upper Marlborough,
and Port Tobacco. Also with them were a family of Acadians who
had been exiled to North Carolina and Pennsylvania before joining
their kinsmen in Maryland.
Again, familiar Acadian family names could be found among the new
arrivals: Babin, Blanchard, Breau,
Comeau, Forest, Granger, Guédry, Hébert,
Landry, LeBlanc, Melanson, Richard,
Thériot, and Thibodeau. The Héberts and the
Landrys, again, were especially plentiful. And there were
Acadian names that had not yet appeared in Louisiana:
Allain, Le Borgne de Bélisle, Boutin, Brasseur,
Flan, LePrince, and Rivet. The Boutins
were the family who had been exiled to North Carolina and
Pennsylvania. Pierre Allain had in his possession a
precious bundle which he and his family had preserved through Le
Grand Dérangement: several of the registers of the church
of St.-Charles-des-Mines at Grand-Pré, which he presented to the priest at
San Gabriel. Two family heads were not Acadian; they were not
even French! Joseph Castillo, called Castille by his
Acadian confreres, was a 32-year-old native of the Spanish island of
Menorca; he married Acadian exile Rose-Osite Landry of
Pigiguit in Maryland, and they brought four children with them to
San Gabriel. Diego
Hernandez, another Spaniard, had married Acadian exile
Judith-Théotiste Babin in Maryland, and they brought a
6-year-old daughter to Louisiana. The new contingent also
included one of
the few Acadian exiles who emigrated to Louisiana and whose name
hinted at former nobility.
Anselme Le Borgne de
Bélisle of Grand-Pré, age 29 when he came to Louisiana, was a
direct descendant of Emmanuel Le Borgne de Bélisle, one of
the most important figures in seventeenth-century Acadia; his wife was Anne Babin
of L'Assomption, Pigiguit; they came to Louisiana with an infant son who
had been born at Annapolis, Maryland.373
By September 12, the new arrivals had finished selecting "their
land," and the Spanish commandant, Lieutenant José de Orieta, began
"to survey the land for distribution to the Acadian families," a
task which continued into the autumn. Orieta reported to the
governor on September 23: "There are 48 arpents and 30 yards'
interval (between landholdings) (after leaving 2,700 yards of
cleared land for the defense of the fort and (to permit) artillery
fire) from the line where the land that you gave the Spaniards
begins, including the land that will serve for the roads that should
be built between the two possessions...," that is, between the lands
belonging to the Acadians and the Spaniards who the governor hoped
would settle at San Gabriel near the Acadians. Orieta added:
"The rains, the hot sun, and unstable weather have been the cause of
some sickness among the Acadians, but they are muddling through,
thank God." He also noted that one of his officers, Agústín
Moreno, was preparing to leave for Pointe Coupée, upriver, to
marry an Acadian girl who had just arrived in the colony, Marie,
daughter of Paul Hébert of Grand Pré. On the same day
that Orieta wrote his letter to the governor, San Gabriel's
physician, Jacques Le Duc, beseeched the governor to increase his
compensation so that, among other things, he could hire "a young
Acadian who has asked to work at the hospital" at San Gabriel.
On October 20, Lieutenant Orieta reported that "On the fifteenth, at
2 p. m., all the heads of Acadians families were placed in their
respective homes ... with 12 yards' interval between two
landholdings (to be used) for the main road...." The
lieutenant informed the governor that between "land grants nos. 25
and 26, one arpent has been measured as the site for a chapel for
their assemblies and for a cemetery. This step was taken in
conformity with the oldest traditions," Orieta added.374
The settlement the lieutenant laid out for them was impressive in
its dimensions: "All of the concessions were initially
confined to the east bank of the Mississippi River, and the
forty-seven land grants accorded the immigrants stretched from a
point 4,200 yards below Fort St. Gabriel to a spot six to eight
miles downstream, near the present boundary between the parishes of
Iberville and Ascension." Only a few weeks
after their arrival in the colony, the second contingent of Maryland
exiles had a community of their own.374a
.
Meanwhile, Lieutenant Pedro Piernas, commandant at San Luìs de Natchez,
farther upriver, informed Governor Ulloa that
construction of the fort there was progressing nicely despite
illness among the soldiers and workers. On 26 September
1767, Piernas wrote the governor: "I am informed of the anticipated
arrival of the Acadian families, their number, and their assignment
to this fort in order to populate the settlement. When they
are transferred here, they will be distributed according to Your
Excellency's instructions...."375
One wonders which Acadians the lieutenant was talking about. In
Maryland, another large contingent of exiles was gathering at
Port Tobacco on the lower Potomac. They, too, would hire a
British merchant vessel and sail to Louisiana via Cap-Français, but
they did not leave Maryland until December 17, nearly three months
after Piernas's September 26 letter to Ulloa.
Had Ulloa decided to send some of the Acadians from
Cabahannocer, San Gabriel, or even the prairie districts to Fort San Luìs
de Natchez?
No matter, in the second week of February 1768, a ship with 150
Acadians aboard reached
Isla
Reina Católica, at the mouth of the Mississippi. The
Acadians, a third contingent from Maryland, endured Spanish customs
at the fortified island and were
escorted to the King's warehouse across the river from New Orleans
at present-day Algiers. Lieutenant Piernas, commander of Fort
San Luìs de Natchez, and his subordinate, Ensign Andrés de
Balderamma, had come down to the city to escort the Acadians up to
Natchez. "They [the Acadians] were received with kindness,"
the lieutenant insisted. "Those who were ill, and, by the way,
there was a large number of them, were given medicines and were
treated by the two doctors" at the warehouse. He then gathered
together the family heads and told them where they were going.376
These Acadians, predictably, had already decided where they
would go. Here was the largest part of the Breau clan
from Pigiguit in the Minas Basin, led by brothers Alexis, age 44,
and Honoré, age 37. Their brother Jean-Baptiste,
now 43, had lived among his wife's kin, the Landrys, at
Oxford on Maryland's Eastern Shore during the exile, while Alexis
and Honoré
had been held at Port Tobacco on the lower Potomac.
Jean-Baptiste
and his family had come to Louisiana in 1766 and settled at
Cabahannocer, and that is where his brothers were determined to
settle. Most of the other families in the party, all of them
Minas Acadians who had been deported in 1755, also had endured the
exile at Port Tobacco, though a few had lived at Upper Marlborough,
Oxford, and Princess Anne. Only three new Acadian family names
could be found in this party--Benoit, Clouâtre, and
L'Enfant. All of the others bore surnames that one could
find among the hundreds of other Acadians who had come to the colony
during the previous four years: Babin, Boudrot,
Comeau, Doiron, Dupuis, Gautrot,
Guédry, Landry, LeBlanc, Rivet,
Thibodeau, Trahan, and Vincent. They,
too, had relatives at Cabahannocer, and, like the Brauds,
they were determined to go there.377
But that is not where the Spanish officers told them they must go.
Cabahannocer, where hundreds of Acadians from Halifax and Maryland
had gone in 1765 and 1766, was "full" now, as was San Gabriel at
Iberville. Governor Ulloa's well-thought-out colonial defense
scheme called for these Acadians to settle across the river from
British Natchez, where they would provide the militia force for
Piernas's Fort San Luìs. For months now, the governor had
intended to send a large group of Acadians there. And here
they were, 150 of them, a sizable contingent for the new outpost.
Lieutenant Piernas and Ensign Balderama were crystal clear about the
governor's intentions: "In the event that they would refuse to
go [to Fort San Luis], they would be forced to leave the colony and
to go wherever they pleased." In other words, they would be
deported. The Acadians protested. The Breau
brothers understood immediately what Ulloa's settlement scheme would
do to their dream of reuniting with their families. They
"clearly interpreted the distribution of Louisiana's Acadian
population among widely scattered military posts as a diaspora and
balked at the prospect of being settled 115 linear miles from"
Cabahannocer. Colonial commandant Aubry stepped in and pleaded
with the Acadians to cooperate with the governor, but the Breaus
insisted on reuniting with their families at Cabahannocer.
Ulloa then ordered Ensign Balderamma to step up the pressure by
cutting off the Breau brothers' rations. Alexis and
Honoré still refused to go to Natchez, and so the governor ordered
them and the other families to return to the ship on which they had
come. "Faced with deportation, Honoré[,] accompanied by his
brother Alexis, called upon Ulloa at New Orleans, informing him that
despite 'substantial (British) inducements' to remain in Maryland,
he and his fellow exiles had sailed to Louisiana in order to
"exercise freely their religion.'" The brothers "'begged
Monsieur Ulloa to allow them ... to settle along the German Coast or
that of the Acadians, for they had cost the king nothing and had
consumed the small amount of money which they possessed.'"378
Determined to complete his settlement scheme, which was based on the
needs of the colony and not on a hand full of willful Acadians,
Ulloa refused the Breaus request and ordered the deportation
of the entire party. Alexis and Honoré joined their fellow
Acadians aboard the ship on which they had come, but fearing arrest
at
Isla
Reina Católica and the breaking up of their families, Alexis and
Honoré led their wives and children off the ship and took refuge "at
a hut on André Jung's farm," the first of several safe houses where
they found refuge. The other Acadian families also left the
ship, but they were too numerous to find safe houses of their own.
After rounding up the families, but unable to find Alexis and
Honoré, Lieutenant Piernas and Ensign Balderamma summoned the family
heads individually and ordered each of them "to declare whether or
not they 'wished to establish themselves on the land assigned to
them.'" The Acadians "made one more futile appeal to the
Spanish for land grants at" Cabahannocer, "and when Ulloa persisted
in his decision to populate San Luìs with the Breau-led
Acadians, they lodged a formal complaint with French
Commissaire-ordonnateur Foucault, ... first judge of the Superior
Council...." Satisfied in "having the last word in the
matter," the Acadians, probably under armed guard, boarded three
boats that Piernas and Balderama had brought down for them and, on
February 20, began the slow, arduous journey up the Mississippi to
their new homes at Natchez.379
The voyage upriver was long and slow and plagued by foul weather
much of the way. At Des Allemands, "a two-year-old child, son
of one of the Acadians, died of an illness had had endured for nine
months. He was buried at Des Allemands church." They
reached Nicolas Verret's plantation on the last day of
February, presented a letter from the governor to the Cabahannocer
co-commandant, took him aboard, and continued on their way.
Verret "had been ordered by Ulloa to act as tour guide for Jacob
Walker, an Irishman representing a group of potential Maryland
Catholic immigrants," many of them English. Verret also
was coming along "to accompany the Acadians to their destination,
and, during the voyage, to point out to them the great advantages
afforded by settlement in this colony."
Tragedy struck one of the families before they reached San Gabriel.
"Before arriving at the Iberville settlement," Lieutenant Piernas
reported to the governor, "a daughter of Anna Bro (Breaux)
died. Her name was Marie de Puy (Dupuis) and had
been ill with hemorrages[sic] for four years." Marie was 29
years old and still unmarried when she died.
At Fort San Gabriel, more of the Acadians' relations greeted them.
"A few families tried to remain at Iberville," Lieutenant Piernas
complained, "but I allowed no one to stay and even forced to return
and continue the journey a family who, without my knowledge, had
detached itself from us and was five leagues away in the home of a
relative. Only a woman remained in the hospital of the fort, because
the physician said it was dangerous for her to continue travelling.
Her daughter remained to assist her." More heavy rain and
contrary winds detained them at San Gabriel for two days.
Continuing upriver, all of the Acadian settlements lay behind them
now, so the chances of any of the families escaping was considerably
diminished. The party reached Pointe Coupée on March 8.
"All of the Acadians are happy," Lieutenant Piernas insisted, "but
are always pestering and begging as is their nature." One
wonders what the Acadians thought of a Spanish officer who imagined
he knew the truth of "their nature." At Pointe Coupée, the
lieutenant loaded the boats with as much corn as they could carry.
He hoped to take the boats the rest of the way to Fort San Luìs
without stopping.380
Piernas and his unhappy passengers reached Fort San Luìs de Natchez
at 7 AM on March 20, exactly a month after they had left New
Orleans. The Acadians now had seen for themselves how truly
remote was this outpost from the other communities downriver.
To appease them, Piernas gave them lodging in the post barracks,
which he insisted were the most comfortable quarters at the fort.
Meanwhile, Commandant Verret, who had lived among Acadians
for three years now, knew that his efforts to convince them to stay
would not be easy. "Upon my arrival at Natchez," he wrote the
governor on March 26, "I took the Acadians on a surveying tour of
the land. May I say that I found the land quite suitable for
settlement. Nevertheless, the Acadians either through
prejudice or obstinacy, refuse to remain here. They all agree
that the land is suitable, but too isolated." The Acadian
family heads concocted every kind of clever excuse they could think
of to convince Verret, Piernas, and, ultimately, the
governor, that this place was entirely unsuitable to them.
"Their wives and their children would be exposed to Indian
harassment," they told Verret, "and they themselves would
live in constant fear." Verret and Piernas assured them
that the Indians in the area were not hostile. When Verret,
a successful planter, pointed out the fine quality of the soil
around the fort, "some of the Acadians agreed," Piernas noted, but
then they claimed that the land closer to New Orleans was even
better than here. The Acadians pointed out an oxbow in the
river near the fort and claimed that they had heard that the bed
"dries out when the river falls, and it is not suitable for a
settlement." Piernas "offered to settle them farther
downstream," away from the ox bow, "in a place more to their liking
in order to remove this inconvenience." This played right into
their hands: they pointed out to the lieutenant that living
farther downstream would deprive them of protection from the fort!
Piernas then offered "to settle half or part of the families above
the fort and the remainder below in order that all may have the
protection they desire and be free of the Indian raids that they
fear," but the Acadians remained unconvinced that the remote outpost
would be safe from Indian attack, not to mention the British across
the river. Exasperated by the constant argument, both
Verret and Piernas reassured the Acadians that "In return for
their full cooperation, they would always enjoy preferred status
among the peoples of the colony," but, again, the Acadians did not
budge. "[A]ll of my arguments and everything I deemed
appropriate to tell them regarding this matter has been to no
avail," Verret confessed to the governor. The young
post commander, hoping some day to become a captain, was even more
embarrassed by his failure to convince the Acadians they should
settle at his post. "I hope, Sir," Piernas wrote to the
governor a week after returning to the post, "that this turn of
events will not diminish the trust you have place in me in the past.
I attempted at all times to execute your orders and to do everything
possible to make the Acadians comply with the wishes of His Majesty
and Your Excellency." The lieutenant could not help adding:
"... I have tried to watch over them and overlook their impertinent
outbursts, which are so frequent that I would rather command an army
than six of these families."
Again, someone who imagined he had power over these simple
farmers learned a lesson in Acadian stubbornness.381
But the Acadians were not done with their agitation against an
overweening Spanish authority. Three of the family heads,
including Joseph Breau,
"the most outspoken critic of the Natchez colonization project,"
demanded to be given a boat so that they could return to the city
and present their case to the governor himself. Piernas,
knowing the mind of the governor, granted them permission to go.
Alexis and Honoré, meanwhile, successfully eluded the
governor and learned quickly
that they had many "friends" in the colony--French Creoles, Germans,
and of course fellow Acadians--who also despised Ulloa. Alexis
Breau felt so safe among them, in fact, that, with the full knowledge of
colonial Commander Aubry, he purchased a farm at Cabahannocer from
one of its French-Creole settlers! When Ulloa learned of it,
he ordered Commandant Judice to "'send for and tie up" the
impudent exiles. Judice summoned Alexis, but the Acadian,
"feigning illness, sought and secured a three-day delay of
sentence," and made his escape with assistance of fellow Acadians
Jacques Godin dit
Bellefontaine and
Charles Gaudet, who had come to Cabahannocer from Halifax
three years before; Gaudet's wife was a Breau.
Judice called out the militia to arrest the Breaus and
escort them to the commandant at Les Allemands. The
militiamen, however, openly rebelled, notifying Judice that
"'they simply did not want to arrest their confrère.'"
When Ulloa heard of the incident, he threatened to confiscate the
property of, and then to deport, any Acadian at Cabahonnocer who
helped the fugitives. Honoré and his family, meanwhile, found
refuge at the plantation of Jacques Enoul de Livaudais, fils
on the German Coast, where the long-time civil commandant,
Karl Friedrich Darensbourg, looked the other way.382
In New Orleans, Joseph Breau and his two companions only
infuriated the governor further. After hearing their
arguments, Ulloa "threatened the deputies with imprisonment aboard
the Volante, a Spanish frigate moored in the Mississippi
River, and then summarily dismissed them
with a threat to deport the entire Natchez contingent. The
threats were followed by regulations establishing stringent controls
over the Natchez settlers." Lieutenant Piernas, following the
governor's instructions, called a meeting of the family heads in
late April and
delivered an ultimatum: "either accept land to be assigned
near Fort San Luìs or face deportation as well as financial
responsibility for the Spanish expenditures on their behalf."
The tactic worked. "Facing a second diaspora," the
Acadians relented.383
Ulloa was undeterred in his efforts to capture the fugitive brothers
and their families and to prevent any more members of the Breau
party from seeking refuge in other communities. On April 4,
three weeks after the party reached Fort San Luìs de Natchez, Ulloa
issued a circular letter to the commandants at Opelousas, Attakapas,
Pointe Coupée, Cabahannocer, and Les Allemands. It read:
"Gentlemen: You will prevent any newly arrived Acadian from
settling in your district. Consequently, you will forewarn all
the settlers that they are forbidden to harbor them, under any
circumstances. You will also warn the Acadians already settled
in your district. Should they receive any Acadians, even
relatives under any circumstances, they will pay dearly for their
disobedience, forfeiting their land grants." The Pointe Coupée
commandant, François Amirault Duplessis, a French army captain who
had remained in the Spanish service, informed the governor in late
April that he had posted a copy of his circular "on the (front) door
of the (parish) church" and added: "It is certain that this
order, instead of encouraging these said Acadians, will prompt them
to cross the river with their belongings one fine day."
Duplessis's determination to prevent any of the Fort San Luìs
Acadians from stopping at Pointe Coupée effectively trapped them at
Natchez. They had little choice now but to submit to the
governor's will.385
Two of the other commandants who received the circular, René Trahan and
Jean-Baptiste Broussard of Attakapas, were Acadians who had come to the colony from Halifax three years before.
One wonders what these former resistance fighters thought of Ulloa's threats against
their fellow Acadians.385a
Ulloa
was
exerting so much pressure now on the commandants along the river
that, not long after his circular was issued, the fugitive
Breau brothers had no choice but to take their families to
Fort Bute in British West Florida. One wonders, then, if any of the other
Breaus at San Luìs gave serious consideration to crossing the
river, too.
In mid-April, Montfort Brown, lieutenant governor of West Florida,
had visited Pointe Coupée on his way up to Natchez, and Commandant
Duplessis had treated him with all due respect. While at
Natchez, Governor Brown also paid a visit to Fort San Luìs, during
which Lieutenant Piernas also extended to him every honor due his
position. Evidently sometime during the visit the Briton "secretly visited" the Acadians.
A few months later, he reported to his superior, the Earl of
Hillsborough, that the Acadians at Fort San Luìs "had become so disenchanted with the
Spanish regime that 'they wish themselves again in our colonies.'"
There can be no doubt that the Acadians complained
bitterly about their treatment at the hands of Ulloa and his minions, even to a
British official, but Brown's conclusion about their collective "wish"
was nothing more than British hubris. The Acadians at Fort San
Luìs now despised the Spanish governor; there was no doubt about
that; but one would suspect that they mistrusted the
British even more. Despite the governor's enticements to
resettle in West Florida, the Acadians remained on the Spanish side
of the river. What had happened to them in 1755 was still too fresh in their collective memory.384
The exiles at Natchez had no choice but to make the best of a
bleak situation. "By late 1768 the Acadians had selected home
sites, begun construction of their homes, completed a road from 'the
first habitation' to Fort San Luìs, and agreed to organize a
militia company. The industriousness persisted throughout the
summer, despite an epidemic of dysentery that decimated the
children." The pattern of settlement at Fort San Luìs was
typical for the region. Lieutenant Piernas laid out for them
"... long, narrow, contiguous riverfront sites, the northern-most of
which lay approximately 2.5 miles below modern-day Vidalia,
Louisiana." Unfortunately for the Acadians, Piernas placed
them in an area that "lacked a sanitary source of water," hence the
many cases of dysentery.384a
Adults as well as children died among the Acadians at Fort San
Luìs
during their first months in the colony. In late April, Marthe Clouâtre, age 21, died of illness and was buried in the fort's cemetery; Marthe, who
had come to the colony with her widowed mother, was unmarried.
In early June, Claire Trahan, widow of Charles Breau,
died at age 61 after a lengthy illness; she left three daughters and
a son, all unmarried. In early July, Marguerite
Dupuis, wife of Pierre Guédry, long afflicted with open
sores, died of her terrible ailment; she left Pierre with a young
daughter; Pierre remarried to Claire Babin at Fort San Luìs
the following January. By mid-summer, the Acadians had "contracted a
fever," likely malaria, but, Lieutenant Piernas assured the
governor, "it was not of the worst kind. The clearing of new
land causes it...." In early September, "a seven-or-eight
year-old child," unnamed, died of dysentery. In late
September, Jean-Baptiste Dupuis, age 38, died of dropsy.
About the same time, two more Acadian children died, this time of
scurvy. During September and October, more Acadians, including
a 21-year-old man and a 6-year-old girl, died of "the flux."
In September, Marie Breau was sent to Pointe Coupée, where
she could be cared for by the post's physician; she died there on
the night of October 4, a victim of "the grey flux." In late
October, the post commandant reported to the governor: "The
Acadians continue to die of the usual causes, except for a woman and
a child whom we lost only a few days ago."386
Another kind of tragedy plagued the settlement. As in all
cultures, weddings among the Acadians were a time of rejoicing and
celebration. Among their relatives at Cabahannocer, no fewer
than 45 marriages had been celebrated between March 1766 and June 1768,
all but two of them Acadians marrying other Acadians. Not so
at Fort San Luìs. On June 20, Élisabeth, 20-year-old daughter
of Alexandre Doiron and Anne Vincent, a widow, married
Vincent St.-Pierre of Vigo, Galicia, Spain, a soldier in the
garrison, probably at Pointe Coupée,
the nearest church, miles downriver. On the same day and
probably at the same place,
Élisabeth's sister Pélagie, age 26, married Antoine Rodriguez
of Florida. The same day also, Marie, daughter of Antoine Babin and
Catherine Landry, another widow, married Francisco Dies
of Seville, Spain, a soldier in the garrison. On August
9, also at Pointe Coupée, Geneviève, 23-year-old daughter of Joseph
Landry and Marie-Josèphe Richard, both deceased,
married Sergeant Juan Bautista Beloti of Pavie, Italy; and
Marianne, called Anne, 28-year-old daughter of Michel Rivet
and his first wife Anne Landry, both deceased, married
Corporal Ferdinand Ribolle of Fuente Vergona, Cordovan,
Spain. On December 31, Anne, 24-year-old daughter of Pierre
Cloistre dit Clouâtre and Marguerite LeBlanc, a widow,
married Bernard Capdeville of Bern, Switzerland, a widower
whose first wife also had been Acadian, at Pointe Coupée; Bernard
was the post's surgeon. All of the brides were in their 20s, and all of the
grooms, one would hope, were men of substance. But they also
were soldiers, still on active duty and subject to the vagaries of
their profession. Sergeant Beloti, in fact, less than a
month after his marriage to Geneviève Landry, was ordered to
accompany his commander up to Missouri, where he was expected to
remain.386a
On the first of September 1768, Pedro Piernas, now a captain, turned
over command of Fort San Luìs de Natchez to Jean Delavillebeuvre, a
French officer in the Spanish service, and prepared to leave for his new post
at Missouri. Judging from his many letters to the
governor over the previous six months, Piernas, who never understood them, doubtlessly was glad to be free of the Acadians,
and one would suspect that they were glad to be free of him, too.
No matter, during his time as their commandant, he had overseen
their labors, addressed their concerns, reported their marriages and deaths, and
did what he could to keep them healthy. The Acadians could
only hope that their new commander, a fellow Frenchman, might better
understand them. They expected no such favor from their
Spanish governor.
"Though the exiles accepted hard work and illness as an
unpleasant fact of everyday life, they could not brook arbitrary
treatment. The forced settlement of the exiles at Natchez
created a legacy of bitterness among the colony's entire Acadian
population, for Ulloa had clearly subordinated their aspirations for
familial reunification to strategic considerations."387
.
Ulloa had lost favor with the French Creoles of New Orleans from the
moment he had come to the colony. The Germans had never
thought much of him. And now he had alienated the Acadians. Ulloa's confrontation with the Breau clan evidently turned
his head against all Acadians in the colony. In
March 1768, three days before the Breau party reached Fort San
Luìs, 11 Acadians from Opelousas signed a petition addressed to the
governor, imploring him to loan them oxen and ploughs. Despite
an excellent wheat crop the previous year, they still lacked the wherewithal to bring in
their latest crop. "It will be years," the Acadians lamented,
addressing themselves in the third person, "... before they can purchase the oxen and ploughs necessary for
farming. They will continue to live in a state of misery, and
will be unable to contribute in any way to the development of the
colony.... They expect, barring unforeseen obstacles which could
forestall your generosity, to be able to repay you at the end of the
year,"
the petitioners hoped. "They will always be indebted to
you for their great happiness. They will thank God for the
generosity of their new master, and the generosity of the one who so
worthily represents him. They have the honor, Sir, to
respectfully remain your most humble and obedient servants."
Ulloa's response, written on April 8, could only have angered the
Opelousas farmers, who had come to the colony three years before
with only the shirts on their backs: "The (Acadian)
petitioners must furnish their own farming supplies as well as all
things needed for their advancement," the governor decreed.
"The king has not customarily furnished or loaned cattle and ploughs
to new settlers. His Majesty has already spent more than
enough for the settlement of the Acadians in this colony."
About the same time, Commandant Judice at
Cabahannocer reported to the governor that "an English scoundrel"
named John Haller had robbed an Acadian in his district. The
victim and his confrères pursued the Englishman as he tried
to escape to the English side of the river and caught him before he
could cross Bayou Manchac. No doubt after roughing him up a
bit, the Acadians deposited him in the stockade at Fort San Gabriel.
They then received permission from the San Gabriel commandant, as
well as from Judice, to escort the miscreant down to New
Orleans, where he could face justice before the Superior Council.
At New Orleans, the Acadians asked the governor to compensate
them for their expenses. Ulloa wrote in the margin of
Judice's report: "... in the future, the Acadians will
furnish the provisions and funds necessary to transport local
criminals." Here, states Professor Carl Brasseaux, was "an
unprecedented departure from existing practice, in which civilian
guards were paid for their services and travel expenses. Ulloa's reaction reveals the governor's increasingly hostile
attitude towards the Acadians." In late July, while the
family attended church services, the house of Athanase Breau
of Cabahannocer burned down, destroying all of the family's possessions.
Commandant Judice allowed Breau to go to New Orleans
"to beseech you [Ulloa] to furnish him the necessary tools to
rebuild, his having been damaged by the fire. I also urge you,
Sir, to give him a musket and a three-month supply of food rations,"
Judice added. Ulloa did not respond to Judice until the middle of September: "I very much regret the fire
at a certain Braud's house," he informed the commandant, "but it is impossible to grant his request."388
If the Acadians could have read Ulloa's letter to the Spanish
Minister of State Grimaldi, dated 6 October 1768, they would have
despised him even more. While applauding the withdrawal
of British forces from their forts along the east bank of the
Mississippi, Ulloa commented: "If they had done this sooner,
we could have avoided the expense of those we have established and
cannot now abandon because of the settlements which are dependent
upon them and must be protected from the attacks they might suffer
from the Indians." And then he added: "With regard to
the settlements from here to Iberville and Natchez, which naturally
will continue to be extended, it may be possible to avoid henceforth
the expense of the Acadians and have those who come find some way of
supporting themselves with the aid of their own countrymen, or
otherwise, without giving them anything more than lands when they
ask for them. This would relieve the royal exchequer of quite
a heavy expense. They are now of less importance, not only
because there are no English to trouble us on the 500 leagues of
river between here and Ilinueses [Illinois], but also because there
is already a sufficient number of families to multiply the
population by means of the opportunities offered them through the
commerce which is being established in this province.
Consequently it may now be considered as a land tilled and sown, and
lacking only water to make it grow, and time for the crop to
mature." Looking at the economic depression all about them
which Ulloa had made only worse with his mercantilist decrees,
the Acadians doubtlessly would have wondered what commercial
opportunities the governor was alluding to.388a
The Cabahannocer Acadians already were angry over Ulloa's
treatment of their relatives up at Fort San Luìs; his refusal to
compensate them for performing their civic duty, or to help a fellow Acadian in distress,
or to grant them any more assistance when they needed it, could only alienate them further from the
Spanish authority. One suspects that after the spring
of 1768 the governor had few friends among the prairie Acadians as
well.
By the time of his letter to the Minister of State, relations between Ulloa and the three important
elements of Louisiana's population--French Creole, German, and
Acadian--had hit rock bottom. The colony's economy was all but
wrecked; Louisiana, in fact, was facing "its hardest economic times
since the French and Indian War." Early in October, about
the time he wrote the letter to Minister Grimaldi, Ulloa issued yet
another mercantilist decree in his war against the smuggling trade. This was the last straw.
"Opposition leaders met and decided to employ the judicial system,
which they controlled, to banish the Spanish governor from the
colony." But the French-Creole elite, who made up most of the
opposition leadership, could not stage such a dramatic coup
d'état without popular support. Employing well-timed
rumors, they stirred up feelings against Ulloa among the townspeople
of New Orleans. They spread a rumor among the Germans, who had
suffered terribly from the lingering economic depression, that
"Ulloa, unable to pay for grain purchased from them" to distribute
to destitute Acadians, "had renounced his government's financial
obligations," which caused a panic up and down the German Coast.
And then the propagandists stirred up the Acadians. Already
angry with the governor for his refusal to unite many of them with their
families and for his callousness towards their continued suffering, "The
conspirators spread word among the exiles residing above New Orleans
that the Spanish governor planned to disperse them again and sell
them into slavery to defray the cost of their establishment in the
colony." Amazingly, "Such charges may have been partially
true; Ulloa had apparently negotiated with some British authorities
who desired to indenture Acadian laborers for eighteen months."389
On the evening of October 26, three French-Creole conspirators, led
by Jean-Baptiste de Noyan, persuaded dozens of Cabahannocer Acadians
to march to New Orleans, where Attorney General Lafrénière and other
conspirators were circulating a petition calling for the ouster of the Spanish governor.
The Acadians were told to march without their weapons; they
would be armed as soon as they reached the city. The pretext
for their action stemmed from Acadian fears that the Spanish
government was determined to ruin them: they would go to the
city to demand that Ulloa redeem 107,517 livres in Canadian
paper currency that many of them had been holding for many years and
which the French caretaker government had failed to redeem. On
the way, they were joined by dozens of frustrated settlers from
the German Coast. The large force of "rebels," about
500 in number, reached the western
entrance to New Orleans,
the Chapitoulas Gate,
on the afternoon of October 28. By then, colonial Commandant
Aubry, still supporting Ulloa and his regime, had mobilized the
city's garrison of 110 regulars, mostly Frenchmen who had joined the
Spanish service but also hated the Spanish governor. One of
the conspirators, Pierre Caresse, led the some of the militiamen,
probably the Germans,
to the home of François Chauvin de Léry, a kinsman of Lafrénière,
"where they were supplied muskets and generous drafts of Bordeaux
wine." Many of the Acadians may have spent the night at
the New Orleans home of Joseph de Goutin de Ville. The following day, October 29, the Superior Council met
in special session at 9 A.M. Lafrénière convinced every member
of the Council except chief judge Foucault to accept the petition
and its hundreds of signatures and to vote not only to
banish the Spanish governor "but also every Spaniard residing in
the colony."390
Ulloa's governorship, such as it was, had come to an inglorious end.
He, his wife, and some of the Spanish officials in the city had
retreated to the Spanish packet boat Volante, which, for their safety, had anchored
in the middle of the river.
The hard-pressed Aubry, with too few loyal troops to stand up to the
Acadian, German, and French-Creole militia, had managed to extract a
promise from Lafrénière and the other conspirators not to harm the
ousted governor. Ulloa and his entourage lingered at Fort San
Carlos, near Balize, for several weeks before
setting sail for Havana
in late November. As a final gesture of defiance, Ulloa left
the Volante, under command of Captain José Melchor de Acosta,
at Fort San Carlos to remind the conspirators that Spain still
wielded at least token power over them. Spanish commissary
Commissary Juan Josef de Loyola, who was ill at the time of the
coup d'état, also remained at New Orleans.
Meanwhile, a revolutionary council took control of the
colony. When word reached Fort San Luìs de Natchez of these
momentous events, the Acadians there, fearing Spanish
reprisal, refrained from moving south to Cabahannocer. The
prairie Acadians did not participate in Ulloa's ouster, though many
of them, especially among the Opelousas settlers, probably were glad
to see it. The Breau brothers came out of hiding.
Alexis returned to his recently-purchased farm at
Cabahannocer, and Honoré settled there, too. Soon after Ulloa's departure, Honoré went to New
Orleans to testify before the revolutionary council, which was
holding an inquiry "Relating to
the Harassment Inflicted by Antonio de Ulloa, Self-styled Governor
of Louisiana." The younger Breau brother spared no
opportunity to traduce Ulloa. Despite a number of
exaggerations--such as his claim that, among the Fort San Luìs
Acadians, "Almost half of them died"--Honoré painted a vivid picture
of Acadian frustration at the hands of another official who had
treated them poorly.391
.
Probably unaware of the chaos in the Mississippi valley colony, a small contingent of Acadians still
living at Port Tobacco, Maryland, hired an English merchant vessel
to take them to Louisiana. The oldest Acadian head of family, at age
52, was Étienne Rivet, a widower from Ste.-Famille, Pigiguit,
who had four sons in his household, ages 21 to 14, and had been
counted by Maryland officials at Upper Marlborough in July 1763.
Étienne's sister Claire had gone to Louisiana in 1767, and five of
his Rivet relations had accompanied the Breaus to Louisiana
in early 1768. Evidently, Étienne, having failed to join
either of the earlier parties, had made his way to Port Tobacco to
join the few Acadians still lingering there.392
The leader of the remaining Acadians at Port Tobacco was Honoré
Trahan of Pigiguit, age 43, who was kin to all of the other
members of the party. His sister Anne, age 38, widow of
Jean-Baptiste Benoit, was married to 39-year-old Louis
Latier, who had served at the French fortress of Louisbourg;
with Louis and Anne were three Benoit children from her first
marriage, ages 22, 15, and 9, and three of her children by Louis,
ages 7, 6, and 4. Honoré's daughter Marie, age 22, had
recently married Frenchman Antoine Bellard of Picardy in
Maryland; with them was a 2-year-old son. Also in the party
were five children of Honoré's sister, Marguerite, wife of
Jean-Baptiste Lejeune of Pigiguit; Marguerite and
Jean-Baptiste had died during Le Grand Dérangement, so the
Lejeune orphans, ages 20, 18, 16, 14, and 13, were in the care
of their maternal uncle and his wife, Marie Corporon, age 50.
Honoré and Marie's son Pierre, age 18, was still living with his
parents. Another related family was that of Pierre-Olivier,
called Olivier, Benoit, age 40. Olivier was a brother
of Anne Trahan's first husband, Jean-Baptiste. With
Olivier was his second wife, Marie-Geneviève Brasseur, age
45, and three of their children, ages 10, 8 and 6.393
Honoré and his family, like many Maryland Acadians,
were natives of Pigiguit, but they, along with their Benoit
and Lejeune kin, had not been exiled to the Chesapeake colony
in the autumn of 1755. They had moved from Pigiguit to Baie
des Espagnols on Île Royale during the late 1740s or early 1750s,
and then to Mirliguèche, on the Atlantic side of the Nova Scotia
peninsula, by 1754. When the British rounded up the Acadians
in Nova Scotia in 1755, Honoré and his kin were among the first Acadians held at Georges Island in Halifax
harbor. The British deported them, along with other Acadians
from
Mirliguèche,
to North Carolina in December 1755, and they landed probably at
Edenton on Albemarle Sound. In c1760, North Carolina officials
allowed them to leave. Most of their relatives moved to
Philadelphia. Honoré and his family, including the Lejeune
orphans, moved to Maryland instead, where they were counted at Port
Tobacco in July 1763. Soon afterwards, relatives who had gone
to Pennsylvania joined them at Port Tobacco. Two families
of them--the Boutins and the Guédrys--emigrated
from Maryland to Louisiana in 1767 and 1768. It now was time
for Honoré Trahan and his family, as well as the Rivets, to join their kin
on the lower Mississippi.394
The Acadians, only 29 in number, including Honoré Trahan's
French-born son-in-law, chartered the English schooner Britannia, John
Steel, master, at Port Tobacco, probably in late December 1768, but
they were not the only passengers aboard the vessel. Also on
the Britannia's passenger list were 51 German
Catholics, a French-Canadian couple, 7 "bachelors,"
and 12 "Britishers"--101 passengers in all. Evidently
these Germans, Frenchmen, and French Canadians were as eager to
escape the British colony as were the few Acadians still living there. Heads
of the eight German families were Nicolas Marcoff, age 62;
Nicolas Ory, age 66; Joseph Basbler, age 50; Adam La
Maur, age 50; Jacob Miller, age 30; André Reser, age 39;
Philip Pigleal, age 30; and widow Catharine Ausuber, age 40.
The French-Canadian couple were Pierre Primeau, age
25, and Susanne Plante, age 20. Among the
"bachelors" was André Meche, age 25.395
The Britannia left Port Tobacco on 5 January 1769, worked its way
carefully down the widening Potomac, rounded Smith Point into lower
Chesapeake Bay, and, after clearing the Virginia capes, headed south
along the Atlantic coast to the Straits of Florida.
After clearing the Florida keys and entering the Gulf of Mexico, the
schooner made straight for the mouth of the Mississippi. On
February 21, after six weeks at sea, "we sighted the coast of
Louisiana," Captain Steel recalled, but as they neared the end of their
long ordeal at sea, Mother Nature conspired to ruin their voyage: "
... due to easterly winds and continuous fog," the captain insisted,
"we were driven some eighty leagues south and then to the west of
the Mississippi," deep into the center of the Gulf of Mexico.
"Finding ourselves without food and water, we were obliged to put in
at a small bay"--the Bahía del Espiritu Santo, where La Salle
and his hapless colonists had landed 84 years before! Nearby
was the presidio Nuestra Senora de la Loreto de la Bahía at
present-day Goliad, commanded by Captain Don Francisco Thobar.
Captain Steel and his passengers came ashore the first week of
April. Evidently alerted by local Indians, Captain Thobar and
a small force of Spaniards from the presidio accosted the stranded
seafarers. "From him we requested a passport and food to get
to New Orleans, both of which he refused us," Captain Steel
recalled, "(despite the fact that a clergyman who was there, and our
supercargo offered him any security he wanted)." Evidently the
Spaniard suspected that the ship's officers, crew, and strange mix
of passengers were smugglers or even spies. Or perhaps he saw
an opportunity to enrich himself. On April 8, Thobar "seized
our schooner, with all its sails, tackle, equipment, passengers,
crew, and merchandise, and took everything (except the schooner)
with him to a fort thirty leagues inland," Captain Steel lamented.
"There he obliged the crew and passengers to work until the 21st of
May, when he ordered the captain and pilot placed in stocks, keeping
them so twenty-four days on half rations, until an order arrived
from the governor of that province to set them at liberty."
Thobar ignored the order and forced the passengers and crew to work
at local haciendas to pay for their upkeep.
Meanwhile, the schooner was left on the shore of Espiritu Santo Bay,
a victim of the weather and the local Indians, who removed
everything of value that the Spaniards had not already taken.396
Finally, on September 11, after the Acadians and Germans had been
held captive at the presidio for five long months, another Spanish
officer, Don Rafael Martínez Pacheco, "commandant of Fort Cokesaw
[Calcasieu?]," arrived at
Bahía with orders from his new superior, General Alejandro O'Reilly.
Don Rafael
would
escort the wayward families to Spanish Louisiana, where they
could finally complete their journey.397
.
Things had changed dramatically in Louisiana since the Britannia
had left Port Tobacco the previous January. Many colonists
labored under the illusion that France would soon reassert its power
in the colony. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
The revolutionary council sent letters to France
hoping to enlist the aid of former governor Bienville, who had
strenuously opposed the Spanish cession from the moment he had heard
of it; unfortunately for the conspirators, Bienville had died the
year before, at age 87. The conspirators also hoped that
Louis XV would approve their actions against Ulloa, but he never
did. In Louisiana, the final, frail thread of French control
in the colony, acting governor Aubry, refused to cooperate in any
way with the revolutionary council. The
conspirators were on their own. Attorney General Lafrénière
and his hand-picked Superior Council attempted to restore the
colonial economy, but their efforts failed. France had not
sent funds to Aubry for a number of years, and Spanish commissary
Loyola, who had remained at New Orleans, refused to cooperate with
the new "government."
The revolutionary council's only success during the few months in
which it held power was to pressure Captain de Acosta to sail the
Volante to Havana by a late-March deadline. By then, Ulloa
was on his way to Spain to report to the Spanish Court what had
happened in Louisiana.
In April 1769, King Carlos III appointed Alejandro O'Reilly, a
refugee from British oppression in his native Ireland and one of
Spain's most distinguished soldiers, as governor and captain-general
of Spanish Louisiana, with the mission of restoring Spanish control
there.398
As an Irish mercenary, O'Reilly had fought in Italy against the
Austrians during the war of the 1740s and in the Spanish
invasion of Portugal in 1762. He soon rose to the rank of
brigadier general in the regular Spanish army. In 1763, he was
part of the Spanish contingent that secured Havana from the British,
who had captured the city in 1762. Analyzing the successful
British siege, O'Reilly reorganized and strengthened the Havana
defenses. In 1765, King Carlos III sent him to Puerto Rico to
rebuild the defenses there. Back in Havana, O'Reilly married
into a prominent Spanish family; his bride was a sister of the Cuban
governor. When Ulloa
reached Havana in December 1768 and reported on the coup
d'état of the previous October, O'Reilly was in Spain, but he
hurried back to Havana to fulfill the King's commission.399
O'Reilly reached Balize from Havana on
20 July 1769. With him was a flotilla of 24 vessels carrying nearly 3,000 soldiers
and sailors. He remained at Fort San Carlos and sent his
aide-de-camp, Francisco Bouligny, to summon colonial leaders to the
downriver post. Among the Frenchmen who
reported to Fort San Carlos were Attorney General Lafrénière, still
the leader of the revolutionary faction, Joseph Milhet and Pierre
Marquis, prominent conspirators, and a representative of French
colonial commandant Aubry, who had not wavered in his support of Ulloa's regime. Meanwhile, O'Reilly
consulted with Spanish officers and officials who had remained in
the colony. This testimony, along with Ulloa's detailed
reports, gave the captain-general a clear picture of who was responsible for
the October coup d'état. He requested that Lafrénière
address the inhabitants of New Orleans in hopes of avoiding
bloodshed. Lafrénière, seeing the overwhelming might of
O'Reilly's force, returned to the city and beseeched Louisianians
not to resist the Spaniards. When the Germans heard of the
Spaniard's arrival, they were determined to resist. Some of
the Acadians at Cabahannocer,
aware of their part in the ousting of Ulloa and the penalty for
treason, evidently joined the Germans in contemplating resistance.400
By
mid-August, O'Reilly and his Spanish troops had made their way up to
the city. On August 18, in an impressive public ceremony,
probably at the place d'arms, O'Reilly took formal possession of Louisiana
from acting governor Aubry, something
Ulloa had never bothered to do during his year and a half in the
colony. O'Reilly's next task was just as
important in establishing Spanish control of the colony.
He summoned Aubry and requested a list of the Louisianians who
had written, printed, and distributed the Superior Council's decree
which had ordered Ulloa's expulsion. Aubry, who had stood
virtually alone among French officials in supporting the Spaniard, "readily
complied, implicating many members of the conspiracy to oust Ulloa.
Relying on Aubry's allegations, O'Reilly summoned Lafrénière and
twelve other French Louisianians to his residence under various
pretexts. Once the colonists had gathered, the Spanish
governor had each accused of treason, arrested, and incarcerated."
Foucault, who had opposed Ulloa's policies, was not among the
accused; Aubry, though he still considered Foucault to be his bitter enemy, could
not find enough evidence against the former ordonnateur to
justify his arrest. Aubry did take the opportunity, however,
to traduce Foucault to O'Reilly. The captain-general's
inquiries kept pointing to Foucault as a leader in the opposition
against Ulloa, but he had no jurisdiction over high officials
commissioned by the French government. O'Reilly, instead,
turned Foucault over to Aubry, who promptly placed him under house
arrest. Still convinced that Foucault was guilty, O'Reilly
authorized Aubry in September and early October to subject the
former ordonnateur to intense interrogation. Again, the
two officials could find no hard evidence to implicate Foucault in Ulloa's
ouster. O'Reilly ordered Foucault's property in the colony to
be confiscated and sold and then ordered the former ordonnateur
to be deported to France, where he would stand trial for his part in
the conspiracy against Ulloa. Foucault, guarded by a French
officer, boarded a ship bound for La Rochelle on October 14.
Meanwhile, O'Reilly turned to the other conspirators, who suffered a very
different fate.401
In late August, soon after taking formal possession of Louisiana,
O'Reilly appointed a Spanish tribunal to pass judgment on Lafrénière
and the other conspirators. All were found guilty. Lafrénière, Pierre Caresse, Pierre Marquis, and Joseph Milhet were
sentenced to death on October 24 and executed by firing squad the
following day. The remaining conspirators were sentenced to long prison terms--Joseph
Petit was given life, Bathasar Mazan and Julien-Jérôme Doucet,
10 years, and Jean Milhet, Pierre Poupet, and Pierre Hardy de
Boisblanc, six years, all to be spent at Morro Castle in Havana.
Meanwhile, to the great relief of the Cabahannocer Acadians,
O'Reilly granted amnesty to all the colony's inhabitants except
those who had been sentenced by his military tribunal.402
While the convicted conspirators awaited their fate, the Acadians
and Germans in coastal Texas began their 420-mile trek from La Bahìa
to Natchitoches. They reached the Red River
post on October 24, the day the New Orleans conspirators were
sentenced to death. The Germans and the ship's officers and
crew were escorted to
New Orleans, which they reached by water on November 9. The
Germans picked up tools and supplies in the city, and most of them
were taken up to Fort San Gabriel to become a part of the militia
defense there. The exception was the family of Jacob Miller;
they lingered on the Upper German Coast before moving on to the
Opelousas prairies. Meanwhile, the commandant at Natchitoches,
Athanase de Mézières, attempted to hang on to the Acadians from
Maryland because of their
familiarity with grain production. Despite kind
treatment by the residents of the Red River post, Honoré Trahan
and most of his relations refused to remain there.
Natchitoches, like Fort San Luìs, was just too far away from their
kinsmen, and the Acadians were determined to live among their
own kind. They left Natchitoches probably without permission
and settled closer to their relatives. Honoré took his wife and
son, as well as most the Lejeune orphans, eventually to the Opelousas
District. Honoré's sister Marie and her husband Antoine
Bellard followed, as did the French-Canadian couple,
Pierre Primeau and Susanne Plante. The Rivets
settled on the west bank of the river at San Gabriel,
where relatives from Fort San Luìs soon joined them. The
Benoits also went to San Gabriel, where they, too, were reunited
with relatives from Fort San Luìs.402a
Meanwhile, the Acadians at Fort San Luìs wondered what would become
of them. On October 18, the leaders of the Breau party
sent a letter to Governor O'Reilly repeating
the complaint that they were "continuously exposed to assassination"
at the hands of local Indians. Revealing their true motive,
they begged permission from the new governor to join their relatives
at San Gabriel and Cabahannocer.
San Luìs commandant Jean Delavillebeuvre and the post's engineer,
Guy Dufossat, both French, included an addendum to the Acadians' letter
verifying the post's vulnerability. After receiving the
missive from the San Luìs Acadians, O'Reilly asked Delavillebeuvre,
Dufossat, and the trusted Aubry for their opinions on the larger
issue of maintaining the isolated post. "All agreed upon the
uselessness of the post and the justice of the request of the
inhabitants," O'Reilly reported on 29 December 1769. Having decided to
abandon the fort, O'Reilly granted permission to the San Luìs
Acadians "to select lands 'twenty to thirty leagues ... above the
capital,'" that is, along the Acadian and German coast, where
they had hoped to settle all along. Their
21-month exile at Natchez was over. As soon as they could
manage it, members of the Breau party moved down to
Cabahannocer, to San Gabriel, and to the stretch of river above and
below the Fork, where a new district, La Fourche de Chemitmachas,
under Louis Judice, had just been created, and at least two
members of the party moved on to the western prairies.
This, combined with O'Reilly's decision to release the party being held
in Texas, "wedded" the Acadians "to the Spanish regime."403
Not all of the new governor's decisions, however, were applauded by
the colony's Acadians. In early 1770, O'Reilly decreed that
all settlers along the river were required by law to maintain levees
and roads under penalty of losing their land grants; this affected
the hundreds of Acadians living on the river. O'Reilly decreed
that the Recopilación de las leyes de lost reynos de las Indias,
not the coutume de Paris, would be the colony's basic law
code, and also declared that Spanish would be the official language
of the province. As Ulloa had done, O'Reilly decreed
that Louisianians could engage in commerce only with Spain and its
possessions; the enforcement of this policy would hurt the river Acadians who,
taking a nod from their ancestors,
had established a flourishing smuggling trade with British merchants
in West Florida. O'Reilly abolished the trade in Indian
slaves, in which a few river Acadians may have engaged. As a price for universal amnesty, O'Reilly imposed
an oath of allegiance to Spain on all Louisiana colonists.
After re-evaluating the colony's sad state of defense, he created militia units
for each of Louisiana's administrative districts. All
able-bodied males between the ages of 16 and 50 were required to
serve in these companies, and future Spanish land grants would be based
on militia service. Many of these decrees reminded the
older Acadians of similar treatment at the hands of
British governors back in Old Acadia.404
"Bloody O'Reilly," as later Louisiana historians would
call him, returned to Havana in early 1770, taking most of
his Spanish soldiers with him. In his place, he left
Luis de Unzaga y Amezaga, a Spanish army colonel, as acting
governor; Unzaga served in that capacity for two years and then as
governor until 1777. Under the restored Spanish regime, there would be no more Superior Council dominated by
French Creoles; O'Reilly had replaced that troublesome institution
with a typical Spanish cabildo. Unfortunately for the
Acadians, O'Reilly had seen fit to appoint French Creoles and
retired French army officers to command the newly-created
districts--men who, with few exceptions, looked down their noses at
the Acadian "peasants." The aging Karl Freidrich
Darensbourg was gone from the German Coast; one of the conspirators
was the husband of one of his granddaughters, and the old commandant had figured too largely
in the anti-Ulloa faction. François Simard de Bellisle would
command the Lower German Coast, also called St.-Charles, after the
church there, and Robert
Robin de Launay would command the Upper German Coast, also called
St.-Jean-Baptiste after its church. Cabahannocer, also called St.-Jacques
after its church, would
remain under Nicolas Verret, who had not participated in the
anti-Ulloa movement. His brother-in-law Louis Judice,
who also had supported Ulloa, would command the new
district of Lafourche de Chitimachas, also called Ascension, just
above St.-Jacques. Louis Dutisné would command at St.-Gabriel,
lying just
above Ascension. Jean-François Allain, fils, a Frenchman from
Touraine, not an Acadian, would command at Pointe Coupée, where
Acadians would be discouraged from settling.
Gabriel Fuselier de La Claire, a wealthy Creole land owner at
Attakapas,
would command the prairie districts of Attakapas and Opelousas; the
two-year elections of prairie commandants was a thing of the past,
as was the chance of an Acadian commanding at Attakapas
despite their significant numbers there. The militia officers appointed by
O'Reilly also reflected a French-Creole bias: not a single
Acadian held the rank of captain, lieutenant, or sub-lieutenant in
any of the Acadian companies. They served as sergeants,
corporals, and privates, but not as officers, at least
for now. Interestingly, not a single German surname appeared
among the militia officers of either of the German settlements. O'Reilly
had been aware of German and Acadian participation in the rebellion
against Ulloa, but had French Creoles\not led the
rebellion? Were not all of the rebel leaders O'Reilly
had executed members of the Creole elite? And yet here
they were, still lords of Louisiana, still the dominant element in
every corner of the colony.405
No matter,
if they chose to remain in Louisiana,
the weary exiles must endure the elites there, both Spanish and French
Creole. They would obey the new governor and their
new commandants as long as these leaders respected their rights.
The daily struggle of feeding their families still absorbed their
greater attention, and some still needed government
assistance. Though many of them had lived in this New Acadia
for nearly half a dozen years
now, they still had little to show for it, but that, God willing,
would change.
La
Nouvelle-Acadie: The Acadians
Come Into Their Own in Spanish Louisiana, 1770-1785
Except for a few who may have drifted in from the French
West Indies during the 1770s, the Acadians aboard the Britannia
were the last of their countrymen to come to Louisiana for 16 years. From
February 1764, when the first of them arrived, to October 1769, when
the Acadians from the Britannia completed their overland trek
to Natchitoches, 1,300 Acadians had come to Louisiana--21 from
Georgia, nearly 600 from Halifax, a like number from Maryland, and
a dozen or two from the Caribbean basin, mostly St.-Domingue.
The majority had settled on
the river above New Orleans, first at Cabahannocer and then at forts
San Gabriel and San Luìs de Natchez. When O'Reilly released
the San Luìs Acadians from their ordeal at Natchez, the great
majority of them moved to what was being called the Acadian Coast--Cabahannocer,
Ascension, and St.-Gabriel; only a few settled elsewhere. Hundreds
of Acadians also had settled in the
prairie districts, first at Attakapas and then at Opelousas.
With few, if any, exceptions, when these Acadians reached New
Orleans with their extended families (only a small minority came as individuals) it had been many years since they had enjoyed any sort of material
comfort, so devastating was Le Grand Dérangement to their way
of life. The families from Chignecto
had suffered the longest--some had been driven from their homes east
of Rivière Missaguash as early as the autumn of 1750. In Louisiana, many Chignecto Acadians could be found
in the river settlements, but most had followed the Broussards
to Bayou Teche. Many Acadians in Louisiana had lived in the
Annapolis valley, from whence they had escaped in the autumn of
1755. They could be found in roughly equal numbers along the
river and out on the prairies. In the decades before Le
Grand Dérangement, a relatively small number of Acadians had
settled away from the Fundy shore along the upper reaches of Rivière
St.-Jean, but a surprising number of them had come to Louisiana from
the prison compound at Halifax. Most could be found at
Cabahannocer, but a few had followed the Broussards. As they had been the largest segment of the Acadian
population before Le Grand Dérangement, the Acadians of the
Minas Basin, including Pigiguit, made up the majority of the
Acadians who had come to Louisiana. Since most of them had
come from exile in Maryland, they could be found in large numbers on
the Acadian Coast, though a few Minas Acadians could be found
on the prairies. If one looked hard enough, one could find
Acadians in Louisiana from Mirliguèche and even Cap-Sable, from Cobeguit, and even from the Maritime islands of Île St.-Jean
and Île Royale. Contrary to myth, the Acadians who had come to
Louisiana before 1770 represented a minority of those who still could be found
in the Acadian Diaspora. More were living in France, even more on the St. Lawrence, and there may have been
more of them still in St.-Domingue than in the lower Mississippi
valley.406
With few exceptions, the Acadians of Louisiana were farmers.
For generations, they had lived in an Eden of their own making along
the Bay of Fundy shore. Their homesteads had been farms, not
sprawling plantations. No cash crop could grow in the rich
soil they had created with their long rows of dykes and their clever
aboiteaux; the long, hard winters made certain of that. They
were grain farmers, orchardmen, cattlemen, traders. Only a
handful of elites, seigneurs generally, owned more land than the
typical among them. No slave worked their fields, pruned their
fruit trees, tended their cattle, stored, prepared, and cooked their
food; they themselves, their wives, their children, their many
kinsmen, performed those essential daily tasks. Their
immediate families were large, their children healthy, but they did
not think of family in such limited terms. Their families were
extended and usually near--aging parents, married siblings, aunts,
uncles, cousins by the score, most within sight or only a short trip
away. Infectious diseases were rare in their world, tropical
fevers unknown to them. Every man and woman among them could
handle a canoe. Some of them fished as much as they farmed.
They were crack shots and skilled hunters--typical frontiersmen.
High snows did not stop them from traveling in winter; the Mi'kmaq
had taught them long ago how to make and use their clever wooden
snow shoes. They lived peacefully with the Mi'kmaq until
imperial politics intervened during their final years in old Acadia.
Some of them shared blood, and they all shared faith, and the
Mi'kmaq were not happy to see them go. Most of the Acadians took their
most precious possession, their families, into exile, but their land, their farms, they could not take with them, and now New Englanders and British immigrants, some of them
former redcoats, had built houses and barns upon the ashes of their
old
homesteads. Land is what they needed in this New Acadia. But getting
land here was
one thing, keeping it another.
.
The Attakapas Acadians were the first to secure land in the face of
opposition. No
sooner had they reached the lower Teche than French Creoles living
near the Poste des Attakapas accused them of trespassing.
Their first struggle was with large land holder Jean-Baptiste
Grevemberg, who claimed a huge expanse of prairie between the
west bank of the Teche near Fausse Pointe all the way to the east bank of the
lower Vermilion. He considered the Broussards to be
interlopers on his concession and beseeched the French authorities in New Orleans to
recognize his claim. Lieutenant Andry had
settled the Broussards on the east side of the Teche, across
from Grevemberg's property, and, insisted acting governor Aubry, there they
would remain. Grevemberg later sold the Acadians some of his
cattle, but they did
not forget the slight. When an epidemic struck the Teche
Acadians during their first summer in the colony, some of them
crossed the Teche to an area they called the Côte Gelée, north of Grevemberg's vacherie. Others, especially from
La Pointe, crossed the Teche to the west bank of Bayou
Tortue, where they settled a few miles northeast of Côte Gelée and
directly across from Jean-Antoine-Bernard Dauterive's new
concession on Prairie Vermilion, which lay between the Teche and
Bayou Tortue. The large concession held by Gabriel Fuselier
de La Claire along the west bank of the Teche above La Pointe
limited resettlement northward towards Opelousas.410
Despite these restrictions, the Attakapas Acadians, after years of
struggle, managed to rise above their pitiful beginnings. In
1771, Charles Babineaux, age 48, living on the upper
Teche, held 12 arpents without title but owned 5 horses and 15 head
of cattle; three years later, his widow, Anne Guilbeau, owned
40 pigs, 10 horses and mules, and 33 head of cattle; in 1777, she
owned 20 hogs, 7 horses, and 40 head of cattle. In 1771,
Michel Bernard, age 37, also held 12 arpents without title
but owned 7 horses and 16 head of cattle; three years later, he
owned 40 pigs, 10 horses and mules, and 47 head of cattle.
Firmin Breaux, only 22 in 1771, had moved to Cabahannocer in
the late 1760s, married a Breaux cousin from Pigiguit,
purchased land at La Grand Pointe on Bayou Teche from a
French-Creole concessionaire, and was counted at La Pointe in 1777,
when he owned 11 hogs, 9 horses, and 40 head of cattle.
Michel-Laurent Doucet, age 49 in 1771, held 12 arpents
without title but owned 11 horses and 25 head of cattle that year; three years later, he owned 18 pigs, 11 horses and mules, and 30
head of cattle; in 1777, he owned 50 hogs, 15 horses, and 40 head of
cattle. Son Joseph dit Hilaire, age 22 in 1774, owned 6
pigs, 4 horses and mules, and 23 head of cattle; in 1777, he owned
30 hogs, 10 horses, and 40 head of cattle. Charles dit Charlitte Dugas, age 34, in
1771, held 12 arpents without title but owned 6 horses and 25 head
of cattle; three years later, he owned 15 pigs, 14 horses and mules,
and 40 head of cattle; in 1777, he owned 25 hogs, 10 horses, and 40
head of cattle. Younger brother Jean, who had fled to Cabahannocer in 1765, returned to Attakapas probably in the late
1760s; he was 30 years old in 1771, when he held 12 arpents without
title but owned 4 horses and 14 head of cattle; three years later,
he owned 25 pigs, 5 horses and mules, and 20 head of cattle; in
1777, he owned 28 hogs, 8 horses, and 30 head of cattle.
Brother Pierre, who was 25 years old in 1774 and recently
married, owned 8 pigs, 3 horses and mules, and 15 head of cattle
that year; in 1777, he owned 15 hogs, 9 horses, and 50 head of
cattle. Madeleine Michel, age 62 in 1774 and widow of
Joseph dit L'Officier Guilbeau, owned 10 pigs, 2
horses and mules, and 10 head of cattle; in 1777, she owned 9 sheep,
10 hogs, 4 horses, and 18 head of cattle. Son François, age 22 and still a bachelor
in 1771, held 12 arpents without title that year but owned an
undetermined number of horses and 12 head of cattle; three years
later, newly married, he owned 12 pigs, 5 horses and mules, and 25
head of cattle; in 1777, he owned 20 hogs, 6 horses, and 40 head of
cattle. Jean-Baptiste dit Cobit Hébert, age 35
in 1771, held 12 arpents without title but owned 6 horses and 75
head of cattle; three years later, he owned 5 pigs, 5 horses and
mules, and 30 head of cattle; in 1777, he owned 5 hogs, 6 horses,
and 30 head of cattle. Joseph-Pepin Hébert, age 29 in 1777, owned 10
hogs, 4 horses, and 30 head of cattle that year. Simon
LeBlanc, age 35 in 1771, held 12 arpents without title but owned
5 horses and 17 head of cattle; three years later, he owned 40 pigs,
8 horses and mules, and 30 head of cattle. Younger brother
René dit Petit René, age 27 in 1777, owned 11 hogs, 7 horses,
and 30 head of cattle that year. Claude Martin, age 35
and newly married in 1771, held 12 arpents without title but owned 6
horses and 15 head of cattle; three years later, he owned 30 pigs, 9
horses and mules, and 60 head of cattle; in 1777, he owned 50 hogs,
14 horses, 75 head of cattle, and 2 slaves. Younger brother
Bonaventure, age 35 and still a bachelor in 1777, owned no hogs, 15
horses, and 38 head of cattle. Cousin Joseph Martin,
age 34 and newly married in 1771, held 12 arpents without title but
owned 7 horses, 10 or 20 head of cattle, and 1 slave; three years
later, he owned 50 pigs, 10 horses and mules, 60 head of cattle, and
1 slave; in 1777, he owned 60 hogs, 7 horses, 60 head of cattle, and
2 slaves. Grégoire Pellerin, age 47 in 1771, held 12
arpents without title but owned 10 sheep, 4 horses, and 25 head of
cattle; three years later, not long before his death, he owned no
sheep, 8 pigs, 10 horses and mules, and 50 head of cattle; in 1777,
his widow, Cécile Prejean, age 45, owned 25 sheep, 20 hogs,
15 horses, 100 head of cattle, and 3 slaves with one soon to be born.
Jean-Baptiste Semere, the letter writer, age 23 in 1771, held
12 arpents without title but owned 6 horses and 29 head of cattle;
three years later, he owned 8 pigs, 5 horses and mules, and 36 head
of cattle; in 1777, he owned 2 hogs, 7 horses, 60 head of cattle,
and a slave. Paul Thibodeaux, age 43 in 1771, held 12
arpents without title but owned a horse and 19 head of cattle; three
years later, he owned 30 pigs, 7 horses and mules, and 30 head of
cattle; in 1777, he owned 40 hogs, 10 horses, and 40 head of cattle.
Olivier Thibodeaux, age 38 in 1771, held 12 arpents
without title but owned 2 horses and 10 head of cattle; three years
later, he owned 50 pigs, 12 horses and mules, and 50 head of cattle;
in 1777, he owned 80 hogs, 22 horses, and 120 head of cattle.
Younger brother Amand, age 37 in 1771, held 12 arpents without title
but owned 2 horses and 10 head of cattle; three years later, he
owned 20 pigs, 5 horses and mules, and 26 head of cattle; in 1777,
he owned 30 hogs, 6 horses, and 50 head of cattle. Jean-Anselme, called Anselme, Thibodeaux, age 27 and still a bachelor in 1777,
owned 9 horses and 36 head of cattle. Jean Trahan, age
52 and a widower in 1771, held 12 arpents without title but owned 9 horses and 18
head of cattle; three years later, he owned 4 horses and mules and
15 head of cattle; in 1777, he owned 30 hogs, 13 horses, and 40 head
of cattle. Younger brother Michel, age 45 in 1771, held 12
arpents without title but owned 6 horses and 15 head of cattle;
three years later, he owned 12 pigs, 5 horses and mules, and 40 head
of cattle; in 1777, he owned 30 hogs, 6 horses, and 40 head of
cattle. Cousin and former co-commandant René Trahan,
age 42 in 1771, held 12 arpents without title but owned 4 sheep, 20
horses, and 60 head of cattle; three years later, he owned no sheep,
25 pigs, 13 horses and mules, and 68 head of cattle; in 1777, he
owned 26 hogs, 25 horses, and 100 head of cattle. Paul
Trahan, age 22 in 1774, owned 2 pigs, 5 horses and mules, and 8
head of cattle; three years later, he owned 12 hogs, 3 horses, and
12 head of cattle.412
The Broussard dit Beausoleils, as expected, also became successful
cattlemen. Jean-Grégoire dit Petit-Jos, a
son of Joseph dit Beausoleil, age 44 in 1771, held 12 arpents
without title that year but owned 4 sheep, 10 horses, and 45 head of
cattle; three years later, he owned no sheep, 15 pigs, 8 horses and
mules, and 80 head of cattle; in 1777, his holdings had increased to
an impressive 20 hogs, 20 horses, 100 head of cattle, and 3 slaves.
His son René, age 24 in 1777 and recently married, owned 15 hogs, 7
horses, and 50 head of cattle that year. Petit-Jos's brother
François, age 25 in 1771 and newly married, held 12 arpents without
title but owned 7 horses and 28 head of cattle; three years later,
he owned 10 pigs, 6 horses and mules, and 36 cattle; in 1777, he
owned 5 hogs, 9 horses, and 79 head of cattle. Brother Claude,
married in c1772, owned 20 pigs, 10 horses or mules, and 25 head of
cattle in 1774, when he was only 26; three years later, he owned 12
hogs, 10 horses, and 50 head of cattle. Brother Amand, only 24
but already a widower in 1774, owned 8 horses and mules and 45 head
of cattle that year; in 1777, he owned 6 sheep, 4 hogs, 20 horses, and 100 head of
cattle. Jean-Baptiste, age 40 in 1771, the oldest
surviving son of Alexandre dit Beausoleil, held 12 arpents of
land without title; three years later, he owned 30 pigs, 12 horses
and mules, and 40 head of cattle; in 1777, he owned 6
sheep, 40 hogs, 14 horses, and 60 head of cattle. Son
Mathurin, age 27 and still a bachelor in 1777, owned 29 horses and
65 head of cattle that year. Jean-Baptiste's younger brother Sylvain,
age 30 in 1771, held 12 arpents without title but owned 4 sheep, 9
horses, and 15 head of cattle that year; in 1774, he owned 25 pigs,
7 horses and mules, and 57 head of cattle; three years later, he
owned 20 hogs, 10 horses, and 79 head of cattle. Younger
brother Simon, age 27 in 1771, held 12 arpents without title but owned 8 horses and 16 head of cattle; in 1774, he owned 20 pigs, 9
horses and mules, and 49 head of cattle; three years later, he owned
20 hogs, 10 horses, and 50 head of cattle. Younger brother
Pierre, age 27 and newly married in 1777, owned 6 hogs, 30 horses,
and 100 head of cattle.
Alexandre dit Beausoleil's eldest grandson,
Joseph le jeune, age 23 and newly married
in 1777, owned 9
hogs, 10 horses, and 23 head of cattle that year.411
Even late
comers to Attakapas were doing well by the end of Unzaga's
governorship: In 1777, Victor Blanchard, age 25, who
came to the colony in 1765 and moved from the river to Attakapas by
the mid 1770s, owned 6 hogs, 5 horses, and 8 head of cattle.
Augustin Broussard, age 29, who came to the colony in 1766
and moved from the Ascension to Attakapas during the early 1770s,
owned 4 hogs, 8 horses, and 7 head of cattle. Jean-Baptiste
Cormier, fils, age 35, who came to the colony in February
1765 but probably remained at Cabahannocer with his parents and
sisters before moving to Attakapas during the early 1770s, owned a
horse and a slave. Charles Duhon,
age 43, who came to the colony in 1765 and moved from the river to
Attakapas in the 1770s, owned 6 hogs, 5 horses, and 35 head of
cattle. Younger brother Claude-Amable, age 41, owned 6 hogs, 4
horses, and 20 head of cattle. Claire Robichaux, age
64, widow of Jean-Baptiste dit Manuel Hébert, who came to the
colony in 1765 and moved from the river to Attakapas during the
early 1770s, owned a horse and 4 head of cattle. Son Joseph
dit Pepin Hébert, age 38, owned 12 hogs, 6 horses, and 20 head
of cattle. Jean-Charles Hébert, age 26, who had come to
the colony in 1765 and moved from the river to Attakapas in c1770,
owned 16 hogs, 4 horses, and 30 head of cattle. Jean-Baptiste,
called Baptiste,
Labauve, age 27, who came to the colony in 1765 and moved
from the river to Attakapas probably in the late 1760s, owned 15
hogs, 6 horses, and 30 head of cattle. Basile Landry,
age 50, who came to the colony with the Breaus in 1768 and
moved to Attakapas during the 1770s, owned 10 hogs, a horse, and 6
head of cattle. Firmin Landry,
age 49, who came to the colony in 1766 and moved from St.-Jacques to
Attakapas during the 1760s or the early 1770s, owned 10 sheep, 13
hogs, 16 horses, and 35 head of cattle. Amand-Pierre Landry,
age 31, who came to the colony in 1766 and moved to Attakapas in the
early 1770s, owned 14 hogs, 6 horses, and 18 head of cattle. Joseph
Landry, age 22 and a bachelor, owned 9 horses and 4 head of
cattle. Marie-Josèphe Breaux, age 46, widow of
Paul-Honoré Melançon and wife of François Moreau, who
was not an Acadian, came to the colony in 1765 and moved from the
river to Attakapas on the eve of the census, owned 8 hogs, 4 horses,
and a head of cattle. Jean dit Neveu Mouton, age 30, who came to the colony
in 1765 and moved from the river to Attakapas during the late 1760s
or early 1770s, owned 3 horses, 5 head of cattle, and 3 slaves.
Amand Prejean, age 53, who had come to the colony in 1765 and
moved from the river to Attakapas during the early 1770s, owned 7 horses
and 30 head of cattle. François-Joseph Savoie, age 47,
who came to the colony in 1765, moved to Attakapas in the late
1760s, returned to St.-Jacques on the river in the early 1770s, was
counted there in January 1777, and
returned to Attakapas just before the census there, owned 3
horses, 4 head of cattle, and a slave.411a
As the early 1770s census figures reveal, many Attakapas cattlemen also
raised hogs in substantial numbers. Their pigs were butchered for home
consumption, of course, but the numbers of these animals
hint that, by the end of the decade, Attakapas Acadians were
producing pork for the colonial market as well.
By any measure of success, including the production of large,
healthy families, the descendants of the old resistance fighters,
their relatives, and associates, created a thriving New Acadia on
the Attakapas prairies.
.
The Opelousas Acadians also had to struggle to
keep their land. In the summer of 1765, Jacques
Courtableau, the largest landowner in the Opelousas District, had
granted them refuge at Prairie des Coteaux after they
had fled the epidemic on the lower Teche. Governor Ulloa had
found them still living on Prairie des Coteaux when he toured the
colony's lower settlements the following spring. Both Ulloa and Aubry had given them "verbal assurance that they 'would never be
troubled in the possession of their properties.'" The
Acadians spent the
following years improving their prairie holdings, though, in the
spring of 1768, they were forced to beg Ulloa
for the loan of oxen and ploughs to bring in their latest crop of
wheat. That same year, Jacques Courtableau acquired the land grant of the
recently-ousted Louis
Pellerin, "whose vague boundaries overlapped those of the
Prairie des Coteaux property owners," most of whom were the
struggling Acadians.
When Courtableau died in the early 1770s, his widow insisted that
the Pellerin grant included a woodland that Governor Unzaga
had declared was "a commons for all settlers" and which bordered
the Prairie des Coteaux settlement. In June
1773, the Acadians, fearing that the widow would lay claim to their grants as
well, beseeched Unzaga to reaffirm their titles and "to order Mme
Courtableau to stop harassing her neighbors." Commandant
Fuselier de La Claire suggested a compromise, but the governor
washed his hands of the affair. The dispute ended later in
the year when François Marcantel, an affluent French
immigrant, purchased the disputed woodland from the Courtableau
estate. Shaken by the confrontation with the local elite, the
Opelousas Acadians secured new Spanish grants, sold
their Prairie des Coteaux holdings to French Creoles and Anglo-American immigrants, and moved
south to Prairie Belleveau and Bayou Bourbeaux, where most of them
engaged in cattle raising.407
The Cormier brothers of Chignecto were among the successful
practitioners of a type of agriculture that had been familiar to them
back in Acadia. Back at Prairie des Coteaux in 1771, older
brother Joseph, age 31 and a widower, had held six arpents frontage
without title and owned four horses and 15 head of cattle. Younger brother Michel,
age 30 and now married, also had held six
arpents frontage without title but owned seven horses and 28 head of
cattle. Michel, who had acquired title to a large grant
from Governor Unzaga in 1771, moved to his new property on Bayou
Bourbeaux by 1773, where, using the poteaux-en-terre construction
method,
he built a house on level ground
with bousillage walls, a dirt floor, and a porch that encircled the
house. In 1774, Michel, now also a widower but soon to
remarry, owned 6 horses and mules, 16 swine, and 20 head of cattle.
Joseph, who had moved to nearby Prairie Belleveau, was married again
in 1774 and owned 15 swine, 15 horses and mules, and an impressive 78
head of cattle. But this was only the beginning of their
success as cattlemen. Three years later, in 1777, Joseph, now age 37,
owned 20 hogs, 15 horses, and 150 head of cattle.
That year, Michel, now remarried and age 36, owned 16 hogs, 16
horses, and 50 head of cattle. He, too, like brother Joseph, still owned no slaves.
Contrast this to their economic status nine years before when they
and their Acadian neighbors had been forced to beg the governor for
oxen and ploughs. The Cormier brothers had been only
children back in 1750 when French-Canadian militia and Abbé Le
Loutre's Mi'kmaq had driven their family across Rivière Missaguash,
destroying the family's economic independence. Raising
cattle, then, was something they had known only as boys, but after a decade of effort on the Opelousas prairies they had
managed to create successful vacheries of their own.408
The Cormiers were among a hand full of 1765 arrivals who
became successful livestock producers on the Opelousas prairies. In
1777, Charles Comeaux, age 35, Joseph
Cormier's neighbor on Prairie Belleveau, owned 50 hogs, 15
horses, 100 head of cattle, and a single slave. Charles's
cousin Michel Comeaux, age 43, Michel Cormier's
neighbor on Bayou Bourbeaux, owned a slave, 40 hogs, 12 horses, and 200 head of
cattle--one of the largest herds in the
entire district. François Pitre, only 29 years old, owned 15
hogs, 12 horses, and 50 head of cattle. Joseph Guénard,
age 31, owned 10 hogs, 5 horses, and 15 head of cattle. Pierre Richard,
age 48, on Prairie Belleveu, owned 20 hogs, 12 horses, and 100
head of cattle. His younger brother Victor, only age 30, also
living on Prairie Belleveu, owned 10 hogs, 9 horses, and 70 head of
cattle. Pierre Savoie, age 36, owned 20 hogs, 12
horses, and 60 head of cattle. Sylvain Sonnier, age 41,
on Prairie
Belleveau, owned 45 hogs, 11 horses, 150 head of cattle, and
two slaves. Younger brother Olivier, age 25 and still a
bachelor, owned 4 horses and 15 head of cattle. Brother
Joseph, age 21 and a bachelor, owned 5 horses and 15 head of cattle. Pierre Thibodeaux, age 52, also on Prairie
Belleveau, owned 25 hogs, 7 horses, and 80 head of cattle.
Even late comers to Opelousas were doing well by the end of Unzaga's
governorship: In 1777, L'ange Bourg, age 27, who came
to the colony in February 1765 with the Broussards, moved
to Cabahannocer and then to Opelousas a year or two later,
and recently married, owned 10 hogs, 8 horses, and 48 head of
cattle. Brother Joseph, age 26, still a bachelor, owned 12
horses and 27 head of cattle. Pierre-Paul, called Paul, Boutin,
age 50, who came to the colony in 1767 and moved to Opelousas from St.-Gabriel on the river
during the late 1760s or early 1770s, owned 40 hogs, no horses, and
38 head of cattle. Blaise Brasseaux, age 25, who came to the colony with his widowed mother in 1767 and
also moved from St.-Gabriel during the late 1760s or early 1770s, owned 5
horses and 15 head of cattle. Joseph Granger, age 31,
who came to the colony in 1766 and moved from St.-Jacques to
Opelousas in the 1770s, owned a horse and 2 head of cattle.
Younger brother Jean-Baptiste, age 25 and still a bachelor, owned 2
head of cattle. Pierre Guidry, age 35, who came to the
colony with the Breaus in 1768 and moved to Opelousas during
the early 1770s, owned 12 horses and 10 head of cattle. Charles Jeansonne, age 32 and soon to
marry a sister of Blaise Brasseaux, came to the colony in
1765, moved from St.-Jacques to Opelousas in the late 1760s or early
1770s, and owned 8 horses and 6 head of cattle. Brother Jean,
age 31, owned 10 hogs, 5 horses, and 18 head of cattle.
Brother Paul, age 22 and still a bachelor, owned a horse and 10 head
of cattle. Cousin Joseph Jeansonne, age 29 and also
still a bachelor, who came to the colony during the late 1760s or
1770s, owned 8 hogs, 2 horses, and 4 head of cattle. Blaise
Lejeune, age 26,
who came to the colony in 1769 aboard the ill-fated Britannia,
owned 4 hogs, 3 horses, and 8 head of cattle.
Younger brother Joseph, age 21 and a bachelor,
owned
2 head of cattle. Mathurin Richard, age 36,
who came to the colony in 1767, owned 4 head of cattle. Jean
dit Valois Savoie, age 26, who came to the colony in
1765 and moved from St.-Jacques to Opelousas during the mid-1770s,
owned 4 horses and 25 head of cattle.
Honoré Trahan, age 51, who came to the colony in 1769
aboard the ill-fated Britannia and now resided
on Prairie Belleveu, owned 20 hogs, 6 horses, and 30 head of cattle.
Soon Pierre, age 27 and recently married, owned 12 hogs, 3 horses,
and 26 head of cattle.
These latecomers also had struggled to gain a foothold in a district dominated
by other ethnicities,
but now they and their families
could enjoy the material comforts that had eluded them for so long.409
.
Difficulties with land along the Acadian coasts had less to do with
grasping neighbors than with the existential whims of a powerful river and Spanish
inheritance laws. Unfortunately, "several settlers were given lands subject to rapid
erosion, particularly at river bends." When the Mississippi
eroded away the front portion of a farm,
which was generally no more than 6-arpents wide along the river, the
family
had no choice but to move to vacant land nearby or to leave the
river entirely. At the same time, Spanish inheritance laws
dictated that land be divided evenly among heirs, "which divided the
original family land grant into progressively small tracts with each
successive generation." Because of these factors, and despite
"the imposition of increasingly stringent restrictions on intracolonial movement" during the 1770s,
Acadians who did migrate tended to move from the river to
the prairies. Still, most of the river Acadians remained in
place, determined to make a decent living on the land they
possessed. As a result, population density on the Acadian
coasts "increased 226 percent between 1766 and 1777, rising from 241
to 786."413
The relative economic prosperity of the prairie and river
settlements, based, at least, on the number of animals owned, can be
seen in economic data gleaned from the Acadians living at Attakapas
and Opelousas in 1777 and at Lafourche des Chitimachas, or Ascension, that same year.
Ascension's commandant, Louis Judice, who completed the census in
April, counted
61 men, 67 women, 128 boys, 92 girls, 586 arpents, 137 slaves, 1,178
horned cattle, 158 horses, 80 sheep, 882 swine, 130 arms, 1 free
savage, 12 goats, and 3 kids:
In 1777, François-Marie Babin, age 35, who came to the colony
with the Breaus in 1768, held 9 arpents on the east bank of
the river at Ascension and owned 9 swine and 11 head of
cattle. Brother
Firmin, age 30, held 9 arpents on the east bank and owned 3 swine
and 7 head of cattle.
Amand Babin, age 34, who came to the colony in 1766,
held 6 arpents on the right bank and owned
20 swine, 3 horses, and 19 head of cattle. Brother Charles,
age 35, held 6 arpents on the east bank and owned 10 hogs, no
horses, 20 head of cattle, and 2 slaves. Brother
Vincent-Ephrem, called Ephrem, age 32, held 6 arpents on the left
bank and owned 30 hogs, 2 horses, 15 head of cattle, and 3 slaves. Joseph Babin, age 29, who also came to the colony in 1766,
held 6 arpents on the west bank and owned 16 hogs, a horse, 20 heads
of cattle, and 2 slaves. Joseph dit Dios Babin,
age 23, who came to the colony in 1766, held 6 arpents on the west
bank and owned 12 swine, 2 horses, and 8 head of cattle. Anselme Le Borgne de Bélisle,
age 39, scion of a noble Acadian family who came to the colony in
1767, held 5 arpents on the west bank and owned 8 swine, 3 horses,
13 head of cattle, and a slave. Jean-Baptiste Breaux,
age 52, who came to the colony in 1766, held 6 arpents fallow on the
west bank and owned 29 swine, 3 horses, 15 head of cattle, and a
slave. Joseph Breaux, age 24, who came to the colony in
1768, held 4 arpents on the east bank and owned 2 horses and 4 head
of cattle. Paul Breaux, age 32, who came to the colony in
1766, held 5 arpents on the east bank and owned 21 hogs, a horse, 22
head of cattle, and a slave. Firmin Broussard, age 25,
who came to the colony in 1766, held 2 lots, one 8 arpents "fallow,"
the other 6 arpents, both on the east bank, and
owned 8 swine, 2 horses, and 14 head of cattle. Joseph
Bujole, age 54, who came to the colony in 1766, held 6 arpents
on the west bank of the river and owned 19 hogs, 2 horses, 18 head
of cattle, and a slave. Son Augustin, age 24, held 5 arpents
on the west bank and owned 7 swine, 2 horses, and 10 head of cattle.
Joseph's younger brother Étienne, age 53, held 12 arpents on the
west bank of the river and owned 18 swine, 3 sheep, 3 horses, 24
cattle, and 4 slaves. François Dugas, age 37, who came
to the colony in February 1765 with the Broussards, held 6
arpents on the right bank and owned 9 swine, 2 horses, 20 head of
cattle, and a slave. Younger brother Charles, age 27, held 6
arpents on the right bank and owned 15 hogs, 2 horses, and 11 head
of cattle. Brother Athanase, age 24 and a bachelor soon to be
married, held 6 arpents on the west bank and owned 10 hogs, 4
horses, and 5 head of cattle. Brother Michel, age 20 and also
a bachelor soon to be married, lived with brother Athanase and owned
10 sheep, a horse, and 2 head of cattle. Jean Duhon, age 30, who came to
the colony in 1765, held 6 arpents on the west bank and owned 8
swine, 4 horses, 28 head of cattle, and 1 slave. Younger
brother François, age 28, held 7 arpents on the west bank and owned
3 swine, 2 horses, and 9 head of cattle. Pierre Dupuis,
age 27 and still a bachelor,
who came to the colony with the Breaus in 1768, held 4
arpents on the east bank and owned 7 swine and 2 head of cattle.
Firmin Dupuis, age 25,
who also came to the colony with the Breaus in 1768, held 6
arpents on the east bank and owned 8 swine, a horse, and 6 head of
cattle.
Charles Foret,
age 55, who came to the colony in 1765, held 6 arpents on the west
bank and owned 9 swine, 4 horses, and 16 head of cattle. Son
Pierre-Paul, called Paul, age 31, held 5 arpents on the west bank and owned 15
swine, 7 sheep, 2 horses, 16 head of cattle, and a slave. Son
Anselme, age 25, held 5 arpents on the west bank and owned 4 swine,
2 horses, and 5 head of cattle. Charles Gaudin dit
Lincour, age 26, who came to the colony in 1765, held 5 arpents on
the west bank and owned 8 swine, 3 horses, 14 head of cattle, and a
slave. Amand-Paul Gautreaux, age 45, who came to the
colony in 1766, held 6 arpents on the west bank and owned 7 hogs, 3
horses, and 23 head of cattle. Joseph Guidry, age 45,
who came to the colony during the late 1760s, held 8 arpents on the east
bank and owned 15 swine, no horses, 15 head of cattle, and a slave.
Firmin Guidry, age 25, who came to the colony with the
Breaus in 1768, held 6 arpents on the east bank and owned 8
swine, 3 horses, and 10 head of cattle. René Landry, age 61, who
came to the colony in 1766, held 6 arpents on the east bank and
owned 15 hogs, 2 horses, 24 head of cattle, and 3 slaves. Son
Marin, age 29, held 2 lots, both 6 arpents, one "in fallow," on the east bank and owned
10 swine, 4 horses, and 20 head of cattle. Son Olivier, age
24, held 6 arpents on the east bank and owned 8 swine, a horse, and
9 head of cattle. Son Joseph dit Dios, age 20, a
bachelor, held 6 arpents on the west bank and owned 15 hogs, a
horse, and 6 head of cattle. Pierre dit Pierrot à
Chaques Landry, age 56, who came to the colony in 1766, held
11 arpents on the east bank and owned 55 swine, 8 horses, 53 head of
cattle, and 6 slaves. Son Jean, age 25, still a bachelor, held
5 arpents on the east bank and owned 2 horses and 6 head of cattle.
Son Jean-Baptiste, age 21, a bachelor, held 5 arpents on the east
bank and owned 2 sheep, 2 horses, and 6 head of cattle.
Abraham dit Petit-Abram Landry, age 55 and recently
remarried, who came to the colony in 1766, held an determined number
of arpents on the west bank and owned 10 hogs, a horse, and 6 head
of cattle. Son Étienne, age 35 and recently married, held 5 arpents on the east
bank and owned 3 hogs, 2 horses, and 18 head of cattle. Son
Simon, age 33, held 11 arpents on the east bank and owned 29 swine,
3 horses, 15 head of cattle, and a slave. Son Pierre-Abraham
dit Pitre, age 25, held 7 arpents on the west bank and owned
9 swine, a horse, and 18 head of cattle. Vincent Landry,
age 50, who came to the colony in 1766, held 3 arpents on the west
bank and owned 10 hogs, a horse, and 14 head of cattle.
Younger brother Pierre dit La Vielliarde, age 45, held 6 arpents on
the west bank and owned 32 swine, 4 sheep, 5 horses, 29 head of
cattle, and 3 slaves. Brother Étienne, age 43, held 6 arpents
on the west bank and owned 20 hogs, 10 sheep, 2 horses, 25 head of
cattle, and 4 slaves. Mathurin Landry, age 43,
who came to the colony with the Breaus in 1768, held
6 arpents on the west bank and owned 25 hogs, 10 sheep, 2 horses, 28
head of cattle, and a slave. Charles Landry, age 39, who came
to the colony in 1766, held 6 arpents on the east bank and owned 18
hogs, 2 horses, 17 head of cattle, and a slave. Younger
brother Jacques, age 34, held 2 lots, one 5 arpents "fallow, the
other 6 arpents in production, both on the east
bank, and owned 5 hogs, 5 horses, 14 head of cattle, and 2 slaves.
Joseph Landry, age 38, who came to the colony in 1765, held 6
arpents on the west bank and owned 30 swine, 8 sheep, 5 horses, 26
head of cattle, and a slave. Basile Landry, age 27, who
came to the colony in 1766, held 5 arpents on the west bank and
owned 16 swine, 3 horses, and 18 head of cattle. Joseph dit
Belhomme Landry, age 25, who came to the colony in 1766, held
6 arpents on the west bank and owned 20 hogs, 8 sheep, 2 horses, 30
head of cattle, and 4 slaves. Mare-Madeleine Landry,
age 54, widow of Désiré LeBlanc, who had just died at age 60,
who came to the colony in 1766, held 8 arpents on the west bank and
owned 8 hogs, a horse, and 16 head of cattle. Son Isaac, age
31, held 12 arpents on the east bank and owned 8 swine, 4 horses, 26
head of cattle, and a slave. Son Jérôme, age 28, held 6
arpents on the west bank of the river and owned 8 hogs, no horses,
12 head of cattle, and 2 slaves. Élisabeth Boudreaux, age
55, widow of René LeBlanc, who came to the colony in 1765,
held 6 arpents on the west bank and owned 15 swine, 4 horses, and 17
head of cattle. Son Simon, age 33, held 6
arpents on the west bank and owned 5 swine, a horse, and 20 head of
cattle. Pierre LeBlanc, age 46, who came to the colony
in 1766, held 6 arpents on the east bank and owned 12 hogs, 8 sheep,
3 horses, and 21 head of cattle. Sylvain LeBlanc, age
36, who came to the colony in 1766, held 6 arpents on the west bank
and owned 15 swine, a horse, 21 head of cattle, and a slave. Joseph Marant, age 48, who came to the colony
in 1765, held an undetermined number of arpents on the west bank and
owned 4 hogs, 2 horses, 2 head of cattle, and 2 slaves.
Charles Melançon, age 34, who came to the colony in 1766,
held 11 arpents on the east bank and owned 15 hogs, 2 horses, and 28
head of cattle.
Charles Prejean, age 41, who came to the colony in 1765, held
6 arpents on the west bank and owned 4 swine, 2 sheep, 3 horses, and
14 head of cattle. Younger brother Basile, age 22, held 6
arpents on the west bank and owned 10 swine, 8 sheep, 4 horses, and
11 head of cattle. Joseph Caissie dit Roger,
age 31, who came to the colony in 1765, held 12 arpents on the right
bank and owned 9 swine, 12 goats, 4 horses, and 20 head of cattle.415
The same contrast between the prairie and river settlements can be
seen in the number of animals owned by the Acadians at St.-Gabriel
in early 1777, the great majority of whom, it must be remembered, had come to the colony two years after most of the
prairie Acadians arrived. The census, completed in March, was
conducted by St.-Gabriel commandant Louis Dutisné: Pierre Allain, age
54, who came to the colony in 1767, held 6 arpents on the east bank of the river at St.-Gabriel and owned 30
fowl, 18 hogs, 4 horses, and 18 head of cattle. Son
Jean-Baptiste, called Baptiste, age 26 and still unmarried, held 8 arpents on the
east bank and owned 14 fowl, 10 hogs, 1 horse, and 12 head of
cattle.
Pierre Babin, age 53,
who came to the colony in 1767,
held 12 arpents on the east bank and owned 20 fowl, 12 hogs, no
horses, and 14 head of cattle.
Jean-Baptiste Babin,
age 38,
who came to the colony in 1767,
held 6 arpents on the east bank and owned 20 fowl, 12 hogs, 2
horses, 20 head of cattle, and a black slave.
Ignace Babin, age 36, a widower soon to
remarry,
who came to the colony in 1767,
held 6 arpents on the east bank and owned 17 fowl, 14 hogs, no
horses, and 12 head of cattle.
Younger brother Paul, age 26 and still a bachelor, held 6 arpents on
the east bank and owned 18 fowl, 6 hogs, and 2 head of cattle.
Étienne
Babin, age 28 and newly married,
who came to the colony in 1767,
held 6 arpents on the east bank and owned 18 fowl, 8 hogs, 2 horses,
and 10 head of cattle. Younger brother Cyprien, age 27, still
a bachelor, held 5 arpents on the west bank and owned 15 fowl, 6
hogs, 3 horses, and 9 head of cattle.
Étienne Babin, age 23 and a bachelor, perhaps a 1767 arrival,
held 6 arpents on the west bank and owned 18 fowl, 12 hogs, 3
horses, and 16 head of cattle.
Pierre-Olivier, called Oliver, Benoit, age 48, who came to
the colony in 1769 aboard the ill-fated Britannia, held 6
arpents on the east bank and owned 14 fowl, 10 hogs, and 22 head of
cattle. Mathurin Benoit, age 20 and a bachelor, likely
a 1767 arrival, held 6 arpents on the east bank and owned 14 fowl, 6
hogs, and 2 head of cattle. Marie-Josèphe Landry, age 39,
widow of Joseph Blanchard and soon to remarry,
who came to the colony in 1767,
held 6 arpents on the east bank and owned 20 fowl, 10 hogs, no
horses, and 18 head of cattle.
Anselme Blanchard, age 36,
who came to the colony in 1767,
held 6 arpents on the east bank and owned 18 fowl, 8 hogs, 3 horses,
12 head of cattle, and 2 slaves. Jérôme Blanchard, age
18 and a bachelor, perhaps a 1767 arrival, held 6 arpents on the
west bank but the census taker did not count his animals. Pierre Brasseaux, age 35,
who came to the colony in 1767,
held 12 arpents on
the east bank and owned 30 fowl, 16 hogs, 7 horses, and 17 head of
cattle. Jean-Charles Breaux, age 44, who came to the
colony in 1768, held 9 arpents on the east bank and owned 40 fowl,
19 hogs, 6 horses, 20 head of cattle, and a slave. Son Michel,
age 23 and newly married, held 6 arpents on the east bank and owned
14 fowl, 12 hogs, 3 horses, and 9 head of cattle. Marguerite
Landry, age 41, widow of Antoine Breaux, who came to
the colony in 1768, held 9 arpents on the east bank and owned 40
fowl, 18 hogs, 3 horses, and 20 head of cattle. Son Joseph,
age 23, held 6 arpents on the east bank and owned 20 fowl, 12 hogs,
2 horses, and 8 head of cattle. Marie-Josèphe Landry,
age 40, widow of Joseph Breaux, who came to Louisiana in
1768, held 8 arpents on the east bank and owned 30 fowl, 18 hogs, 4
horses, and 20 head of cattle. Pierre Breaux, age 36
and still a bachelor, who came to the colony in 1768, held 6 arpents
on the west bank and owned 10 fowl, 6 hogs, no horses, and 3 had of
cattle. Jean Breaux, age 26 and still a bachelor, who
came to the colony
in 1766, held 6 arpents on the east side of the river and owned 18
fowl, 8 hogs, and 12 head of cattle. Paul
Chiasson, age 31, who came to the colony perhaps from
St.-Domingue in 1765, held 5 arpents on the east bank and owned 20
fowl, 8 hogs, 1 horse, and 12 head of cattle. Pierre-Sylvain
Clouâtre, age 37,
who came to the colony in 1768 with the Breaus, held 6
arpents on the west bank and owned 20 fowl, 12 hogs, no horses, and
9 head of cattle.
Younger Joseph, age 27, held 6 arpents on the west bank and owned
18 fowl, 12 hogs, no horses, and 10 head of cattle. Jean-Charles, called Charles, Comeaux, age 28,
who came to the colony in 1767,
held 16 arpents on the east bank and owned 40 fowl, 21 hogs, 6
horses, 20 head of cattle, and 3 slaves. Joseph Comeaux,
age 26,
who came to the colony in 1768 with the Breaus, held 8
arpents on the east bank and owned 18 fowl, 8 hogs, no horses, and
10 head of cattle. Augustin Dugas, age 30, perhaps a
1767 arrival, held 6 arpents on the west bank and owned 17 fowl, 5
hogs, 2 horses, and 8 head of cattle. Pierre Dugas, age
23, perhaps a brother and a 1767 arrival, held 6 arpents on the west
bank and owned 16 fowl, 8 hogs, 2 horses, and 10 cattle.
Alexandre Dugas, age 19 and a bachelor, perhaps another
brother and a 1767 arrival, held 6 arpents on the west bank and
owned 8 fowl, 4 hogs, and 6 head of cattle. Joseph Dupuis,
age 41, who came to the colony during the 1760s probably from
St.-Domingue, held 6 arpents on the west bank and owned 30 fowl, 10
hogs, 3 horses, and 12 head of cattle. Nephew Jean-Baptiste
Dupuis, age 25 and recently married, held 8 arpents on the west
bank and owned 20 fowl, 10 hogs, and 8 head of cattle. Brother
Simon-Joseph, called Joseph, age 23 and a bachelor, held 8 arpents
on the right bank and owned 14 fowl, 9 hogs, and 12 head of cattle. Pierre Foret, age 42, probably a
1767 arrival, held 6 arpents on the east bank and owned 30 fowl, 12
hogs, 19 head of cattle, and a slave.
Paul
Hébert, age 65,
who came to the colony in 1767,
held 6 arpents on the west bank and owned 40
fowl, 3 horses, 12 hogs, and 18 head of cattle.
Son Pierre-Paul, age 40, held 5 arpents on the west bank and owned
30 fowl, 12 hogs, 3 horses, and 14 head of cattle. Son Joseph,
age 37, held 6 arpents on the east bank and owned 25 fowl,, 10 hogs,
4 horses, and 12 head of cattle. Son
Jean-Baptiste, called Baptiste, age 27, recently married, held 5 arpents on the west
bank and owned 15 fowl, 2 horses, 12 hogs, and 7 head of cattle.
Son Amand, age 23 and recently married, held 5 arpents on the west
bank, 20 fowl, 12 hogs, 2 horses, and 13 head of cattle.
Paul's younger brother Ignace, age 53, held 6 arpents on the west
bank and owned 30 fowl, 15 hogs, and 16 head of cattle.
Alexandre Hébert,
age 42,
who came to the colony in 1767,
held 6 arpents on the west bank and owned 20 fowl, 10 hogs,
2 horses, and 10 head of cattle. Younger brother François,
fils, age 39, held 5 arpents on the east bank and owned 19 fowl,
16 hogs, 3 horses, and 18 head of cattle. Brother Amand, age
37, held 6 arpents on the east bank and owned 28 fowl, 3 horses, 14
hogs, and 18 head of cattle. Brother
Jean-Baptiste dit Petit-Jean, age 35, held 6 arpents on the
east bank and owned 30 fowl, 12 hogs, 3 horses, and 20 head of
cattle. Brother Étienne, age 33, held 6 arpents on the east
bank and owned 19 fowl, 12 hogs, 3 horses, and 14 head of cattle.
Brother Pierre-Caieton, called Caieton, age 30 and recently married, held 6 arpents on the west bank and
owned 20 fowl, 12 hogs, no horses, and 12 head of cattle.
Brother Joseph, age 28, held 6 arpents on the west bank and owned 18
fowl, 5 hogs, no horses, and 7 head of cattle. Brother
Charles, age 26, held 6 arpents on the east bank and owned 30 fowl,
18 hogs, 4 horses, 14 head of cattle, and a slave. Pierre Hébert,
age 40, who came to the colony in 1765,
held 5 arpents on the west bank and owned 30 fowl, 12 hogs, 3
horses, and 14 head of cattle.
Augustin Landry, age 58,
who came to the colony in 1767,
held 10 arpents on the
west bank and owned 30 fowl, 15 hogs, no horses, 18 head of cattle,
and a slave. Mathurin Landry, age 40, who came to the
colony in February 1765 with the Broussards, moved to
Cabahannocer, and then to St.-Gabriel, held 6 arpents on the left
bank and owned 20 fowl, 14 hogs, 12 head of cattle, and 3 slaves.
Anselme Landry, age 39,
who came to the colony in 1767,
held 8 arpents on the east bank and
owned 13 fowl, 11 hogs, no horses, and 12 head of cattle.
Younger brother François-Sébastien, age 36, held 12 arpents on the
east bank and owned 20 fowl, 12 hogs, 3 horses, 12 head of cattle,
and 3 slaves. Brother Paul-Marie, age 33, held 6 arpents on
the west bank and owned 18 fowl, 10 hogs, no horses, and 12 head of
cattle. Brother Firmin, age 29, held 8 arpents on the east
bank and owned 30 fowl, 9 hogs, 3 horses, 12 head of cattle, and a
slave.
Joseph Landry, age 38 and a widower, perhaps a 1767 arrival,
held 8 arpents on the west bank and owned 17
fowl, 15 hogs, and 12 head of cattle.
Athanase Landry, age 35,
who came to the colony in 1767,
held 6 arpents on the west bank and owned 16 fowl, 8 bogs, no
horses, and 10 head of cattle. Hyacinthe Landry, age 34,
who came to the colony in 1767,
held 6 arpents on the east bank and owned 30 fowl, 12 hogs, 3
horses, 13 head of cattle, and a slave. Brother Jean-Athanase,
age 26, held 6 arpents on the west bank and owned 20 fowl, 14 hogs,
3 horses, and 10 head of cattle.
Joseph Landry, age 22 and a bachelor, who may have come to
the colony with the Breaus in 1768, held 10 arpents on the
west bank and owned 12 fowl, 4 hogs, and 6 head of cattle.
Joseph Castille of Menorca, age 45, whose wife was a
Landry, came to the colony in 1767, held 6 arpents on the east
bank, and owned 18 fowl, 12 hogs, 10 head of cattle, and a slave.
Bonaventure LeBlanc, age 50,
who came to the colony in 1767,
held 10
arpents on the east bank and owned 30 fowl, 14 hogs, 3 horses, and
19 head of cattle. Son Joseph dit Adons, age 25, held 6
arpents on the east bank and owned 15 fowl, 9 hogs, and
13 head of cattle. Jean-Baptiste LeBlanc, age 28 and
recently married,
who came to the colony in 1767,
held 6 arpents on the east bank and owned 18 fowl,
10 hogs, no horses, 8 head of cattle, and a slave. Younger
brother Pierre, age 24, held 6 arpents on the west bank and owned 15
fowl, 8 hogs, 3 horses, 10 head of cattle, and a slave.
Joseph dit Agros LeBlanc, age 22 and a bachelor, who came to
the colony in 1767, held 6 arpents on the west bank and owned 16
fowl, 6 hogs, and 3 head of cattle. Joseph-Michel, called Michel, LeBlanc, age 19 and still a
bachelor,
who came to the colony in 1767,
held 4 arpents on the east bank and owned 18 fowl, 2
horses, 6 hogs, and 12 head of cattle. Amand Melançon,
age 49,
who came to the colony in 1767,
held 10 arpents on the west bank and owned 30 fowl, 16 hogs,
4 horses, 20 head of cattle, and a slave. Joseph Orillion
dit Champagne, age 29, who came to the colony in 1765, held 6
arpents on the west bank and owned 30 fowl, 14 hogs, no horses, and
12 head of cattle. Pierre Richard,
age 63 and a widower,
who came to the colony in 1767,
held arpents on the west bank and owned 12
fowl, 8 hogs, 2 horses, 10 head of cattle, and 6 slaves.
Marie
Breaux, age 35, widow of son Amand Richard and soon to
remarry, who came to the colony in 1767, held 12 arpents on the east bank and owned 30 fowl, 16
hogs, 3 horses, 18 head of cattle, and 2 slaves.
Simon-Henry
Richard, age 37,
who came to the colony in 1767,
held 12 arpents on the east bank and owned
30 fowl, 10 hogs, no horses, and 11 head of cattle. Younger
brother Paul, age 30 and recently married, held 6 arpents on the
east bank and owned 20 fowl, 12 hogs, no horses, and 18 head of
cattle. Joseph Richard, age 30, probably a 1767
arrival, held 6 arpents on the east bank and owned 20 fowl, 12 hogs,
2 horses, 12 head of cattle, and a slave.
Étienne Rivet, age 60, who came to the colony aboard the
ill-fated Britannia in 1769, held 10 arpents on the west bank
and owned 14 fowl, 12 hogs, 2 horses, and 12 head of cattle.
Michel-Maxime Rivet, age 37,
who came to the colony with the Breaus in 1768, held 6
arpents on the west bank and owned 12 fowl, 7 hogs, no horses, and 9
head of cattle. Younger brother Cyrille, age 34, held 6
arpents on the west bank and owned 20 fowl, 15 hogs, no horses, and
10 head of cattle. Brother Blaise, age 30, still a bachelor,
held 6 arpents on the west bank and owned 12 fowl, 11 or 17 hogs, no
horses, and 7 head of cattle. François Rivet, age 26
and still a bachelor, who came to the colony in 1769 aboard the
ill-fated Britannia, held 6 arpents on the west bank and
owned 12 fowl, 8 hogs, and 4 head of cattle.414
The census taker at St.-Jacques in 1777, Commandant
Michel Cantrelle, did not list the arpents of land held or
the number of animals owned by each inhabitant, so an economic
comparison with the other Acadian settlements is not
possible. However, the census, conducted from January to
April, does provide the names and ages
of the Acadian heads of families, as well as the adult bachelors, living on both
banks of the Lower Acadian Coast that year. A few, still
living together on the east bank, came to the
colony from Georgia in 1764: Jean-Baptiste Cormier,
père, age 68; Joseph Landry,
age 29; Jean-Baptiste, called Jean, Poirier, age 44; Jean-Baptiste,
called Jean, Richard, age 58; son Jean-Marie, age 31; and son Joseph, who
would have been age 19 and a bachelor.
Some came to the colony with the Broussards from
Halifax
in February 1765
and moved to the river during the fall of that year: Jean
Arceneaux, age 49, living on the east bank; son
Jean-Charles, called Charles, age 25, on the west bank;
son Joseph, age 21 and a bachelor, on the east bank; son Guillaume,
age 18 and a bachelor, on the east bank; Jean's younger brother
Joseph, age 37, on the east bank; Pierre Arceneaux l'aîné,
age 46, on the west bank; Amable Blanchard, age 35, on the
east bank; Joseph Bourgeois, age 41, on the
east bank; brother Michel, age 36, on the east bank; Pierre
Darois, age 40, on the west bank; Joseph dit Cadet
Dugas, age 24 and still a bachelor, on the east bank; Joseph
Guidry, age 42, on the east bank; Ambroise Martin dit
Barnabé, age 43, on the east bank; Marie Cormier, age 31, who
came to the colony in 1764, widow of Michel Poirier, on the
east bank; and Abraham Roy, age 46, on the east bank. Most came to the colony from Halifax in
1765 aboard later-arriving vessels: Jean-Baptiste Bergeron
dit d'Amboise, père, age 55, living on the west bank;
son Jean-Baptiste dit d'Amboise, fils, age 27, on the
west bank; Germain Bergeron, age 34, on the east bank; Pierre
Bernard, age 46, on the east bank; son Jean-Baptiste, age 23
and recently married, on the east bank; son Pierre, fils, age
18 and a bachelor, on the east bank; Pierre Berteau, age 38,
on the east bank; Joseph Blanchard l'aîné, age 38, on
the east bank; Joseph Blanchard le jeune, age
29, on the west bank; brother Pierre, age 28 and a bachelor, on the
east bank; Olivier Boudreaux, age 49, on the east bank; son
Simon, age 24, on the east bank; Joseph Bourg, age 42, on the
east bank; Pierre Bourg, age 27, on the east bank; Paul Bourgeois, age 45, on
the east bank; Jean-Baptiste, called Baptiste, Bourgeois, age
44, on the east bank; brother Michel, age 43, on the east bank; Jean Bourgeois, age 38, on the east bank;
Athanase Breaux, age 42, on the west bank; Pierre Chiasson,
age 48, on the east bank; Michel Chiasson, age 18 and a
bachelor, on the east bank; Joseph Dupuis, age 26, on the
east bank; Charles Gaudet l'aîné, age 47, on the west bank; brother Jérôme, age 37, on the west bank;
Joseph Gaudet, age 38, on the east bank;
brother Charles le jeune, age 25 and still a bachelor, on the
east bank; Bonaventure Gaudin
dit Bellefontaine, père, age 62, on the west bank; son
Bonaventure dit Bellefontaine, fils, age 24 and still
a bachelor, on the west bank; son Michel dit Bellefontaine,
age 21 and a bachelor, on the west bank; Jean-Baptiste Gaudin
dit Bellefontaine, age 31, on the east bank; Jean Gaudin
dit Bellefontaine, age 30 and still a bachelor, on the east
bank; Simon Gautreaux, age 41, on the west bank; Firmin
dit La Prade Girouard, age 28, on the east bank; François
Hébert, age 42, on the east bank; brother Joseph, age 42, on the west bank; Antoine Labauve, age
51, on the east bank; twin sons Jean and Marin, age 18 and
bachelors, on the east bank; Surgeon Philippe de St.-Julien
Lachaussée, age 50, on the west bank; Pierre Lambert,
père, age 51, on the east bank; son Pierre, fils, age 30
and still a bachelor, on the east bank; Pierre Lanoux, age
31, on the east bank; Joseph LeBlanc, père, age 57, on
the west bank;
son Joseph, fils, age 27, on the west bank; son Gilles, age
19 and a bachelor, on the west bank; Marcel LeBlanc, age 43,
on the west bank; Jean Leger, age 55, on the east bank; Charles d'Amours de Louvière, age 27, on
the east bank; Joseph Martin dit Barnabé, age 38, on
the east bank; half-brother Paul dit Barnabé, age 28 and
still a bachelor, on the east bank; Joachim dit Bénoni
Mire, age 41, on the east bank; Louis Mouton, age 40, on
the east bank; younger brother Simon, age 33,
on the east bank; Pierre Part, age 28, on the east bank;
younger brother François, age 24, on the east bank; Joseph
Poirier, age 37, on the east bank; Joseph
Richard, age 41, on the east bank; Jean Caissie dit
Roger, age 20, a bachelor, on the west bank; Charles dit
Jean-Charles Savoie, age 56, on the east bank; Joseph
Sonnier, age
38 and a widower soon to remarry, on the east bank; younger brother
Jean-Baptiste, age 31, on the east bank;
Joseph Thériot, age 45, on the east bank;
Thomas Thériot, age 32, on the east bank; younger brother
Ambroise, age 29 and still a bachelor but soon to marry, on the east
bank; brother François-Xavier, called Xavier, age 24 and still a
bachelor, on the east bank; Charles Thibodeaux,
age 38, on the east bank; and Pierre Vincent,
age 32, on the east bank. Some came to the colony
from Maryland in 1766: Joseph Babin, age 32, living on
the west bank; Pierre Breaux, age 37, on the east bank;
Étienne-Michel, called Michel, David dit St.-Michel,
age 57, on the east bank; son Paul, age 23, on the east bank; son
Jean-Baptiste, age 18 and a bachelor, on the east bank;
Marie-Josèphe Landry, age 39, widow of Pierre Foret
and soon to remarry to a French Canadian, on the east bank; François
Landry, père, who would have been age 66, probably on
the east bank; son François, fils, age 36, on the east bank;
Jacques LeBlanc, age 69, on the west bank; Paul LeBlanc,
34, on the east bank; Simon LeBlanc, age 25, on the west
bank; Osite Hébert, age 46, widow of Alexandre Melançon,
on the east bank;
son Pierre-Jacques, called Jacques, Melançon, age 27, on the
east bank; brother
Joseph, age 22 and a bachelor, on the east bank; brother Étienne,
age 21 and a bachelor, on the east bank; and Jean-Baptiste Melançon,
age 41, on the east bank. A few came to the colony
in c1765 probably from St.-Domingue: Paul Leger, age 19
and a bachelor, was working as an engagé on the east bank;
and Pierre Michel, age 40, also was living on the east bank.
A few, still living on the west bank, came to the colony from Maryland in 1768:
Alexis Breaux, age 53; son Joseph,
age 26; Alexis's younger brother Honoré, père,
who would have been age 46; and son
Honoré, fils, age 30. Two, living on the east
bank, came to the
colony from Martinique in the late 1760s: Charles Mouton,
age 56; and son Georges, age 21 and
still a bachelor. And a
few came to the colony during the late 1760s or early 1770s perhaps
from St.-Domingue:
Pierre Arceneaux le jeune, age 28, living on the west
bank; and Charles Comeaux, age 52, on the east bank.
Commandant Cantrelle
did offer this impressive
summation for St.-Jacques: The district contained a total of 1,020 arpents of land
fronting the river along both banks; 172 slaves, the largest numbers of them no doubt
held by the Creole elite; 2,204 head of cattle;
388 horses; and 699 persons. Of the 134 families counted at
St.-Jacques that year, 96, or 72 percent, were Acadian, which was
why the area was being called the First or Lower Acadian Coast.414a
The Acadian Coast was not a major cattle-producing area, hence the
smaller number of beeves there compared to the prairie districts.
But the number of hogs and fowl held by the river Acadians, as well
as the number of slaves they owned, testifies to their attainment of
material comfort and an end to dependence on government handouts.
After nearly a decade of Spanish rule and a dozen years in the
colony, there was no question that the river Acadians, as well as
their cousins on the prairies, had finally come into their own
economically. Especially impressive were the holdings of the
1768 arrivals from Maryland, whose year and a half at Fort San Luìs
de Natchez was a time of misery and want. After their release
from the isolated outpost in December 1769, they hurried down to the
Acadian Coast, where, after only half a dozen years
of effort, they attained a level of material comfort
on par with their kinsmen.414b
.
The Acadians attained more than material comfort during the first
decade of Spanish rule in Louisiana. In 1770,
Governor
O'Reilly "ordered the construction of chapels and presbyteries in
each Acadian settlement and, upon learning of the manpower
deficiencies in the province's religious communities, appealed to
the diocese of Havana for missionaries to staff the new parishes."
Roman Catholics every one, the Acadians welcomed the new houses of
worship as well as the new priests. When the first Acadians
had come to the colony in 1764, there were only three established
church parishes in western Louisiana: St.-Louis at New
Orleans, created in 1719; St.-Charles des Allemands on the German
Coast, dating from 1722; and St.-François de Assisi at
Pointe-Coupée, founded in 1727. Each of these parishes
answered to a vicar-general, sometimes Jesuit, sometimes Capuchin,
residing at New Orleans, who represented the distant Bishop of
Québec. In 1763, when Canada became a British possession, the
priests of lower Louisiana answered to the Bishop of French
St.-Domingue. In August 1769, after General Alejandro O'Reilly
took formal possession of the colony for
Spain, the priests in lower Louisiana answered to the Bishop of Santiago
de Cuba.418
When the Broussards journeyed to Attakapas in the spring of 1765,
they took Capuchin Father Jean-François de Civray with them.
Tradition says that Father Jean-François created a church parish at
the Poste des Attakapas, now St. Martinville. The first edifice,
called L'Église des Attakapas, or the Church of Attakapas,
was a small frame structure at the
post built on land donated by
Jean-Antoine-Bernard Dauterive. Father Jean-François did not remain at Attakapas; his
final entry in the parish register, the baptismal record of Acadian
Marie Pellerin, is dated 11 January 1766.
In 1773, local leaders chose a syndic, again, to oversee
construction of a church at Poste des
Attakapas, perhaps another, larger church to replace the first one,
but there still was no resident priest there at the time. It was not
unusual for Attakapas baptisms, marriages, and burials to be
recorded by priests from other parishes during the 1770s.
Pointe Coupée lay near a northern route across the Atchafalaya Basin and
was the closest church to Attakapas during much of that period; as a
result, the Pointe Coupée priest served as a missionary to Attakapas
from the late 1760s. The Opelousas church, even closer to
Attakapas, was founded in 1776, and the priests there served
Attakapas residents during the late 1770s. In 1779, even the curé
of Ascension parish, out on the river, administered the sacraments
to Attakapas settlers. By 1781, however, Attakapas once again
had a priest of its own--Father Hilaire de Genevaux,
who came from Pointe Coupée.
During its early days,
the Attakapas parish was variously called St.-Joseph and St.-Bernard, but
in the early 1790s, when Father George Murphy served as pastor, it
came to be known as St.-Martin des Attakapas or St.-Martin de Tours. The parish council of St.-Martin de Tours owned the land around the
church, which included much of today's downtown St. Martinville.
During the late 1790s, after St.-Martin de Tours was firmly established, a unique
lease-purchase arrangement was made between the church council and
the local merchants that existed for nearly a century. By the
twentieth century, the parish was calling itself, rightly,
"Mother Church of the
Acadians."417
As Acadians from Halifax and Maryland began to fill the empty spaces
along Côte Cabahannocer, above the German Coast, church
authorities sent Father Barnabé from St.-Charles des Allemands to minister to
their needs. Beginning in March 1766 and continuing into the
following year, the good father began to perform so many weddings at Cabahannocer
that Co-commandant Louis Judice informed Spanish
governor Ulloa in October 1767: "It is a pleasure to see these
poor people marry. I expect many more marriages to take place
in the near future." The co-commandant was correct. A
month later, Judice was telling the governor: "I also
have the honor of notifying you that Fr. Barnabé, pastor of the Des
Allemands parish, has just spent six days at my home, during which
time he performed five Acadian weddings. Sir, as the priest
celebrates holy mass in my house and as it cannot accommodate three
or four hundred persons, as was the case on the eighth of this
month, the priest has proposed construction of a shed, 40 feet long
by 20 feet wide. Roofed and enclosed by posts, it could serve
as a church until better facilities are available. Here, the
Christian faithful could congregate on Sundays and feast days for
public prayer until such time as we have a (resident) priest."
By July 1768, the temporary chapel was completed. Father
Barnabé blessed it and dedicated it to Sts. Jacques and Philippe.
On the day that he reported the completion of the "shed," 2 July
1768, Co-commandant Judice informed Governor Ulloa:
"The Acadians, who, so strong in their faith, had expressed the
desire for a church, will today be able to gather in this chapel and
openly worship together. They have also agreed, in my
presence, to pay 2 livres, 2 sols per family in order
to pay for contractors. There are many Acadians, however, who
refused to pay their share. I humbly beg you to authorize me
to force these delinquents to pay their (church) taxes without
further delay." Despite the Acadians' protests, which
dragged on for two years and also involved Co-commandant Verret,
Governor O'Reilly ordered the Acadians to pay their church dues. Even then, they refused
(an historian of the Acadians in Nova Scotia has remarked, "the Acadians were scarcely more willing to pay tithes than
quitrents"),
and it took a direct order from O'Reilly's
successor, Governor Unzaga, to force the "delinquents" to pay
their dues.
Meanwhile, in 1770, church authorities created a new
parish for Cabahannocer, dedicated to St.-Jacques. The church
lay on the west bank of the river, near Jacques Cantrelle's
concession, but the area along both banks, now being called the First or Lower Acadian Coast,
soon was being called St.-Jacques as well.
The parish's first resident priest, French Capuchin Father
Valentin, formerly of Natchitoches and Pointe Coupée, clashed with
some of the Acadian men and was replaced by Spanish Capuchin Father
Luis Lipiano de Tolosa in 1772. Unlike the church at Attakapas,
St.-Jacques maintained a resident priest throughout the Spanish
period.419
In 1770, Spanish Governor Alejandro O'Reilly appointed Louis
Judice to command a new district called Lafourche des Chitimachas,
which lay on both banks of the river between St.-Jacques and
St.-Gabriel and centered on the junction of Bayou Lafourche and the Mississippi River--the
Fork.
In August, Commandant
Judice conducted a census of the Acadian settlers in his
new district and counted 84 families. By 1772, the area around
the Fork had become populated enough for the Spanish to create a new
church parish there: La
Parroquia de la Ascension de Nuestro Senor Jesu Christo de La
Fourche de Los Tchitimacha, located at
today's Donaldsonville. The Acadians
called their church and the area around it Ascension. The pastor of Ascension church, Father Angel de Revillagodos,
perhaps the first Spanish Capuchin to administer a parish in Louisiana, died
in the church rectory in December 1784 after serving Ascension for a dozen
years. The following year, he was replaced by Father Joachim de Ajofrin
and then by Father Pedro de Zamora. Louis
Judice served as
commandant of Lafourche des Chitimachas well into the 1790s.420
In 1772, the same year that Ascension parish was created, the Bishop
of Santiago de Cuba created another new church parish on the river above New
Orleans. St.-Jean-Baptiste des Allemands, located at
present-day Edgard, served what was now being called the Second, or
Upper, German Coast, lying between St.-Charles des Allemands and St.-Jacques parishes. The first pastor at
St.-Jean-Baptiste des Allemands was Father Bernardo de Limpach, a
Spanish Capuchin. St.-Jean-Baptiste des Allemands was not an
Acadian community, per se--most of its parishioners were Germans and
French Creoles--but Acadians living on the lower end of the Acadian
Coast appear in its registers.421
By 1773, St.-Gabriel settlement, above Ascension, had become
populated enough for a church of its own, appropriately dedicated to
St.-Gabriel. The church, still standing and the oldest wooden
church structure in the Mississippi valley, was built on the east
bank of the river, south of the old fort; the priests at
St.-Gabriel served the smaller community
on the west bank of the river as well. The first pastor at
St.-Gabriel was the priest at Ascension, Father Angel de Revillagodas,
assisted in the first years by fathers Aloysius and Louis-Marie Grumeau. In 1779, French Capuchin Father
Valentin, formerly of Pointe Coupée, St.-Jacques, and Opelousas, became pastor of the parish but left in 1782, when Father
Angel de Revillagodas again served as pastor. In 1783, French
priest Father Charles N. M. D'Hermeville
came to the parish and served as pastor for the next six years.422
Meanwhile, out on the prairie, the population around the Poste des Opelousas grew large
enough to warrant a church parish of its own. Originally a
mission at the Jacques Courtableau plantation served by
priests from Pointe-Coupée as early as 1756,
local residents had built a church perhaps at the post by 1767.
Not until 1776, however, did the area have its own church parish, dedicated first to the
Immaculate Conception and then to St.-Landry of Sées, a
fifth-century French bishop.
The parish's first pastor, French Capuchin Father Valentin, who had
long served the area from his post at Pointe Coupée and who came to
Opelousas from St.-Jacques on the river, was replaced by
another French Capuchin, Father Louis Dubourg de St. Sepulchre, in 1777. Father
Louis-Marie Grumeau, a French Dominican, came in 1779 and remained
until 1783. During the late 1770s, the
priests at Opelousas also ministered to the residents at Attakapas,
who did not have a resident priest of their own until 1781.423
Finally, after decades of neglect in Nova Scotia under Protestant
British rule, and after years of seeing few, if any priests, during
their Grand Dérangement, the Acadians of Louisiana had
churches of their own and priests to minister to their religious
needs. But, like many things in Acadian life, there was a dark
side to their Roman Catholic faith.
Whatever their devotion to the ancient religion, Acadians,
especially the
men, "refused to extend to their new pastors the reverence the
latter demanded in recognition of their social and religious
positions. Moreover, the exiles, who had awaited the priests'
arrival with anticipation, soon chafed under the new theocratic
local regime. Indeed, many Acadians families were subjected to
close scrutiny by Catholic clergymen for the first time in
generations and bitterly resented the intrusion into their daily
lives." During the late 1760s, some of the French
Capuchins who visited their settlements "shared the aristocratic
Creole's view of the exiles as ignorant peasants, definitely
socially inferior to men of the cloth." After 1770, many of
the Acadians' pastors were zealous Spaniards,
not all of whom spoke French. These factors combined to
resurrect
the Acadians' traditional anti-clericalism. Arrogant,
assertive priests who interfered in their lives joined colonial
officials in misunderstanding and then condemning the new arrivals.
"The traditional Acadian ambivalence toward the church ...
persisted: in the frontier tradition, they remained largely
self-sufficient in religious matters but were nevertheless forced to
rely upon the church for many essential services. The church's
role in their lives, however, had to be entirely passive. Any
effort by clerics to become more than a peripheral influence was
viewed as a move toward church domination, and any perceived
encroachment upon Acadian independence elicited a hostile if not
belligerent reaction." Thus, the Acadians' devotion to Roman Catholicism masked a deeper
essence in their collective souls--a stubborn independence born of long
experience on the North American frontier,
something which they shared with many of their neighbors in this
strange new land of clashing cultures.416
.
Their anti-clericalism was not the only
divisive attitude the Acadians brought with them to Louisiana.
For most of their time along the Bay of Fundy, they had lived in
harmony with the Mi'kmaq and other tribes of the region. This
changed dramatically by the early 1750s, when Abbé La Loutre
turned the Mi'kmaq against them for refusing to join the fight
against the British. As a result, many Acadians blamed their Grand
Dérangement not only on the British but also on the bellicose French
and their Indian allies. Although the Acadians of Nova Scotia
were subjects of the British king and were called by British
colonists the Neutral French, the residents of the Atlantic-coast
colonies where they had been exiled treated them as enemies; this
had as much to do with the devastating French and Indian raids along
the colonial frontiers as with their French language and Roman
Catholic religion. The Virginians, for example, taking council
of their fears, shipped off to England as soon as they could the
hundreds of Acadians that Governor Lawrence had foisted on them. The British colonies
that kept them treated them like
belligerents, not fellow subjects. Soon after they reached
Louisiana, the exiles
could see that here, too, was a hornet's nest of imperial
conflict in which the French and then the Spanish encouraged their
Indian allies to oppose the British. What the Acadians had
endured in faraway Nova Scotia was the rule, not the exception, in
Euro-Indian relations throughout North America. "This mental
framework, in which Indians were viewed paradoxically as economic
partners but also as potential military rivals, was carried to
Louisiana as part of the exiles' cultural baggage."485
Troubled
relations with the local Indians was especially acute along the
Mississippi.
On the east bank of the river, across from the Fork,
stood a village of the
Houma, who had been driven downriver from their traditional homeland
decades before. No tribe, from the days of Iberville to
the arrival of Ulloa, had been more loyal to the French than the
Houma.
In September 1767, soon after Spanish Governor Ulloa settled
200 Acadians recently arrived from Maryland on the river just above
their village, the commandant at Cabahannocer, Louis Judice,
wrote to Governor Ulloa: "For quite some time now, the Houma
Indians have wanted to go down to the city to see you. Since I
know these people to be tiresome and annoying, I have always tried
to discourage them. Today, however, I was unable to detain
them any longer. They told me that they were going to see
their father (the governor). They asked me to write you a
letter, and I was unable to deny their request. It is,
therefore, on their account that I have the honor to write you
today." The following December, Commandant Judice, in
another letter to Ulloa, alluded to Houma "insults to the Acadians." By the
early 1770s, the Acadians' growing numbers and Houma recalcitrance
led to more violence between the two peoples--a circumstance
that reminded many Acadians of the bad times back in British Nova
Scotia. Acadians living near the Fork became so
frustrated with the failure of Spanish officials, including
Commandant Judice, to curb Houma hostility that they
threatened to leave the colony. They did not leave, of course,
nor did the commandant follow through on his threats against the
tribe. By the late 1770s, Houma braves, filled with rum
purchased local Creole merchants Jean-Baptiste Chauvin, were
routinely stealing rice and corn from Acadians' fields and rustling
their hogs. The Indians then sold the hogs to the British so
that they could buy more rum from Chauvin, who hid his stash
of illegal liquor in the woods behind Ascension church.
"Emboldened by alcohol, Houma Indians raided Acadians by day and,
when their victims resisted, fired into their homes." Again,
Judice addressed the crisis by writing more letters of
complaint to the governor, first Unzaga and then Gálvez, but nothing
came of it. A respite in bad relations with the tribe occurred
during the fall of 1785, when a dozen Houma warriors helped suppress a
slave insurrection in the area. But prejudices still raged
between the two peoples, and relations soon deteriorated. "The
continuing feud and the unwillingness of local officials to
discipline unruly tribesmen heightened the frustrations of Lafourche
Valley Acadians. Intimidated by the violent tendencies
exhibited by inebriated Houma tribesmen, many settlers had watched
helplessly as their hogs--an important source of income to Acadians
east of the Atchafalaya River in the late eighteenth century--were
destroyed and a portion of their crops was removed. Seething
with anger, the Acadians awaited an opportunity to vent their
frustrations.486
Some relief for the Acadians living near the Fork came in 1788,
when a smallpox epidemic forced the surviving Houma to migrate to
lower Bayou Lafourche. However, a small band of Choctaw who
had lived with the Houma remained at Ascension. In 1789, they
made the mistake of raiding the plantation of Commandant Judice's
son and threatened to kill the younger Judice. The
aggrieved father turned to his Acadian militia for help. They
followed the commandant to his son's plantation and formed an
ambuscade in the dark. When the Choctaw confronted Judice,
the commandant gave the signal, and the Acadians sprang the trap.
Ignoring the commandant's instructions, the Acadians opened fire on
the fleeing Indians and captured five of them, which they gladly
escorted to New Orleans for trial. Other Indians in the area
noted the Acadians' warlike actions and stayed clear of them, so
much so that Acadian-Indian contact along the river and on upper
Bayou Lafourche virtually ceased.487
Acadian-Indian relations on the western prairies was a
different matter. When the Broussard party reached
Bayou Teche in the spring of 1765, the Opelousa were too few in
number to menace the Creoles and Acadians who settled in the area.
The Atakapas were a much more numerous tribe, living in villages
along the upper Teche; on the lower Vermilion River; on Bayou Queue
de Tortue, a tributary of the Mermentau River; near Lake Arthur on
the Mermentau; on lower Bayou Nezpique near its confluence with
Bayou Plaquemine Brûlé; and farther out on the Calcasieu prairies.
Among the prairie Acadians, to be sure, were families from the
Chignecto region who had suffered at the hands of Abbé Le Loutre and
his Mi'kmaq warriors, and so they would have been burdened with the
same attitude towards the Indians carried by their cousins along the
river. The Broussards and many of their kin, however, had no
such legacy of fear and distrust. The Beausoleil Broussards
were former resistance fighters who had been living in French, not
British territory, in 1755, who had never embraced neutrality, and
whose relations with the Mi'kmaq, who fought beside them, had always been friendly. The Broussards
brought this attitude with them to Louisiana, and the Atakapas
responded in kind. Tradition says that during the epidemic
that devastated the Teche valley Acadians during their first months
in the colony, local Atakapas treated them with herbal remedies, a
kindness the Acadians would have not have forgotten. The
prairie Acadians seemed to have gotten along well with the fierce Chitimacha, who lived
near them on lower Bayou Teche and along the shores of Grand Lake in the lower
Atchafalaya Basin.488
Another factor in cordial relations between the prairie
Acadians and the Atakapas was an economic tie based on cattle
raising and land acquisition. The Atakapas themselves
raised cattle and also were accomplished rustlers. By the
early 1770s, members of the tribe were providing to the Acadians
horses stolen from the Spanish in Texas. The Atakapas also
rustled cattle from Texas ranches and sold freshly-slaughtered beef
and cowhides to the Acadians, who may have encouraged the Indians to
rustle livestock for the Acadians' growing herds. As the
number of European settlers increased in the area, the Atakapas
migrated westward to the Calcasieu prairies, selling their
abandoned eastern lands to Acadians as well as to French Creoles and
Anglo Americans. The Atakapas literally were becoming
marginalized in the prairie region, which resulted in fewer contacts
with the area Acadians. The same held true for the Chitimacha,
whose determination to maintain their cultural autonomy confined
them to a small, isolated grant of land on lower Bayou Teche.489
.
When the first wave of Acadian immigration to Louisiana ended by
1770, the exiles outnumbered the socially- and economically-dominant
French Creoles in each of their communities except one.
Cabahannocer, Ascension, and St.-Gabriel on the river were being
called the Lower and Upper Acadian coasts. The Attakapas
region became
predominantly Acadian from the moment the Broussard party
arrived there during the spring of 1765; not even the creation of a
Spanish colony on lower Bayou Teche 14 years later challenged the
Acadians' numerical dominance in the Attakapas District. Only
in the Opelousas District did the Creoles outnumber Acadians,
who, despite the migration of their cousins into the district, would continue to be a minority
at Opelousas. Above the Acadian coasts lay Pointe Coupée, where few
Acadians settled. Below the Acadian coasts lay the German
coasts, where only a few Acadians lived. Fewer still remained
in the French Creole bastion at New Orleans. After the Acadian
refugees from the Britannia left Natchitoches in October
1769, none of them returned to the Red River post. Moreover, in each of the
communities in which the Acadians settled, French Creoles already
had been living there.
Acadian insularity alienated their Creole neighbors, as did the
Acadians'
poverty, stubbornness, disrespect, and their infuriating
egalitarianism. That the exiles now outnumbered them in so
many places did not endear the haughty Creoles to these "peasants"
from the north.425
But there was one thing the Acadians did possess that caught
the attention of at least one element of Creole society. The Acadians,
of course, brought daughters to Louisiana, many of whom were of marriageable age. To be sure, most of these young
Acadian women married their own kind, and, after they reached the
colony, some of them wasted little time doing it. The first recorded Acadian
marriage in Louisiana,
a Thibodeau/Bourg union,
occurred at New Orleans in late February 1765; the couple settled at
Attakapas. On the same day in early April, also in the city, a Darois
married a Bourgeois, and a Girouard married a
Trahan; they also went to Attakapas, but the Daroiss moved on
to Cabahannocer. In July, at New Orleans, a Savoie and
a Landry married and settled at Cabahannocer. In
December, again at New Orleans, a Gaudet/Bourgeois
marriage was blessed; they, too, settled at Cabahannocer, where the
co-commandants Louis Judice and Nicolas Verret oversaw
the marriage of 39 couples in their homes from the end of March 1766
through June 1768. Two of those marriages were to
non-Acadians.426
Soon after they reached the colony, then, Acadians engaged in what sociologists call exogamy;
in this case, marriage outside of ones culture.
The earliest recorded exogamous marriage in Louisiana between an
Acadian and a non-Acadian was that of Rose Thibodeau, widow
of Claude Richard, and
Jacques LaChaussée, fils from Côte-de-Beaupré,
just below Québec, at New Orleans on 17 January 1766; Rose, a native
of Beauséjour, Chignecto, came to the colony from Halifax; the couple settled at
Cabahannocer. Rose died soon after the marriage, perhaps from
the rigors of childbirth, and Jacques remarried to Acadian
Marie-Marthe LeBlanc at Cabahannocer in early February 1768.
The other exogamous marriage at Cabahannocer in its early years was
that of Saturnin Bruno, probably an Italian, and
Scholastique, called Colette, Léger in April 1768.
Another early Acadian exogamous marriage was that of Anne
Arosteguy to Bernard Capdeville of Bern, Switzerland, a
military surgeon in the Spanish army, at New Orleans on 25 February
1766; Bernard remarried to Acadian Anne Clouâtre at Pointe
Coupée in December 1768 when he was serving at Fort San Luìs de
Natchez. The first recorded marriage between an Acadian and a
Frenchman in Louisiana was that of Cécile Bergeron, widow of
Joseph Dugas,
a victim of the Attakapas epidemic of 1765, and Nicolas Lahure of Longwy, Lorraine, at New Orleans in
March 1767; they settled at Cabahannocer. Acadian women began
marrying Spaniards, most of them soldiers, soon after they reached
the colony. In March 1767, Marie Granger married Manuel
Quintero, a first sergeant in the Spanish service, at New Orleans;
the moved upriver to the Baton Rouge area in the 1770s. Marie Hébert married
Spanish soldier Agústín Moreno at Pointe-Coupée in September
1767; the couple were from Fort San Luìs de Natchez.
Marie-Françoise Boutin married Juan Antonio Segovia at
Pointe Coupée in April 1768; the couple were from Fort San Gabriel.
In September 1768, at New Orleans, Marguerite Landry married
Agústín Sierra, a master blacksmith from the Canary Islands.
The earliest recorded Acadian exogamous marriage in
the prairie districts was that of Anastasie, called Stasie,
Guénard and French Canadian Amable dit Beaulieu Bertrand
at Opelousas on 9 February 1766; a priest from Pointe Coupée
probably performed the marriage. At the end of October 1767,
Acadian Marguerite Martin dit Barnabé of Chignecto,
widow of René Robichaux, married
French surgeon Antoine Borda at the home of neighbor Michel
Doucet at Attakapas; this marriage also was performed
probably by a priest from Pointe Coupée. During the late
1760s, Madeleine Sonnier of Petitcoudiac married Joseph
Chrétien at Opelousas; Joseph became a prominent cattleman and
planter in the Grand Coteau area.
Catherine-Françoise Pitre of Opelousas married Frenchman
Pierre Joubert dit Bellerose during the 1760s.
The first
Broussard to marry a non-Acadian was Isabelle, a granddaughter
of Alexandre dit Beausoleil, who married Michel Meaux of Chaillevette,
Saintonge, France, at Attakapas in February 1770; the marriage
probably was performed by a priest from Pointe Coupée; this was the
first of Isabelle's three marriages to non-Acadian spouses.
As expected, Acadians took their time surrendering their children to
French Creoles. The first recorded marriage between an Acadian
and a French Creole in Louisiana may have been that of Marie-Modeste Savoie,
widow of Paul Léger, and Jean-Baptiste Missonnière,
"agent of College of Four Nations," at Opelousas in January 1769;
the marriage was performed by a priest from Pointe Coupée. In
June 1770, Marie-Josèphe Breau married François Moreau,
fils, at St.-Jacques. In April 1771, Marguerite
Prince married Alibamon Jean-Louise Bonin at Attakapas;
the marriage was performed by a priest from Pointe Coupée.
Marie Brasseaux married Hubert Janis at Ascension in October
1772; they moved to the Opelousas prairies. Marin Mouton
married Alibamon Marie-Josèphe Lambert of Mobile at
St.-Jacques in January 1777. Hélène Martin dit
Barnabé married Alibamon Morice Fontenot at St.-Jacques in
January 1778; Hélène's sister Isabelle married Morice's brother
Augustin at St.-Jacques three years later. In July 1772, at Attakapas,
Françoise Trahan married Jacques Fostin, fils
of Illinois; the marriage was performed by a priest from Pointe
Coupée. In
February 1784, Marie-Madeleine Bujole married Auguste, son of
former commandant Nicolas Verret, père, at Ascension,
an early, and rare, instance of an Acadian marrying into a socially-prominent
French Creole family. The earliest recorded marriage between
an Acadian and a German Creole may have been that of Marie David and
Antoine Chauffe, originally Schaaf, of St.-Charles des
Allemands, at St.-Jacques in January 1774. Later that year, at Opelousas, Michel Cormier, a widower, married
Catherine, daughter of Johann Georg Stahlin, called Stelly,
a former Swiss mercenary from Alberhausen,
Württemberg. Basile Deroche married Marie
Edelmayer, a widow, at St.-Jacques in September 1778.
It took even longer for Acadians to marry Anglo Americans. In
July 1781, Jean-Charles Comeaux, a widower living at
St.-Gabriel d'Iberville, married Anne
Catherine, called Catherine, daughter of Daniel Boush or
Bush of Virginia, at St.-Gabriel.427
South Louisiana church records reveal
483 Acadian marriages recorded during the
first 20 years of the exiles' presence in the colony. Of these
recorded marriages, 74,
or a bit over 15 percent, were exogamous. As one scholar
of the Louisiana Acadian experience attests: "... this
investigator was surprised to discover how soon and to what extent
Acadians were marrying non-Acadians." True, the great majority of
Acadians in Louisiana,
then and in the decades to follow,
married their own kind. However, the number
of these "mixed" marriages is remarkable
considering that they occurred during a time when Acadians were
struggling to establish their place in Spanish Louisiana. They
also hint that the Acadian culture was evolving into something different.428
.
Unlike in old Acadia, where the Acadians were numerically if not
politically dominant in most corners of the colony, Spanish
Louisiana contained a potpourri of exotic European cultures: French
Creoles, including Alibamons and Illinoisans; French Canadians;
recent
arrivals from France; German and Swiss Creoles; Italians and Spaniards; and even a hand full of Anglos, most
from the Carolinas and Virginia.
No matter, given the
size and the potential of the colony, Governor Unzaga and his
successors knew that Louisiana was "dangerously underpopulated." This had been true when the colony had been French; the dearth of new immigrants was a major reason why France had
ceded Louisiana to Spain. Ironically, just as France was
handing over the colony to its Bourbon ally, hundreds of Acadians
poured into Louisiana--"Frenchmen" seeking refuge in a "French"
colony--but Acadian immigration had virtually ceased by the eve of Unzaga's
governorship.
During his seven years as governor, few new immigrants came to
Louisiana.
One would think that a flood of Spaniards would have poured into the
colony after O'Reilly had suppressed the French Creoles who had
overthrown Ulloa, but it did not happen. Potential Spanish
emigrants preferred more southern climes than the recently-acquired
borderlands along the Mississippi. A dangerous people--the
aggressive English--occupied the river's opposite bank along its
entire length. A Spaniard who settled in Mexico or in another
part of New Spain, even in what was left of the Spanish domain in the
Caribbean, would not have been troubled by Englishmen living so near;
Jamaica, for instance, was no threat to Cuba and Santo Domingo. Not until
Bernardo de Gálvez had been governor for two years did Spaniards
come to Louisiana in substantial numbers, and most of them came not
from the Iberian peninsula but from Spanish-controlled islands off the coast
of west Africa.429
They were the Isleños, and they came from the Canary
Islands. When Gálvez succeeded Unzaga as governor in January
1777, he was ordered by his uncle, José de Gálvez, Minister of the
Indies, to conduct a colony-wide census, which the colony's
commandants completed in May. The results were disappointing;
the census showed that, despite the Acadian migrations of the 1760s,
the colony's population had increased but slightly since the Spanish
succeeded the French. Acadian immigration had ended in 1769,
so Gálvez had to look elsewhere for potential colonists. In
1778, he lured hundreds of Canary Islanders first to Cuba and then to lower Louisiana
aboard eight vessels. So many Isleños came to the colony, in fact, that
Gálvez was able to establish four widely separated communities for
them.429a
Gálvez sent the first contingent of Isleños to the St.-Gabriel area in January 1779. He settled
them at Gálveztown, also called Villa de Gálvez, just south
of the confluence of Bayou Manchac and the Amite River, across from
present-day Port Vincent. Anglo Americans fleeing British
forces in the area had started the remote settlement only a short
time before Gálvez came to survey the place in late November 1778.
To win the governor's favor, the Anglos named their little town
after him. After he moved the Isleños to the Amite,
Gálvez ordered them to build a fort at Gálveztown to intercept
British traders who might penetrate the Isle of Orleans via that
quarter and also to counter the build up of British defenses in the
area. The town eventually numbered "some 400 people."
Not long after its founding, Governor Gálvez sent a Spanish
missionary, Father Francisco Lopez, to the fortified outpost.
The priest boarded with the post's commandant,
Sublieutenant Francisco
Collel, and said Mass in a chapel, dedicated to San Bernardo,
that was attached to one end of the garrison's barracks. After
Father Lopez died in an epidemic that struck the settlement later in
1779, the priest from St.-Gabriel, 15 miles away, administered the
sacraments at Galveztown for most of the rest of its short history.424
Meanwhile, in early 1779,
Gálvez established a new post on upper Bayou Lafourche, near
present-day Belle Rose,
a few miles southwest of Ascension. He called the new
settlement Villa de Valenzuéla after the family of his aunt,
the wife of José de Gálvez, Spanish minister of the Indies, and
settled another contingent of Isleños there. The first
commandant at Valenzuéla was Lieutenant Gilbert-Antoine de St.-Maxent,
Governor Gálvez's father-in-law. St.-Maxent quarreled
constantly with the commandant at nearby Ascension, Louis Judice,
who claimed that Valenzuéla was part of his district. The
Spanish gave an Acadian, Anselme Blanchard of St.-Gabriel,
the contract to clear the land and build the houses for the first
settlers at Valenzuéla. Blanchard, a captain in the
Acadian Coast militia, succeeded St.-Maxent as commandant at
Valenzuéla in August 1781. He served in the position until
1784, when complaints from the
Isleños and a Spanish officer assigned to the post
led to his removal. Nicolas Verret, fils,
whose father had served as co-commandant at St.-Jacques
with Nicolas, fils's uncle-by-marriage, Louis Judice,
succeeded Blanchard. Nicolas, fils was only 33
years old when he assumed his duties as commandant of
Valenzuéla in late 1784. During
the
first year of Verret's tenure, the man who had appointed him, Governor Estevan Miró,
Gálvez's
successor, ordered
the redrawing of the boundaries between the Ascension and
Valenzuéla districts. As a result of the new survey, the
Ascension District ran not only
along the river above and below the Fork but also along both banks
of Bayou Lafourche for the first 40 arpents down from its confluence with
the Mississippi. (An arpent,
in this case, was equal to 192 feet or 64 yards in the English
measure, so 40 arpents of length would have been about 7,680 feet,
or just short of a mile and a half, though the curvature of the
bayou made it difficult to set the exact boundary between the two
districts.) The Valenzuéla District ran the rest of the way
down the bayou, the lower part of which was uninhabited only by
Indians.430
In early 1779, Gálvez sent another contingent of 42
Isleños
families to the "high" ground along Bayou Terre-aux-Boeufs, below
New Orleans. The Isleños called their settlement at
first La Conception and then Nueva Gálvez in honor of
the governor, but both names eventually gave way to San Bernardo, or
St.-Bernard, the governor's patron saint. Of the four
Isleños settlements that Gálvez established, San Bernardo was
the most successful, and the most enduring, despite frequent
flooding and the ravages of hurricanes; it also was
the only Isleños settlement in Louisiana that
survived as a Spanish-speaking community. The governor ordered
the building of a church at Nueva Gálvez soon after its
establishment, but, until 1787, the settlers were ministered to by
priests from New Orleans. In 1783, when
more Isleños reached Louisiana, Spanish authorities sent most
of them to San Bernardo, doubling the size of the settlement.
Eventually, four distinct communities grew up along the bayou.
Serving as commandant at San Bernardo from its inception was the
French Creole aristocrat who had donated land for the settlement,
Pierre de Marigny de Mandeville.431
The fourth
Isleños community was Barataria, located in the coastal
marshlands south of New Orleans. Like
Gálveztown and
Valenzuéla, Barataria did not survive, at least not as an Isleño
community.432
Not even the fifth community founded by
Gálvez remained Spanish beyond the first few generations.
In early 1779, the governor ordered Lieutenant Colonel Francisco
Bouligny to lead 600 Spaniards recently arrived from Málaga to lower Bayou Teche, where they established Nuéva Iberia
on a bend of the bayou just below the Acadian settlement at Fausse
Point. The new settlement lay 10 miles south of the Poste des Attakapas, the only
"town" in the area. Gálvez appointed Frenchman Nicolas
Forstall to succeed Bouligny as commander of the new settlement. The Spanish families who
founded
Nuéva Iberia bore the surnames de Aguilar,
Aponte or de
Puentes,
de
Artacho, Balderas, Equra, Fernández, Garcia,
Garrido (later Gary), Gomez, Gonzales,
Guerrero, Ibañes or Ybanez, de Lagos, López,
Martines, de Maura,
Mígues, Molina y Postigo, Moreno, de Ortiz,
Penalver, de Porras, de Prados, Romero, de Segura,
Selano, Vidal, and
Villatoro (later Viator). Some sources claim that
Gálvez also sent
Isleños to lower Bayou Teche. A German-American and an
Irish-American also can be found in the early rolls of the
settlement: John Abscher, whose name evolved into
Abshire, was a Pennsylvania German, and Thomas Beard was
from Londonderry, Ireland; both created families in the area. The settlers
at
Nuéva Iberia soon realized that
there was not enough room for all of them in the small Spanish
concession along the banks of the bayou, so some families moved
westward into the surrounding prairies or to the shores of nearby
Lake Tasse, today's Spanish Lake. Father Louis-Marie Grumeau
of Opelousas served as missionary to the new settlement. The Spaniards soon
assimilated with the French settlers in the area, especially with
the Acadians farther up the Teche, whose numbers dictated that
Acadian folkways would remain dominant in the area.433
.
No sooner had
Gálvez settled
the Isleños and the Malagueños
in their five communities than he had to turn his attention to a more pressing business,
something that had been stirring for years. Hundreds of
miles away, the American Revolution sputtered and raged along the
Atlantic seaboard and up in the
Illinois country. Taking advantage of an opportunity to
embarrass the British, on 24 December 1776, Spain's Minister of the
Indies, José de Gálvez, "signed a royal order that gave 'open
support to the American effort to free the Mississippi River Valley
of British domination.'" In 1778, France came into the war as an
ally of the Americans. On 8 May 1779, Spain officially declared war against Britain, and the
faraway conflict came to lower Louisiana in earnest.433b
Governor Gálvez acted swiftly. On June 25, soon after learning
of the war declaration, he wrote a circular letter to five of his
commandants in lower Louisiana:--Bellisle of the Lower German
Coast, Robin de Launay of the Upper German Coast, Cantrelle
of the Lower Acadian Coast, Judice of Lafourche, and
Declouet of the prairie districts. The governor explained
to the five commandants: "Because, in the present
circumstance, we cannot take too many precautions to resist an
invasion, or for some other operation that service could demand in
the future, I have decided that, in one case or another, I could use
militiamen and others of your commandery (who) are prepared to bear
arms; that is, only those with neither wives nor children,
(and) neither father nor mother for whom to care. Therefore, I
have prepared a list (based on the last census), which I have
enclosed...." Gálvez added: "I enjoin you to hold this
order in the greatest secrecy, so that not even the officer(s) and
soldiers themselves know of it until the exact moment when time
comes to march, (in order) to allay the alarm it would, undoubtedly,
cause, as well as to hide my plan...." Gálvez did not send
marching orders to the commandants at Arkansas, Natchitoches, Pointe
Coupée, and Rapides. They "were obliged ... to remain at their
local stations, on alert against British encroachment from the upper
reaches of the Mississippi River." The British still occupied
the east bank of the Illinois country, and the governor would have
been especially wary of the British force at Fort Panmure, Natchez,
not far above Pointe Coupée.433c
British commanders in West
Florida looked to their defenses along the lower Mississippi and
made plans to strike New Orleans from three directions, but
the Spanish struck first. In late August 1779, in the wake of
a hurricane that had devastated the region, Sublieutenant Francisco
Collel, commandant at Gálveztown, with his hand full of Spanish
regulars and his militia of Isleños and Anglo Americans,
seized seven British vessels and 125 prisoners on the Amite River
and captured Fort Graham, the British post on the Amite.
Meanwhile, despite the terrible damage from the August 18 hurricane, Governor
Gálvez moved his Spanish regulars, Indians, and New Orleans militia
from the city to Bayou Manchac, picking up the German and Acadian
coast companies on the way. Meanwhile, the Attakapas and
Opelousas companies made their way through the Atchafalaya Basin and reached Plaquemine
in time to join the governor's forces deploying across the river at Fort San
Gabriel. Accompanying the prairie companies were 15 free
blacks or mulattoes, and 16 slave "hunters" who would serve as
sharpshooters.433d
No Acadians appear in the rosters of either of the German Coast companies, but they abound in the rolls of the
Cabahannocer, Lafourche, and Attakapas companies, with a hand full
among the militia of Opelousas. Among the Cabahannocer
Acadians on Governor Gálvez's roster were Charles Bergeron,
who would have been age 23; Bonaventure Gaudin, fils,
age 24; Gilles LeBlanc, age 21; Jean Gravois, called a
Lachaussée after his stepfather, age 24; Étienne Melançon,
age 23; François-Xavier, called Xavier, Theriot, age 26;
Joseph Arceneaux, age 23; Pierre Bernard, fils,
age 21; Pierre Lambert, fils, age 32;
Jean-Baptiste Melançon, age 23; Jean-Baptiste David,
age 20; Jean-Baptiste, called Baptiste, Bourgeois, fils,
age 18; Georges Mouton, age 23; Paul Leger, age 21;
Charles Gaudet, age 27; and Joseph Bourg, age
undetermined. Yzaac Bourgeois also may have been
Acadian. Among the Lafourche Acadians were Paul Le Borgne
de Bélisle, age 16; Benjamin Landry, age undetermined;
Charles Bujeau, age undetermined; Simon LeBlanc, age
undetermined; Joseph Melançon, age 24; Joseph dit
Belhomme Landry, age 27; Pierre Landry, age 15; Joseph
Breaux, age 26; Jean-Baptiste Guidry, age 18; Pierre
Dupuis, age 29; Amand Breaux, age 25; Jean Landry,
age 27; Olivier Landry, age 26; Firmin Landry, age 19;
Joseph Landry, age 27; Jean Landry, age undetermined;
Henri, called Isidore, Robichaux, age 19; Michel Dugas,
age 22; and Joseph Landry, fils, age 16.
Strangely, only a single name appeared on the roster of the
St.-Gabriel d'Iberville militia company: Pierre Breaux,
age 38. Acadians on the Opelousas company roster included:
Joseph Sonnier, age 23; Joseph Boutin, age 26; Joseph
Lejeune, age 23; Jean-Charles Benoit, age 20;
Jean-Baptiste Lejeune, age 30; Maitre, probably Jean dit
Chapeau, Mouton, age 25; and Paul Leger, age 21,
probably the same fellow on the Cabahannocer roster. Acadian
militiamen from Attakapas included: Joseph Trahan, age
17; Mathurin Broussard, age 29; Olivier Melançon, age
19; Jean-Anselme, called Anselme, Thibodeaux, age 19; Germain
Trahan, age 27; Marin Prejean, age 29; Joseph
Prejean le jeune, age 20; Jean-Baptiste, called Baptiste,
Melançon, age 19; Jean-Baptiste, called Baptiste, Duhon,
age 20; a Baudrau, probably Boudreaux, perhaps
Augustin dit Rémi, who would have been age 24, or
Jean-Charles dit Donat, who would have been age 18; a
Louvière, either François, age 20, or brother Isidore, age 16;
Joseph-Théodore, called Théodore, Broussard, age 15;
Jean-Baptiste, called Jean, Bernard, age 17; Cosme LeBlanc,
age 19; Charles-Dominique, called Dominique, Babineaux, age
18; Théodore Thibodeaux, age 15; Michel Doucet, age
26; Pierre Doucet, age 23; Jean Doucet, age 17; and
Jean Guilbeau, called L'Officier, his father's dit,
age 23. Most of the Acadian militiamen on the governor's
rosters were, as per his orders, bachelors, some of them only a few
months away from the altar. One suspects, however, that
married Acadians hearty enough to serve ignored the governor's
orders and joined the fight against the hated British.433e
Gálvez launched his offensive against the
British during the first week of September.
His Spanish troops slipped upriver to prevent British reinforcements
from reaching Fort Bute while the militia crossed the bayou north of
Fort San Gabriel on September 7 and took Fort Bute by surprise.
An
authority on the action at Fort Bute wrote that "the
militia, particularly the Acadians, behaved splendidly." Led
by the governor's father-in-law, Antoine-Gilbert de St.-Maxent
of
Valenzuéla, the militia lost not a single man in the assault.
Later that month, on September 21, Gálvez, with his small body of Spanish regulars
and his trusty militia, captured Fort New Richmond at Baton Rouge
after a spirited fight. Meanwhile, an American privateer,
William Pickles, captured a British armed vessel in Lake
Pontchartrain and denied the British at Baton Rouge that avenue of
escape. Soon after the fall of Baton Rouge, the British
commander of Fort Panmure at Natchez surrendered to Captain Jean
Delavillebeuvre without a fight. By early October, after a
month-long offensive, the
lower Mississippi valley was entirely clear of British troops and
vessels.433a
Amazingly, Gálvez's force
suffered only two casualties in its onslaught against the British on
the lower Mississippi--both of them Acadians. Jean-Baptiste dit Petit-Jean
Hébert, in his late 30s, was in the Second
Company of the St.-Gabriel militia, and Maturin Landry, in
his mid-40s, served in the Lafourche (Ascension) company. Both
men survived their wounds. In contrast, the British lost 36
dead, 10 wounded, and 485 captured at their three forts.
Another authority on the campaign writes: "In his account to
the court of the campaigns on the lower Mississippi in 1779, Gálvez
demonstrated great pleasure in the zeal displayed by the Louisiana
militia in all of their engagements. He singled out the
Acadian companies, in whom burned the memory of English cruelty in
the Seven Years' War, which forced them to abandon their homes in
Canada." When Gálvez, now a field marshal, attacked the
British at Mobile in February 1780, he took his Acadian militia with
him. Again, the exiles tasted sweet revenge against their
former oppressors.434
.
The second Treaty of Paris
of September 1783 ending the American War for Independence removed the troublesome British from the
lower Mississippi valley,
but they were soon replaced by an even more aggressive people who
claimed the Baton Rouge area for themselves. Anglo Americans
soon appeared there in ever growing numbers. St.-Gabriel
Acadians, meanwhile, moved north of Bayou Manchac into the
once-forbidden zone around old Fort Bute. Across the river,
Acadians moved up the west bank into the area north of Bayou
Plaquemine. Because of restrictive Spanish policies,
however, these emigrants from the Acadian coasts would have been few
in number.435
Farther downriver, "As the population density of the First and
Second Acadian Coasts grew in the 1770s and early 1780s, at least
eighteen families, the patriarchs of which usually could expect not
more than a small, practically uninhabitable slice of their parents'
estate, capitalized upon the easing of Spanish restrictions on
intracolonial movement by migrating to the virtually unchartered
central and lower Lafourche Valley," below the Isleños
settlement at
Valenzuéla.437
Out on the prairies, new Acadian communities appeared in the Attakapas District at Grand Prairie; along the
Vermilion River down towards the bay;
at the western edge of the district along Bayou
Queue de Tortue; at Beaubassin on upper Bayou Vermilion; on the
northern edge of the district at Carencro, west of Beaubassin; and
along the Teche above La Pointe towards the Opelousas boundary and
below Fausse Pointe and the new Spanish settlement at
Nuéva Iberia. In the Opelousas District, Acadians
were settling
at the southeastern edge of the district
near
Grand Coteau and on Prairie des Femmes; farther out on the prairies
along Bayou Plaquemine Brûlé; even farther out on the Mermentau,
Faquetaique, and Mamou prairies along bayous Mallet, des Cannes, and
Nezpique; and along the Mermentau River--all excellent places for
raising cattle.436
map
Despite these intracolonial movements, the continued presence of
native tribes, and the arrival of hundreds of
Spanish immigrants, much of the arable land in lower Louisiana remained unoccupied. This was
especially true along both banks of the Mississippi north
of bayous Manchac and Plaquemine, out on the prairies, and along
Bayou Lafourche, so the
colony could easily accommodate hundreds of more immigrant farmers.
King Carlos III saw this clearly. Despite the reluctance of
Spaniards to settle in Louisiana, he
was determined to send more settlers there, even if they were
not Spanish.436a
La
Nouvelle-Acadie: The Seven Ships Expeditions, 1785-86
Estevan
Rodriguez Miró y Sabater served as provisional governor of Louisiana
from 1782, when Gálvez, now governor of Louisiana and Mobile, returned to Havana and remained there.
As a reward for his victories against the British, Gálvez
had been named a conde, or count, in 1781 and was promoted to
Viceroy of New Spain three years later.
Miró succeeded him as governor in July 1785. At the time, Louisiana's
intendente was Felix Martín
Antonio, called Martín, Navarro,
a native of La Caruna, who had come to the colony with
Ulloa as his treasurer. There was no intendente in Spanish Louisiana until 1779, when Navarro was
appointed to that position. By the time of his promotion, no Spaniard knew Louisiana and its
people as well as Intendente Navarro.438
On 22
October 1783, King Carlos III issued a royal decree, called a sedula, approving a
scheme offered to Spain by Frenchman and former resident of
Louisiana Henri-Marie Peyroux de la Coudrenière to transport the
hundreds of Acadians still languishing in France to Spanish
Louisiana. Both the Spanish ambassador to France, Don Pedro
Pablo Abarca de Bolea, Count de Aranda, and the Spanish consul at
St.-Malo, Manuel d'Asprès, sent copies of the royal order to interim
Governor
Miró, who assigned to Intendente Navarro the task of "making
proper provisions for the Acadians" when they reached the colony.
Navarro also was tasked with overseeing the settlement of each new
family.
"As Governor Ulloa's subordinate in the late 1760s, Navarro had
witnessed the disastrous consequences of thwarting the exiles' dream
of sociocultural reunification. Rather than dictate settlement
policy to the exiles in the manner of the ill-fated chief executive,
he resolved to permit the Acadian immigrants to select their own
homesites. Drawing upon his twenty years of experience in
dealing with the exiles, he sought to secure their full cooperation
by establishing and maintaining good rapport with them." Aware
of the trauma of transatlantic travel, the dramatic change in
climate and food, and "the Acadian scourge--smallpox," Navarro
established dormitories and hospitals at Algiers, across the river
from New Orleans, one hospital for males in the royal stables,
the other, newly built, for females. He also "added wet nurses
and orderlies to the clinic staff" to make the hospitals more
efficient. While the new Acadian arrivals recuperated at Algiers, taking at least a month to do
so, the intendente, in command of the royal warehouses at New
Orleans, would issue to each family head the necessary tools and
implements with which to work their homesteads. When the time
came for the Acadians to leave Algiers, the intendente
would hire "a small flotilla of launches and barges" to convey them
to their new settlements.439
.
On 24 June
1785, Count de Aranda sent dispatches to Governor
Miró and Intendente Navarro informing them that the first
ship load of Acadians from France was on the way. Le Bon
Papa, a 280-ton frigate under Captain Pelletier, with 156 passengers aboard,
had left Paimboeuf, the port of Nantes,
on May 10 and was halfway across the Atlantic. Navarro was in
Mexico when he received the message and hurried back to New Orleans.
He
appointed Anselme Blanchard of St.-Gabriel, recently
commandant on the upper Lafourche, as a salaried commissioner "not
only to welcome the exiles to New Orleans in the name of Spanish
Louisiana but also to grant them entry into the province."
Blanchard's primary task was to supervise the settlement of his
fellow Acadians, some of whom would be his own relatives. He
was to assure them "that it was the wish of the Spanish government
that they should have full liberty in the selection of their future
abodes."440
Le Bon
Papa reached Louisiana on July 29, after 80 days at sea.
Blanchard greeted the 36 families at Balize and escorted them
upriver to the dormitories at Algiers. There, he made a
detailed list of all of the passengers, organized by families.
Blanchard, who spoke Spanish as well as French, was ordered
to record the names in Spanish, but he did his best to retain the
French inflections. On the Bon Papa passenger list were
many Acadian names already found in the colony: Babin,
Benoit, Boudrot, Bourg, Braud,
Broussard, Daigre, Doiron, Dugas,
Gautrot, Guédry, Hébert, Labauve, Landry,
LeBlanc, Léger, Lejeune, Trahan,
Vincent. But many "new" Acadian names also appeared:
Aucoin, Barrieau, Dumont, Grossin,
Haché, Henry, Lebert, Legendre, Pinet
dit Pinel, Quimine, Templé, Usé.
Non-Acadian names, most belonging to French spouses of Acadians,
also could be found aboard Le Bon Papa: Chiquet, Courtney,
LeTullier, Stebens. Soon after
the Acadians reached Algiers, Navarro granted a subsidy of 10 cents
to every family head, seven and a half cents to every adult, and two
and a half cents to every child, to be used to purchase the small
necessities of life. Amazingly, only a single passenger, an
infant, had died on the voyage, but the change in climate soon began
to take its toll on the new arrivals. Ten Acadians died at
Algiers, and three deserted. Towards the end of their month of
recuperation, Navarro ordered Juan Prieto, custodian of the royal
warehouses, to issue each family "meat cleavers, axes, hatchets,
hoes, spades, and knives according to the number of active workers
in each family"--something he would do for each expedition. Meanwhile, Commissioner Blanchard
escorted deputies from among the family heads to inspect available
land on upper Bayou Lafourche, and at Bayougoula on the west bank
and Manchac on the east bank of the river in the District of St.-Gabriel d'Iberville. Back at Algiers, the deputies conferred with
the family heads, and each selected his or her new home. One
family chose to go to Bayou
Lafourche. Another, headed by a widow, chose to await the arrival
of her oldest son before going on to Opelousas. The other family heads chose to
settle in the St.-Gabriel District,
six of them at Bayougoula, 27 of them at Manchac. Having
hired launches on which to convey the passengers, river guides, and
river hands from André Chiloque and Arnaud Magnon at four dollars a
day, and two barges from Étienne Plauche to carry the Acadians' baggage
at two and a half dollars per day, Blanchard led the
expedition upriver on August 25. At each new settlement,
Blanchard "first secured temporary housing with established
settlers for the immigrants and then apportioned land grants of four
or five arpents among the exiles. Blanchard remained
with the immigrants until they were moved onto their lands," and
soon the new arrivals were putting their tools and implements to
good use.441
Navarro's
scheme of settlement had gone off without a hitch. He had
establish the pattern he would follow for each expedition. As soon as
he could, he notified minister José de
Gálvez
that the first expedition was settled. The intendente
described Manchac as "'a wilderness,'" but he assured the minister
that it would be "'an excellent site for the exportation of fruit.'"
Unfortunately, back at Paimboeuf, Consul D'Asprès, "anxious to win a
reputation for economical efficiency," had already assured that the
next expedition would not be so successful.442
.
The second
ship, the 300-ton frigate La Bergère under Captain Deslandes, was
20 tons larger than Le Bon Papa. Upon the departure
of Le Bon Papa carrying so many of their relatives,
Acadian indifference to the Spanish re-settlement scheme had suddenly given
way to enthusiasm. Hearing the reports from
Peyroux de la Coudrenière and his Acadian assistant, Olivier
Térriot, d'Asprès was convinced
that all of the Acadians still in France--2,300 of
them--were now eager to leave the mother country and join their
kinsmen in Louisiana.
On May 7, three days before the departure of Le Bon Papa,
d'Après booked 273 passengers, in 73 families, for La Bergère--117
more than would cross on Le Bon Papa! He called a
meeting at his residence of the 73 family heads and suggested that
they elect five leaders among them "whose duty it would be to police
the ship and distribute rations." D'Asprès had organized the
expedition in haste, and among the passengers were Acadians who, a
few years before, had
argued bitterly over settling on Corsica. "To preserve peace
aboard ship," d'Asprès "bade the 73 family heads ... to promise
obedience" of their elected leaders "under punishment of expulsion
at New Orleans" if caused any trouble on the voyage. The
family heads chose Olivier Térriot, Charles Dugas,
Charles Aucoin, Simon Dugas, and Étienne Dupuy
to lead them. According to Térriot, the Dugass
and Aucoin "were 'well fixed financially,'" but Dupuy,
Térriot knew, "was 'as poor as myself.'"443
La
Bergère left Paimboeuf on May 12, only two days after Le Bon
Papa left the same port, and reached Louisiana, also without mishap, on August 15
after 93 days at sea. The Bon Papa passengers were
still at Algiers when La Bergère reached the colony, so
Anselme Blanchard was able to greet the newest arrivals and
record another debarkation list. Seven children had been
born en route, and six elderly passengers had been buried at sea.
La Bergère's passenger list included many Acadian names
already in the colony, including "new" names found among the Bon
Papa arrivals: Aucoin, Barrieau,
Blanchard, Boudrot, Bourg, Brasseur,
Braud, Comeau, Daigle, Doiron, Dugas,
Dupuy/Dupuis, Gautrot, Giroir,
Granger, Hébert, Henry, Landry, LeBlanc,
LePrince, Pitre, Richard, Thériot,
Trahan. But more new Acadian names also graced the list:
Bertrand, Chaillou, Duplessis, Guérin, Guillot,
Livois, Mazerolle, Noël, Ozelet, Potier,
Savary, Ségoillot.
And more non-Acadians crossed on this ship, bearing the names Friou, LeTullier, Mollard,
Moreau, Orry. The dormitories at
Algiers were still occupied, so Intendente Navarro had to
convert the customhouse at New Orleans into a temporary barracks for
the new arrivals. While recuperating in the city, 12
more babies were born and four marriages were celebrated.
Unfortunately, nine more La Bergère passengers died in the
city from the rigors of the voyage and the oppressive heat and
humidity of the late Louisiana summer.444
The
Bergère passengers lingered at New Orleans longer than anticipated.
They did so not only because of the rigors of the voyage and the
adjustment to the new climate, but also because of an oversight on
the part of Consul d'Asprès back in France. To Navarro's chagrin, the consul
had failed to send with the Bergère passengers their trunks
and other personal baggage, so important to their resettlement in
Louisiana. Navarro assumed that the baggage would arrive
aboard the third expedition, but not even the fourth ship, which
arrived on September 10, carried the personal items that should have
been loaded back in early May; the last of the Bergère
baggage did not reach the colony, in fact, until a seventh ship
arrived in late December. Anselme Blanchard,
meanwhile, was still supervising the settlement of the Bon Papa
passengers at Manchac, so Intendente Navarro hired Jean
Cambeau, at 40 cents a day, to guide the "surveyors" for the
Bergère families to the unoccupied lands upriver. The
Acadians could not decide where to establish their villages, so Navarro sent veteran
officer Pedro Aragon y Villegas to advise them. After much
thought and deliberation, most of the Bergère Acadians--67
families of 242 individuals--selected Bayou Lafourche as their new
home. At that time, the Lafourche valley contained the largest
expanse of unsettled territory near the Acadian coasts, where many
of the new arrivals had relatives. The Bergère Acadians
heading for the bayou left Algiers on October 4, and Intendente
Navarro "closed his books on the expedition" four days later.
These Acadians were not the first of their kind to occupy the
natural levees along the upper Lafourche, but, thanks to their arrival
in such impressive numbers, no other Acadian community would grow so
large so quickly.445
Not all of
the Bergère passengers went to Bayou Lafourche. Several
families chose to join relatives in the prairie districts, but they
were forced by illness to linger at New Orleans longer than the others.
Not until November 13 did Pedro Aragon y Villegas conduct them to
Opelousas and Attakapas aboard the goleta San José, which
followed the usual route via Bayou Plaquemine and the Atchafalaya
Basin to Bayou Courtableau and the upper Teche. Meanwhile, one
family from La Bergère chose to settle at Manchac.446
.
The third ship, Le
Beaumont, a 180-ton frigate of medium size and late
construction, was smaller than the other two vessels and also much
faster. So many Acadians now were eager to join the expedition
that when a family of four dropped out before the ship's departure,
hundreds of Acadians offered to take their place. The most
distinguished passenger aboard Le Beaumont was not an
Acadian. Henri-Marie Peyroux de la Coudrenière, the organizer
of the Acadian odyssey from France, was accompanied by his wife,
Prudence-Françoise Rodrigue, a niece, servant Louis-François
Montréal, and a friend named Le Cat. Because of his status, Peyroux
was designated leader of the expedition. The Spanish also gave
him a daily stipend, running from August 1784 to May 1785, and paid
for his family's transportation.447
With 176 passengers aboard, Le Beaumont left Paimboeuf on
June 11, while the other two vessels were still at sea, and reached
Louisiana during the third week of August only a few days behind
La Bergère. Le Beaumont did not remain at Balize
but continued up to New Orleans, which it reached on August 19--a
swift 70-day voyage.
According to a student of the Seven Ships' expeditions, "The
greater part" of the Acadians aboard the smaller frigate "was made
up of small families and newly married couples." Acadians who
crossed on
Le Beaumont bore many surnames that already could be
found in the colony: Benoit, Bernard, Boudrot,
Bourg, Braud, Broussard, Comeau,
Daigre, Doiron, Dugas, Duhon, Forest,
Gautrot, Granger, Guédry, Hébert,
Henry, Lalande, Lebert, LeBlanc, Lejeune,
Martin, Michel, Pitre, Potier,
Richard, Robichaud, Trahan, Vincent.
But there also were new Acadian family names on the frigate's
passenger list: Arbour, Bellemère, Clossinet,
De La Forestrie, Dubois, LaGarenne, Lavergne,
Molaison, Patry. And there were other
non-Acadian names among the Beaumont passengers, most of them
spouses, or soon-to-be spouses, of Acadians: Betancourt,
Blandin, Cabon, Caillouet, Costa,
Courtin, Garcia, Holley, Valet.448
Intendente
Navarro appointed Pedro Aragon y Villegas as commissioner for the
Beaumont Acadians and instructed Anselme Blanchard to
help prepare quarters for the new arrivals in New Orleans;
the dormitories at Algiers and the customhouse in the city were too
overcrowded to accommodate them. While the Beaumont
Acadians recuperated in the city, the intendente supervised
the marriages of three Acadian girls to three non-Acadians who also
had crossed on the frigate, perhaps as members of the crew.
Four Beaumont passengers died at New Orleans, two deserted,
and a baby was born to one of the families. Meanwhile, "The
surveyors of this group lost no time in determining the sites for
their future homes. After two weeks of reconnoitering they
decided upon Baton Rouge." Forty-one families with 145 members
approved of the selection,
some preferring the east bank north of Bayou Manchac, others the
west bank north of Bayou Plaquemine. Four families with
19 members chose to go to Bayou Lafourche, and four families with 20
members elected to join relatives in the Attakapas District.
Two families with eight members chose crowded St.-Jacques on the
Lower Acadian Coast.
During the first week of September, after a short recuperation
period, the Beaumont Acadians were ready to move on to their
new homes.449
Having been promised further rewards by the Spanish, Henri-Marie Peyroux
de la Coudrenière asked Intendente Navarro to appoint him captain and to give him
command
of the Baton Rouge District, where "his" Acadians had gone.
Peyroux received his captaincy, but
Navarro and Governor Miró, who probably were not charmed by the
smooth-talking Frenchman,
sent him,
instead, to Ste.-Geneviève, in the Illinois country, and appointed
Spanish officer Joseph Vasquez Vahamonde to command at Baton Rouge.449a
.
The fourth expedition,
that of the 400-ton frigate St.-Rémi, would be the largest,
and the least successful, of the seven expeditions. Again,
Consul d'Asprès was at fault. Though a
much larger ship than the other three,
Le St.-Rémi
was dangerously overcrowded when it left St.-Malo. This was
the first of two expeditions scheduled to transport Acadians from
that port, which once held the largest concentration of the exiles
in France. After the failure of the Poitou venture during the
1770s, the many Acadians who had gone there from the St.-Malo area
had retreated to Nantes, and there they remained. Still,
dozens of Acadian families still living in the villages around
St.-Malo also had signed up to resettle in Louisiana.
Unfortunately, d'Asprès ignored his previous dictum about
overcrowding and allowed families to sign up for the expedition
"regardless of health conditions." Anxious to leave before the
end of June, he called a convocation of the family heads on June 19.
They chose their leaders and made their rules for shipboard conduct
and the distribution of rations.450
Le St.-Rémi, under Captain Nicolas Baudin, left St.-Malo on June 27,
13 days after Le Beaumont had departed Paimboeuf, on the
other side of Brittany.
Evidently Le St. Rémi sailed around to Paimboeuf to pick up
passengers from Morlaix who had congregated at the port of Nantes.
D'Asprès thus allowed 323 Acadians and their belongings to be
carried aboard the ship, as well as baggage for the
Acadians who had crossed on La Bergère. "As a
result of that unhealthy congestion, smallpox broke out during the
voyage and carried away twelve children. Scurvy caused the
deaths of three women." The big frigate
reached Louisiana on September 10 after a 75-day voyage, but the
nightmare was not yet over.
Le St.-Rémi ran aground
in the channel at Balize. Sixteen more passengers died of
smallpox aboard the stranded vessel, and there was "much sickness in
their camp at New Orleans." The city, by now, was overwhelmed
by the sheer numbers of immigrants, with more on the way. Intendente Navarro ordered the construction of "a wooden hall
200 by 26 feet, capable of housing 800 people" at Algiers to accommodate the
current and future arrivals. It was still summer in lower
Louisiana, and the St.-Rémi passengers also suffered from the
excessive heat as well as the strange food they were compelled to
eat. The large numbers of sick passengers from the vessel,
especially among the women, overwhelmed the two hospitals for the
Acadians at Algiers. Navarro ordered the enlargement of the
women's hospital to 45 beds. Aware of the Acadians' repugnance
of French hospitals, he called the expanded women's facility
Community House and made it independent of the hospitals in the
city. Sadly, "the change of climate carried off many Acadian
mothers. Navarro, in his solicitude for the Acadians, hired
wet-nurses to care for their motherless babies." He
also provided extra assistance for the elderly passengers who had
fallen ill.451
Again, the great
majority of the Acadians aboard Le St.-Rémi bore family names
familiar in the colony: Aucoin, Barrieau,
Bellemère, Benoit, Blanchard, Boudrot,
Bourg, Braud, Comeau, Daigle, Darois,
De La Forestrie, Dugas, Duhon, Gautrot,
Granger, Guédry, Guérin, Guillot,
Haché, Hébert, Henry, Labauve, Landry,
Lebert, LeBlanc, Lejeune, LePrince,
Levron, Livois, Michel, Pitre, Richard,
Robichaud, Saulnier, Thériot, Thibodeau,
Trahan, Vincent. But there were new Acadian
family names aboard this vessel also: Carret,
Clémenceau, Clément, Darembourg, Hamon,
Moïse, Naquin. Non-Acadian family names on the
passenger list included French spouses, or soon to be spouses, of
some of the Acadians in the expedition: Bedel,
Billardin, Bonfils, Boutary, Garnier, Judice,
Juon,
Lecoq, Macle,
Metra. When Spanish authorities compiled a debarkation
list for Le St.-Rémi, they discovered 16 stowaways, many of
them young Frenchmen "engaged" to Acadian girls.452
By early October, most of the sick passengers had regained their
health. "The camp bustled again with activity: elections
of surveyors, discussions on future settlements, the admission of
nineteen new adherents, and the celebration of eight births and five
marriages." By this time, Intendente Navarro had served as
godfather to many of the Acadian children born at Algiers and New
Orleans. "His kindness made the exiles very happy. But
when he consented to be godfather for all Acadian babies whether
born aboard ship or in camp at New Orleans, or during the trip up
the Mississippi River, he won the heart of every one of the exiles.
From that time on the Acadians loved him as a member of 'their
nation.'"453
As soon as most of them
had recovered from their illness, Navarro called a meeting of the
St.-Rémi family heads and offered them a proposition. He
had heard that Acadians were good carpenters, so he
offered to pay them a subsidy of $100 for constructing their own
houses. "Because they were an honest people, he told them, he
was confident that they would build their homes with thrift, avoid
waste of time, and use only the best materials. To show his
appreciation of their co-operation, he would grant them permission
to apply any savings in time and material to purchase cattle for
their farms." The St.-Rémi Acadians heartily endorsed
the plan.454
In early October, the
surveyors for the St.-Rémi expedition returned to their camp
and recommended settlement on Bayou Lafourche, where most of their
La Bergère compatriots had gone.
Two
St.-Rémi
families chose to join relatives at Attakapas, and two individuals
elected to settle at Nueva Gálvez below New Orleans and at Baton
Rouge,
but the great majority of them--85 families with 303 members--agreed to go
to Bayou Lafourche. The intendente tasked
Anselme Blanchard with settling these hundreds of his fellow
Acadians along the lower stretches of the bayou. Blanchard had to wait, however, for
more of the St.-Rémi Acadians to be well enough to travel.
On December 16, after the heads of families received their tools and
implements, Blanchard assembled
on the levee at Algiers
the expedition members well enough to travel and loaded them aboard
the
San José, recently returned from the prairies, on launches
hired from
André Chiloque and Arnaud Magnon, and on a boat leased from Josef de
la Puente, for the journey upriver and then down the Lafourche.455
.
The fifth expedition,
that of the 400-ton frigate L'Amitié, sometimes called by its
Spanish name La Amistad, was the third to depart Paimboeuf.
The four previous expeditions had left Paimboeuf and St.-Malo in May
and June. L'Amitié, whose embarkation d'Asprès had
entrusted to his vice-consul, Luìs Landaluze, had been scheduled to
depart Paimboeuf in late June, but the big frigate did not set sail until
eight days after the sixth ship, La Ville d'Archangel, an
even larger frigate, left St.-Malo on August 12. The delay
resulted from dozens of Acadians in the St.-Malo area failing to
depart on La Ville d'Archangel. Only six expeditions
had been planned in the beginning, but d'Asprès and the Count de
Aranda had already realized that there would be dozens, perhaps
hundreds, of
"leftovers," requiring more ships. Landaluze held up
the sailing of L'Amitié so that these "leftovers" would not
become too numerous, but he resisted d'Asprès's efforts to pack the
ship with as many as passengers as had sailed on the overcrowded
St.-Rémi. When L'Amitié left Paimboeuf on August 20
it carried "only" 270 passengers--260 adults and 10
children--slightly less than had crossed aboard La Bergère, a
smaller ship. Among the passengers aboard L'Amitié were
more relatives of
Peyroux de la Coudrenière, who had crossed on Le Beaumont with
the third expedition and awaited his kinsmen at Ste.-Geneviève.456
L'Amitié, under
Captain Joseph Beltremieux, reached New Orleans on November 8. Despite Landaluze's efforts to limit the
number of passengers aboard L'Amitié, there was "much
sickness during the voyage...." Six were buried at sea, and 27
arrived in the colony "very sick. But once they landed they
recovered rapidly," so the expedition was largely a successful one.
Amazingly, no passenger in the L'Amitié expedition died in
the camp at Algiers. Moreover, there were 17 marriages, 10
births, and 24 "adherents."457
The large number of
marriages was the result of Intendente Navarro's efforts to
marry off the many Acadian women of marriageable age who had come to
the colony without husbands. As on Le St.-Rémi, a
number of stowaways,
most of them love-struck young Frenchmen "engaged" to Acadian girls,
12 this time, crossed on L'Amitié.
Navarro also had been informed that a number of sailors aboard the
ships had fallen in love with Acadian girls but feared that marrying
them at New Orleans would end their wives' subsidies from the
Spanish crown. Navarro had no instructions from his superiors
about encouraging marriage among the new settlers, but he understood
the importance of stable families in promoting the interests of the
colony. "To encourage all bachelor immigrants to enter
marriage with Acadian girls, he published two guarantees:
first, to the stowaways and sailors, the right to settle in
Louisiana; and second, to any local bachelor, the right of family
head with a continuation of the usual subsidy from the government."
The result was a spectacular increase in Acadian marriages.
"From November 20 to December 19, 1785, there was much festivity
among the Acadians. Back in Acadia a marriage was an event of
communal celebration. And the Acadians clung tenaciously to
their 'national' traditions. The occasion of a marriage called
for dancing, games, and a rehearsal of their national history,
accompanied with the usual drink of beer, cider, or 'café noir.' And
this was a special occasion." This further endeared the
Spanish intendente to the Acadians.458
Members of the
Amitié expedition bore the usual ratio of established and "new"
Acadian surnames. The established names included Aucoin,
Babin, Barrieau, Benoit, Bertrand,
Blanchard, Boudrot, Bourg, Braud,
Broussard, Chiasson, Comeau, Daigle,
Damour, Doucet, Dubois, Dugas, Duhon,
Durel, Forest, Gautrot, Giroir,
Granger, Guillot, Haché, Hamon, Hébert,
Landry, LeBlanc, Léger, Lejeune,
Levron, Molaison, Moïse, Olivier, Part,
Pinet, Pitre, Potier, Quimine,
Richard, Semer, Templé, Thériot,
Thibodeau, Trahan, Vincent. New Acadian
surnames aboard the vessel were Bonnevie, Crochet,
Dantin, De La Mazière, Fouquet, Gousman,
Neveu,
Précieux, Rassicot, Renaud. Non-Acadian
names among the passengers, some of them spouses of Acadians, many
of them stowaways, included Adam, Albert, Avarat,
Ayo,
Bénard, Boucite,
Charrié, De La Garde, Drapeau,
Fardy, Galletier, Hainement, Jacques,
Joanne, Laurenty, LeFaibre, LeTullier,
Ménard, Metra, Simon, Valois, Viaud, Videt.459
The Amitié
Acadians' quick recovery from the trauma of their transatlantic
voyage allowed them to remain only briefly in the camp at Algiers.
Some of them--a dozen families with 37 members--chose to settle at
Nueva Gálvez below New Orleans. One, a bachelor, went to Baton
Rouge; two newlyweds went to Bayou des Écores, above Baton Rouge;
four families with 10 members, including Jean-Baptiste Semer's
relatives, went to Attakapas to join their brother/nephew there; and one,
an Acadian stowaway, joined his widowed mother and siblings at
Opelousas.
The great majority of the Amitié contingent, however--71
families with 224 members--chose Bayou Lafourche as their new home.
Juan Prieto, manager of the King's warehouses, issued tools and
implements to most of the heads of families on December 15, so the
224 Acadians from Amitié going to Lafourche may have accompanied the 303
Acadians from Le St.-Rémi who left Algiers for the bayou on December 16--527 Acadians in all!
After all of these Acadians reached their homesites on the bayou,
the population of the Valenzuéla District more than doubled.
Some L'Amitié passengers left for their homesites on
December 16, but the rest of them--the ones going to
Nueva Gálvez and
newlyweds who Navarro allowed to
remain longer in camp--did not leave for their settlements
until the
middle of January.460
.
The sixth expedition
was actually the fifth ship to leave France, the fifth to reach
Louisiana, and the second to depart from St.-Malo. La Ville
d'Archangel, at 600 tons, also was the largest of the Seven
Ships. The big frigate, under Captain LeGoaster, left St.-Malo
on August 12, eight days before L'Amitié left Paimboeuf.
Aboard were 309 passengers, second in number only to what the
overcrowded St.-Rémi had carried in June. The
expedition had been ready to leave St.-Malo in early July, but
contrary winds delayed its departure for a month. At first,
Luìs Landaluze was tasked with organizing the expedition, but Consul
d'Asprès took over before the ship set sail. The large number
of Acadian petitioners who had recently come forth, totaling 378
potential passengers, compelled the consul to employ a larger ship
for the second expedition out of St.-Malo, but prudence dictated
that not all of the petitioners should be taken at once. Thus,
a seventh expedition was required to accommodate the "left overs"
from St.-Malo. In spite of the crowded conditions aboard La
Ville d'Archangel, d'Asprès was compelled to squeeze aboard
another passenger, "a distinguished French colonist," Duhamel
Deschenais.461
A larger ship with so
many passengers required a longer passage across the Atlantic, so
La Ville d'Archangel did not reach Louisiana until November 4,
after 85 days at sea. The long crossing caused the ships'
provisions to run out days before the voyage ended, so
La Ville d'Archangel reached the colony with 38 "very
sick passengers" aboard. It also ran aground in the muddy
channel at the mouth of the river. Apprised of the ship's
arrival and the condition of the passengers, Intentende
Navarro "promptly rushed water, provisions, medical supplies, and
extra help so that by November 11" the ship was able to enter the
main channel of the Mississippi. At that time, Acadians from
Le St.-Rémi and L'Amitié still occupied the camp at
Algiers, so the intendente ordered the big frigate, with its
passengers still aboard, to make the 110-mile journey up to the
city, which it reached on December 3--the sixth expedition to
disembark at New Orleans. Having closely observed the behavior
of the Acadians in the previous expeditions as well as those who
been living in the colony for the past two decades, he was fully
aware of their spirit of independence and their amazing
stubbornness. He boarded
La Ville d'Archangel as soon as it docked
and spoke to the new arrivals. He was glad to see that, except
for the 38 sick passengers, the others were in tolerable health.
He reviewed for them the pact they had made with the Spanish King
over the cost of their transportation to the colony and their
settlement there. He explained to them the protocols they were
expected to follow once they disembarked, and he asked for their
co-operation. The expediton's leaders thanked the
intendente "graciously for his welcome and instructions.
They told him that the expedition was unanimous in its belief that
'at long last' it had found 'its day of peace and prosperity.'
They promised him as chiefs of the expedition faithfully to fulfill
to the best of their ability all matters he had outlined in his
speech. They assured him that everyone was eager to begin the
work of colonization as soon as he would permit possession of the
land their surveyors had chosen." Navarro then turned to Pedro
Aragon y Villegas, commissioner for the Acadians in New Orleans, and
ordered him to escort the healthy passengers to their camp in the
city. The 38 sick passengers he sent not to a city hospital
but to the Community House he had built for the Acadians at Algiers.
Sadly, despite the extraordinary care, 15 of the passengers died.462
While the surveyors
from La Ville d'Archangel looked at empty land along the
river between New Orleans and Pointe Coupée, Navarro did what he
could to encourage more marriages. Most of the 53 families in
the expedition were large ones, and many of the "children" were of marriageable age. Navarro also served as
godfather for two of the expedition's newborns. Again, the
passenger list of La Ville d'Archangel contained the usual
mix of Acadian surnames already established in Louisiana and new ones not yet seen in the
colony, though the number of new ones, understandably, was much
lower than in previous expeditions. The established
names included Aucoin, Babin, Boudrot, Bourg,
Braud, Clossinet, Comeau, Daigle,
Dugas, Dupuy, Forest, Gaudet, Giroir,
Granger, Guédry, Guérin, Hébert,
Henry, Landry, LeBlanc, Melanson,
Molaison, Moïse, Pitre, Richard,
Saulnier, Thériot, Thibodeau, Trahan.
The Aucoins were especially numerous. The new Acadian
surnames were Arcement, Longuépée, and Mius
d'Entremont. Non-Acadian names, mostly those of French
spouses, included Aillet, Billeza, Briand, Hervé,
Langlinais, Le Lorre, Nogues, Richer.
Two of the passengers deserted, but 11 new adherents joined the
expedition, and seven marriages among the passengers increased the
number of
families in the expedition.463
The surveyors from
La Ville d'Archangel recommended two places of settlement:
Bayou Lafourche, where nearly 800 of their fellow Acadians had gone,
and Bayou des Écores, present-day Thompson Creek, which the Spanish
called Rio Feliciana, north of Baton Rouge in the new Spanish
district of Feliciana. By late December, members of expedition
had recuperated enough to proceed to their new homes.
Most of them--53 families with 271 members--chose Bayou des Écores,
six families with 21 members elected to join the many other Acadians
on Bayou Lafourche, and a family of seven chose to remain at New Orleans.
Storehouse manager Juan Prieto issued the necessary tools and
implements. On 17 January 1786, Intendente Navarro
hired launches, boats, and a barge from François Broutin, André
Chiloque, Baptiste Anstive, Jacques Mather, and Louis Demarest, at
four dollars a day for the boats and a dollar a day for the barge,
and the expedition headed slowly upriver. The large Bayou des
Écores contingent was established at Feliciana by the third week of
February.464
.
The seventh and final
expedition of 1785 was that of La Caroline, a 200-ton brig
assigned to Captain Nicolas Baudin, who had taken Le St.-Rémi
to Louisiana over the summer and had quickly returned to France.
The other six vessels had been frigates, which tended to be larger
than brigs, so the final ship was chosen not for its size but for
its speed. Her port of departure also would be different--not
St.-Malo or even Paimboeuf, but directly from Nantes. Aboard
were 28 Acadian families of 77 individuals, the so-called
"leftovers" who had missed the departure of La Ville
d'Archangel at St.-Malo and a few last-minute volunteers.
Also aboard La Caroline were the last of the personal baggage
for the Bergère expedition, which had departed Paimboeuf the
previous May. Consul d'Asprès, aware that the French had
approved of only a six-ship endeavor, tried to outfit this seventh
expedition as surreptitiously as possible so as not to alarm them.
He was confident that he could
secure the signatures of at least 300 more Acadians for Louisiana,
which would require at least two more transports, but "the French
government foiled his plans." La Caroline, then, was
the final expedition, the final opportunity for the hundreds of
Acadians still in France who hoped to join their relatives in the
Spanish colony.464a
La Caroline left Nantes on October 19, two
months after La Ville d'Archangel and L'Amitié had
sailed, and arrived at Balize on December 17. "The
expedition enjoyed good health throughout the entire trip, losing
only one member." Among the passengers was Spanish priest
Father Juan Léon, on his way to serve at New Orleans. Captain
Baudin deposited his passengers and their belongings at Balize, took
on a cargo of wood, and hurried back to France. The
intendente sent the usual contingent of vessels to convey the
passengers up to New Orleans, where they spent a month recuperating
from the voyage. The expedition gained more members from three
births, five "new adherents," and two marriages, and lost another
member through desertion.465
The established Acadian
family names aboard La Caroline were Benoit,
Blanchard, Boudrot, Chiasson, Comeau,
Doiron, Doucet, Dugas, Duhon, Gaudet,
Gautrot, Hébert, LeBlanc, Lejeune,
Melanson, Part, Pitre, Richard, Thériot.
New Acadian surnames in the colony were Cousin, Delaune,
and Lamoureux dit Rochefort. Non-Acadian family
names among the ship's passengers, besides Father Léon, included
Albert, Angilbert, Brossier, Hallier, LeGagneur,
Montet, and Pierson, most of them spouses of Acadians.
In early January, Intendente Navarro order the issuance of
tool and implements to three family heads and commissioned François
Broutin to escort them, along with a dozen families from L'Amitié,
to
Nueva Gálvez below New Orleans. On January 17, he
ordered Juan Prieto, for the last time, to issue tools and
implements to the remaining 18 families of 54 members, who were
joining their fellow Acadians on Bayou Lafourche and on the river at
St.-Jacques. At the last moment, he permitted two of the
families, numbering only five Acadians, to join the Ville
d'Archangel passengers who were about to head upriver to Bayou
des Écores.466
.
And so concluded the
Seven Ships' expeditions, which brought nearly 1,600 Acadians from
France to Spanish Louisiana in 1785. The official Spanish
report counted 1,574 Acadians aboard the Seven Ships, and an earlier
report had counted 1,596, but
some of them were non-Acadian spouses and children who bore their
fathers' French surnames. No matter, more Acadians reached
Louisiana during the five months between July and December 1785
than had come to the colony
during the entire five-and-a half-year period between February 1764
and October 1769!
If French authorities, alarmed by the success of
the venture, had not shut down the operation in late 1785, Consul d'Asprès might have sent hundreds of more Acadians, including 250
just arrived from Miquelon, on additional ships to
Louisiana.467
Still, the amazing
influx of so many new arrivals dramatically changed the Acadian
presence in Spanish Louisiana. The population of the
Valenzuéla District increased dramatically, to over a thousand by early 1786,
the great majority of them newly-arrived Acadians living along
parts of the bayou where only Indian villages had
stood. The St.-Gabriel de
Manchac and Baton Rouge districts could boast hundreds of new
settlers; the Upper Acadian Coast, once confined to the stretch of
river below bayous Manchac and Plaquemine, now reached up towards
Pointe Coupée on the west bank and across from Pointe
Coupée on the east, where a new Spanish district, Feliciana,
now held 300 Acadians from France. Nearly a hundred Acadian
newcomers increased the population of the two prairie districts.
Two dozen Acadians, many with French spouses, added to the
population density along the Lower Acadian Coast. And San
Bernardo, the closest Isleños community to New Orleans, was
augmented by several dozen Acadians who wanted to live closer to the
city.468
Spanish largesse did not
end with the placement of the last Acadian arrivals along Bayou des
Écores in late February 1786. Intendente Navarro's final
contribution to the Acadians' wellbeing occurred after he had
overseen their settlement. The daily stipend authorized by Spanish authorities
for the new arrivals, to be ended only after they had become economically self-sufficient, was seven and a half
cents a day for each adult and two and a half cents a day for each
child. It did not take the Acadians long to realize that the
meager stipend for their children was not enough to maintain their
families in the Louisiana economy. Some Acadian criticized the Spanish
for their plight, but most were determined to endure privation
rather than complain to the intendente, who had done so much for
them. When Navarro toured one of the new settlements in early
1786, however, "the beloved godfather of Acadian children quickly
saw the needs of his godchildren, and opened a way for their parents
to present their petition without embarrassment. He presented
their needs with a favorable recommendation" to his superiors and was granted permission to award each Acadian, regardless of
age or gender, seven and a half cents per day. The Acadians
called him un santo--their saint.468a
The intendente and his
superiors were not the only officials who recognized an important
need among the new Acadian arrivals. The sudden increase in
population in so many Louisiana communities compelled the Church
authorities in Havana to establish new parishes where the Acadians
had settled. San Bernardo, whose
Isleño habitants had built a church for themselves in 1779, received its first resident priest,
Spanish Capuchin Father Mariano de Brunete, in 1787. During
the late 1780s, residents built a church at Baton Rouge on the site
of the present city. Priests from nearby Pointe Coupée and
St.-Gabriel administered the sacraments there until 1792, when Baton
Rouge was given a parish of its own, dedicated to St.-Joseph.
Irish Franciscan Father Charles Burke was sent to Baton Rouge perhaps because of his language skills; his
parishioners were not only French-speaking Creoles and Acadians but
also English-speaking Anglo Americans forced by Spanish colonial
policy to "convert" to Roman Catholicism.469
On upper Bayou Lafourche,
the arrival of over
850 Acadians dwarfed the original Isleños community that had
been created there in 1779. A census of the Valenzuéla District in
mid-1784, a few months before the Acadians
from France arrived, had counted only 174 persons in 46 families, 150 of them Isleños in 40 families. By January 1788, when a "general
census of the inhabitants established in Lafourche" was taken,
Commandant
Nicolas
Verret, fils reported that the population of the Valenzuéla
District had grown to 1,075 settlers, most of them Acadians from
France. In January 1789, Verret counted 1,033 persons
in Valenzuéla. Two years later, in January 1791, he counted
1,191. As more Acadians from the crowded river districts moved
to Bayou Lafourche to find fresh land and to join their cousins
already there, families from the nearby German Coasts moved south
into the valley and allowed their children to marry Isleños
and Acadians. Spaniards from Málaga, Canadians, Irishmen,
Italians, and even Anglo Americans joined the Isleños,
Acadians, French Creoles, and Germans in populating the Valenzuéla
District. In April 1793, thanks to
the dramatic increase in population, Church authorities, now in
Havana, established
a new parish there. The Spanish called it La
Parroquia de la Assumption de Nuestra Senora de La Fourche de los
Chetimachas de Valenzuéla, or the Church of the Assumption,
built at present-day Plattenville. The first resident priest
at Assumption was Spanish Capuchin Bernardo de Deva.470
Meanwhile,
the nearly 300 Acadians who had gone to
Bayou des Écores in the Feliciana District, north of Baton Rouge,
were frustrated in their efforts to secure a church parish of their
own. In the first months of 1786, on a triangular-shaped,
62-arpent parcel along the bayou, five miles above its confluence
with the Mississippi, they had built a church, a presbytery, and a
cemetery for their future use. However, the chronic shortage
of priests in the colony at the time postponed the creation of a new
parish at Bayou des Écores, and, in the end, one was never created
there. Priests from Pointe Coupée across the river, and from
Baton Rouge after 1792, administered the sacraments to the Bayou des
Écores Acadians. Church authorities, now at New Orleans, created a
parish for Feliciana in the mid-1790s, with chapels at nearby Bayou
Sara and St. Francis. But by then most of the Feliciana
Acadians had moved away.471
La Nouvelle-Acadie: Adjustment and
Assimilation, 1786-1803
The new arrivals now entered a period of adjustment to a world very
different from the one they had left. There were similarities
between their experiences in Bourbon France and in Spanish
Louisiana. In France, the Acadians had been supported by
government subsidies until they could become self-sufficient; the
Spanish were compelled to support
them as well; Intendente Navarro, in fact, even increased their subsidy
in 1786 after he settled the last of them. The French government had
offered the Acadians opportunities to settle in agricultural
regions--on
Belle-Île-en-Mer and in Poitou, for example--instead of
languishing in the port cities, where their collective
skills--agricultural, not commercial--were ill-suited to their
achieving self-sufficiency; the Spanish also encouraged
the new arrivals to settle in areas suitable for agriculture away
from the commercial hub at New Orleans. But the
contrasts between the two worlds were startling. The climate
of the lower Mississippi Valley was much different from that of
northwestern France. Most of the new arrivals settled on
natural levees along the Mississippi River and Bayou Lafourche, far
different from the tidal marshes of the Bay of Fundy and Île
St.-Jean as well as the agriculturally-marginal regions of
northwestern France; here, they would have to build levees and drain
back swamps on their narrow holdings in order to preserve and to
create arable soil. And, like their cousins who had come to
the colony during the late 1760s, they, too, would be subject to restrictive
Spanish inheritance laws. Cattle production on their narrow
ribbon lots along the river and bayou would have to be on a scale
much smaller than it had been in Acadia. What they could grow
in Louisiana's climate and soil were different from what they had
been able to grow in Acadia and France; other than Indian corn,
which was native to North America and which they had grown in
Acadia, the only grain that thrived
along the lower Mississippi was rice; wheat, barley, and oats could
not endure the subtropical heat and humidity; if they had insisted
on returning to a life as wheat farmers, the new arrivals would have been better off moving
upriver to the Illinois country, not settling near their cousins in subtropical Louisiana,
but settlement in Illinois, so far from the kinsmen, was something none of them had even remotely entertained.
The great majority of the new arrivals could not speak Spanish,
though this was not necessary in a colony still dominated by
francophone cultures; their Acadian cousins who had come to the
colony two decades before still clung to their francophone language and traditions,
and so would they; although many of them had spent a quarter of a
century in a mother country that had welcomed its Acadian children,
they were no less Acadian than their cousins who had come to this
New Acadia decades before them. The biggest contrast of all, however, could
not yet be discerned: the agricultural settlement schemes in
northwestern France had been, for the most part, failures and
therefore temporary, but the settlements here in Spanish Louisiana
held every promise of success.
Spanish officials ordered a general census to be taken in the
Valenzuéla District
not long after the Acadians from France established themselves there.
In January 1788, the district commandant,
Nicolas Verret, fils, counted 1,075 settlers,
consisting of 71 non-Acadian families,
mostly Isleños, and 209 "Acadian"
families, some of them headed by non-Acadians who had married
Acadian women in France or soon after they had come to the colony. Of the 209 "Acadian" families, nearly
a dozen of them, including two families whose heads were not
Acadian, had come to the colony during the late 1760s and had moved
from the river to Bayou Lafourche; the rest of the Lafourche valley
Acadians were newcomers from
France.472
Amazingly, Commandant Verret counted only 54 slaves in his
entire district. He owned 10 of them; physician and lieutenant of
militia Don Juan Vives, a Spaniard whose wife was an Acadian
Bujole, also owned 10; and François Mathias and
Nicolas Daublin, whose wife was a "free Indian," owned 3 and 12 respectively. Only one Isleño,
Miguel Suares, owned slaves; he held 3. The other 16
slaves in the district were held by Acadians, all but one of them
having come to the colony during the late 1760s: Anselme Le
Borgne de Bélisle, scion of a noble Acadian family who had come
to the colony from Maryland in 1767, owned 1; François Simoneaux
of Lorraine, whose wife was an Acadian Corporon and who had
come to the colony from Maryland in 1766, owned 1; Joseph Comeaux,
who had come to the colony with the Breaus from Maryland in
1768, owned 2; Germain Bergeron, who had come to the colony
from Halifax in 1765, owned 2; and Pierre dit La Vielliarde
Landry, who had come to the colony from Maryland in 1766,
owned 11, making him the second largest slaveholder in the entire
district. The only Acadian who had arrived aboard one of the
Seven Ships and held a slave along the Lafourche in 1788 was Jacques
Mius d'Entremont, another scion of a noble Acadian family,
who had crossed on La Ville d'Archangel; he owned 1.473
The typical land holding was 6 arpents frontage on the bayou, but
there were a few exceptions: Acadians Jean Sonnier, who
had come to the colony from Halifax in 1765, Firmin Babin,
who had come to the colony from Maryland in 1768, and Jacques
Mius d'Entremont, held 8 arpents apiece;
Estevan Ernandez and
and Bernardo Rivero, probably Isleños, and
Domingue LaCoste and André LaCoste, probably French Creole, also
held 8 apiece;
Lieutenant Vives and Miguel Suares held 9 apiece; the
commandant, Augustin Domingo, probably an Isleño, and Acadian
Germain Bergeron, held 10 apiece; and Nicolas Daublin, with
his dozen slaves, held 12 arpents fronting the bayou.474
The largest cattle producer in the district was Estevan Ernandez,
with 26 head of "horned cattle." Lieutenant Vives held
24 head; Acadian Germain Bergeron 20; French Creole Jean
Licaire 16; Laurent LaCoste 15; Acadian Anselme Le Borgne de
Bélisle 14; François Simoneaux and Miguel Suares
12 each; and Joseph Landry, who had come to the colony from
Maryland in 1766, his cousin
Pierre dit La Vielliarde Landry, and Nicolas
Daublin, 10 each. Most of the Acadians from France held 1 head
or none, though Spaniard Luìs Juncal, who wife was an Acadian
Dugas who had crossed on Le St.-Rémi, held 6 head of
cattle; Acadian Charles Aucoin, and Frenchman Louis
LeTullier, whose wife was an Acadian LeBlanc, all having
crossed on La Bergère, held 5 head each; Jean-Baptiste
Daigle, who had crossed on Le St.-Rémi, also held 5 head;
and Olivier Aucoin,
François Giroir, and Prosper Giroir, who had
crossed on La Bergère, held 4 head apiece.475
The January 1788 census reveals that the Bayou Lafourche area was
not destined to become an important cattle-producing area--by then,
the prairie districts had long dominated that form of
agriculture--but the number of swine being kept by many settlers
along the Lafourche pointed to the growth of another hog-producing
area for the New Orleans market. Compared to the commandant
and Miguel Suares, who held 20 hogs each, Estevan Ernandez,
who owned 22, and Lieutenant Vives, who owned 40, the
Acadians from France were only beginning to increase their
production of pork for the colonial market, but some of the late
arrivals were off to a good start: Fabien Aucoin, who
had crossed on La Bergère, owned 12 hogs; and Madeleine
Dugas, widow of Jean-Baptiste Hébert, Prosper Giroir,
and Pierre Landry, all of whom had crossed on La Bergère,
Louis Desormeaux, married to an Acadian Trahan who had
crossed on La Bergère,
Jean-Grégoire Blanchard, Joseph Dugas,
Jean-Baptiste Daigle, and Jean-Baptiste Hébert of
Le St.-Rémi, Joseph Lejeune, who had crossed on
L'Amitié, and
Luìs Juncal,
owned 10 hogs apiece--which was remarkable considering that they had
living in the colony for only two years.476
Verret's 1788 census also listed "quarts of rice," "quarts of
corn," and "horses" for each settler in his district. These
economic categories revealed the same patterns among the settlers:
generally, the higher the socioeconomic status or the length of time
in the colony, the wealthier that settler would be. But, of
course, there were exceptions. The commandant, Lieutenant Vives, and Nicolas
Daublin held 200 quarts of corn apiece; Acadian Pierre Landry
dit La Vielliarde, who had come to the colony in 1766, held
150 quarts; Laurent LaCoste held 100 quarts; Acadian Germain
Bergeron, living in the colony since 1765, held 100; Miguel
Suares held 80 quarts; Acadian Joseph Landry, and
François and Simon Simoneaux, the last two married to
Acadians, all of whom had come to the colony in 1766, held 60 quarts
apiece; François's sons Joseph Simoneaux, married to an
Acadian Bourg, who had lived in the colony since 1766,
Acadians François Landry and Anselme Le Borgne de Bélisle,
who had come to the colony in 1767, and Joseph Comeaux, who
had come to the colony in 1768, held 50 quarts apiece.
However, Acadian newcomer Louis Gaudet of La Caroline
held 125 quarts of corn; Acadian Charles-Olivier Guillot of
Le St.-Rémi held 100 quarts; Acadians Joseph Bourg of
La Bergère and Charles Naquin of Le St.-Rémi
held 60 quarts; and newcomers Pietro Cancieni of Venice,
married to an Acadian Landry, Luìs Juncal, and
Acadians Étienne Boudreaux, Joseph Dugas, Pierre
Dugas, Jean-François De La Mazière, Charles Gautreaux,
Prosper Giroir, Joseph Lejeune, and Pierre-Olivier
Pitre, all newcomers from France, held 50 quarts apiece--again,
remarkable considering the short amount of time they had been living in the colony.477
Relatively few of the Lafourche settlers grew rice, but those who
did, and who held the largest quantity of the grain, included Acadian newcomers: Jacques Doiron, who crossed on La
Bergère, held 40 quarts of rice; François Friou, married
to an Acadian Bourg who crossed on La Bergère, held
30; Jean-Pierre Bourg, who also crossed on La Bergère,
held 25; Luce Breaux, widow of Athanase Bourg, who
crossed on L'Amitié, held 20; Jean-Baptiste-Alexandre
Daigle, who crossed on Le St.-Rémi, held 16; and Michel
Aucoin, who crossed on Le St.-Rémi, and Étienne
Dupuis, who crossed on La Bergère, held 15 quarts apiece.
Compare this to the other "large" rice farmers on the bayou:
Isleño Manuel Rouano, who held 30 quarts; and
Acadians Pierre Landry and Anselm Le Borgne de Bélisle
and French Creole Nicolas Daublin, who held 15 quarts apiece.478
Verret's census also counted the number of horses held by the
settlers in his district. Lieutenant Vives owned 15
steeds; Estevan Ernandez 8 of them; Acadian Joseph Landry
6; François Simoneaux 5; Acadians François Landry,
Pierre dit La Vielliarde Landry, and Anselme Le
Borgne de Bélisle, Isleño François Allemens and Miguel Suares,
and French Creoles Nicolas Daublin, Louis Desormeaux, Jean
Licaire, and Jean-Baptiste Rougee 4 apiece. Few of the Acadian
newcomers owned horses.479
A year later, in January 1789, Commandant Verret conducted
another general census of the district. Again, he counted only
54 slaves. Now there were only 1,033 settlers in the district, 42
fewer than the year before. In 1789, Verret counted
1,515 arpents of frontage in the district, compared to 1,059 arpents
of frontage the year before. In 1788, the commandant counted 188 quarts
of rice, and 345 quarts the year after; 7,310
quarts of corn in 1788, and 10,665 quarts the following year. There were 453
head of cattle in the district in 1788, and 645 head in 1789.
The number of horses changed dramatically, from 198 in 1788 to 406 a
year later. Hog farmers in the district held 1,429 swine in
1788 and 2,592 a year later. In January 1791,
Verret conducted a third general census of the district.
He counted 1,191 individual settlers that year, up 158 from two
years before; 109 slaves, up from 54; 1,768 arpents of frontage; 905
quarts of rice; 31,068 quarts of corn; 1,622 head of
cattle; 495 horses; and 4,593 hogs.
In April 1797, Verret, still commandant
at Valenzuéla,
counted 1,797
habitants in his district, the great majority of them
Acadians who had come from France; the district's settlers that year owned 267 slaves. In January 1798, residents in Valenzuéla
District numbered 1,693, with 274 slaves.480
The Acadians from France
played an important part in the economic transformation of the Bayou
Lafourche valley. The newcomers could see now, after a decade of living
there, that here indeed was their New Acadia, a
place where their children and grandchildren could fashion a lasting
home for themselves.
.
The new arrivals along the
river, meanwhile, were having a tougher time adjusting to their new
environment. The Mississippi River flood of July 1788, the
result of a tropical storm surge, was especially hard on "the newly
arrived Acadian families living at Fort Bute at Manchac." A
"Report on the amounts of corn and rice which are necessary" for
their subsistence noted that "These families lost their crops during
the flooding of the Mississippi." A similar report, dated 18
July 1788, listed the "Amounts of rice and corn distributed to
Acadian families living in the district of Baton Rouge who lost
their crops during the Mississippi flood." A third report,
dated 16 August 1788, was entitled "Report on the amounts of corn
which are necessary for the subsistence of the newly arrived
Acadians families from France who have suffered losses of their
crops during the flooding of the Mississippi River." Here,
again, Acadians had to depend on government assistance to get them
through hard times.481
The terrible experience of
July 1788 did not deter most of the new arrivals from rebuilding
their riverside farms and starting over again. However, a
perusal of area church and census records reveals that many of the
hundreds of Acadians found on the three listings abandoned the river
and moved on to other parts of the colony: Charles-Benoit
Granger of Manchac, or at least his wife, Marguerite-Ange
Dubois, moved on to upper Bayou Lafourche, where she remarried
in January 1792; Charles Guidry died at New Orleans in
September 1797, age 71, but his children remained in the
Manchac/Baton Rouge area; Madeleine LeBlanc, widow of
Pierre-Isidore Trahan, took her family to Attakapas, where
they settled at Carencro; André-Joseph, Charles-Casimir,
Élisabeth-Marguerite, Jacques-Olivier, Marie-Madeleine, and
Servan-François Templet, with their mother
Marguerite LeBlanc, widow of André Templet,
Madeleine Dugas, widow of Pierre Quimine,
Grégoire-Ignace, Jean-Baptiste, Marie-Anne, Mathurin-Charles, and
Pierre-Ignace Usé, with their widowed mother Cécile Bourg,
Paul-Dominique and Jean-Baptiste Boudreaux, Charles
Broussard, Édouard Daigre, Jean Delaune,
Pierre-Janvier and Jean
Guidry dit Grivois, père and fils, Anselme
Landry, Charles-Jean LeBlanc, Amable Hébert,
Jean-Baptiste-Théodore Henry, François-Marie and
Simon-Magloire Babin, Marie Babin, wife of Louis
William Stebens, Marguerite-Josèphe Doiron, widow of
Jean-Baptiste Dugas, and Frenchman Étienne Peltier and
his Acadian wife, Jeanne-Marguerite Clossinet, all moved on to
Bayou Lafourche; Maximilien Henry and Joseph Doucet
went to New Orleans; Simon-Pierre Daigre, fils moved
to Attakapas; Victor Foret moved to Opelousas, and Daniel
Benoit died at his daughter's home in St. Martin Parish in
December 1825,
in his late 70s,
but he probably had gone there from Baton Rouge in his final years.
Their fellow new arrivals who remained on the river settled
in what became Iberville, East Baton Rouge, and West Baton Rouge
parishes.482
The largest migration from
a river settlement occurred at Bayou des Écores, in the Feliciana
District. During the late 1780s, probably soon after they
reached the bayou, and continuing into the early 1790s, some families,
perhaps wanting to live closer to their cousins downriver, moved
south to Baton Rouge and Manchac, settling on both banks of the
river. In August 1793, and again in late August 1794, devastating hurricanes struck lower Louisiana. The second storm
produced so much rain that Bayou des Écores overflowed its banks and
destroyed most of the Acadian farms there. The Acadians had endured enough.
Most, if not all, of them moved down to
Baton Rouge and Manchac, some of them moved on to Bayou Lafourche,
and a few moved out to the western prairies. By the late
1790s, the Bayou des Écores settlement was virtually abandoned.483
Another motivation for the
Acadians to abandon Bayou des Écores were rising political tensions in the
area. After the American Revolution ended in 1783, Anglo
Americans and British refugees began moving into the Feliciana area,
where they spurned Spanish efforts to control them. After
December 1803, the Americans claimed the swath of Mississippi
delta north of Bayou Manchac, insisting that it was part of what
they had purchased from Napoléon, but the Spanish averred that the territory north of
Bayou Manchac, including Baton Rouge and Feliciana, still belonged
to their West Florida province with its capital at Pensacola. If Acadians
still remained in Feliciana after 1803, this political brouhaha
would have been enough to send them packing; Acadians hated nothing
more than the kind of political instability that had plagued them
back in Acadia. By 1804, the church the Acadians had built at
Bayou des Écores "had fallen into ruin and was demolished." As
a result of the Acadians abandoning the area, the cultural future of
the Feliciana country was determined not by francophone exiles who
had come there in 1786 but by Anglo Americans who rose up against
Spanish rule beneath their Bonnie Blue Flag in 1810.484
.
Few of the new arrivals
chose to settle in the prairie districts, but those who did wasted
no time establishing their economic independence there. Like
the descendants of the early arrivals, the Acadians from France
found plenty of empty land along the bayous flowing through the prairie
districts. And their older sons and daughters created families of their own,
adding to Acadian numbers in the region.490
Political as well as
demographic changes came to the prairie districts during the late
1780s.
In early 1770, Governor O'Reilly had appointed Gabriel Fuselier
de La Claire of Attakapas as commandant of both the Attakapas and
Opelousas districts. Four years later, Fuselier was replaced
as commandant of the prairie districts by another Attakapas resident, Alexandre Declouet,
a chevalier of the Order of St.-Louis. Declouet, advanced in age,
"retired" as joint commandant in March
1787. The prairie districts were separated, and Declouet
was succeeded at Attakapas by Jean Delavillebeuvre, who was replaced by Louis-Charles
DeBlanc of Natchitoches, still commandant at
Attakapas in 1803. Nicolas Forstall, a native of Martinique
and scion of a noble family, who had commanded the
Malagueños
post at Nuéva Iberia earlier in the decade, succeeded
Declouet as commandant at Opelousas in 1787. Forstall was succeeded in the spring of 1795 by Martin Duralde,
who remained as commandant at Opelousas until the Spanish
surrendered the colony to France in December 1803. Honoré de
la Chaise served as Opelousas commandant during the few months the
French were again in power at New Orleans. In October 1804,
after Jefferson's Purchase, American army Captain John Bowyer
sent the young Frenchman packing.491
Meanwhile, in 1798,
Spanish authorities moved the Opelousas Post from the bayou to the
site of the present city. A new church, also dedicated to St.
Landry, was built not far from the
new post. Three years earlier, in June 1795, the St.-Landry
parishioners had beseeched their pastor, Father Pedro de Zamora, to
ask the ecclesiastical authorities in New Orleans to relocate their
church. In May 1796, resident Jean Tesson of Saintogne,
France, donated an arpent of land for a new church at what was then
called Tesson's Point. Even more generously, local planter
Michel Prudhomme, a native of Strasbourg, gave 3 x 10 arpents
of land for the new church, a priest's house, and a jail on property
he owned at the site.492
The Acadian presence in
the Opelousas District remained demographically insignificant.
The general census of 1785 counted 171 families in the district,
only 30 of them, or 17 1/2%, Acadian. A
general census a decade later, in 1796, counted 49 Acadian families
at Opelousas, again only 17 percent
of the total in the district. Most of the
Acadians lived at Bellevue and Grand Coteau, with a hand full of
others residing in the North Plaquemine, Grand Prairie, Grand Louis,
and Faquetaique sub districts west of the present city.
However, half of the district's 12 sub districts contained not a
single Acadian family in 1796. Despite their small numbers,
however, Acadians were among the largest stockmen in the big prairie
district. In 1788, for instance, nearly a quarter century after the
first Acadians came to Opelousas, Joseph Cormier of Bellevue
owned 697 head of cattle and 60 horses. Cormier's neighbor,
Charles Comeaux, held 643 head. Charles's cousin, Michel Comeaux of Plaquemine Brûlé, ran 500 head. Sylvain
Sonnier
of Bellevue owned 300 head of cattle. His neighbor, the widow of
L'Ange Bourg, owned 166 head. Pierre Richard of the
same area owned 140 head of cattle. His younger brother Victor owned
150 head. Michel Cormier of Prairie des Femmes, Joseph's
younger brother, owned 130 head of cattle. François Pitre of
the Plaisance area also owned 130 head of cattle. Joseph Bourg,
the dead L'Ange's brother, owned 120 head.493
Acadians in the Attakapas
District, on the other hand, remained significant in numbers if not
influence. The general census of 1785 revealed that half of
the district's families were Acadian.494
.
The general census of 1785
revealed something else about the prairie Acadians--the presence of
an emerging slave-holding class among the former exiles and their
descendants. This new phenomenon in Acadian socio-economic
behavior had in fact begun on the river, not the prairie, but by
the time the Acadians from France reached Louisiana, Acadian slave holding, virtually unknown in the old country, had
taken root throughout the New Acadia.495
Slavery had not taken hold in Acadia; the Mi'kmaq were too powerful to allow
Europeans to enslave them, and most Acadian families were so large
and healthy, and their communities so tight-knit, that there never
was a shortage of help in their fields, orchards, and pastures.
The only slaves in Acadia, if they existed at all,
would have been a hand full of Africans owned by the wealthiest
colonists and used only as prestige-domestics. The Acadians'
first exposure to agricultural slavery, then, would have been during
their Grand
Dérangement. Chignecto Acadians exiled to South Carolina and
Georgia, and Minas Acadians exiled to Maryland would have been
exposed to African slaves, especially in Maryland, where the
"able-bodied' exiles worked side by side with them in the tobacco
fields." Minas Acadians sent to Virginia remained in the
colony for only six months, but in that time they, too, rubbed
shoulders with the institution; Virginians, in fact, accused the
"Neutral French" of fraternizing with their chattel and used that as
an excuse for sending them on to England.
Mirliguèche Acadians exiled to North Carolina remained probably at
Edenton until c1760, so they, too, would have been exposed to the institution before moving on to
Pennsylvania and Maryland, where they also would have seen it.
Acadians from Minas, Annapolis Royal, and Cap-Sable sent
to Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and Connecticut would have observed
slavery on a much smaller scale than their cousins in the southern
colonies, but the institution did exist in the northern colonies, in
its domestic and urban permutations.496
The Acadians who emigrated
to Louisiana from Halifax, however, would not
have been exposed to African slavery during their 10 years of exile.
They were the ones who had escaped the roundup of 1755 and found
refuge along the Gulf of St. Lawrence shore. Not until they
arrived at Cap-Français, St.-Domingue, on their way to Louisiana,
would they have encountered their first slaves. As previously
stated, they would have seen little chance of acquiring productive
farm land in the island's plantation-slave economy and no future for their children there, despite its being a French
colony. So they moved on to the lower Mississippi valley,
where they encountered the institution again, but on a smaller scale than at
St.-Domingue.
By 1765, Louisiana had a
long history of slave holding. First was Indian slavery, which
its French Canadian founders did not favor. Most of the
agricultural labor in their native Canada was performed by
engagés and then, as in Acadia, by family members, not slaves.
Climatic conditions precluded the development of a plantation-based
economy along the St. Lawrence. In Louisiana, the climate was
amenable to plantations, but severe neglect by France in the
colony's formative years stifled even the most basic form of
agriculture along the French Gulf Coast; as a result, Indians in
Louisiana, as in Canada, were used as domestic servants, not as
gangs of laborers tending fields of valuable cash crops, as on
St.-Domingue and the other French islands. Louisiana's small
population limited the scale of Indian slavery during its formative
years under Iberville and Bienville. This changed by the end
of the colony's second decade, when proprietary companies under
Crozat and then Law attempted to transform the Gulf Coast colony
into a profitable enterprise. By then, Louisiana had a
valuable cash crop of its own. Iberville had tried to grow
sugar at the site of New Orleans in 1700, but the experiment had
failed. The crop that did grow well in Louisiana soil was not
an import from Africa via the Caribbean but the sacred weed of the
Indians--tobacco. Granted, Louisiana tobacco was not as prized
as the varieties grown in the Chesapeake colonies, but it was good
enough for an international market, and Law's Company made the most
of it. The Company received a monopoly on the Louisiana
tobacco trade and, in one of its permutations, on the French West
African slave trade as well. In 1719, exactly a century after
the first Africans arrived on the Chesapeake, Law's Company began
importation of African slaves to work the tobacco fields at
Natchitoches and along the lower Mississippi, especially at Natchez.
Pointe Coupée became a tobacco-growing settlement in the 1720s and,
after the Indian massacre of 1729, replaced Natchez as the largest
tobacco-producing area in the colony. In the early 1720s, with
the encouragement of the Company, riverside planters above and below New Orleans began
the cultivation of a new cash crop, the dye-producing plant indigo,
a native of India. By the late 1720s, Louisiana was exporting
indigo as well as tobacco, and African chattel slavery had become
essential to the colony's new plantation-based economy. In
September 1724, Law's Company had issued the Code Noir, or
Black Code, for Louisiana, based on the 1685 Code for the West
Indies. By then, the Company, having promised to import 3,000
Africans a year, had managed to bring in only a fraction of that
number, but control of the servile population was nonetheless
essential. The colony's first slave revolt occurred at New
Orleans in 1729, concurrent with the disastrous Natchez uprising in
November of that year in which African slaves helped the Indians
massacre most of the French settlers at the upriver post. In
1751, during Vaudreuil's governorship, Jesuit priests brought
sugarcane to Louisiana and grew it, along with indigo, on their
plantation above New Orleans; their sugar crop produced molasses and syrup, not granulated sugar. Slaves also were used extensively in the colony's
burgeoning cattle industry, especially in the prairie districts. When the first large group of
Acadians reached Louisiana in 1765, indigo and tobacco, not sugar,
were still the mainstays of the colony's plantation-slave economy.
Louisiana's population in 1765, in fact, was more African than
European, as it had been for decades.496a
Two factors slowed Acadian
entry into Louisiana's plantation-slave economy: an abiding
tradition of egalitarianism derived from their collective experience
in Acadia, and the extreme poverty that came of their years in
exile. Nevertheless, soon after they reached the city in 1765,
four of the Halifax exiles purchased slaves, probably on credit,
from New Orleans merchants and took them to Cabahannocer. A
few years later, at Attakapas in 1771, only one Acadian owned a
slave: Joseph Martin held 1. No Acadian held a
slave at Opelousas in 1771. Three years later, in October
1774, the same held true: no Acadian at Opelousas owned any of
the district's 163 slaves. At Attakapas in October 1774, Simon
Broussard owned 10 slaves, and Joseph Martin still
held 1--only 11 of the 155 slaves in the district.497
Not until the late 1770s, when the early arrivals from Halifax,
Maryland, and St.-Domingue had finally come into their own
economically, did Acadians begin to break into the slave-holding
economy. The transition was slow on the prairies.
At Attakapas in May 1777, Jean-Baptiste Semer held 1
slave; Claude Martin, 2; Jean dit Neveu Mouton,
3; Jean-Baptiste Cormier, 1; Joseph Martin, 2;
François Savoie, 1; and Cécile Prejean, widow of
Grégoire Pellerin, 3, with another on the way--13 of the
district's 302 slaves. At Opelousas that same May, Michel
Comeaux owned 1; Charles Comeaux, 1; and Sylvain
Sonnier, 2--4 of the district's 218 slaves.498
On the river, however,
among the first Acadians to hold slaves in the colony, the
transition to a slave-holding economy moved at a quicker pace, especially on
the Lower Acadian Coast. In March 1777, at St.-Gabriel, on the
Upper Acadian Coast, Joseph Landry owned 1 slave on the east
bank of the river; Jean-Baptiste Babin, 1; Joseph Richard,
1; Pierre Foret, 1; Anselme Blanchard, 2; Firmin
Landry, 1; François Landry, 3; Mathurin Landry, 3;
Baptiste LeBlanc, 1; Jean-Charles Comeaux, 3;
Hyacinthe Landry, 1; Jean-Charles Breaux, 1; on the
west bank, Augustin Landry held 1; Amand Melançon, 1;
and Pierre Richard, 6--26 slaves held by 19 percent of the Acadian
families in the community. In April 1777, at Ascension, Jean
Duhon held 1 slave on the west bank of the river; Paul
Foret, 1; François Dugas, 1; Mathurin Landry, 1;
Joseph Landry, 1; Anselme Le Borgne de Bélisle, 1;
Charles Gaudin dit Lincour, 1; Jérôme LeBlanc,
2; Joseph Bujole, 1; Étienne Bujole, 4; Sylvain
LeBlanc, 1; Joseph dit Belhomme Landry, 4; Étienne
Landry, 4; Joseph Babin, 2; Pierre dit La
Vielliarde Landry, 3; on the east bank, René Landry
held 3; Isaac LeBlanc, 1; Pierre dit Pierrot à Chaques
Landry, 6; Paul Breaux, 1; Jean-Baptiste Breaux,
1; Simon Landry, 1; Charles Babin, 2; Vincent-Ephrème,
called Ephrème, Babin, 3; Charles Landry, 1; Jacques
Landry, 2; Joseph Guidry, 1; and Prosper Hébert,
1--51 of the 137 slaves in the district, the 51 held by 48 percent
of the Acadian families in the community. In March 1779, at St.-Jacques on
the Lower Acadian Coast, Pierre Arceneaux owned 12 slaves;
Pierre Bourgeois, 1; Simon LeBlanc, 7; Joseph
Hébert, 4; Bonaventure Gaudin, 4; Philippe Lachaussée,
4; Joseph Gravois, 1; Joseph Duhon, 2; Honoré
Breaux, 2; Alexis Breaux, 2; Charles Gaudet, 3;
Athanase Breaux, 3; Joseph LeBlanc, père, 4;
Joseph LeBlanc, fils, 2; Simon Gautreaux, 3;
Marcel LeBlanc, 6; Jacques LeBlanc, 2; Joseph
Breaux, 1; Jacques Babin, 1; Pierre Lanoux, 1;
Paul LeBlanc, 2; Joseph Sonnier, 3; Olivier
Boudreaux, 1; Joseph Melançon, 1; Ambroise Theriot,
1; Mathurin LeBlanc, 6; Pierre Chiasson, 2; Jean
Arceneaux, 3; Baptiste Gaudin, 3; Pierre Bernard,
1; Joseph Arceneaux, 2; Pierre Part, 1; Bénoni Mire,
2; Paul Bourgeois, 1; Joseph Bourgeois, 4; Michel
Bourgeois, 1; François Landry, 1; Antoine Labauve,
2; Joseph Martin, 2; Pierre Michel, 2; Ambroise
Martin, 1; Catherine Comeaux, widow of Joseph Guilbeau,
1; Jean Bourgeois, 2; Joseph Poirier, 1; Baptiste
Bourgeois, 6; Michel Bourgeois, 3; Joseph Gaudet,
2; Joseph Bourg, 2; Joseph Blanchard, 2; .François
Hébert, 1; Charles Thibodeaux, 1; Jean Leger, 2;
Jean Poirier, 7; Jean Richard, père, 3; Jean
Richard, fils, 2; Pierre Bourg, 2; Joseph
Landry, 1; and Firmin Girouard, 2--147 slaves held by 59
percent
of the Acadian families in the community.499
By 1785, the pace of slave
ownership had picked up on the prairies. In April of that
year, at Attakapas, ____ Dugas held 2 slaves; Joseph
Broussard dit Beausoleil, 4; F. Broussard, 2;
Jean-Baptiste Cormier, 1; Jean-Baptiste Broussard, 4;
Amand-Pierre Landry, 1; René Trahan, 4; François
Broussard, 7; Amand Broussard, 4; Joseph Trahan,
2; Widow Trahan, 2; Claude Duhon, 1; Claude
Broussard, 2; René Broussard, 1; Pierre Dugas, 2;
Pierre Broussard, 8; Sylvain Broussard, 1; Widow
Babin, 1; Charles Guilbeau, 1; Jean dit Chapeau
Mouton, 7; Widow François Savoie, 2; Michel Bernard,
3; Amand Thibodeaux, 1; Olivier Thibodeaux, 5; Claude
Martin, 7; Joseph Martin, 5; Mt., perhaps
Michel-Laurent, Doucet, 3; Jean-Baptiste Semer, 1; and
Widow Pellerin, 7--91 slaves held by 35 percent of the Acadian
families in the community. At Opelousas that same month,
Michel Cormier held 4 slaves; Joseph Lejeune, 3; ____
Pitre, 2; Pierre Guidry, 3; Paul Boutin, 3;
Charles Comeaux, 4; Pierre Richard, 2; Pierre
Savoie, 4; Victor Richard, 2; Pierre Thibodeaux,
3; Joseph Bourg, 1; Sylvain Sonnier, 8; and Michel
Comeaux, 6--45 slaves held by 47 percent of the Acadian families there.500
According to the leading
historian of the Acadians in Louisiana, Dr. Carl A. Brasseaux, "The number of Louisiana
Acadians owning slaves in the prairie settlements rose from only 5
percent in 1775 to 10 percent in 1785; meanwhile Acadian slaveowners
in the river districts rose from 20 to 40 percent." This held
promise for momentous change in Louisiana Acadian society. "As
the circle of slaveholders expanded slowly in the 1770s and early
1780s, the new elite emerged--based as before on land and livestock,
but for the first time having rigid social boundaries that
automatically elevated the slave owners above the workers they
employed. The acquisition of slaves gave the slaveholder
social stature, undoubtedly appealing to some upwardly mobile
Acadian immigrants who aspired to join the colony's Creole
aristocracy." Acadian sensibilities prevailed at first; they
were, after all, still players in the North American frontier
experience. "Most of the immigrant slaveholders ... were
eminently practical pioneers who realized simply that development of
a habitation for commercial agriculture required amounts of
labor far beyond the capacity of the family labor pool. As a
consequence, in the late 1770s, many ambitious Acadians who, unlike
the vast majority of the immigrants, were unhappy with the
comfortable existence they had only recently attained, began to
acquire young black field hands" as well as female house servants.501
There was a dark side, of
course, to what Jefferson described as taking the wolf by its ears.
Again, Professor Brasseaux says it best: "Though median
Acadian slaveholdings in many settlements ranged from only two to
four slaves in the 1770s, the proliferation of the slave
population--an increase of 1700 percent in some posts--necessitated
changes in the Acadian life-style. Control of the slave
population was initially very mild, with black laborers working
shoulder to shoulder with their white masters. The presence of
a large, alien, and subservient population by the 1780s nevertheless
subjected the inexperienced slave owners to the constant specter of
servile insurrection."502
The wolf struck in
November 1785, while the Acadians from France were still getting
settled on their new habitations.
While leading a routine slave patrol along the west bank of the river at
Ascension, Acadian Pierre-Paul, called Paul, Foret, who had
come to the colony from Halifax in 1765, stumbled upon the notorious
"renegade freedman," Philippe, hiding in a cabin on the Widow Landry's farm.
Foret and his patrolmen failed to capture the wily freedman,
who, with a "lieutenant," was "plotting a massive slave
insurrection." Philippe, in fact, had already organized a
"company" of fugitives--the latest effort by Louisiana slaves to
form a maroon community. Spanish authorities placed the
Ascension District on full alert, offering a reward of 20 piastres
for Philippe's head. In the weeks that followed, Philippe and
his black confederates, aided by Acadian-held slaves,
eluded the slave patrols scouring the area both night and day.
To sustain themselves, Philippe and his insurrectionaries began to
raid Acadian farms, "stripping them of provisions and arms."
Commandant Louis Judice was forced to employ Houma warriors,
who themselves had harassed local Acadians, and raise the bounty on
Philippe and his men to 100 piastres. The Houma ambushed the rag-tag force, but Philippe escaped.
He took refuge on the farm of Frenchman
Nicolas Daublin, whose loyal slave, Esther, alerted her
master. After an hour-long gun battle, Daublin shot and
killed Philippe, and the insurrection soon collapsed.503
Caught in the middle of
this bloody drama, the Acadians' traditional egalitarianism gave way
to darker forces in their collective conscious. "Though the
crisis was resolved in the slaveholders' favor, the event served as
an important watershed in Afro-Acadian relations, producing a
spontaneous and radical change in Acadian attitudes toward blacks
throughout Louisiana. No longer viewed as mere laborers,
Negroes were now seen as inveterate schemers who posed an ever
present threat to internal security. Both slaveholding and
nonslaveholding Acadians consequently demonstrated no hesitation in
mounting a united and openly hostile front against threats, either
real or perceived, from the slave community in subsequent years."
For example, when smallpox appeared at Commandant Judice's
plantation in 1787, local Acadians imposed an impromptu quarantine
on the place and attempted to purchase the diseased slave so that
they could drown her in the river! The exiles had taken the
wolf by its
ears, and they were determined not to let him go.504
A troubling result of
Acadian slaveholding was the sexual exploitation of female slaves.
According to Professor Brasseaux, "by the antebellum period, mulatto
children of Acadian parentage had become commonplace in the river
parishes." Acadians
"who aspired to join the colony's Creole aristocracy" were emulating
a less admirable side of Louisiana's socioeconomic elite.505
The new Acadian arrivals,
naturally, sought to join their earlier-arriving cousins in
embracing the colony's plantation-slave economy, but, much like
their established cousins, the transition was a slow one. As
already seen, in January 1788, Commandant Nicolas Verret,
fils counted only 54 slaves in his district on upper Bayou
Lafourche, where most of the new arrivals had settled. Of the
16 Acadians who owned slaves in the district that year, only one new
arrival--Jacques Mius d'Entremont--owned a slave. The
others had come to the colony during the mid- and late 1760s and had
moved from the river to the upper bayou by the early 1780s.
Little had changed three years later. In January 1791, counted
109 slaves in the district, but only a few slaves were held by new
arrivals: Fabien-Amateur Guillot, 1; Jean-Charles
Theriot, 1; Louis Gaudet, 1; and Jacques Mius
d'Entremont, still 1. By contrast, two earlier-arrivals
still living on the upper bayou had become substantial slaveholders:
François-Sébastien Landry held 5; and Pierre dit La
Vielliarde Landry, 15, making him the second largest
slaveholder in the district that year. In April 1797, the
district's slaves numbered 267, only a small percentage of them held
by Acadians, but a majority of the Acadian slaveholders now
were late arrivals from France: Jean-Baptiste Foret,
born at St.-Jacques, held 1; Amédée Savoie, also a native of
St.-Jacques, 4; Mathurin LeBlanc, a 1765 arrival, 2;
Jean-Baptiste Bergeron, another 1765 arrival, 2; Henri
Robichaux, a 1765 arrival, 6; Louis Gaudet, a 1785
arrival, 3; Jean-Baptiste Doucet, another 1785 arrival, 2;
Jean Roger, a 1765 arrival, 6; Jean Delaune, a 1785
arrival, 1; Joseph Bourg, another 1785 arrival, 1; Vincent
Landry, a 1766 arrival, 1; Pierre-Joseph Blanchard, a
1785 arrival, 1; Marie-Osite, called Osite, Daigle, widow of Marin Bourg,
also a 1785 arrival, 1; Jean-Baptiste Giroir, a 1785 arrival,
1; Étienne LeBlanc, a 1785 arrival and a bachelor, 3;
François-Sébastien Landry, a 1767 arrival, still 5; Anselme
Le Borgne de Bélisle, another 1767 arrival, 3; Jean-Baptiste
Daigle, a 1785 arrival, 1; Joseph LeBlanc, a 1785
arrival, 2; Jean-Jacques-Frédéric, called Frédéric, Landry, a
1785 arrival and another bachelor, 1; Joseph Comeaux, a 1768
arrival, 5; Pierre dit La Vielliarde Landry, a 1766
arrival and Joseph Comeaux's father-in-law, still 15; and
Jean-Baptiste Landry, another 1766 arrival, 5. One
wonders what happened to Jacques Mius d'Entremont. The
January 1798 census at Valenzuéla counted 274 slaves in the district
and detected more Acadian
slaveholders now residing there: Alexandre Landry, born
at Ascension, held 3 slaves; Charles Bergeron, a 1765
arrival, 2, Pierre Arceneaux, another 1765 arrival, 4; Michel
Bourgeois, a 1765 arrival, 4; Joseph-Marin Bourg, a
1785 arrival, 2; Pierre Bourg, another 1785 arrival, 2;
Laurent-Olivier Blanchard, a 1785 arrival, 1; Joseph
Gaudet, a 1765 arrival, 2.
The 1798 census also revealed that Louis Gaudet now owned 4
slaves, and Pierre dit La Vielliarde Landry,
16.506
Slaveholding in the
prairie districts also had increased dramatically by the late 1790s.
A general census at Opelousas in May 1796 revealed the following
slaveholders among the Acadians there: In the North Plaquemine
sub district, Michel Comeaux held 12 slaves; and Pierre
Doucet, 2. In the Bellevue sub district, Charles
Comeaux held 10 slaves; Anaclet, son of Joseph Cormier,
7; Joseph Landry, 6; Blaise Brasseaux, 1; Jean
Jeansonne, 1; Joseph Bourg, 2; Basile Chiasson, 5;
Sylvain Sonnier, 11; Victor Richard, 5; Françoise
Sonnier, widow of Pierre Thibodeaux, fils, 3; and
Pierre Richard, père, 6. In the Grand Louis sub
district, François Pitre held 4. In the Grand Coteau
sub district, Joseph Boutin held 2; Paul Boutin, père,
held 1; Louis-David, called David son of Pierre Guidry, held
2; and Jean Savoie, 6. And in the Faquetaique sub
district, Joseph Lejeune held 2.507
During the 1790s, two
important technological developments, one mechanical, the other
chemical, gave promise of increasing the rate of slave
holding among the Acadians of Louisiana. On a much larger
scale, these developments also guaranteed
that the institution of slavery would remain a fixture of North
American agriculture. In 1792, in faraway Georgia, a recent
Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Yale College arrived at Mulberry Grove,
the plantation home of Revolutionary War hero Nathanael Greene's
widow, Catherine Littlefield, to serve as the plantation's tutor.
Eli Whitney, born at Westborough, Massachusetts, in December 1765,
had worked as a nail maker and farm laborer in his youth before
attending Yale. The story of his famous invention is a
familiar one: after listening to the Widow Greene and her
neighbors discussing the difficulty encountered by their slaves in
deseeding upland cotton by hand, Whitney fashioned his cotton "gin,"
which he patented in March 1794. A little known part of the
story is that Whitney's original gin contained mechanical flaws,
which Catherine Littlefield helped to correct. Despite his
patent, Whitney made little money from his famous invention; most of
the profits he and his partner earned went into lawsuits against a
host of patent infringers. Nevertheless, Whitney's machine and
its many imitations gave a tremendous boost to the cotton-growing
industry. Not until after the Louisiana Purchase, however, did
cotton become an important cash crop in Louisiana.508
The second development had
a more immediate impact on the economy of South Louisiana.
Jean-Étienne, called Étienne, de Boré, was born at Kaskaskia,
Illinois, in the early 1740s into an old Norman family of the minor
nobility. When he was four, Boré's family returned to France,
where, as befitted a member of his class, he was educated. At the age of 16,
he became a cadet in a company of the King's Mousquetaires. He
emigrated to Spanish Louisiana in the late 1760s but soon returned
to France. In 1771, while serving as a captain of cavalry, he
married a daughter of former Louisiana treasurer Jean-Bapiste Destréhan
de Beaupré. In 1776, Boré and his wife returned to Louisiana,
where she had inherited property, and he took up the life of a gentleman planter on the east bank of the river
a few miles above New Orleans.
There, he grew Louisiana's principal cash crop, indigo, and did well
until the early 1790s, when persistent drought and insect pests
diminished
the colony's indigo crop, including his; at the same time,
competition from Spanish Guatemala deprived Louisiana of its indigo
market. On the verge of bankruptcy, Boré
was determined to find another cash crop that would restore his
personal fortune. He turned to sugarcane, which had been grown
in the colony since the early 1750s but had produced only syrup and
molasses for local use. Boré built a sugar mill on his
property, planted a crop of cane, and, with the help of two of his
Spanish neighbors, succeeded in transforming cane juice into
granulated sugar, a process that had been tried but had never
succeeded in the colony. His 1795 crop garnered him $12,000 in
a market eager for the product, and a new industry was born in
Spanish Louisiana.509
.
Acadians, meanwhile, continued to marry their non-Acadian neighbors
legitimately, hastening
their assimilation into the polyglot culture of Spanish Louisiana.
From February 1765, when the first Acadian marriage was recorded in
the colony, through 1803, the year in which Spain retroceded the
colony to France and then France handed it over to the United
States, South Louisiana church and civil records list 2,260 Acadian marriages. Of those
marriages, 441, or 19.5%, were exogamous. Compare this to
an exogamous rate of 15.3% for the 483 Acadian marriages from
February 1765 through 1784, and one can discern an upward trend in
the rate of Acadian "mixed" marriages.510
There were Acadian families, even among the early
arrivals, with not a single recorded exogamous marriage during the first decades
of their presence in Louisiana. The Allains came to the
colony from Maryland in 1767, but no exogamous marriage for that
family appears in area church records until November 1809. The
Babineauxs arrived even earlier, in February 1765, but no
exogamous church record can be found for them until July 1814.
Members of the Girouard family came to the colony as early as
February 1765, though most of them, using the surname Giroir,
arrived from France in 1785, but none married a non-Acadian, at
least not in a marriage recorded by an area church, until October
1817. The first Mires came from Halifax in
1765, but a member of the family marrying a non-Acadian cannot be
found in South Louisiana church records until November 1807.
The Poiriers were among the very first families to emigrate to the
colony, in February 1764, but an exogamous marriage in the family
cannot be found in area church records until October 1805. And
then there were the Melançons, who came from Halifax in 1765
and France in 1785, but especially from Maryland in 1766 and 1767.
South Louisiana churches record 37 marriages in the family through
1803, but not until May 1805 do any of those churches record an
exogamous marriage in the family. But these were the
exceptions. The great majority of Acadian families, small or
large, early or late, engaged in their share of "mixed" marriages
while Spain controlled the colony.511
Exogamous rates were especially high among Acadians in the Opelousas
District, a bastion of Creole culture. The
Jeansonnes, for example, first came to the colony from Halifax in
1765 and settled at Cabahannocer on the river before moving on to
the Opelousas prairies by the 1770s. The first immigrant
generation, while still living on the river, married fellow Acadians
from the Brasseaux, Leger, and Prejean
families; strangely, none of these marriages were recorded by area
churches. Not until November 1790 does a Jeansonne
marriage appear in South Louisiana church records, when a daughter of Jean Jeansonne married a Fontenot at
Opelousas. After that, every recorded Jeansonne
marriage was exogamous until September 1846, when a Jeansonne
married a Pitre, a family also with a high exogamous rate of
marriage not only at Opelousas but also in the Bayou
Lafourche valley, where today the name is pronounced PEE-tree, as
though it were English, instead of PEET, its French pronunciation.
An interesting case of cultural assimilation among prairie Acadians
is that of the descendants of Joseph Lejeune, who, with
brother Blaise and sister Marguerite, came to Louisiana from
Maryland aboard the Britannia in October 1769. Before
following their maternal uncle, Honoré Trahan, to Opelousas,
older brother Blaise married into the Breaux family at
St.-Gabriel in November 1773. He and his family settled first
on Bellevue prairie, near the present city, before moving out to
Prairie Faquetaique, near the headwaters of Bayou des Cannes.
Younger brother Joseph, who had been born not at Pigiguit, like his
older siblings, but probably in North Carolina during Le Grand
Dérangement, followed his brother to Bayou des Cannes. In
c1782, Joseph married Pérrine, called Patsy, daughter of Anglo
Americans Gilbert Hayes and Jeanne Jackson of Carolina
and Mobile, at Opelousas. In his late 60s, Joseph remarried to
Mary Ritter, probably a German Creole. He died in
October 1847, in his early 90s, though his relatives told the
recording priest that he was 110! By then, and since the
1820s, Joseph, his children, and his grandchildren no longer were
calling themselves Lejeunes; their surname had evolved into
Young, influenced, no doubt, by Joseph's first wife, Patsy
Hayes, from whom all of his many children came. None of
Joseph's children married fellow Acadians, though a few of his
grandchildren did. Although none of his sons married fellow
Acadians, older brother Blaise and his descendants still called
themselves Lejeune.512
Nor is it surprising that most of the young Acadians from France who
came to the Opelousas District with their families in 1785 chose
non-Acadian spouses. Claude Aucoin, who crossed on
La Ville d'Archangel and followed his Saulnier wife to
Opelousas, was 60 years old when he remarried to a Brasseaux
in November 1788, but his children married non-Acadians:
Perpétué married a French-Canadian Normand; Anne-Anastasie
married a French-Canadian Bertrand dit Beaulieu in
December 1789; Mathurin-Casimir married a daughter of Philippe
Langlois in October 1796 (her mother was an Acadian Jeansonne);
and Pierre married twice, first to a Silvestre in January
1800 and then to a Fontenot in May 1818. Basile
Chiasson, who crossed on La Caroline, remarried to a
Thibodeaux in July 1789, when he was age 40; his son
Charles-Albert, however, married a daughter of Charles Bourassa
in October 1802. Angélique Pinet, who was a widow when
she crossed on Le Bon Papa, remarried to Michel Blanchet
of Québec in April 1787.513
Some of the later comers who chose to settle in the Attakapas
District helped create multi-ethnic families of their own. Élisabeth Duhon
of Rivière-aux-Canards, widow of Alexandre Aucoin, whom she
had married at Liverpool, England, in October 1759, crossed on
L'Amitié with seven daughters, ages 24 to 6:
Marie-Madeleine married Jean-Baptiste Simon of Rennes,
Brittany, France, at New Orleans in November 1785 (he also had
crossed on L'Amitié, either as a crewman or a stowaway);
Marie-Félicité married Carolinian Luke Faulk in October 1787;
and Marie-Renée married Mathew Sellers, Jr. of Charleston,
South Carolina, in February 1796. Amable-Ursule Doiron
crossed on Le Beaumont with her family; her second husband
was Simon Durio of Grand Coteau; her sister
Marie-Hippolythe-Honoré, a native of Le Havre, married François
Begnaud of Nantes in February 1786. Marie-Françoise
Semer, who crossed on L'Amitié, married William Norris,
Jr. of Redston, Pennsylvania and Carencro, in August 1796; William,
Jr. was a Presbyterian who had to convert to Catholicism in order to
marry his Acadian "girl," who was age 33 at the time of her
marriage; Marie-Françoise's cousin, Anne-Françoise Semer,
married Frenchman Joseph Sabot in December 1798.
Geneviève Trahan, who crossed with her family on Le
St.-Rémi, married French Canadian Jean-Baptiste Morin in
November 1786 and died 11 months later, at age 25, perhaps from the
rigors of childbirth.514
.
Without realizing it, the
Acadians of Louisiana were creating something new in a place very
different from Old Acadia. Their
children and grandchildren still spoke French, but, later, some of
them learned rudimentary English to communicate with their anglophone neighbors. They clung tenaciously to
the Roman Catholic faith, but their priests were just as often
Spanish and Irish as French. There were no tidal marshes to
dyke down here; true, there were salt marshes along the coast that
dwarfed anything they would have found in Acadia, but the tides were
too weak to employ aboiteaux to create new fields and pastures.
Farming along the river and bayous was more akin to clearing the
uplands back in Acadia, as their ancestors were sometimes forced to
do, except here one was clearing away the top of a natural levee,
though the levees they were compelled to build along the river did
resemble the dykes their grandfathers had built. On the
prairies, the soil was deep and rich, ready for the plow--an
implement seldom used by their parents and grandparents. Herds
of cattle, some properly branded, grazed on the limitless prairies,
so that was not so different. They ate very different food than
what their ancestors in France and Acadia had eaten. Their
houses were built out of different wood, with Spanish moss and mud mixed
into the walls. Their boats were different. And, to
accommodate the hot, wet climate, so was their clothing. They
could not remember the last time they had seen snow of any
significance, so they had forgotten how to construct Indian
snowshoes. Influenced by
local Africans, Germans, and Spaniards, they learned to play
new musical instruments. They were surrounded by so many
exotic cultures here, something they had experienced only in exile.
Mostly they married their own kind, but, from the beginning of their
arrival in the colony, they began taking up with Frenchmen, Germans,
Spaniards, Englishmen, Americans, Italians, Native Americans, Afro Creoles,
and even French Creoles.
Many, now, were slave owners, a few of them aspiring members of
Louisiana's socioeconomic elite. ...
And so, along the river,
down on the Lafourche, and out on the prairies, a new, exotic culture quietly evolved:
Louisiana's Acadiens were becoming
Cadiens, and someday others would call them Cajuns.515
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BOOK ONE
BOOK TWO
BOOK THREE
BOOK FIVE
NOTES - BOOK FOUR