Settlers v. Natives: the Anglo-Mikmaq War: 1749-1755

Warfare along the North American frontier, which extended from Nova Scotia and Quebec through the Thirteen Colonies and into Spanish Florida was constant.  French versus British, French Settlers versus American Colonials, Whites versus Natives and Natives versus each other, sometimes pursuing their own rivalries and sometimes at the behest or instigation of one group of Settlers against another.  Today, we'll look at the continuation of yesterday's conflicts, one that dovetailed with both King George's War (1740-48) and the French and Indian War (1755-1762).

As we've seen with the aftermath of Queen Anne's War, the British took over that portion of New France known as Acadia, roughly New Brunswick and parts of Maine.  Acadia was inhabited both by French settlers commonly known as Acadiens, the ancestors of today's Acadiens and Cajuns, and by two tribes of the Wabanaki Confederacy, the Mikmaq and Maliseet, who often managed to intermarry and otherwise coexist with the Acadiens.  Due to the Acadiens' influence and that of Jesuit and other Catholic missionaries, the Mikmaq and Maliseet tended to adhere to Catholicism in addition to tribal beliefs.  The treaty ending Queen Anne's War stipulated that the English would respect the religious beliefs of the French colonists.  England, and particular New England, had an answer to that.  Protestant settlers would move into Maine, Nova Scotia and parts of Quebec, disrupting the balance of power as best they could.  We've already seen parts of this during the New England-Wabanaki War (Father Rale's War (1725).  Now, it would play out again in Nova Scotia.

As Acadiens saw more and more Protestants moving into Nova Scotia, they understandably grew worried.  Even more worried were the Mikmaq and Maliseet, who were becoming outnumbered by Europeans, both French Acadiens and now New Englanders.  There was a series of raids by Acadiens and their Mikmaq allies against British settlements and outposts which led to reprisals, making the Canadian frontier just as hazardous as the American one.  The British responded by building a series of Forts in Nova Scotia to head off both the Acadiens and Natives.  They located some of these forts in established Acadien communities and the message was clear.  They were there as conquerors and occupiers.  The French beefed up their fortifications in Quebec and encouraged the continued raiding by the Wabanaki tribes.  Jean Le Loutre was an Abbe, the French term for a vicar, parson or village priest rather than a missionary like Louis Rale.  He, along with Acadien guerilla leader Joseph Broussard (Beausoleil), also made hit-and-run raids on English settlements.  New England leader John Gorham, whom some consider to be the forerunner of Rogers and his Rangers, pushed deep into French territory in Quebec, prompting more Native attacks on English settlements in Nova Scotia.

Fed up, the British turned their wrath on the Acadiens, demanding an oath of unconditional loyalty to the British Crown and the Protestant religion or eviction from their lands.  While some Acadiens preferred to take the oath and practice their religion in secret, others flocked to Le Loutre and Beausoleil.  The British began burning Acadien farms and towns in retaliation.  Seeing the inevitable, Le Loutre himself chose to lead his people out of Nova Scotia rather than stay and risk more fighting.  The British, believing that French refugees from Nova Scotia might provoke an all-out war with France, blockaded ships willing to take the beleaguered Acadians on board.  The Acadiens, trapped in a no-man's-land, kept up the fight.  In 1749, the Mikmaq and Maliseet staged raids on Canso, Chignecto, Dartmouth, Lunenburg, and besieged Grand Pre, showing astonishing success against the British and their New England allies.  The raids continued for almost seven years, with the English learning the same lesson again.  They could not simply beat down the Acadiens and the Wabanaki tribes, they would have to treat with the Natives and deport the Acadiens by force, whether it resulted in war with France or not.

The tide had begun to turn against Le Loutre and Beausoleil with the fall of Fort Beausejoir in 1755.  Both men were imprisoned.  British forces harried the Acadiens into ports and herded them onto ships bound for France.  Jean-Louis Le Loutre would be imprisoned in a castle on the Isle of Jersey until the end of the Seven Years War (1763).  Upon being released he continued to help displaced Acadiens in France find new homes.  Joseph Broussard (Bausoleil) continued as a guerrilla fighter on behalf of his people throughout the Seven Years' War until he was captured and imprisoned in Halifax, Nova Scotia and transferred to Haiti.  Finally, in 1765, he led a group of Acadiens from Haiti to what is now St. Martinville, Louisiana to establish the first Cajun settlement there.  Meanwhile, back in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, the British dealt with the Wabanaki in a series of treaties and punitive raids.  That portion of the frontier was quiet, for the time being.