Just returning to this post after a couple of months of assimilation with my only recently rootsing around my ancestry.
I rate this as another super-encyclopedic blending of your source and themes into a genealogical gumbo of mysterical interactions among the human species!
I am picturing myself signing the neutrality declaration, then thirty years downstream being sanctioned because then generation that followed did not adhere to my pledge. My own life experience tells me, my offspring would scoff and say "that was your life __ we didn't pledge anything."
As with the American natives, whose elders frequently foresaw calamaties arising and accepted uncomfortable compromises, to be mocked as "old women" by the young lions who didn't accept deliberate mistreatment and had much to prove -- my offspring consider my lifestyle an antiquity.
A while back I organized a mishmash Acadiana reading among Massachusetts Acadian David Surette, a Cajun deportee (me, proudly spouting the X surname appendage), and non-Acadian A.M. Hodge, who dove into the culture based on an intense sensation she felt when visiting our homeland. Her novel followed three fictional brothers as soldiers of fortune, one marrying in the community, one into the Mik'maq culture, and one into the Massachusetts commerce culture. How could anything hold still with those tributaries?
Then David Surette suggested a book (I can't remember the title and found the details too triangular to pursue) which described constant tugs of war between related entities, with instigators of all backgrounds, shapes, and sizes. Apparently the young lions were not aware they were in the forest primeval. (I came to realize "Acadia Lost" was parallel to "Paradise Lost.")
(Wish I had attended your "economy of words" school!)
Thank you George! The more I dig and think, the more convoluted it becomes. And history keeps repeating and repeating. It's fascinating to consider the interactions of younger with older Acadians in the different time periods that "official" history considers. I'm more intrigued by social dynamics than the political ones, so your observation about how the different generations would view an oath of allegiance is captivating.
@Ann, I always admire the depth of your pieces and learn something new with each read. Some in my husband’s line were, I believe, involved in the raids you describe. I remember reading accounts of the bounty on scalps, especially. You’ve prompted me to go back and take a new look.
As you say, as we all say, the history our families lived through and made is complex, confounding and compromising, it’s often indigestible and ugly.
Yet, our goal as genealogist and family historians is to tell those stories, to push back against what we know or think we know, and you’re doing a fabulous job of that. Thanks
Thank you Lori! Please let me know what you find out about your lines.
At some point, when I dip back in time from the Golden Age of Acadie, I'll have to root around in the French/Acadian raid in Newfoundland that sent 14 year-old English William James into my ancestry. I keep thinking about how this "stuff" affected children and teens. The history books and courses would lead me to believe that historical events were only about adults.
Great last point, remembering also that the concept of “teens” is relatively new and many of the soldiers and combatants in those early wars were incredibly young by our understanding but already considered men at the time.
I have to remind myself of this distinction and cultural change ALL the time — when I see 13-year old brides, six-year-old coal miners, and 8-year-olds keeping house!
Still, what we know now about the impact of trauma on developing brains surely suggests young people were impacted by atrocities, regardless of how they were classified at the time.
The more I learn about the history of this region, and the history of the peoples who lived there, I discover more and more complexity. And savagery. This whole period in North American history was a long and violent landgrab and Hobbesian free-for-all with many participants and more than the usual “sides” to any conflict. And it didn’t end with the American War of Independence. Americans continued to raid the Gaspé coast, where my Acadian ancestors fled…they even stole fish from their nets.
A lot of great sources (that I have bookmarked!) and deep réflexion about our history in this excellent essay.
This was from a history of the Loyalists who lived in the Baie des Chaleurs (the underside of the Gaspé coast). While this account relates to an American raid on an English speaking village, there is no way these raiders distinguished between Loyalists and anyone else. As you know, the Baie des Chaleurs had many Acadian refugees living among other inhabitants. https://www.uelac.org/education/QuebecResource/Chapters/LOYALISTS%20OF%20CHALEUR%20BAY%20-%20GASPESIA.html
I know little about Loyalists, but in this article they sound like another people made refugees for not swearing an oath of allegiance. These are also your ancestors? Am noticing word choices -- Rebels in this article would be Patriots in another. I'm remembering that Tories was the word for people who didn't join the American Revolution. Or would that be Rebellion? Just a few words convey so much about a writer's bias, heh?
Yes, I am descended from one Loyalist family in this community. Robert Flowers was a button maker from New Jersey who fled the US with his wife and children in 1783, after serving under Burgoyne. He served at the battle of Valcour Island, and was most likely at the surrender at Saratoga. His descendants married French people in the area and became francophone.
Just returning to this post after a couple of months of assimilation with my only recently rootsing around my ancestry.
I rate this as another super-encyclopedic blending of your source and themes into a genealogical gumbo of mysterical interactions among the human species!
I am picturing myself signing the neutrality declaration, then thirty years downstream being sanctioned because then generation that followed did not adhere to my pledge. My own life experience tells me, my offspring would scoff and say "that was your life __ we didn't pledge anything."
As with the American natives, whose elders frequently foresaw calamaties arising and accepted uncomfortable compromises, to be mocked as "old women" by the young lions who didn't accept deliberate mistreatment and had much to prove -- my offspring consider my lifestyle an antiquity.
A while back I organized a mishmash Acadiana reading among Massachusetts Acadian David Surette, a Cajun deportee (me, proudly spouting the X surname appendage), and non-Acadian A.M. Hodge, who dove into the culture based on an intense sensation she felt when visiting our homeland. Her novel followed three fictional brothers as soldiers of fortune, one marrying in the community, one into the Mik'maq culture, and one into the Massachusetts commerce culture. How could anything hold still with those tributaries?
Then David Surette suggested a book (I can't remember the title and found the details too triangular to pursue) which described constant tugs of war between related entities, with instigators of all backgrounds, shapes, and sizes. Apparently the young lions were not aware they were in the forest primeval. (I came to realize "Acadia Lost" was parallel to "Paradise Lost.")
(Wish I had attended your "economy of words" school!)
Keep digging, and writing, and educating!
Thank you George! The more I dig and think, the more convoluted it becomes. And history keeps repeating and repeating. It's fascinating to consider the interactions of younger with older Acadians in the different time periods that "official" history considers. I'm more intrigued by social dynamics than the political ones, so your observation about how the different generations would view an oath of allegiance is captivating.
@Ann, I always admire the depth of your pieces and learn something new with each read. Some in my husband’s line were, I believe, involved in the raids you describe. I remember reading accounts of the bounty on scalps, especially. You’ve prompted me to go back and take a new look.
As you say, as we all say, the history our families lived through and made is complex, confounding and compromising, it’s often indigestible and ugly.
Yet, our goal as genealogist and family historians is to tell those stories, to push back against what we know or think we know, and you’re doing a fabulous job of that. Thanks
Thank you Lori! Please let me know what you find out about your lines.
At some point, when I dip back in time from the Golden Age of Acadie, I'll have to root around in the French/Acadian raid in Newfoundland that sent 14 year-old English William James into my ancestry. I keep thinking about how this "stuff" affected children and teens. The history books and courses would lead me to believe that historical events were only about adults.
Great last point, remembering also that the concept of “teens” is relatively new and many of the soldiers and combatants in those early wars were incredibly young by our understanding but already considered men at the time.
I have to remind myself of this distinction and cultural change ALL the time — when I see 13-year old brides, six-year-old coal miners, and 8-year-olds keeping house!
Still, what we know now about the impact of trauma on developing brains surely suggests young people were impacted by atrocities, regardless of how they were classified at the time.
The more I learn about the history of this region, and the history of the peoples who lived there, I discover more and more complexity. And savagery. This whole period in North American history was a long and violent landgrab and Hobbesian free-for-all with many participants and more than the usual “sides” to any conflict. And it didn’t end with the American War of Independence. Americans continued to raid the Gaspé coast, where my Acadian ancestors fled…they even stole fish from their nets.
A lot of great sources (that I have bookmarked!) and deep réflexion about our history in this excellent essay.
Thank you Lisa! Tell me more about the fish net raids.
This was from a history of the Loyalists who lived in the Baie des Chaleurs (the underside of the Gaspé coast). While this account relates to an American raid on an English speaking village, there is no way these raiders distinguished between Loyalists and anyone else. As you know, the Baie des Chaleurs had many Acadian refugees living among other inhabitants. https://www.uelac.org/education/QuebecResource/Chapters/LOYALISTS%20OF%20CHALEUR%20BAY%20-%20GASPESIA.html
I know little about Loyalists, but in this article they sound like another people made refugees for not swearing an oath of allegiance. These are also your ancestors? Am noticing word choices -- Rebels in this article would be Patriots in another. I'm remembering that Tories was the word for people who didn't join the American Revolution. Or would that be Rebellion? Just a few words convey so much about a writer's bias, heh?
Yes, I am descended from one Loyalist family in this community. Robert Flowers was a button maker from New Jersey who fled the US with his wife and children in 1783, after serving under Burgoyne. He served at the battle of Valcour Island, and was most likely at the surrender at Saratoga. His descendants married French people in the area and became francophone.
It is definitely complicated! 😅 But so very interesting.
O Canada, take us in please! I'm sure many of us could find a Canadian ancestors. Wish I had some of that Arcadian cool, Ann!