The Conquest

The Acadian Tragedy

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A Failed Policy

Some 2,000 Acadians were able to escape to Canada, while the others were deported to the English colonies. But this cruel policy of dispossession and deportation did not yield the desired results. The soldiers of Massachusetts - perhaps through remorse - refused to take the prosperous lands offered to them, and only a minority of the new colonists, of British allegiance, settled in Acadia. Moreover, the alleged security problem used to justify the operation was not solved. Many Acadians who took refuge in the forest began, with the help of the Amerindians, to use guerilla tactics until the end of the war, which required the British to maintain garrisons in western Nova Scotia. This cleansing operation was no accident of British policy: terrible scenes of deportation were reported again in 1758 at Île Royale (Cape Breton Island) and Île Saint Jean (Prince Edward Island).