The Expulsion Of The Acadians
We have now to turn back over a number of years to see what has
been happening in Acadia, that oldest and most easterly part of
New France which in 1710 fell into British hands. Since the
Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 the Acadians had been nominally British
subjects. But the Frenchman, hardly less than the Jew, is
difficult of absorption by other racial types. We have already
noted the natural aim of France to recover what she had lost and
her use of the priests to hold the Acadians to her interests. The
Acadians were secure in the free exercise of their religion. They
had no secular leaders and few, if any, clergy of their own. They
were led chiefly by priests, subjects of France, who, though
working in British territory, owned no allegiance to Great
Britain, and were directed by the Bishop of Quebec.
For forty years the question of the Acadians remained unsettled.
Under the Treaty of 1713 the Acadians might leave the country. If
they remained a year they must become British subjects. When,
however, in 1715, two years after the conclusion of the treaty,
they were required to take the oath of allegiance to the new
King, George I, they declared that they could not do so, since
they were about to move to Cape Breton.
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