The Acadians in
Minudie
The French, who first came over
to Grand Pre in 1632, were a hardy, adaptable people who cultivated the land,
cleared the forests, and built dykes. The native Mi’kmaq Indians helped the
Acadians by supplying them with game and teaching them to hunt and trap. The
Mi’kmaq remained faithful allies with the Acadians who had a special regard for
the Mi’kmaq.
The Acadians, who first settled
in Minudie in 1672, depended on fishing and farming for their livelihood. They
developed an innovative method of turning the salt marsh into arable land by the
use of a dyke system. These dykes were built by driving five or six rows of logs
into the ground, laying other logs one on top of the other, filling the space
between the logs with well packed clay and covering everything with sods cut
from the marsh itself. Sometimes a dyke was also built by laying sods over
mounds of earth. They also devised a system of drainage ditches combined with a
one-way gate called an aboiteau. This gate was a hinged valve in the dyke that
allowed fresh water to run off
the
marshes at low tide but prevented salt water to flow onto the farmland at high
tide. Once the snow and rain had washed the salt from the marshes, over a
two to four year period, the Acadians were left with very fertile soil, which
ensured their prosperity and ultimate survival. They grew many crops including;
wheat, oats, barley, and rye as well keeping gardens to grow vegetables. The
Acadians even overcame the problem of keeping livestock, cattle, sheep, and
pigs, by cutting the salt-marsh hay to use as feed.
An aboiteau - an original aboiteau is on display
in the Amos Seaman School Museum
The Acadians had a
strong sense of community, and many tasks such building and maintaining the
dykes, clearing land, and building homes would be undertaken by the whole
village. Although they were self-sufficient they also established
profitable trading links with New England and other French settlements, for such
items as; molasses, gun powder, fabrics, cottons, lace, thread, firearms, pots
and rum.
Fishing, like farming was another important industry in Minudie. The nets were
23
yards long and set firmly on posts with two-foot high guide stakes every 15
feet. Twice daily, at dawn and dusk or noon and midnight, the men would take
horses and carts from the fish camps (two rows of sheds located next to the dyke
with a wagon road through the centre) out to the nets and pick the fish off the
nets. They would then return to the camp and split and salt the shad. A pole in
the dyke was used to put a light on, so that they could see their way back to
the camp at night. It is believed the Minudie fish camps were built in the early
1800s.
Minudie Fish Camps in 1800's
The Acadians, who
settled in the Minudie area, were somewhat isolated from the rest of the New
Brunswick Acadians and refused to become involved in their many “battles”. Prior
to the expulsion and fall of Beausejour in 1755, Minudie was one of the most
prosperous and picturesque settlements of the New World.
On September 2nd, 1755, a
proclamation was issued to the villages ordering all the Acadians to attend
church at Grand Pre on September 5th; it was signed by Colonel John
Winslow, Commander of the English Militia. The Acadians from Minudie hoped to
be spared from losing their homes, but Lieutenant Dixon arrived with his men to
destroy their crops and homes and transport them away. It is unclear if all of
the Acadians were in fact deported from Minudie, or if any fled to the forests
and built log homes, remaining there until times were more settled.
In 1765, Joseph Frederick Wallet DesBarres,
who had been a Colonel in the British army, was given 1,000 acres of land in
Minudie, as a government grant for his service in the military, (he purchased a
further 5,000 acres). He named the
beautiful fields with the grasses swaying in the wind, the Elysian Fields. It
was a land agent of DesBarres, John MacDonald who settled the Acadians on the
old farms in Minudie as they slowly returned to the province, along with other
settlers by 1768.
1. Argyle (Yarmouth
County)
2. Clare (Digby
County)
3. Minudie,
Nappan and Maccan (Cumberland County)
4.
Chéticamp (Inverness County, Cape Breton)
5. Isle
Madame (Richmond County, Cape Breton)
6. Pomquet,
Tracadie, Havre-Boucher (Antigonish County)
7.
Chezzetcook (Halifax County)
A Map Showing the
Acadian Settlements
after 1763