l3 Success“ ()II {/16 Edge

fishing and hunting, edible fruits and plants, and about living in primitive conditions generally. Some Frenchmen married Mi'kmaq women, since the Mi’kmaq had been, for the most part, converted to Catholicism. Those settlers who had been farmers in France found plenty of marshland to dyke. Some lived in small settlements, others off by themselves. Wherever they lived, they learned to be self- reliant, which meant, among other things, being able to do adequate carpentry and to fix almost everything or improvise something instead. While Acadie, as it soon came to be called, had a governor, and a number of well-to—do families, they did not burden the other less-well-to—do settlers. Most Acadian settlements had developed their own style of government by the beginning of the eighteenth century. The elders of the community acted as arbitrators in disputes, and represented their communities to the governor when necessary.

After a generation or two, the Acadians, as they were now known, felt themselves to be a new people - not French, not Mi’kmaq, and most certainly not English. Yet their territory was passed back and forth between France and Britain, and both countries expected the Acadians to fight for whichev e1 was in charge at any given time and to be loyal to the appropriate king. In the mid- -eighteenth century, the concept of a people who just w anted to lead their own lives, independent of any ruler, was not understood at all

In the middle of the century, when the British finally gained permanent control of Acadie, the Acadians were pressured to swear allegiance to the Crown. As they continued to refuse, their villages and farms were burnt, their livestock was destroyed or driven away, and they themselves were deported, some to various cities along the American east coast, others to France, and even a few to England. Many died in the course of this Deportation, which went on for several years in the late 17505. Others, more fortunate, hid in the woods and survived there among the Mi’kmaq. Years after the Deportation quite a