I've learned a lot about my local area recently so I'll share a few tidbits.
Fort Beauséjour (where this photo was taken) in Aulac, New Brunswick, Canada, is the site of a French fort that was built to oppose the British built Fort Lawrence around 1750. At the time, the borders were unclear and ill-defined, causing a nagging uneasiness and general malaise.
* * *
When the British (under Major Charles Lawrence) sailed into the area and toward an Acadian (french colonial) town named Beaubassin, the local priest, as any man of God would do, burned the town to ashes so the British couldn't have it and rushed the now homeless Acadians to the French for safety.
Major Lawrence thought negatively of this and within months returned with carpenters to build Fort Lawrence (what else could they have called it, really?) which, in turn, annoyed the French who quickly began (but never finished) constructing Fort Beauséjour.
Before the French could finish their fort, the British (under Lt. Col. Robert Monckton) attacked, lay siege, and won. Having gained control of a new fort (unfinished Beauséjour), they razed their old one (Fort Lawrence) to the ground.
When they finally looked around at what they'd conquered, the British found they were surrounded by Acadian prisoners who (when demanded of them) refused to swear allegiance to the Crown (preferring to instead remain "neutral"). So (now Governor) Charles Lawrence decided it best to forcibly relocate not only the prisoners but every Acadian they could find, to places like Spanish-occupied Louisiana and nearby France, and he put the adept Robert Monckton in charge of carrying out those orders. Nearly half of the Acadians relocated would die en route. This undeniably harsh treatment has become known as the Great Upheaval.
A local town, Moncton, New Brunswick, is named for Lt. Col. Monckton.
* * *
Some other local towns also named for men with slightly questionable histories:
- Amherst, Nova Scotia - named for Jeffery Amherst, an officer in the British Army who thought it would be a great idea to end a conflict with Native Americans by giving them blankets infected with smallpox. (I have friends that do this with farts.)
- Sackville, New Brunswick - named for George Sackville, who ended his British military career with a court martial and was ruled "...unfit to serve his Majesty in any military capacity whatsoever".
(Nikon D300, 17mm, f/3.5, 1/1000, ISO 200)
No comments:
Post a Comment