Acadiensis/Volume 2/Number 1/Old Nova Scotia in 1783
Old Nova Scotia in 1783
Fragments of an Unpublished Story
N the ancient town of Rowley, near the north-east corner of the old Province of Massachusetts Bay, there was born, in the year 1731, a boy who was destined to experience more vicissitudes of fortune than fall to the lot of ordinary mortals. His name was Jacob Bailey.
The surroundings of his childhood were not inspiring. He writes:
When I had completed my tenth year, I found myself an inhabitant of a place remarkable for its ignorance, narrowness of mind and bigotry. An uniform mode of thinking and acting prevailed, and nothing could be more criminal than for one person to be more learned, religious or polite than another. * * Every man planted as many acres of Indian corn and sowed the same number with rye; he ploughed with as many oxen, hoed it as often, and gathered in his crop on the same day with his grandfather. He salted down the same quantity of beef and pork, wore the same kind of stockings, and at table sat and said grace with his wife and children around him, just as his predecessors had done before him.
Rev. Jedediah Jewett, pastor of the Congregational church in Rowley, was the friend and patron of young Jacob Bailey, and is entitled to the credit of taking an almost friendless young man from his obscurity and placing within his reach the opportunity of acquiring a college education. He entered Harvard in 1751, at the age of twenty years. Among his classmates were John Adams, the second president of the United States, and Sir John Wentworth, afterwards governor of New Hampshire, and later of Nova Scotia.
After five years spent as a schoolmaster, Jacob Bailey decided to enter the ministry, and in January, 1760, embarked for England, where, after passing a satisfactory examination, he was ordained by the Bishop of Peterborough. The mid-winter voyage, tempestuous as it proved, was not more disagreeable than the presence of "unmannerly, drunken, profane and licentious companions on ship-board." On his return to America, Mr. Bailey at once entered upon his duties as a missionary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel at Pownalborough, on the Kennebeck river. Here he laboured with success for nearly twenty years. Then came the American Revolution, an event that sadly marred the tranquility of his situation. Jacob Bailey was a Tory, and the majority of his neighbors were Whigs. As early as September, 1774, he was insulted and mobbed, and obliged to flee from his house at night to escape the violence of the "Sons of Liberty." This was but the commencement of a series of persecutions. Mr. Bailey quaintly observes: "My neighbors were so zealous for the good of their country that they killed seven of my sheep out of twelve, and shot a fine heifer as she was feeding in my pasture." His necessities were so great in the following winter that he was obliged to dispose of the remainder of his cattle, except one cow.
At length, after repeated attempts had been made upon his life, he yielded to the inevitable necessity of abandoning his home, and sought refuge in Nova Scotia. He arrived at Halifax with his family in June, 1779, cherishing a resolute determination of returning to Pownalborough as soon as the British arms should have triumphantly subdued the "rebellion." Needless to say, the long hoped for day never came. After a sojourn of more than two years at Cornwallis, he removed to Annapolis in the summer of 1782, where he was rector of the parish until his death in 1808.
Birthplace of Jacob Bailey,
Distant a Long Summer Day's Ride from Rowley, Mass.
The Reverend Jacob Bailey's pen was seldom idle, and his writings were of a very miscellaneous character. Much that he wrote has been lost, but enough remains to show how continuously his early practice of using the pen was followed through life. Among the papers now in possession of the Whitman family in Nova Scotia are some fragments of history of Nova Scotia from which the extracts that follow are taken.[1]
It appears from statements in several of Mr. Bailey's letters that his manuscript history was written between Christmas, 1783, and the following March. It was undertaken at the instance of Rev. Samuel Peters, D.D., who, in conjunction with Brook Watson, was interested in the preparation of a sketch of the Province of Nova Scotia. Speaking of what he had written, Mr. Bailey observes: "I have spared neither the American rebels nor the curtailers of the British empire."
In a letter to Rev. Dr. Peters, May 7, 1784, he writes:
After I had finished the concise account of Nova Scotia which I transmitted to you, I was persuaded by some gentlemen to enter more largely into the subject. I have already swelled it to the size of our octavo volume. * * I was advised to publish it by subscription, but as I knew you were engaged in an history of this province, I could not consent without being guilty of unpardonable baseness.
It is not improbable that an anonymous pamphlet of 157 pages, printed at Edinburgh in 1786 for well-known London publishers, entitled "An Account of the Present State of Nova Scotia," may be none other than the History of Nova Scotia compiled by Dr. Peters. The pamphlet is dedicated to the Right Honorable Lord John Sheffield. Mr. Bailey in his letter to Rev. Edward Bass,[2] July 28th, 1784, writes:
Mr. Peters, formerly of Hebron in Connecticut, is made rector of a church in London; he is much caressed at home. His importance is chiefly owing to his singularity and his drollery upon both the rebels and the court. He has written and published a queer and extraordinary History of Connecticut, and he is now engaged with a certain member of parliament [probably Brook Watson] in completing a Description of Nova Scotia, and they have employed your humble servant to collect materials, and I have already furnished them with an ample collection.
This much, by way of introduction, we now proceed to quote Jacob Bailey's description of the inhabitants of Nova Scotia.
The Native Indians.
It naturally occurs to treat first of the Indians, who were the ancient or original proprietors of this country, till European interest and ambition deprived them of the most eligible situations.
1. I am informed that the Mickmacks, who reside on the peninsula of Nova Scotia amount to several hundreds, but were formerly much more numerous, when they were reckoned a powerful tribe, remarkable for their savage disposition and hostility against European invaders. They preserved for many years an ascendency over the French inhabitants, and treated them with much complaisance. They entered the habitations of the latter without ceremony, and made free with their liquors and provisions. But the present generation are esteemed an inoffensive and harmless set of people, except when under the influence of intoxication. They chiefly support themselves by hunting and fishing. Some few, however, apply themselves to agriculture with success, but are generally poor. They profess the Roman Catholic religion, and are subject to the direction of their spiritual fathers.
2. The tribe of St. Johns on the continent are abundantly more numerous, and according to the best information I could obtain, their numbers cannot be less than fifteen hundred. They have always been considered as a more polished people than the former, and used to denominate the Mickmacks fools and savages. They certainly eye the emigrations from New York with the utmost jealousy and dislike, and yet are restrained by their fears from committing any acts of hostility.
3. The Passamaquoddy Indians are not so numerous, but have an occasional place of worship on the River St. Croix.
4. The Merrimachees are another considerable tribe; their numbers, however, uncertain.
They seem to be governed on the continent by princes and chiefs, and though some of them occupy small plantations of vegetables, they delight in roving, and are impatient of being confined to one situation or place of abode.
These Indians of Nova Scotia have been much disaffected to British government since the late contest began. They were advocates for the American cause, rejoiced at their success, and joined the rebels whenever they could engage with the least prospect of safety. And this is really surprising if we recollect on the one hand the contempt and ill-treatment they have received from the people of New England, and on the other the protection, tenderness and generosity of Great Britain.
The French Inhabitants.
It is certain the natives of France had visited the regions of Nova Scotia before 1580, for we find that in the first voyage of Sir Francis Drake to America five of his soldiers travelled from Mexico to Nova Scotia by land, and from thence to Europe in a French ship.
In 1613 Sir Samuel Argall found the subjects of France established at Port Royal, now Annapolis. Though they sustained frequent molestations, they gradually increased, extending their settlements from Annapolis to Horton, Cornwallis, along the shores of Minas Bason to Cobequid, to Cumberland, or Checkenecto, and other parts till transported by British authority in 1755.
These people were for many years the happiest and most contented of mankind, being separated in a manner from the rest of the world. The tormenting and destructive passions of avarice and ambition were unknown in their rural retreats. They resided in villages along the most fertile and pleasant rivers. Health, cheerfulness and competency were found in their humble habitations. They raised a plenty of wheat, apples and garden herbs. Their flocks of sheep and cattle afforded them milk, butter and clothing, and the waters and the forest furnished them with every luxury they wished to enjoy. Perhaps once in a year they had an opportunity with their fish and their furs to supply themselves with the wines of France and the spirits of New England. These acquisitions enabled them to observe their holidays with festivity, mirth and good humour.
A remarkable equality prevailed among these people; none rose distinguished with opulence and dominion, or felt the distresses of poverty and contempt; for when age, sickness and misfortune reduced any family, their necessities were supplied by the generous assistance of their neighbors. When any young couple were united the inhabitants of the village assembled, and by their joint labor, prepared them both a dwelling and furniture. No other superiority and subordination obtained among them, but such as was established by age, by wisdom and virtue. Their spiritual fathers were their principal guides, both in religion and policy, and by their advice and influence easily composed the little contentions which arose among them, for it is only in countries where opulence and dominion prevail that crimes are committed though it may be stated, on the other hand, that where these are unknown no splendid and striking virtues appear.
But though these Acadians lived in domestic ease and tranquility, their political situation, between two rival powers, was not so happy. Their natural attachment must have been to the French nation from which they were descended, and being rigid Roman Catholicks, those who had the direction of their consciences, improved every opportunity to confirm their aversion to the English. For almost a whole century they were continually changing masters, being compelled to transfer their allegiance from one dominion to another, and under both crowns they were generally destitute of countenance and protection.
After the peace of Utrecht they were subject to the British Empire without more favorable circumstances of security and encouragement, for they became either neglected and exposed to the insulting violence of the savages, or else were always suspected as traytors, and frequently treated as rebels. Yet, after suffering so many political mutations and embarrassments in their own country, the conclusion of their fate was truly deplorable. They were seduced by their religious guides, in whom they placed the most entire confidence, into error and guilt, and finally fell victims to a barbarous and cruel policy.
In 1755 they were invaded by forces chiefly from New England which completed their destruction. They beheld their possessions demolished by licentious soldiers, their houses, furniture and provisions consumed by the devouring flames, and themselves carried away into captivity and dispersed among a people whose language, manners and religion were extremely different from their own; a people who imagined they performed an acceptable service to their Maker by treating them with indignity and contempt, where, after being exposed to the curiosity of the idle, the ridicule of the vain, the scorn of the opulent, and the indignation of the bigot, they were committed to the miseries of nakedness and hunger. Some were sent to form plantations in the Southern colonies, where the climate quickly finished their existence. A few returned to the land of their nativity, mortified to find their paternal inheritances in the possession of their enemies, destitute of all property and subjected to servitude for a present subsistence. Some escaped to France, the residence of their remote ancestors, from whence they were transported by M. Bougainville over an immense tract of ocean to the frozen regions of the South, there to begin a settlement on the Falkland Islands; but here the same inexorable fate pursued them. Compelled to perpetual migration they were soon again expelled, for the complaisance of France and the timidity of Britain yielded these islands to the haughty dominion of Spain.
But as few destructions are so general that no remnant escapes, so multitudes of the Acadians concealed themselves in the country or retired to Canada till the tempest was over. Several hundred of these people still remain in the province, highly disaffected during the war to the British interest and now, at the conclusion of hostilities, as greatly disgusted with the monarch of France for not restoring them to their former estates.
When the Island of St. Johns was taken by the British forces, in 1759 (if I rightly recollect), above 4,000 of these Acadians were found to have retired from the continent during the invasion from New England, where they had begun new settlements, but they could not escape transportation.
Many of these people, especially about Annapolis, lived to behold a surprizing reverse of fortune. Some of those very persons who, in their younger years, were employed to transport the Acadians from Nova Scotia, have themselves been compelled to take refuge here and to receive the offices of hospitality and neighbourhood from those they had formerly injured and ruined."
[Note.] This finishes Mr. Bailey's description of the Acadians: his description of the Loyalists will form the subject of another paper.
In the anonymous pamphlet "An Account of the Present State of Nova Scotia," already mentioned in this article, there is a statement very like the closing paragraph of Mr. Bailey's history quoted above. It reads:
"These people [the Acadians] descended from the ancient French settlers, had increased to several thousands, clearing large tracts of land and raising numerous herds of cattle, living many years in the most perfect friendship with the native Indians, amongst whom they not infrequently intermarried. Unfortunately for themselves, by engaging in all the quarrels that were agitated from time to time between Great Britain and France, they became an object of resentment to the former, who having caused them to be assembled together under various pretences caused several thousands to be shipped off and transported to the other colonies, where many of them died of grief and vexation. This action, sufficiently cruel in itself, was rendered still more so from having been perpetrated in consequence of positive orders from a nation commonly regarded by its enemies as magnanimous.
Let us attend to the event. The lands from which the Acadians were thus violently torn became a desert, and every attempt to re-people them failed, until a large body of men, inhabiting those very colonies to which the Acadians had been banished, were driven in like manner from their own country for a similar attachment to Great Britain and compelled to cultivate the lands left by the former, as if it was the express intention of Providence in this particular instance to mark in strong colours the injustice of a great nation, as well as to teach mankind a lesson of moderation and humanity."
- ↑ For the opportunity of examining this manuscript and many others, the writer is greatly indebted to the Honorable Judge Savary of Annapolis Royal.
- ↑ Afterwards Bishop of Massachusetts.