Post by Adam on Apr 11, 2007 9:20:37 GMT -5
One of my favorite singer-songwriters is a guy named Richard Shindell. He has recentky released an album of cover songs called "South of Delia". I love the opening track which is a song by The Band called "Acadian Driftwood". I did some research on the story behind the song and it's really interesting and deals with the history of maritimers so I thought'd pass it along!
The French colony of Acadia (French Acadie ) was founded in 1604. It comprised Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, as well as parts of present-day Quebec. It extended into what is now Maine, and Pentagoet, the Acadian capital from 1670-74 was near Castine, Maine. The French must have arrived on a gentle summer's day.....
The North America of the early 18th century was divided between the English speaking colonies which became the original thirteen United States plus Newfoundland; the French-speaking colonies in New France (present-day Quebec and the area that is now Ontario, plus the whole Mississippi Valley), the French colonies of Acadia and Louisiana; and Spanish territories in Florida, Texas, the South-West and right up the West Coast. Borders were vague. The division between what became the USA and Canada would not have been predictable.
The border areas were disputed and dangerous, as the British and French tried to forge alliances with the Native Americans. This was played out in 'Last of the Mohicans' territory. It has fascinated me since I was a first year student of American Literature. Some doubtlessly wise authority believed literature should be studied chronologically, so the first year led us extremely slowly from the Puritan poets via Benjamin Franklin to James Fenimore Cooper and Washington Irving. It was the second year before we experienced any genuinely major writers, Hawthorne and Melville. Set amidst such a mind-numbingly dull menu of Jonathan Edwards and Cotton Mather, Fenimore Cooper shone, and we were set to read all five Hawkeye novels. Being young and ill-aquainted with the realities of academia I was foolish enough to actually read them.
Acadia had a troubled history. As early as 1613 the British had destroyed Port Royal (now Annapolis Royal). The British claimed Nova Scotia from 1621 to 1632, and again from 1654 to 1670. They finally captured Nova Scotia in 1710, and the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht awarded it to Britain, while the French retained Cape Breton Island and Ile St Jean (Prince Edward Island) until 1763. Halifax was founded in 1749, and soon had a comparatively large English-speaking population of 4000, nearly all ex-New Englanders. Someone must have remembered Cromwell's idea of settling Scottish Protestants into Irish Catholic areas as a control mechanism, German and Swiss Protestants were invited to settle in Lunenburg, until someone had a better plan.
The deportations of Acadians started in 1755, a year before the Seven Years War broke out. The deportations were a concerted attempt to "ethnically cleanse" (one of the nastiest euphemisms ever coined) the area. As such, they reverberate more now than they did 25 years ago. There was a second wave in 1758, when a further 3500 Acadians were evicted from Prince Edward Island. New Englanders started settling in the fertile Annapolis valley in the 1750s.
When the Seven Years War ended in 1763 with the Treaty of Paris, New France was ceded to Britain. Some Acadians were allowed to return, and today about one-eighth of the population of Nova Scotia is of Acadian descent. Offers of free land attracted immigrants from New England, who were around one half of the population by the time of the American revolution. During the revolution some 35,000 loyalists relocated there from the thirteen colonies. The town of Shelburne was established in 1783 by 10,000 fleeing loyalists, who later dissipated through the province.
Go to theband.hiof.no/articles/acadian_driftwood_viney.html for the full article.
And here are the lyrics to the song:
Acadian Driftwood by Robbie Robertson
The war was over and the spirit was broken
The hills were smokin' as the men withdrew
We stood on the cliffs and watched the ships
Slowly sinking to their rendezvous
Many a weary year had passed since the burning of Grand-Pré
When on the falling tide the freighted vessels departed
They signed a treaty and our homes were taken
Loved ones forsaken. They didn't give a [censored]
Try'n' to raise a family. End up the enemy
Over what went down on the Plains of Abraham
Acadian driftwood, Gypsy tail wind
They call my home the land of snow
Canadian cold front movin' in
What a way to ride
Oh, what a way to go
Acadian driftwood, gypsy tail wind
They call my home the land of snow ...
Then some returned to the motherland
The high command had them cast away
Some stayed on to finish what they started
They never parted, They're just built that way
We had kin livin' south of the border
They're a little older and they've been around
They wrote in a letter life is a whole lot better
So pull up your stakes, children and come on down
Fifteen under zero when the day became a threat
My clothes were wet and I was drenched to the bone
Been out ice fishing, too much repetition
Make a man wanna leave the only home he's known
Sailed out of the gulf headin' for Saint Pierre
Nothin' to declare. All we had was gone
Broke down along the coast, but what hurt the most
When the people there said, "You'd better keep movin' on"
Far asunder, on separate coasts the Acadians landed
Scattered were they, like flakes of snow, when the wind from the north-east
Strikes aslant through the fogs that darken the banks of Newfoundland
Friendless, homeless, they wandered from city to city
From the cold lakes of the north to the sultry Southern savannas ...
Everlasting summer filled with ill-content
This government had us walkin' in chains
This isn't my turf. This ain't my season
Can't think of one good reason to remain
We worked in the sugar fields up from New Orleans
It was ever green up until the floods
You could call it an omen, points ya where you're goin'
Set my compass north, I got winter in my blood
Sais tu, A-ca-di-e, j'ai le mal du pays
(You know, Acadia, I long for the country (I am homesick))
Ta neige, Acadie, fait des larmes au soleil
(Your snow, Acadia, makes tears in the sun (or for the sun))
J'arrive Acadie, teedle um, teedle um, teedle ooh
(I am arriving Acadia (or I am coming Acadia))
Sorry for the long post!
The French colony of Acadia (French Acadie ) was founded in 1604. It comprised Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, as well as parts of present-day Quebec. It extended into what is now Maine, and Pentagoet, the Acadian capital from 1670-74 was near Castine, Maine. The French must have arrived on a gentle summer's day.....
The North America of the early 18th century was divided between the English speaking colonies which became the original thirteen United States plus Newfoundland; the French-speaking colonies in New France (present-day Quebec and the area that is now Ontario, plus the whole Mississippi Valley), the French colonies of Acadia and Louisiana; and Spanish territories in Florida, Texas, the South-West and right up the West Coast. Borders were vague. The division between what became the USA and Canada would not have been predictable.
The border areas were disputed and dangerous, as the British and French tried to forge alliances with the Native Americans. This was played out in 'Last of the Mohicans' territory. It has fascinated me since I was a first year student of American Literature. Some doubtlessly wise authority believed literature should be studied chronologically, so the first year led us extremely slowly from the Puritan poets via Benjamin Franklin to James Fenimore Cooper and Washington Irving. It was the second year before we experienced any genuinely major writers, Hawthorne and Melville. Set amidst such a mind-numbingly dull menu of Jonathan Edwards and Cotton Mather, Fenimore Cooper shone, and we were set to read all five Hawkeye novels. Being young and ill-aquainted with the realities of academia I was foolish enough to actually read them.
Acadia had a troubled history. As early as 1613 the British had destroyed Port Royal (now Annapolis Royal). The British claimed Nova Scotia from 1621 to 1632, and again from 1654 to 1670. They finally captured Nova Scotia in 1710, and the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht awarded it to Britain, while the French retained Cape Breton Island and Ile St Jean (Prince Edward Island) until 1763. Halifax was founded in 1749, and soon had a comparatively large English-speaking population of 4000, nearly all ex-New Englanders. Someone must have remembered Cromwell's idea of settling Scottish Protestants into Irish Catholic areas as a control mechanism, German and Swiss Protestants were invited to settle in Lunenburg, until someone had a better plan.
The deportations of Acadians started in 1755, a year before the Seven Years War broke out. The deportations were a concerted attempt to "ethnically cleanse" (one of the nastiest euphemisms ever coined) the area. As such, they reverberate more now than they did 25 years ago. There was a second wave in 1758, when a further 3500 Acadians were evicted from Prince Edward Island. New Englanders started settling in the fertile Annapolis valley in the 1750s.
When the Seven Years War ended in 1763 with the Treaty of Paris, New France was ceded to Britain. Some Acadians were allowed to return, and today about one-eighth of the population of Nova Scotia is of Acadian descent. Offers of free land attracted immigrants from New England, who were around one half of the population by the time of the American revolution. During the revolution some 35,000 loyalists relocated there from the thirteen colonies. The town of Shelburne was established in 1783 by 10,000 fleeing loyalists, who later dissipated through the province.
Go to theband.hiof.no/articles/acadian_driftwood_viney.html for the full article.
And here are the lyrics to the song:
Acadian Driftwood by Robbie Robertson
The war was over and the spirit was broken
The hills were smokin' as the men withdrew
We stood on the cliffs and watched the ships
Slowly sinking to their rendezvous
Many a weary year had passed since the burning of Grand-Pré
When on the falling tide the freighted vessels departed
They signed a treaty and our homes were taken
Loved ones forsaken. They didn't give a [censored]
Try'n' to raise a family. End up the enemy
Over what went down on the Plains of Abraham
Acadian driftwood, Gypsy tail wind
They call my home the land of snow
Canadian cold front movin' in
What a way to ride
Oh, what a way to go
Acadian driftwood, gypsy tail wind
They call my home the land of snow ...
Then some returned to the motherland
The high command had them cast away
Some stayed on to finish what they started
They never parted, They're just built that way
We had kin livin' south of the border
They're a little older and they've been around
They wrote in a letter life is a whole lot better
So pull up your stakes, children and come on down
Fifteen under zero when the day became a threat
My clothes were wet and I was drenched to the bone
Been out ice fishing, too much repetition
Make a man wanna leave the only home he's known
Sailed out of the gulf headin' for Saint Pierre
Nothin' to declare. All we had was gone
Broke down along the coast, but what hurt the most
When the people there said, "You'd better keep movin' on"
Far asunder, on separate coasts the Acadians landed
Scattered were they, like flakes of snow, when the wind from the north-east
Strikes aslant through the fogs that darken the banks of Newfoundland
Friendless, homeless, they wandered from city to city
From the cold lakes of the north to the sultry Southern savannas ...
Everlasting summer filled with ill-content
This government had us walkin' in chains
This isn't my turf. This ain't my season
Can't think of one good reason to remain
We worked in the sugar fields up from New Orleans
It was ever green up until the floods
You could call it an omen, points ya where you're goin'
Set my compass north, I got winter in my blood
Sais tu, A-ca-di-e, j'ai le mal du pays
(You know, Acadia, I long for the country (I am homesick))
Ta neige, Acadie, fait des larmes au soleil
(Your snow, Acadia, makes tears in the sun (or for the sun))
J'arrive Acadie, teedle um, teedle um, teedle ooh
(I am arriving Acadia (or I am coming Acadia))
Sorry for the long post!
was that Cape Breton was controlled by France for quite a long time. I knew PEI was and French still is spoken there (I think...) but did not know the French were in CB too. If they stayed, the Cottars would be singing little French ditties instead! 
