The period between 1755 and 1762 was a very tragic time for Acadians,
and the Girouard Family, for it was in those years that the British authorities
decided to enforce a deportation order. Acadians were stripped of all their
rights and placed in the holds of over-crowded ships bound for destinations
unknown. The traumatic events deeply scared the Acadians people. Memories of
the terrors of the deportation and exile lasted for generations.
After the fall of Beauséjour in the spring of 1755, events progressed
rapidly toward deportation. The British authorities in Halifax continued
to ban Acadians from using their guns and canoes and in the late summer
the plan was put into motion. On Friday, September 5, 1755 Colonel John
Winslow ordered that all males aged 10 years and up in the area were to
gather in the Grand-Pré Church for an important message from His
Excellency, Charles Lawrence, the Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia. The
decree that was read to the assembled and stated in part:
"Gentlemen, I have received from His Excellency Governor Lawrence the King's commission which I have
in my hand and by who's orders you are conveyed together to manifest to
you His Majesty's final resolution to the French inhabitants of this his
province of Nova Scotia who for almost half a century have had more indulgence
granted them then any of his subjects in any part of his Dominions. What
you have made of them you yourself best know."
(quoted by John Winslow in : Acadie; Esquisse
d'un parcours; Sketches of a Journey. p.52)
The promise made to the Acadians that families were not to be divided
during the process were not kept. Lawrence's motives were not at all
sympathetic to the Acadian's plight as evidenced in a letter he sent to
Colonel Robert Monckton: " I would have you not wait for the wives
and the children coming in but ship off the men without them.".
(quoted in Naomi Griffiths, "The Acadian Deportation;
Causes and Development," Ph.D thesis, p. 176)
After Acadians had boarded the ships orders were given to destroy homes
and to round up livestock. In this way Acadians who had escaped, or were
planning to, would not have their former homes to run to nor would they
have their cattle and sheep to rely on. Today, the very site of the first
deportation, at Grand-Pré is marked by a cross.
In total over ten thousand Acadians were either deported, imprisoned
or escaped, or hid in the wooded hillsides close by. For those who did run
ingenious ways were contrived by the authorities to force them out of hiding.
Winslow had warned Acadians that "if within 2 days the absent ones
are not delivered up, military execution would be immediately visited upon
the next of kin." (quoted in Dudley LeBlanc, The Acadian
Miracle, p.174)
