Acadians’ “roots in silence”

The expression “l’enracinement dans le silence” (rooted in silence) was coined by historian Léon Thériault in reference to the period between the deportation of Acadians in the mid 18th century and what is considered the Acadian renaissance a century later. Beginning in 1764 Acadians could return to Nova Scotia, provided they took an oath of allegiance. Their position in the region had deteriorated: other groups had been granted the most valuable land, including areas that once belonged to Acadians, and their political power was far greater than that of the returning Acadians. These new circumstances, along with the experience of the deportation, resulted in changes to Acadians’ way of life – the renewed importance of family and religion in particular. But in spite of all that had happened and was happening to them, in the last decades of the 18th century the Acadians succeeded in reconstituting themselves as a distinct people.