They are considered an inferior race by the "pure French".

Sep 11

Sep 11 They are considered an inferior race by the "pure French".

Mixed-blood, Nova Scotia, sang-mêlé, Southwest Nova Scotia

Additional Primary Source Evidence Regarding the Historical Post-Deportation Ostracization and Denigration of the “Sang-Mêlés” (“Mixed-Bloods”) of Southwest Nova Scotia/The Historic Cape Sable Region

The book, “Western and Eastern Rambles: Travel Sketches of Nova Scotia.” is a compilation of newspaper articles called “Rambles” written by the Nova Scotian Journalist, Politician, Public Servant, Poet, and eventual Commissioner for Indian Affairs in Nova Scotia, the Honourable “Joseph Howe” based on his voyages across the Province of Nova Scotia in the 1820s and 1830s. Although “Western and Eastern Rambles: Travel Sketches of Nova Scotia” was Edited by M. G. Parks and published in 1973, Mr. Howe’s articles/“Rambles,”which were written based on his own first-hand observations of the people and geography of Nova Scotia at the time, were published between 1828 and 1831 in his own newspaper, the “Novascotian.”

Some very detailed background information and context concerning the Honourable “Joseph Howe’s” early nineteenth century “Rambles” can be found on pages 03 and 05 of the “Introduction” section of “Western and Eastern Rambles: Travel Sketches of Nova Scotia” ( https://utorontopress.com/9780802061836/western-and-eastern-rambles/ )and reads as follows:

“… Howe bought the Novascotian from George Young in 1827, after he had spent that year editing another newspaper, The Acadian and General Advertiser, in partnership with James Spike. As editor, manager, and owner of the new venture, he soon became a very busy man. His unremitting labour was not in vain, for by the end of his first year he had about 800 subscribers, 300 in Halifax and the rest, nearly 500, throughout the Maritime provinces. In 1828 he began the series of excursions into the countryside of Nova Scotia which resulted in Western Rambles (published in the Novascotian from 23 July to 9 October 1828) and Eastern Rambles (17 December 1829, to 19 October 1831). In these years when he had not yet entered politics, his immediate purpose in travelling was the mundane business of making his newspaper a financial success. He travelled thousands of miles in order to get new subscriptions and, above all, to collect subscriptions due, in a constant struggle to keep ahead of his own creditors and gather the cash essential for the support of his family and business. An incidental result of his frequent trips, though of immense value to his subsequent career, was the intimate knowledge of the province thus gained.

Although Howe may have made a few excursions beyond the Halifax area before 1828, particularly to Windsor and into the Annapolis Valley, it was in that year that he began his extended business trips which were to take him to every part of Nova Scotia, over many a road beyond the confines of the Rambles, and into New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. In the early summer of 1828 he visited the western counties. In 1829 he was on the road in earnest, being away from home for most of June and early July, and then again from mid-August to the end of October. His first tour of that year was a routine trip through the Annapolis Valley, but his second was ambitious indeed – to Truro, Pictou, and over to Charlottetown; then back to Pictou and on through River John, Tatamagouche, Wallace, Pugwash, Londonderry, and back to Truro; then to Amherst and into New Brunswick, and finally by ship to Boston and New York. In 1830 he left Halifax on 23 May and did not return until July, travelling over 500 miles on horseback. The first stage of his route was down the South Shore through Chester and Lunenburg to Liverpool, cross-country to Annapolis, through the Annapolis Valley to Kentville and finally to Windsor. Instead of returning to Halifax, he then cut across to Truro, and rode to Pictou and through Antigonish down to Guysborough, where he took the sailing packet to Arichat in Cape Breton. From there he rode to Sydney, then back along the Bras d’Or Lakes to the Straits, returned to Pictou, took the packet to Charlottetown, and finally returned home by way of Pictou and Truro. Few letters seem to have survived to record his journeys in 1831, and a diary entry that has him travelling from mid-August to early November, going as far as Philadelphia, may well be misdated. In 1832, he was through the Annapolis Valley and over to New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island. In 1833, besides the more normal trips, he went on horseback through the Musquodoboits and St Mary’s to Antigonish, and in 1834 was on the road by late April throughout the Maritime provinces…”

Given this information, we can easily conclude that the information that was published in Honourable “Joseph Howe’s” “Rambles” was first-hand observations that he had made himself throughout the course of his travelling “thousands of miles in order to get new subscriptions and, above all, to collect subscriptions due, in a constant struggle to keep ahead of his own creditors and gather the cash essential for the support of his family and business.”

That being said, the especially noteworthy section from pages 111 to 113 of “Western and Eastern Rambles: Travel Sketches of Nova Scotia” (columns 03 and 04 of page 01 of the Thursday Morning, October 09, 1828 issue (Vol. I, No. XXXXI) of “The Novascotian, or Colonial Herald”) concerns the Honourable “Joseph Howe’s” observations made during his 1828 visit to the region of Clare Township in present-day Digby County, Nova Scotia and reads as follows:

“… We are now in the settlement of Clare, which extends along the shores of St. Mary’s and the Bay of Fundy, and has features so distinct and peculiar as to render it one of the most interesting in the Province. The whole population are French; they are the descendants of the old Acadians, and preserve to this day the language, customs, and manners of their ancestors, unchanged and uncorrupted. There are about 300 families of them in Clare, and about 200 more at Tusket. They do not intermarry with the English, and but few of them speak any other language than their own. They are a quiet and peaceful race, very industrious and very frugal, and are governed and controulled by their Priest, whom they regard with the highest veneration and respect. Doubtless, my gentle Traveller, you have ere now marked the pride, and ambition, the envy, hatred, and all uncharitableness, which too often fill the hearts and influence the actions of those who style themselves the ministers of God. Ye have listened to their dogmatism and framed excuses for their bigotry, and heard them denouncing each other as churchmen, schismatics and sectarians; and smiled at their little petty contentions for worldly influence and power, by which they disgraced the cause they professed to espouse; and having seen these things, ye cannot fail to contemplate with delight such a character as the venerable Abbé Segoigne.93 He is a Frenchman of the old school, deeply learned, of polished manners, and with one of the very best hearts in the world. He left France during the revolutionary persecutions of the clergy, because he would not renounce the faith in which he was bred, and forsake the ties that he had been taught to respect. He threw himself into this sequestered retreat, and during twenty years has seen the country improving around him, a simple and affectionate people rising up in usefulness and virtue, and looking to him with reverence and love, as a common parent and guide. In the hour of affliction he is their comforter and friend, the mediator in their disputes, the fearless reprover of their vices. He is, besides, the only lawyer in the settlement; and writes their deeds, notes, mortgages, and keeps a kind of registry of all matters in which their temporal as well as spiritual interests are concerned; and perhaps in no population of equal amount in the Province are there fewer quarrels or lawsuits than in the settlement of Clare. In 1823 this Township was nearly destroyed by fire, which consumed a number of houses and great quantities of grain, and other crops. The Chapel at this time was burned to the ground, and its worthy Pastor, in his anxiety to save some boxes which contained the title deeds of his flock, had one of his hands dreadfully burnt. The present Chapel is a wooden building something larger than St. Paul’s,94 but not quite finished inside. In a few years more it will hardly contain the people, as they obey the injunction to increase and multiply, as may be seen by a contrast between their Township and that of Wilmot, which has about an equal amount of population. In Clare there are 2038 souls, in Wilmot 2294; In 1827 there were 79 births, 22 marriages, and only 3 deaths in Clare; in Wilmot there were but 71 births and 15 marriages, which there were 15 deaths during the same period. Their mode of marrying is very peculiar – instead of a couple getting tied whenever it suits their inclination, they time matters so that in the spring and fall they are all married together, when anyone who brings a trifling contribution to assist the festivities may partake of their enjoyment. The only schism or distinction that exists in Clare is one of a peculiar kind. During the persecutions of the Acadians by the English and Provincials, some of the former were driven into the woods, and as death would have been the penalty for venturing to their settlements, they joined and intermarried with the Indians. The descendants of these people are now settled in Clare, and bear on their features the marks of the singular connexion from which they sprung. They live apart from the pure French, and are considered by them an inferior race, and even the strenuous efforts of their Pastor have never been able to conquer their repugnance, nor force them to intermarry, and extend to each other a cordial interchange of good offices. This is a subject of much regret to the worthy Abbé, whose whole soul is bound up in the happiness and contentment of his flock. The world has no allurements for him, no charm to wean him from the quiet tenor of his way; during the whole period that he has been settled at Clare he has only been two or three times to Digby, and but once to Halifax; he neither knows nor cares what changes convulse the political world, who is up or who is down, and perhaps the whole extent of his connexions with his own church amount to a letter of friendship now and then from the Bishops of Nova Scotia or Quebec. And who that has witnessed the happiness which he has diffused around him – who has marked the filial regard with which his name is mentioned, the blessings and devotion which follow his footsteps, would wish that life’s bubbles were more intimate with his thoughts? May he long be spared to fill an office which he so highly honors; and when he departs for a better world, may the precepts he has taught and the example he has given live in the memories of those over whom he has so kindly ruled…”

This is an especially important excerpt for a few reasons. However, I will begin summarizing this excerpt by stating that the most important section of this excerpt is that according to its Author, the Nova Scotian Journalist, Politician, Public Servant, Poet, and eventual Commissioner for Indian Affairs in Nova Scotia, the Honourable “Joseph Howe,” in relation to the “Acadians” who were residing in the settlement of Clare Township in present-day Digby County, Nova Scotia when Mr. Howe visited the region in 1828, “Their mode of marrying is very peculiar – instead of a couple getting tied whenever it suits their inclination, they time matters so that in the spring and fall they are all married together, when anyone who brings a trifling contribution to assist the festivities may partake of their enjoyment. The only schism or distinction that exists in Clare is one of a peculiar kind. During the persecutions of the Acadians by the English and Provincials, some of the former were driven into the woods, and as death would have been the penalty for venturing to their settlements, they joined and intermarried with the Indians. The descendants of these people are now settled in Clare, and bear on their features the marks of the singular connexion from which they sprung. They live apart from the pure French, and are considered by them an inferior race, and even the strenuous efforts of their Pastor have never been able to conquer their repugnance, nor force them to intermarry, and extend to each other a cordial interchange of good offices. This is a subject of much regret to the worthy Abbé, whose whole soul is bound up in the happiness and contentment of his flock.” This is especially important information, as the observations that Mr. Howe made of these “Acadians” of Clare Township and the denigration and ostracization inflicted upon those inhabitants of the settlement who “bear on their features the marks of the singular connexion from which they sprung” stemming from their ancestors who “were driven into the woods, and as death would have been the penalty for venturing to their settlements, they joined and intermarried with the Indians” by their “pure French” neighbours closely mirrors what was written about these same Mixed-Blooded people in the first-hand observations of outsiders to the community during the same time period such as the writings of the observations of “Captain William Moorsom” see our entry on this website; https://www.sangmele.net/home/semi-indians-residing-at-clare-ns-1830?rq=moorsom , and even in the writings and sermons of “the worthy Abbé” himself, “Père Jean-Mandé Sigogne” https://www.sangmele.net/home/early-writings-of-pre-jean-mand-sigogne-at-cape-sable-and-the-baie-sainte-marie?rq=sigogne%20sermon .

Based on other documentation that we have already discussed, and that which we will discuss, the inhabitants of Clare Township in present-day Digby County, Nova Scotia who the Honourable “Joseph Howe” observed circa October 09, 1828 to “bear on their features the marks of the singular connexion from which they sprung” because their “Acadian” ancestors had “joined and intermarried with the Indians” and were ostracized and denigrated simply for their mixed-race ancestry were the “Sang-Mêlés” (“Mixed-Bloods”) and those noted by Mr. Howe to have been the “pure French” inhabitants of the same Township who considered their “Sang-Mêlé” (“Mixed-Blooded”) neighbours to have been an “inferior race” were the “Purs” (“Pures”)/“Blancs” (“Whites”).

A second noteworthy section of this excerpt from pages 111 to 113 of “Western and Eastern Rambles: Travel Sketches of Nova Scotia” (columns 03 and 04 of page 01 of the Thursday Morning, October 09, 1828 issue (Vol. I, No. XXXXI) of “The Novascotian, or Colonial Herald”) is that it is asserted in it by the Honourable “Joseph Howe” that the “Acadians” of Clare Township in general, “do not intermarry with the English, and but few of them speak any other language than their own.” If we take this information and take into consideration that Mr. Howe notes in the same excerpt that the “Sang-Mêlé” (“Mixed-Blooded”) inhabitants of 1828 Clare Township “live apart from the pure French, and are considered by them an inferior race, and even the strenuous efforts of their Pastor have never been able to conquer their repugnance, nor force them to intermarry, and extend to each other a cordial interchange of good offices,” we can easily conclude that the “Sang-Mêlés” (“Mixed-Bloods”) of Clare Township in present-day Digby County, Nova Scotia did not live among their “pure French” neighbours. Given what we know from countless previous summaries found throughout this collection that touch upon the genealogies of both the “Sang-Mêlés” (“Mixed-Bloods”) and the “Purs” (“Pures”)/“Blancs” (“Whites”) of post-Deportation Southwest Nova Scotia and their marriage patterns, I firmly believe that we can conclude that “Sang-Mêlés” (“Mixed-Bloods”)of post-Deportation Acadia formed their own Mixed-Blooded Communities in a sense. I will also note here that as we have previously seen many times throughout this collection (see our discussion concerning “Folder #10” of “Volume 01” of this collection, in addition to countless other summaries from this collection for further details), a perfect example of a present-day community of Southwest Nova Scotia that was historically founded by ostracized “Sang-Mêlés” (“Mixed-Bloods”) and was inhabited by these Mixed-Blooded people when both “Captain William Moorsom” and the Honourable “Joseph Howe” visited the region in the 1820s, is the heavily “Mius Family” and “Doucet Family” rooted “Bois-Brûlé (Burnt Wood)”/“Métis” populated nineteenth-century community of Tusket Forks/Quinan, Yarmouth County, Nova Scotia (as was originally observed first-hand by French Historian, “François Edme Rameau de Saint-Père” while he was visiting the region in the last half of the ninteteenth-century and he subsequently noted on page 165 of his contribution to “Abbé Henri-Raymond Casgrain’s” 1890 anthology entitled, “Collection des Documents Inédits sur le Canada et l’Amérique Publiés par le Canada-Français —– Tome Troisième,” which is properly entitled, “Documents Inédits du Canada-Français: Documents sur l’Acadie: CII: Remarques sur les Registres de Belle-Isle-en-Mer, par Mr E. Rameau de Saint-Père”).

“This is especially noteworthy information because it clearly contradicts the silly and historically inaccurate claims made by many Academics and Experts, who assert that the Mixed-Blooded “Acadians” were historically equally accepted by both the “Acadians” and their First Nations relatives.”

One final section from the above-noted excerpt from the Honourable “Joseph Howe’s” October 09, 1828 writing, is that Mr. Howe asserts in this excerpt that “even the strenuous efforts of their Pastor have never been able to conquer their repugnance, nor force them to intermarry, and extend to each other a cordial interchange of good offices.” This is especially important to point out because it clearly informs us that the post-Deportation “schism or distinction” between the “pure French”/“Purs” (“Pures”)/“Blancs” (“Whites”) and those who “bear on their features the marks of the singular connexion from which they sprung”/“Sang-Mêlés” (“Mixed-Bloods”) in the Southwest Nova Scotia region in general, was created by the “Acadians” themselves. This is especially noteworthy information because it clearly contradicts the silly and historically inaccurate claims made by many Academics and Experts, who assert that the Mixed-Blooded “Acadians” were historically equally accepted by both the “Acadians” and their First Nations relatives. Hopefully, it has become rather obvious to you that the “Sang-Mêlés” (“Mixed-Bloods”) were not equally accepted by both sides historically in the region of Southwest Nova Scotia post-Deportation of the “Acadians.”

All I have left to say about these documents before closing this summary, is that in firm opinion, they “seal the deal” in demonstrating that although they may have had relatively low “Blood Quantum” of “First Nations blood flowing through their veins” by the early nineteenth century, the “Sang-Mêlés” (“Mixed-Bloods”) of the region of Southwest Nova Scotia were clearly considered to be an “Indigenous People” by the “pure French”/“Pur” (“Pure”)/“Blanc” (“White”) inhabitants of the “Acadian” inhabited Townships of this region.