Maptour Page 4
Maptour: The Acadian Expulsion: a Canadian Tragedy
The Importance of Names


Click to enlarge

Map: Acadian Population Distribution: 1750, 1803

Try This:

  • Keep open the map "Acadian Population Distribution: 1750, 1803."
  • Under LAYER CONTROLS, turn off the checkbox for "Population Comparison."
  • Under LAYER CONTROLS, turn on the checkboxes for "POPULATION, 1750."
  • Click on the tag icon following "Small settlements, 1750" to turn on the place names.

Notice ...

  • French-sounding names predominate, and many of them are quite unlike familiar French.
  • English names (shown in red) are scarce even in territory under British control.

Try This:

  • Under LAYER CONTROLS, turn on the checkboxes for "ACADIAN POPULATION, 1803."
  • Click on the tag icons following "Acadian settlements, 1803" and "English towns, 1803" to turn on their labels.

Notice ...

  • The label "Acadia," used in 1750, is gone in 1803.
  • The map is entirely “British pink.”
  • The two large islands and various water bodies bear English names. (The Latin, "Nova Scotia," survives!)
  • French names persist in the villages and outlying areas.

Consider!

  • It was French people who gave place names to this region, previously occupied by Native peoples.
  • Through its place names, this area demonstrates defiance.
  • The ancestors of the Rankins and Natalie McMaster had yet to come to Cape Breton Island.
  • Place-naming tells a great deal about society and identity in a region.