Last week I wrote about my 6^th great grandparents, Jean Garceau and Marie Anne Doucet and Le Grand Derangement (The Great Upheaval).  Joseph Broussard dit Beausoleil (“beautiful sun”), Marie Anne Doucet’s uncle and my 7^th great-granduncle, was a leading figure in the Acadian resistance of British rule and later a leader in the Acadian movement/relocation into Louisiana.

In 1702 at Port Royal (Annapolis Royal), Acadia, Joseph, the eighth out of 10 children, was born to Catherine Richard and Jean Francois Brossard, my 8^th great-grandparents.  Joseph’s second oldest sister, Marie Brossard, would become my 7^th great-grandmother and their daughter, Marie Anne Doucet, my 6^th great-grandmother.

Joseph and his next younger brother, Alexandre would become known by the nickname (surname) Beausoleil (“beautiful sun”); the name of a native village near Port Royal.

In September of 1725 at Annapolis Royal Joseph married Agnes Thibodeau.  The couple eventually had 11 children.  Joseph’s brother Alexandre would marry Agnes’ sister Marguerite.

Joseph’s early life is that of a settler and eventually as a militia member.  Following Britain’s consolidation of power in Acadia and the increasing pressure placed on Acadians to recognize British authority, Joseph participated in several wars and battles fought between the French and the British.

During King George’s War (1744–1748), Broussard railed against the British occupation of Acadia, participating in the Battle of Grand Pre, in which the Canadians, Acadians, and Mi’kmaq combined forces against the British.  Joseph’s British resistance persisted, and in October of 1747, he was declared an outlaw for having aided French troops.    

In Father Le Loutre’s War (1749–1755), Broussard participated in some bloody skirmishes.  As wars tend to go, things got pretty sick when the British were offering bounties for the heads of Mi’kmaq, and the French were offering bounties for British scalps.  On May 13, 1751, Broussard led 60 Acadians and Mi’kmaq on a raid against the British settlement at Dartmouth, killing twenty British settlers and taking prisoners.

In June 1755, during the French and Indian War (1754–1763), at the siege of Fort Beausejour, once again, Joseph led Acadian forces. The skirmish led to his being jailed at Fort Lawrence, but by the fall of 1755, he and other Acadian prisoners escaped captivity.  Imprisonment, escape and return to armed resistance became a pattern for Joseph.  It was after the battle at Fort Beausejour that The Great Upheaval, beginning with the Bay of Fundy Campaign, began.  Acadians were forcibly removed and deported by the British.  Some of the Acadians were the second generation born in Acadia and some had indigenous roots.  The British plundered and burned Acadian settlements and the Acadians were forced to go back to France or elsewhere in the New World.

During this period of deportation, Joseph and his family fled into the woods along with several other Acadian families.  Joseph became the leader of an armed resistance that assaulted the British for three years between 1755 and 1758.  During this period, a French officer described Joseph as one of the bravest Acadians.  His broader resistance activities continued through the years of the Seven Years’ War (1756-1763), including a shift to maritime tactics; in 1758, Broussard and his four sons armed a ship and attacked the British up and down the bay.

Soon the Acadian families in hiding were reduced to famine and eventually surrendered to the British. Among them was Joseph’s family, who became prisoners held at Fort Edward.  Later they were held at Halifax, where Broussard was imprisoned for about a year, being released in 1764, after the Treaty of Paris.

The Treaty of Paris, which ended the Seven Years’ War, did not end Joseph’s feelings toward British occupation.  He still refused to swear allegiance to the British Crown and rejected the resettlement conditions being imposed on Acadians in Nova Scotia.  Joseph redirected his energy toward helping his fellow Acadians escape British rule.  This led to his organizing departures for French-controlled destinations including Saint-Domingue (now Haiti) and Louisiana.  In 1764 Joseph chartered a schooner to take himself, his family, and many other Acadian refugees to Saint-Domingue.  If French-Acadian culture was to survive it would have to do so elsewhere.

Saint-Domingue did not prove hospitable to the group; the climate and disease killed many of the Acadian refugees.  Joseph led the 200 or so survivors to Louisiana, arriving aboard the ship Santo Domingo on February 27, 1765.

By April 1765 the Acadians had settled into their new home.  It would become one of the first Acadian settlements in Louisiana and was located in the Attakapas region (now St. Martinville).  Even though he was in exile, Joseph’s role as a respected leader was solidified when the then Spanish governor appointed him captain of the militia and commandant of the Acadians in the Attakapas region.

Joseph’s younger brother, Alexandre, aided his brother in raids while in Acadia and he too eventually migrated to Louisiana. 

Sadly, in October 1765 Joseph Broussard dit Beausoleil was one of the many that died during a yellow fever epidemic in the Attakapas region.  Supposedly he was buried on October 20, 1765 at Beausoleil near present-day Broussard, Louisiana.  

Both Joseph and Alexandre would become pillars in preserving Acadian identity in their new homeland.  In Louisiana, the Acadians became known by a corruption of their name: Cajuns.  The Cajuns developed their own dialect, Cajun French, as well as their own distinct music and cuisine which influence the Louisiana region to this day.

Thanks for visiting, come back soon,
Cynthia

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Footnotes Joseph Broussard dit Beausoleil (1702-1765) post