The Raid on Dartmouth (also referred to as the Dartmouth Massacre) occurred during

Father Le Loutre's War Father Le Loutre's War (1749–1755), also known as the Indian War, the Mi'kmaq War and the Anglo-Mi'kmaq War, took place between King George's War and the French and Indian War in Acadia and Nova Scotia. On one side of the conflict, the Briti ...

on May 13, 1751, when a

Miꞌkmaq The Mi'kmaq (also ''Mi'gmaq'', ''Lnu'', ''Miꞌkmaw'' or ''Miꞌgmaw''; ; ) are a First Nations people of the Northeastern Woodlands, indigenous to the areas of Canada's Atlantic Provinces and the Gaspé Peninsula of Quebec as well as the nort ...

and

Acadian militia The military history of the Acadians consisted primarily of militias made up of Acadian settlers who participated in wars against the English (the British after 1707) in coordination with the Wabanaki Confederacy (particularly the Mi'kmaw milit ...

from Chignecto, under the command of Acadian

Joseph Broussard Joseph Broussard (1702–1765), also known as Beausoleil ( en, Beautiful Sun), was a leader of the Acadian people in Acadia; later Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and New Brunswick. Broussard organized a Mi'kmaq and Acadian militias against th ...

, raided

Dartmouth, Nova Scotia Dartmouth ( ) is an urban community and former city located in the Halifax Regional Municipality of Nova Scotia, Canada. Dartmouth is located on the eastern shore of Halifax Harbour. Dartmouth has been nicknamed the City of Lakes, after the larg ...

, destroying the town and killing twenty British villagers and wounding British regulars. The town was protected by a blockhouse on Blockhouse Hill (close to the corner of King St. and North St.) with

William Clapham William Clapham (1722 – 28 May, 1763) was an American military officer who participated in the construction of several forts in Pennsylvania during the French and Indian War. He was considered a competent commander in engagements with French ...

's Rangers and British regulars from the 45th Regiment of Foot. This raid was one of seven the Natives and Acadians would conduct against the town during the war.

Historical context

HarryPiersTheEvolutionoftheHalifaxFortress, 1749-1928

After the British Conquest of Acadia in 1710, the British laid claim to all of peninsular Acadia, renaming it Nova Scotia. Its population was primarily Catholic French Acadians and the

indigenous peoples. The Mi’kmaq numbered about 1000 in total, in Nova Scotia at the time. In response to British settlement, the Miꞌkmaq raided the early British settlements of present-day Shelburne (1715) and

Canso The Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation (CANSO) is a representative body of companies that provide air traffic control. It represents the interests of Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSPs). CANSO members are responsible for supporting ov ...

(1720), prior to entering into a Peace and Friendship Treaty with the British in 1726. A generation later,

began when

Edward Cornwallis Edward Cornwallis ( – 14 January 1776) was a British career military officer and was a member of the aristocratic Cornwallis family, who reached the rank of Lieutenant General. After Cornwallis fought in Scotland, putting down the Jacobi ...

arrived to establish Halifax with 13 transports on June 21, 1749. By the time Cornwallis had arrived in Halifax, there was a long history of the

Wabanaki Confederacy The Wabanaki Confederacy (''Wabenaki, Wobanaki'', translated to "People of the Dawn" or "Easterner") is a North American First Nations and Native American confederation of four principal Eastern Algonquian nations: the Miꞌkmaq, Maliseet ( ...

(which included the Mi'kmaq) warfare against British civilians along the New England/ Acadia border in Maine (See the Northeast Coast Campaigns

1688 Events January–March * January 2 – Fleeing from the Spanish Navy, French pirate Raveneau de Lussan and his 70 men arrive on the west coast of Nicaragua, sink their boats, and make a difficult 10 day march to the city of Oco ...

, 1703,

1723 Events January–March * January 25 – British pirate Edward Low intercepts the Portuguese ship ''Nostra Signiora de Victoria''. After the Portuguese captain throws his treasure of 11,000 gold coins into the sea rather than s ...

, 1724,

1745 Events January–March * January 7 – War of the Austrian Succession: The Austrian Army, under the command of Field Marshal Károly József Batthyány, makes a surprise attack at Amberg and the winter quarters of the Bavaria ...

, 1746, 1747). The British quickly began to build other settlements. To guard against Mi'kmaq, Acadian and French attacks on the new Protestant settlements, British fortifications were erected in Halifax ( Citadel Hill) (1749),

Bedford Bedford is a market town in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 Census, the population of the Bedford built-up area (including Biddenham and Kempston) was 106,940, making it the second-largest settlement in Bedfordshire, behind Luton, whilst ...

(

Fort Sackville During the 18th and early 19th centuries, the French, British and U.S. forces built and occupied a number of forts at Vincennes, Indiana. These outposts commanded a strategic position on the Wabash River. The names of the installations were change ...

) (1749), Dartmouth (1750), Lunenburg (1753) and Lawrencetown (1754). There were numerous Mi'kmaq and Acadian raids on these villages such as the Raid on Dartmouth (1751). There was a raid on those in the Dartmouth area in 1749. In response to the raid, Governor

issued an

extirpation Local extinction, also known as extirpation, refers to a species (or other taxon) of plant or animal that ceases to exist in a chosen geographic area of study, though it still exists elsewhere. Local extinctions are contrasted with global extinct ...

proclamation A proclamation (Lat. ''proclamare'', to make public by announcement) is an official declaration issued by a person of authority to make certain announcements known. Proclamations are currently used within the governing framework of some nations ...

against the Miꞌkmaq on peninsular Nova Scotia and those that supported them. To carry out this task, two companies of rangers were raised, one led by Captain Francis Bartelo and the other by Captain William Clapham. These two companies served alongside that of John Gorham's company. The three companies scoured the land around Halifax unsuccessfully looking for Mi'kmaq. In July 1750, the Mi'kmaq killed and scalped seven men who were at work in Dartmouth. In August 1750, 353 people arrived on the ship Alderney and began the town of Dartmouth. The town was laid out in the autumn of that year. The following month, on September 30, 1750, Dartmouth was attacked again by the Miꞌkmaq and five more residents were killed. In October 1750 a group of about eight men went out "to take their diversion; and as they were fowling, they were attacked by the Indians, who took the whole prisoners; scalped ... newith a large knife, which they wear for that purpose, and threw him into the sea ..." In March 1751, the Mi'kmaq attacked on two more occasions, bringing the total number of raids to six in the previous two years.

The raid

Three months later, on May 13, 1751 before sunrise,

led sixty Miꞌkmaq and Acadians to attack Dartmouth again, in what would be known as the "Dartmouth Massacre". The raiding party came down the Shuebenacadie River from Chignecto. Broussard and the others killed twenty settlers and more were taken prisoner. Captain William Clapham and sixty soldiers of

Hugh Warburton General Hugh Warburton (1695 – 26 August 1771) was an officer of the British Army and fought in the French and Indian War with the 45th Regiment of Foot. He later commanded the 27th Regiment of Foot during the Seven Years' War. Early life ...

's regiment were on duty and fired from the blockhouse, which was located at the point overlooking Dartmouth Cove. The raiding party tortured and mutilated the sergeant and wounded three other soldiers. Captain Alexander Murray along with about 40 soldiers left Halifax in three vessels and tried to track them down for miles but most of the raiding party had dispersed. The British reported they had killed six Mi'kmaq warriors, but were only able to retrieve one scalp that they took to Halifax. Those at a camp at Dartmouth Cove, led by John Wisdom, assisted the settlers. Upon returning to their camp the next day they found the Mi'kmaq had also raided their camp and taken a prisoner. The Mi'kmaq scalped all the settlers. The British took what remained of the bodies to Halifax for burial in the Old Burying Ground. (

John George Pyke John George Pyke (4 January 1744 – 3 September 1828) was an English-born merchant and political figure in Nova Scotia. He represented Halifax County from 1779 to 1793 and Halifax Township from 1793 to 1800 and from 1802 to 1818 in the Nova Sc ...

survived the raid but his father John Abraham did not.)

Aftermath

The British retaliated by sending several armed companies to Chignecto. A few French defenders were killed and the dikes were breached. Hundreds of acres of crops were ruined which was disastrous for the Acadians and the French troops. Immediately after the raid, a wooden

palisade A palisade, sometimes called a stakewall or a paling, is typically a fence or defensive wall made from iron or wooden stakes, or tree trunks, and used as a defensive structure or enclosure. Palisades can form a stockade. Etymology ''Palisade' ...

was erected around the town plot.Harry Chapman, p. 31 Mi'kmaq and Acadian attacks continued throughout the

French and Indian War The French and Indian War (1754–1763) was a theater of the Seven Years' War, which pitted the North American colonies of the British Empire against those of the French, each side being supported by various Native American tribes. At the ...

which ended fourteen years after Dartmouth was first settled. (For example, in the spring of 1759, there was another attack on

Fort Clarence 300px, The archway by the fort's drawbridge was demolished in the 1930s. The fort, on the left, is now converted into flats. Fort Clarence is a now defunct fortification that was located in Rochester, Kent, England. History The fort was built b ...

, in which five soldiers were killed.) After the initial raid, no new settlers were placed in Dartmouth again for the next thirty years. Of the 383 settlers who arrived in Dartmouth on the Alderney in August 1750, only half remained two years later. By the end of war (1763), Dartmouth was only left with 78 settlers. Similar raids happened in response to the British founding of Lawrencetown and

Lunenburg, Nova Scotia Lunenburg is a port town on the South Shore of Nova Scotia, Canada. Founded in 1753, the town was one of the first British attempts to settle Protestants in Nova Scotia. The economy was traditionally based on the offshore fishery and today L ...

, such as the

Raid on Lunenburg (1756) The Raid on Lunenburg occurred during the French and Indian War when Mi'kmaw and Maliseet fighters attacked a British settlement at Lunenburg, Nova Scotia on May 8, 1756. The native militia raided two islands on the northern outskirts of the f ...

Fiction

Joseph Howe Joseph Howe (December 13, 1804 – June 1, 1873) was a Nova Scotian journalist, politician, public servant, and poet. Howe is often ranked as one of Nova Scotia's most admired politicians and his considerable skills as a journalist and writer ha ...

lived in Dartmouth and was well acquainted with its history. He included a Mi'kmaw raid on a British dwelling in his poem "Acadia".Joseph Howe. "Acadia". I
''Poems and Essays''
pp. 23–25. In the poem, Mi'kmaw fighters attack a British family of four in their house. Initially, the British family is able to defend themselves, killing five Mi'kmaw fighters. Eventually, however, the Mi'kmaw fighters are victorious and overwhelm the family, killing all those in the house.

References

Primary sources

*
''Expeditions of Honour: The Journal of John Salusbury in Halifax'' edited by Ronald Rompkey - 1982, p. 111

London Magazine. Vol. 20. 1751. p. 419 June 30 letter

London Magazine. Vol. 20. 1751. p. 341 June 25 letterGentleman's Magazine, August 1751, p. 379 June 25 letter

* The Nova Scotia Magazine. Vol. 2, no. 4, (Apr. 1790) pp. 287–289
Charles Morris
* The Nova Scotia Gazette and Weekly Chronicle, Sept. 1780
Letters from Nova Scotia, Captain W. Moorsom. London, 1830, p. 29
*

Secondary sources

Akins. History of Halifax. Nova Scotia Historical Society. Vol. 8, p. 27

Mrs. William Lawson. The History of The Townships of Dartmouth, Preston and Lawrencetown, Halifax County, Nova Scotia, 1893, p. 10
*Landry, Peter. The Lion & The Lily. Vol. 1, Trafford Publishing, Victoria, B.C., 2007. *Rompkey, Ronald. Editor. Expeditions of Honour: The Journal of John Salusbury in Halifax, Nova Scotia, 1749-53. University of Delaware Press, Newark, 1982. * *

*Harry Chapman. In the Wake of the Alderney. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Raid On Dartmouth Military history of Acadia Military history of Nova Scotia Military history of New England Military history of the Thirteen Colonies Dartmouth Massacres by First Nations Mi'kmaq in Canada 1751 in Nova Scotia Dartmouth (1751) Dartmouth History of Halifax, Nova Scotia Massacres in Canada Dartmouth Father Le Loutre's War