05/11/2026
While traveling to Nova Scotia, last week, the Archives' director stopped at two easily accessible historic sites (that also happen to be easy to miss). Namely, these are the Fort Beauséjour–Fort Cumberland National Historic Site, on one hand, and the Beaubassin and Fort Lawrence National Historic Sites on the other.
These two sites practically stare at one another across the New Brunswick/Nova Scotia provincial boundary. In fact, they are located two miles from one another as the crow flies. They reflect the battle lines drawn between the French and the British in the 1750s. Acadians were again caught in the middle.
In 1750, at a time of rising tensions, French officers and the Indigenous allies burned the village of Beaubassin to force its Acadians residents, who were jealously guarding their neutrality, out of this disputed region. This act of sabotage enabled British soldiers to build Fort Lawrence the same year. The French countered by building Fort Beauséjour on the neighboring ridge in 1751. Their uneasy coexistence lasted four years. The pretense of peace disappeared in 1755. British forces overtook Beauséjour and began the cruel deportation of the Acadians from the region. Approximately one thousand Acadians were deported from this borderland. Twice that number were forced to flee.
The New Brunswick/Nova Scotia boundary reflects (roughly) the line of separation between the French and British empires on the eve of the Seven Years' War.
You should travel to Nova Scotia to visit Grand-Pré, Annapolis Royal, Louisbourg, and other terrific sites around the province—but don't miss the many other attractions along the way!
