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As the eighteenth century ended, Louisbourg lost its value
as a pawn in France and England's battle for control of the high seas. Britain's view of North America and colonial
administration in general changed when it lost the United States through
revolution. The French monarchy was
toppled in a second, forever altering France's imperial position. Louisbourg was forgotten. It lapsed into a tranquil existence as a
remote backwater. Although Sydney became capital of the new province of Cape
Breton in 1785, Cape Breton itself lost its independent identity in 1820. What
followed was a period of obscurity in which Cape Breton itself was all but
forgotten by officials in far-away Halifax. Louisbourg became a relic of the
past. As one contemporary observer
stated, "Louisbourg has been, ever
since its demolition, a place so truly insignificant, that it might be passed
over by merely observing that its harbour is safe and spacious".[1]
Most of Louisbourg's inhabitants had departed with the French
and British armies. By 1805 the local
population consisted of fourteen Irish families, newly established subsistence
fishermen who created a second town around the harbour. Few of the farm lots so carefully surveyed
by the British were occupied. The
French site of Louisbourg was one of them, claimed by Peter Kennedy who built a
house in a corner of the old town. Kennedy followed a practice begun by the British and exploited the former townsite as a source of building materials. While Louisbourg was under Ordnance control, the British had shipped barges of wood, stone, brick and iron to supply builders in the city of Halifax.[2] The British Army also hauled stone to Sydney for the garrison chapel and other military structures.[3] Wood was burnt to heat local houses. In later years, one visitor reported that "the better-off people of the island come from time to time, as necessity prompts them, to search in the ruins of Louisbourg for bricks of good quality with which to build chimneys."[4] Wharfs, basements, footings -- anything that required stable, well shaped materials -- was constructed from Louisbourg ruins. Kennedy's son, Captain Patrick, later sold bricks at nine dollars a thousand suggesting his father acquired the ruins for their reusable potential.[5] What else was Kennedy to do? French Louisbourg did not lend itself to conventional
farming. Sheep were set loose to graze
among the ruins, but the ground could not be cultivated. Ploughing unearthed skeletons, cannonballs
and other disturbing materials. And so, Louisbourg was scavenged. On a trip up the coast from Halifax in 1805, Bishop Inglis
reported "A more complete
destruction of buildings can scarcely be imagined. All are reduced to confused heaps of stone...".[6] Nine years later, Bishop Plessis from Quebec
stated "You could see moats, glacis, foundations of houses, bases of
chimneys, ruins of gun-powder boxes, storehouses and casements; but there was nothing entire, nothing that
could be recognized with certainty."[7] In time, the effect of these remains was
muted, covered by nature "with a
turf of grass and moss."[8] Louisbourg had a haunting quality that appealed to the
romantic imagination. The hulls of
sunken ships of war could still be seen at low tide in the harbour, and the
shoreline was "littered with a score of spiked guns."[9] Rumours of buried treasure abounded,
complete with tales of ghosts to guard them.[10] Thirty-five years before Confederation, geographic
journalist John MacGregor commented that Louisbourg "has assumed and
maintains a classic position in history, that requires more than ordinary
notice". He commented on the site's profound silence,
noting "We observe in Louisbourg the desolation which destiny entailed on
the splendid cities of the ancient world."[11]
Photocaps
Chronology
Map
Endnotes
[1] John McGregor, British America
(London: T. Cadell, 1832), p.389. [2] Senator Pascal Poirier, "Louisbourg en 1902", Memoires et Comptes Rendus de la Societe Royale du Canada, Transactions, Section 1, p.108. According to "Consult 200-Year-Old Plans To Restore Louisbourg Fort", Halifax Chronicle-Herald, 27 Sept 1966, "more of Louisbourg's quality stone pieces lie several hundred miles away than under the mounds of dirt at the Fortress." [3] Bruce Ferguson and William Pope, Glimpses into Nova Scotia History (Windsor, N.S.: Lancelot Press, 1974), p.64. [4] A.A. Johnston, A History of the Catholic Church in Eastern Nova Scotia (Antigonish, N.S.: St. Francis Xavier University Press, 1960), Vol.1, p.283. [5] Senator Pascal Poirier, "Louisbourg en 1902", Memoires et Comptes Rendus de la Societe Royale du Canada, Transactions, Section 1, p.108. [6] A.J.B. Johnston, "Preserving History: The Commemoration of 18th Century Louisbourg, 1895-1940" in Acadiensis, Autumn 1991?*, Vol XI, No.1, p.54. Johnston quotes from Wayne Foster, "Post-Occupational History of the Old French Town of Louisbourg, 1760-1930" unpublished manuscript, 1965 on file at Fortress of Louisbourg, p.63- 64. [7] A.A. Johnston, A History of the Catholic Church in Eastern Nova Scotia (Antigonish, N.S.: St. Francis Xavier University Press, 1960), Vol.1, p.283. [8] John McGregor, British America (London: T. Cadell, 1832), p.390-91. [9] A.A. Johnston, A History of the Catholic Church in Eastern Nova Scotia (Antigonish, N.S.: St. Francis Xavier University Press, 1960), Vol.1, p.283. [10] M.S. Huntington records two of these tales in The Town of Louisbourg: History of Modern Louisbourg, 1758-1958 (Louisbourg: published by the Louisbourg Branch of the Women's Institute, 1958), p.70. [11] John McGregor, British America (London: T. Cadell, 1832), p.392. [12] Rev. Robert Murray and J.S. McLennan, "Cape Breton" in G.M. Grant, ed., Picturesque Canada (Toronto: Belvin Bros., 1882), Vol.2, p.849.
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