Jim Bradshaw: Like us, Acadians enjoyed a bit of gossip

I have a mind’s-eye vision of Jean Gaudet as a crusty old Frenchman, sun-burnt, with dark, work-hardened hands, capable of doing what had to be done to wrest a simple life from the soil. He was probably an independent old cuss. He was more than 60 years old in 1636, when he and his brother, Aubin, migrated to Acadie, traveling to a colony still far from a certain thing.
Settlement in North America was still a new and risky venture. The British colony at Jamestown was less than 30 years old. The Pilgrims had landed at Plymouth just 16 years before. It would be 40 years before Marquette and Joliette began to explore the Mississippi Valley, nearly 50 before LaSalle planted his cross at the river’s mouth to claim Louisiana for France. George Washington would not be born for more than 100 years.
Jean came to clear forest into farmland, build dikes to reclaim tidal marshes, hew timber for his home and keep a family fed while he was doing it. The work seems to have agreed with him. He farmed his Annapolis Basin lands for more than 30 years, dying at the age of 97.
He was one of my first ancestors in North America, and there was a lot of history packed into his lifetime. He and his wife, Nicole Colleson, were among the first families to settle in Acadie. Before 1636, the French who came to North America were mostly single men, contract workers who were employed in the fisheries or fur trade, and who returned to France once their stint was done.
Jean was a farmer, and he and others who came at the same time brought skills and crafts needed in building and running a colony. Germain Doucet, another of my ancestors to arrive about this time, was commandant at Port Royal. Another, Antoine Bourg, was royal notary and syndic (justice of the peace). Others, such as Rene Landry, Jean Terriot and Francois Gauterot were probably farmers. Guillaume Blanchard was a fisherman.
They had enough to eat, according to Nicolas Denys, who recorded much of the early history of the colony. In 1638, he said, “there are plenty of clams, whelks, mussels, and other mollusks and an abundance of lobsters ... some of which have a claw so large it will hold a pint of wine.” He mentions swordfish “as large as a cow,” and writes of huge flocks of wild pigeons flying over his camp. He says he was kept awake by the noise from flocks of geese and ducks nearby.
Those early Acadians led a simple life. Historian Rameau de Saint-Pere, drawing from accounts by an early priest of the colony, Ignace de Senlis, wrote:
“On Sunday, the Acadian farmers emerged from the folds of this charming valley, some in canoes, others on horseback, their wives and daughters riding behind, while long lines of Micmac, brightly painted and with colorful ornaments, mingled with them. Around the church grounds, [there were] extensive green areas, which were called les champs commune, where the arrivals tethered their mounts and left their belongings. After the service, the colonists relaxed on the champs commune, discussing crops, hunting, progress of clearing the land … a thousand and one topics about their private lives and gossiping the way it is done in all French countries.”
Judging by those accounts, those first Acadian families would fit right in with the modern groups that gather on the church lawn after Mass to talk about the weather, their gardens, the grandkids, and to maintain what apparently is a long tradition of sharing choice tidbits of gossip.
A collection of Jim Bradshaw’s columns, "Cajuns and Other Characters," is now available from Pelican Publishing. You can contact him at jimbradshaw4321@gmail.com or P.O. Box 1121, Washington LA 70589