Culture and history
The fort of Beauséjour played a crucial role in the rivalry between France and Britain in North America. It was in 1755 at this strategic spot on the Isthmus of Chignecto that the tragic events of the Deportation began to unfold.
Renamed Fort Cumberland after its capture in 1755, it protected British interests on the Isthmus of Chignecto until the early 1800s. It was here in 1776 that the British defenders of the fort repulsed an attack in the early stages of the American Revolution.
History
Though only one fort, Fort Beauséjour — Fort Cumberland has had two names, served two empires, and is a place with countless tales to tell.
- Introduction
- Long before the Fort: Acadian settlement
- First warfare
- Zone of contention, place of growth
- The construction of a fort at Beauséjour
- Life inside the Fort during the French regime
- The Acadians and the Fort
- Tensions in the 1750s
- The siege of 1755
- Deportation of the Acadians
- Beginning of the British period
- Settlers from Yorkshire
- The siege of Fort Cumberland, 1776
- Changes to the Fort
- The creation of the Park
- Archaeological digs