New England Planters
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The New England Planters were settlers from the New England colonies who responded to invitations by the lieutenant governor and subsequently governor of Nova Scotia, Charles Lawrence, to settle lands left vacant by the Acadian Expulsion of 1755. Eight thousand Planters, largely farmers and fishermen, arrived from 1759 to 1768 to take up the offer. The farmers settled mainly on the rich farmland of the Annapolis Valley and in the southern counties of what is now New Brunswick but was then part of Nova Scotia. Most of the fishermen went to the South Shore of Nova Scotia, where they got the same amount of land as the farmers did. Many fishermen especially wanted to move there because they were already fishing off the Nova Scotia coast.
The Planters were the first major group of English-speaking immigrants in Canada who did not come directly from Great Britain. Most of the Planters were Protestant Congregationalists, in contrast to the largely Roman Catholic Acadians. They were soon joined by Ulster and Yorkshire emigrants from Britain and United Empire Loyalists who left the New England colonies after the American War of Independence in 1783. The latter influxes greatly diminished the Planter political influence in Nova Scotia. However the Planters laid the foundations of a large number of the present day communities of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick and their political and religious traditions had important influences on the culture of the region.
The Planters have been the subject of considerable scholarly research in recent years, led by a series of Planters Studies conferences at Acadia University in Wolfville, Nova Scotia. They are also commemorated by an Parks Canada exhibit at the Kings County Museum in Kentville, Nova Scotia.
