This dissertation argues that the Acadians' practice of Roman Catholicism constituted a key element in their understanding that they were une nation or a people. Most scholars acknowledge that the Acadians were all Roman Catholic, but they do not attach any particular significance to that fact.;In Part I, I examine the period from the final British takeover of Acadia until the expulsion. That examination reveals that the Acadians were willing to sacrifice anything in order to be able to continue their practice of Roman Catholicism. In their negotiations with British officials during these years, one sees expressed a concern for their right to maintain their religious heritage as often as concerns about their right to remain neutral.;In Part II, I look at the Acadians in exile, both in North America and in Europe. Here again, the evidence indicates that they made great efforts to practice their ancestral faith.;In Part III, I study the Acadians in Louisiana from the time of their arrival until the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. In Louisiana, the Acadians, despite having to rebuild their lives and their communities after the trauma of the expulsion and a subsequent period of exile, set about quickly to build churches and to acquire priests to serve them.;It is sometimes charged that the Acadians' great concern about retaining their religious heritage in Nova Scotia resulted from their living under a foreign, Protestant power. However, in Louisiana, where a Roman Catholic power governed and where Roman Catholicism was the established religion, the Acadians' statements and actions testify to the continued importance they attached to their practice of Roman Catholicism, indicating that their Roman Catholic faith was part of their sense of identity throughout, not simply a matter of differentiation from the ruling Protestant power.
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