Attack at Mocodome

The attack at Mocodome was a battle which occurred during Father Le Loutre's War in present-day Country Harbour, Nova Scotia on February 21, 1753 which saw two British mariners and six Mi'kmaq killed. The battle ended any hope for the survival of the Treaty of 1752 signed by Governor Peregrine Hopson and Mi'kmaq chief Jean-Baptiste Cope.

Historical context

Despite the British Conquest of Acadia in 1710, Nova Scotia remained primarily occupied by Catholic Acadians and Mi'kmaq. By the time Cornwallis had arrived in Halifax, there was a long history of the Wabanaki Confederacy (which included the Mi'kmaq) attacking British colonists attempting to establish new settlements along the New England frontier in Maine (See the Northeast Coast Campaigns 1688, 1703, 1723, 1724, 1745, 1746, 1747).Grenier, John. The Far Reaches of Empire. War in Nova Scotia, 1710-1760. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, 2008.

To prevent the establishment of a permanent British colonial presence in the region, Mi'kmaq raided the New England settlements of present-day Shelburne (1715) and Canso (1720). A generation later, Father Le Loutre's War began when Edward Cornwallis arrived to establish Halifax with 13 transports on June 21, 1749.Grenier, John. The Far Reaches of Empire. War in Nova Scotia, 1710-1760. Norman: U of Oklahoma P, 2008; Thomas Beamish Akins. History of Halifax, Brookhouse Press. 1895. (2002 edition). p 7 The British quickly began to establish other colonial settlements. To guard against Mi'kmaq, Acadian and French attacks on their new settlements, British fortifications were erected in Halifax (1749), Bedford (Fort Sackville) (1749), Dartmouth (1750), Lunenburg (1753) and Lawrencetown (1754).John Grenier. The Far Reaches of Empire: War in Nova Scotia, 1710-1760. Oklahoma University Press. There were numerous Mi'kmaq and Acadian raids on these villages such as the Raid on Dartmouth (1751).Grenier pp. 154–155. For the Raids on Dartmouth see the Diary of John Salusbury (diarist): Expeditions of Honour: The Journal of John Salusbury in Halifax; also see A genuine narrative of the transactions in Nova Scotia since the settlement, June 1749, till August the 5th, 1751 [microform] : in which the nature, soil, and produce of the country are related, with the particular attempts of the Indians to disturb the colony / by John Wilson. Also see http://www.blupete.com/Hist/NovaScotiaBk1/Part5/Ch07.htm

After the 1749 Raid on Dartmouth, Governor Edward Cornwallis offered a bounty on the head of every Mi'kmaq. Cornwallis paid the New England Rangers the same rate per scalp as the French paid the Mi'kmaq for British scalps.Thomas Akins. History of Halifax, Brookhouse Press. 1895. (2002 edition). p 19

After eighteen months of inconclusive fighting, uncertainties and second thoughts began to disturb both the Mi'kmaq and the British leadership. By the summer of 1751, Governor Cornwallis began a more conciliatory policy. On 16 February 1752, hoping to lay the groundwork for a peace treaty, Cornwallis repealed his 1749 scalp proclamation against the Wabanaki Confederacy.Patterson, p. 134 For more than a year, Cornwallis sought out Mi'kmaq leaders willing to negotiate a peace. He eventually gave up, resigned his commission and left the colony.Plank, 1996, p.34

With a new Governor in place, Governor Peregrine Thomas Hopson, the first willing Mi'kmaq negotiator was Cope. On 22 November 1752, Cope finished negotiating a peace for the Mi'kmaq at Shubenacadie. The basis of the treaty was the one signed in Boston which closed Dummer's War (1725). Cope tried to get other Mi'kmaq chiefs in Nova Scotia to agree to the treaty but was unsuccessful. The Governor became suspicious of Cope's actual leadership among the Mi'kmaq people.Plank, 2001, p.135 Of course, Le Loutre and the French were outraged at Cope's decision to negotiate at all with the British.

Battle According to Charles Morris's account, John Connor and three other mariners onboard the British schooner Dunk from Canso, Nova Scotia, put into Jeddore and looted Mi'kmaq-owned stores, which consisted of 40 barrels of provisions given them by the Governor. At present-day Country harbour on 21 February 1753, nine Mi'kmaq from present-day Antigonish (also known as Nartigouneche) captured Connor and the three other crew members from the Dunk: James Grace, Michael Haggarthy and John Power. The Mi'kmaq fired on them and drove them toward the shore. Other natives joined in and boarded the schooner, forcing them to run their vessel into an inlet. The Mi'kmaq then captured, killed and scalped Haggarthy and Power.Halifax Gazette 28 April 1753 The Mi'kmaq took Connor and Grace captive for seven weeks. After seven weeks in captivity, on April 8, the two captives killed six Mi'kmaq, including four men (and a woman and her child in retaliation for the Mi'kmaq murder of Conner's wife and son in 1751). Free of their captors, Connor and Grace effected their escape.Diary of Anthony Casteel; Atkins. Public Documents, pp. 694–695Diary of Anthony Casteel

In contrast, according to Anthony Casteel, after looting provisions from the Mi'kmaq at Jeddore, the Dunk accidentally was shipwrecked and two of the four crew members drowned.Diary of Anthony Casteel, p. 118 The two survivors, despite the Mi'kmaw showing hospitality towards them, killed seven Mi'kmaq: two men, three women, and two children before escaping. In response, the Mi'kmaq were reported to have gone to Halifax to complain about their provisions were being looted during the fishing season.Account by Joseph Morrice in the Diary of Anthony Casteel, p. 118

A French officer at Louisbourg criticized Casteel's account of events as being unsubstianted.; If Connor and Grace were only motivated by scalp money as Casteel asserted, it is unclear who would have paid them for Mi'kmaw scalps given Governor Cornwallis ended the bounty for Mi'kmaw prisoners and scalps the previous year.

Aftermath

In response, on the night of April 21, under the leadership of Jean-Baptiste Cope, the Mi'kmaq attacked a British schooner at Jeddore. There were nine British sailors and one Acadian, Anthony Casteel, who was serving as an interpreter. The Mi'kmaq killed the sailors and let Casteel go at Port Toulouse, where the Mi'kmaq sank the schooner after looting it.; Cope's peace treaty was ultimately rejected by most of the other Mi'kmaq leaders. Cope burned the treaty six months after he signed it. Despite the collapse of peace on the eastern shore, the British did not formally renounce the Treaty of 1752 until 1756.

Attack at Mocodome

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