Attack at Mocodome

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) protecting their land by killing British civilians along the New England/ Acadia border in Maine (See the Northeast Coast Campaigns 1688, 1703, 1723, 1724, 1745, 1746, 1747).

To prevent the establishment of Protestant settlements in the region, Mi'kmaq raided the early British 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. By unilaterally establishing Halifax the British were violating earlier treaties with the Mi'kmaq (1726), which were signed after Father Rale's War. The British quickly began to build other settlements. To guard against Mi'kmaq, Acadian and French attacks on the new Protestant settlements, British fortifications were erected in Halifax (1749), Bedford (Fort Sackville) (1749), Dartmouth (1750), Lunenburg (1753) and Lawrencetown (1754). There were numerous Mi'kmaq and Acadian raids on these villages such as the Raid on Dartmouth (1751).

After the Raid on Dartmouth (1749), Governor Edward Cornwallis offered a bounty on the head of every Mi'kmaq. The British military paid the Rangers the same rate per scalp as the French military paid the Mi'kmaq for British scalps.

After eighteen months of inconclusive fighting, uncertainties and second thoughts began to disturb both the Mi’kmaq and the British communities. 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 On 16 February 1752, hoping to lay the groundwork for a peace treaty, Cornwallis repealed his 1749 scalp proclamation against the Wabanaki Confederacy. 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.

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. 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' account, John Connor and three others on abroad the Schooner Dunk from Canso, Nova Scotia put into Jeddore and stole the Mi'kmaq stores, 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 (Nartigouneche) captured John Connor and the three other crew members 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 scalped two of the British crew, Haggarthy and Power. The Mi'kmaq took Connor and Grace captive for seven weeks. After seven weeks in captivity, on April 8, the two British men killed a Mi'kmaw woman and child and then four other Mi'kmaw men. Afterward, they managed their escape.

In contrast, according to Anthony Casteel, after stealing provisions from the Mi'kmaq at Jaddore, the English schooner accidentally was shipwrecked and two of the four crew members drowned. The two British survivors, despite the Mi'kmaw hospitality shown them, killed seven Mi'kmaq: two men, three women, one child and one infant. In response, Mi'kmaq were reported to have gone to Halifax to complain about how to keep their provisions safe during fishing season.

A French officer at Louisbourg did not believe this account of events. 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 an English schooner at Jeddore. There were nine English men and one Acadian, Anthony Casteel, who was the British interpreter. The Mi'kmaq killed the English and let Anthony Casteel free 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.