The document summarizes population patterns and settlement in Atlantic Canada. It notes that the population is not evenly distributed across the four provinces, with Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island having higher population densities. It discusses the original Indigenous inhabitants, including the Mi'kmaq, Maliseet, Passamaquoddy, Inuit, and Beothuk peoples. It then outlines the major waves of European settlement, including the French in the 1600s, Acadian settlers, and British settlers in the 1700-1800s, many of whom were Loyalists fleeing the American Revolution.

1. A Place To
Live
Chp. 4
Social Studies
Grade 8

2. Population

3. Population Density
The people of Atlantic Canada are not evenly spread over the 4
provinces:
-Population Density – identifies how many people live on a given area
of land
- Calculated by dividing population of a given region by the area of
the region
Population Person Per km²
- Newfoundland 571 192 1.4 (Person Per) km²
- Nova Scotia 941 235 16.9 km²
- New Brunswick 761 973 10.3km²
- Prince Edward Island 137 316 23.6 km²
- Atlantic Canada 2 411 716 4.5km²

4. Activity
• In pairs, make a “pros and cons” chart of
rural (country) vs. urban (big city) living.
• Decide where you would rather live (urban
or rural) and you will present your ideas to
class (8-15 min)
• You must give 5 reasons why!
• Rural communities in NB – schools!

5. The Urban-Rural Mix
Urban Centers
• Clusters of higher
population density
• At least 1000 people per
400 km²
• Cities are growing in
number and caused by
an urban pull (people
seeking employment)
Rural Centers
• In rural areas
unemployment is usually
high
– Lack of employment
opportunities
• People migrate to larger
cities for work (rural
push)

6. Outmigration
People moving from one region to another
for a variety of reasons:
- Why would population from one
region move to another?

7. Employment Rates (1991)
Percentage of Population employed – 15 years and older
-Newfoundland 44. 2%
-Nova Scotia 59.8 %
-New Brunswick 55.3 %
-Prince Edward Island 53.2 %
-What do you think the employment rates are today??

8. Reviewing Ideas - Population
• Atlantic Canada has a relatively low population
density.
– Does this mean there are no crowded places in the
region?
– What are the factors that influence this?
• Which province has the highest percentage of its people employed?

9. Activity
Read pg. 50-52
•Read the entire text – including the charts,
captions under the charts and text boxes.
•Make a list of key terms and their meaning (bold
terms)
•Turn to page 52 and under Explorations complete
in writing the following prompts: 1, 2 a, b , 3 a,b
•Provide a response in writing for question 4 a, b,

11. Where people live?
• The location or site of any settlement is influenced by
geographic, political and economic factors:
– roads, rail lines and river traffic (transportation
centers)
• The growth of Fredericton (pg. 53)
• Urbanization – the growth of urban centers poses one of
the greatest global problems
- Find a list of the world’s largest cities. Choose one and find why it
is growing. How many people live there? What problems is the
city experiencing?

12. Overpopulation
• Today, urban developments are carefully planned, to
ensure that they meet the needs of the community and
have adequate services. Yet urbanization – the growth
of large human urban centers poses one of the greatest
global problems. What do you think is the list of world’s
largest cities? What problems do you think do large
urban centers present to the planet?
• In the book 10 Greatest Threats to Earth, Overpopulation
is listed as number 5.
•

14. The Roots of our Population
• Who were the original inhabitants of the Atlantic
Provinces?
• Who were the first 4 groups?
• Which one no longer exists?
• How did the first groups to settle in the Atlantic
Provinces get here?

15. •The term Aboriginal Peoples is used to
refer to the First Nations as well as the Innu
and Inuit
•“Paleoindian” – early or archaic cultures
•Paleo – Latin word meaning ancient

16. First Nations Peoples
• Many First Nations Experts believe that some nations have
lived here since the beginning of time. Others believed that
groups migrated here about 10 000 to 12 000 years ago,
following game such as caribou and bison from as far west as
British Columbia. They advanced as the glaciers of the ice
age disappeared.
• These people lived in harmony with their environment and
different groups developed their own spiritual traditions,
languages and cultures.
• The four First Nation groups living in the Atlantic Provinces
are the Innu, Algonquain Nations (Mi’kmaq, Maliseet and
Passamaquoddy), Inuit and Beothuk.

17. The Roots of Our Population:
First Nations Peoples
• Population pattern in AC is made up of many
cultures and these are the population groups
that created the patterns of settlement in this
region (pg. 55, Figure 4.7):
• The Innu
• Algonquian Nations
• The Inuit
• The Beothuk

18. • Newfoundland and Labrador
• Maritime Archaic culture
– 9000-3000 years ago
– Used resources from the land & sea
• Descendants of sub-arctic climate of
Quebec/Labrador peninsula
• 2 groups
– The Montagnais
– Naskapi
• Call their land Nitassinan
• Do not recognize political boundaries
of Quebec / Labrador today
The Innu

19. Algonquian Nations
• Populated what is now Atlantic Canada
– Hunting, fishing, trapping, trading
• Included
– The Mi’Kmaq
• (NS, Nwnlnd, PEI & NB)
– Passamaquoddy (NB)
– Maliseet (NB)

20. The Inuit
• North of Atlantic Region
• Also known as Palaeoeskimo groups
• Could have crossed the Bering Strait from
Siberia 3800 years ago
• Disappeared around 1000 years ago (their
legends still exist)
• Their ancestors are The Thule
who migrated south along the
Labrador coast as they came in
contact with early Europeans

22. The Beothuk
• Stealing Mary (The Last Red Indians)
• Stealing Mary part 2
• Beothuk Heritage
• Originally hunters /fishermen in Newfoundland – suffered a fate
recognized as one of true Canadian tragedies
– Suffered in early contact with Europeans (diseases and conflict)
– Became extinct
– Last known member Shawnandithit died of tuberculosis in 1812

23. Early Contact
• First Europeans encountered harsh
environments
• Ethnocentrism - belief that their culture and
beliefs were better than those of others
– Europeans lacked understanding/appreciation
– There were many conflicts over the years and
eventually the Native populations were forced by
treaties and laws onto reserves.

24. Early European Settlement
• 1600s
• Immigrants from England and France
– Fishing
– Fur Trade
• 1700-1800s – fierce competition between them for
control over the region
- land claims
• 1763 – Treaty of Paris gave England control over the
Atlantic Region

25. John Cabot
• British explorer
• 1497
• Discovered shallow waters off the coast of
Newfoundland & Labrador – The Grand
Banks
• Began the cod fishery
• Cod was popular in Europe

26. Early Canadian Settlements
• Port-Royal, 1605 – Nova Scotia
– Samuel de Champlain, French, 1605
• Quebec, 1608
– Samuel de Champlain, French, 1608
• Cuper’s Cove, Newfoundland
– John Guy, English, 1610
• Montreal, 1642, French
• Halifax – 1749, Colonel Edward Cornwallis, British
• St. John – 1783, Loyalists, British
• Fredericton – 1784, Loyalists, British

27. First Settlers
• Left their homes because of hardships
– Poverty
– Epidemics (The Potato Famine, Ireland)
• Arrived for exploration
• Hope of becoming self-sufficient
• To own land and farms
• Very strong workers – farming, clearing
land was hard work

28. The French and Indian War
• 1754 to 1763 war fought over the land in
America between the English and French.
• It was called the Seven Years War in Europe.
• Called the French and Indian War because the
Indians helped the French in the war against the
British. The Indians had nothing to lose. The
British were taking their land, the French were
not.
• The British won, but at a cost a lot of money.

29. The Acadians
• What is deportation?
• Why were the Acadians deported?
• In what year were the Acadians deported?
• What was the condition that the Acadians were
placed on the oath of allegiance?

30. Acadia
• 1610
• First permanent French colony in North
America (present day Maritimes)
• Farming settlement
• Along the Atlantic Coast
• 1755 The British force the Acadians to
leave their homes

32. Expulsion of the Acadians
• Many Acadian families were broken up by
the deportations
• Most were deported to colonies in the US
• Video
• Village Acadien

33. The Acadians
• In 1671, the Acadians numbered approximately 440; by 1750, this figure had
grown to 10 500.
• In the early 1700’s, the Acadians found themselves in a predicament. The
British gained control of Acadia, Newfoundland and Hudson Bay in 1713 and
demanded that the Acadians take an oath of allegiance to the crown. The
Acadians were accepted on condition that they remain neutral if war broke
out between the English and French.
•Fearing that the Acadians would break their
allegiance and fight with the French in case of
war between the English and French, the
British demanded that the Acadians sign an
unconditional oath of allegiance in 1749,
otherwise they would be deported.
•After unsuccessful negotiations in 1755, it was
decided that the Acadians would be deported
and all their animals and their land would
become British property.

34. The Acadians
• Some Acadians were sent to British colonies of the
South, (Louisiana ) while others were sent to France
and England. Some had fled before the troops
arrived to seek refuge with the Mi'kmaq in the
interior. Others went to Prince Edward Island and
Cape Breton who were still French Colonies.
• Many Acadians did not like their new
home and decided to return to Acadia.
The Government of Nova Scotia had
decided to give them land if the
Acadians took an oath of allegiance.
Some of the Acadians settled in remote
areas like the northern region of present-
day New Brunswick
Evangéline - une légende acadienne

35. Acadian Expulsion

36. Settlers of British Origin (1)
Most European settlers arrived in Newfoundland to
focus on the fishing industry.
They fished all summer and returned home before
the arrival of autumn storms.
Over time, some fishermen began to settle there
during the winter to protect and repair their
fishing equipment.
Gradually, small colonies have settled permanently
along the north-east and south coasts of Nova
Scotia. Some British fishermen have immigrated
directly to the coast of Labrador, and over time,
some fishermen have left Newfoundland to
settle in Labrador.

37. Settlers of British Origin (2)
 Between the years 1750 and 1760, the
British encouraged the English-speaking
settlers of the thirteen colonies to come to
the Maritimes to counter balance the
number of French people. Most of these
newcomers settled on land originally
farmed by the Acadians.

38. Settlers of British Origin (3)
• Loyalists were colonists who supported the British
against the rebellious colonies of the American War
of American Independence (1776-1783). The
government guaranteed them 40 hectares of land per
head of household and 20 acres of land for each of
its members. Video 1 Video 2 Video 3
• Video 4
• In the late 1700s, some 40,000 people left Scotland
for North America. 8000 to 10 000 of them had
settled in Nova Scotia, including several in Cape
Breton.

39. Settlers of British Origin (4)
• Between 1820 and 1850, many English
immigrants came to Canada. Many have
settled in Prince Edward Island.
• In 1846, blight destroyed the potato crop in
Ireland. Nearly one million people died of
starvation and nearly two million left the
country. Hundreds of thousands of
immigrants arrived in Atlantic Canada.
• Video 1

40. Review
• Title your page: Settlement of the Atlantic
Provinces
• Work with a partner and make a quick timeline –
marking the settlement by major groups
• Time line should have 6-8 events
• Each event should have a brief description
• 2 or 3 illustrations
• Use pages 57-64

41. African-Canadian Communities
• Throughout the 1600s and 1700s, British traders
captured people in West Africa and brought them to
North America to sell them as slaves.
• While many early African-Canadians in this time
were slaves, some were seaman, fishers and
landowners.
• Most people of African descent who came to the
region arrived in later waves:
– Wave 1  1782-1784
– Wave 2  1796
– Wave 3  1813-1816
– Wave 4  Late 1800s & early 1900s
Video

42. Immigration in the Twentieth
Century
• Although many immigrants came to Canada in the
late 1800s and early 1900s, most of them were
encouraged by the government to settle in the
Western provinces.
• In 2 important periods, however, some groups did
make their homes here:
1. After the Second World War (1939-1945), a large wave of
immigrants from Europe came because they were devastated
by war.
2. In the 1970s, many more immigrants came from Africa, Asia
and Central America and South America.

43. Quiet Work
• Read pg. 63
• Immigration In the 20th
Century
• In your notes, write a summary. Take note
of important dates.

44. Review
• Why did the British come to Newfoundland?
• Over time, why did they begin to settle there in the
winter?
• What groups were involved in the War of Independence?
• Who won the War of Independence?
• What was the tragedy that was happening in Ireland in
1846 and why did this push many to immigrate to the
Atlantic Provinces?

45. Review
• How is it that African-Canadians arrived in
North America?
• What roles did African Canadians have at
this time?
• Where was Africville and what happened
in this community?

46. Review - Acadians
• What was the oath of allegiance?
• What countries were the Acadians deported to?
• How is it that some acadians escaped
deportation?
• Which American state was popular among the
Acadians? Why?

47. Pre-Test
1. Who were the first inhabitants of the Atlantic
Provinces?
a) English
b) Acadians
c) First Nations
d) Americans
2. That Acadians were deported in which year?
a) 1977 b) 1755 c) 1886 d) 1577

48. Pre-Test
3. What group was involved in the war of
independence?
a) The French
b) The English
c) The Rebels
d) The Loyalists
e) The First Nations

49. Pre-Test
4. Where was Africville?
a) It didn’t exist
b) Close to Africa
c) Close to Charlottetown
d) Close to Halifax

50. Pre-Test
5. Where did immigrants come from in the
20th century? Circle more than 1.
Mexico South America
Central America Europe
Australia China