The Fourteenth Colony

I’m sure you paid enough attention in your studies in grade school to recall how America, in 1776, declared her independence from the British Crown, and fought for years to secure it. I’m sure you also remember that at the time, America was not fifty states strong, but only fourteen colonies weak. Yes, I did indeed write fourteen colonies.

Yes, a fourteenth frontier colony, then called New Scotland, had established itself in New England, and just like New York or Connecticut, was inhabited by British nationals. It also was home to a rather large British Naval fleet, unparalleled in the other thirteen colonies. Because of that large presence, New Scotland decided not to send representatives to the Continental Congress, lest they be declared traitors and hung in quick measure, as New Scotland was then under martial law. Like most of the other thirteen colonies, there was some debate about breaking from Britain, which also was a factor in holding back on sending a contingent to the Continental Congress. Because of the decision to opt-out of participating in the Continental Congress, then-general George Washington declined to support any Revolutionary activity in that fourteenth colony, and and it is often said that this decision came to be his greatest regret. And so New Scotland sat the Revolutionary War out, for the most part, and watched as the birth of a new nation was had, without her.

Whatever became of this fourteenth colony, New Scotland? Did the British end up thrashing it for it’s involvement with, and sympathies to, the other rogue thirteen colonies? No, Britain did not deal a heavy hand to this colony, the one your history teacher neglected to tell you of. There was not a huge population base to begin with, and that, coupled with a very large British naval presence there, gave the British little worry as to losing it. Before the British wrested it away from the French - which took no less than six wars to effect - they had called it “Acadia”. The British renamed it “New Scotland” - well, not exactly.

The people of New Scotland never really stood a chance - despite their sympathies - to become a full-fledged member of the colonies, and fight the British for independence - not with such a large British naval and personnel presence amongst them. Had circumstances been different, had General Washington decided to send troops to fight for New Scotland, had New Scotland been able to join her sister colonies and become part of what was to become the United States of America, the Northernmost part of lower continental America would have extended north beyond Maine, to New Scotland, or as the Latin language loving British named it, Nova Scotia.