A Great and Noble Scheme: The Tragic Story of the Expulsion of the French Acadians from their American Homeland
Nonfiction, History, Modern, 18th Century, Americas, Canada
| Author: | John Mack Faragher | ISBN: | 9780393242430 |
| Publisher: | W. W. Norton & Company | Publication: | February 17, 2006 |
| Imprint: | W. W. Norton & Company | Language: | English |
| Author: | John Mack Faragher |
| ISBN: | 9780393242430 |
| Publisher: | W. W. Norton & Company |
| Publication: | February 17, 2006 |
| Imprint: | W. W. Norton & Company |
| Language: | English |
"Altogether superb; a worthy memorial to the victims of two and a half centuries past."--Kirkus Reviews, starred review
In 1755, New England troops embarked on a "great and noble scheme" to expel 18,000 French-speaking Acadians ("the neutral French") from Nova Scotia, killing thousands, separating innumerable families, and driving many into forests where they waged a desperate guerrilla resistance. The right of neutrality; to live in peace from the imperial wars waged between France and England; had been one of the founding values of Acadia; its settlers traded and intermarried freely with native Mìkmaq Indians and English Protestants alike. But the Acadians' refusal to swear unconditional allegiance to the British Crown in the mid-eighteenth century gave New Englanders, who had long coveted Nova Scotia's fertile farmland, pretense enough to launch a campaign of ethnic cleansing on a massive scale. John Mack Faragher draws on original research to weave 150 years of history into a gripping narrative of both the civilization of Acadia and the British plot to destroy it.
"Altogether superb; a worthy memorial to the victims of two and a half centuries past."--Kirkus Reviews, starred review
In 1755, New England troops embarked on a "great and noble scheme" to expel 18,000 French-speaking Acadians ("the neutral French") from Nova Scotia, killing thousands, separating innumerable families, and driving many into forests where they waged a desperate guerrilla resistance. The right of neutrality; to live in peace from the imperial wars waged between France and England; had been one of the founding values of Acadia; its settlers traded and intermarried freely with native Mìkmaq Indians and English Protestants alike. But the Acadians' refusal to swear unconditional allegiance to the British Crown in the mid-eighteenth century gave New Englanders, who had long coveted Nova Scotia's fertile farmland, pretense enough to launch a campaign of ethnic cleansing on a massive scale. John Mack Faragher draws on original research to weave 150 years of history into a gripping narrative of both the civilization of Acadia and the British plot to destroy it.
