TITLE:
A great and noble scheme : the tragic story of the expulsion of the French Acadians from their American Homeland / John Mack Faragher.
Publication Date:
2005
Publication Information:
New York : W.W Norton & Co.,
Edition:
1st ed.
Physical Description:
xx, 562 p., [16] p. of plates ; ill., maps
Bibliography Note:
Includes bibliographical references (p. 481-538) and index.
Summary:
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 Mßikmaq 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.
Language:
English
ISBN:
9780393328271
