The former French colony of Acadia--permanently renamed Nova Scotia by
the British when they began an ambitious occupation of the territory in
1710--witnessed one of the bitterest struggles in the British empire.
Whereas in its other North American colonies Britain assumed it could
garner the sympathies of fellow Europeans against the native peoples, in
Nova Scotia nothing was further from the truth. The Mi'kmaq, the native
local population, and the Acadians, descendants of the original French
settlers, had coexisted for more than a hundred years prior to the
British conquest, and their friendships, family ties, common Catholic
religion, and commercial relationships proved resistant to
British-enforced change. Unable to seize satisfactory political control
over the region, despite numerous efforts at separating the Acadians and
Mi'kmaq, the authorities took drastic steps in the 1750s, forcibly
deporting the Acadians to other British colonies and systematically
decimating the remaining native population.
The story of the removal of the Acadians, some of whose descendants are
the Cajuns of Louisiana, and the subsequent oppression of the Mi'kmaq
has never been completely told. In this first comprehensive history of
the events leading up to the ultimate break-up of Nova Scotian society,
Geoffrey Plank skillfully unravels the complex relationships of all of
the groups involved, establishing the strong bonds between the Mi'kmaq
and Acadians as well as the frustration of the British administrators
that led to the Acadian removal, culminating in one of the most infamous
events in North American history.
