Great And Noble Scheme [Hardcover]

A newly published history describing the tragic expulsion of the 1755 French Acadians from their homes in Nova Scotia puts the account of this horrible incident into a readable format. "A Great and Noble Scheme", by John Mack Faragher presents the daunting facts about the terrible French removal in a logical history, combined in one nicely readable text.
This year marks the 250th anniversary of Le Grand Derangement, a tragic episode in North American history known as the 1755 British expulsion of the French Acadians from Nova Scotia (called Acadie by the French at the time).
Besides the tragic nature of the expulsion itself is the unfortunate lack of first person journals describing the incident from a French Acadian's point of view.
Popular Maine poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow gave his now classic interpretation of the Acadian separation from their homeland in his epic poem "Evangeline", written in 1847, or 92 years after the incident occurred.
Faragher provides information about how the Acadians found themselves in a terrible vice with the British. The Acadians actually tried to remain neutral in the series of conflicts known as The French and Indian wars between the British and the French for control of Canada and North America. Acadians preferred trading to war. They continued their commerce with the French in Quebec and France, with the British and, also, with New Englanders. Acadians prospered with this economic freedom.
Most historic accounts of the 1755 expulsion focus on the actual incident and what happened subsequently to the Acadians who were "scattered to the winds" in boats where they sailed to ports on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Faragher's history takes the time to describe the nature of the "neutral" Acadians prior to the expulsion, or those who wanted to remain free and aloof from the continental conflicts.
Faragher describes how the Acadians became victims of the schemes some claim were premeditated by British Lieutenant Governor Charles Lawrence (1709-1760) and Massachusetts Governor William Shirley (1694-1771).
Using a classic propaganda campaign to stir up negative news about the Acadians, Faragher describes how Lawrence and Shirley preyed on colonial anti-French sentiments of the time. Lawrence used weaknesses he perceived in the Acadian social or political systems to justify writing a deportation order, forcing them out of the property they developed during over a century of settlement in Nova Scotia's Annapolis Valley region.
Back in Massachusetts, Governor Shirley sought the assistance of John Winslow to supplement the British troops in Nova Scotia, thereby contributing to the Acadian expulsion scheme. Recruitment of Massachusetts militia began in early February, 1755, immediately after the colony's Assembly voted to approve an expedition to Nova Scotia in a secret session, writes Faragher. Winslow was a highly regarded New England citizen and a seasoned military man. Due to his good reputation, he quickly recruited about 2000 Massachusetts militia to join him and the British in executing the "Great and Nobel Scheme" of 1755, writes Faragher. Winslow's recruits were motivated by clerics and others who preached against the Acadians who were Roman Catholics. "French Catholics must be evicted from L'Acadie at the muzzle of our guns and at the point of our Swords", wrote Governor Shirley on February 18, 1755.
Lawrence supposedly ordered the Acadian expulsion without authority to do so, but modern historians have tried implicating the British Crown in the incident.
Faragher keeps the horror of Le Grand Derangement alive with this well documented accumulation of data about a horrible incident in America's colonial history.

This is a readable, well-researched history that lets us look at the well-trod landscape of colonial history in British North America from a novel and revealing perspective.

In its own right, this is an interesting story with much vivid detail - which was undoubtedly a challenge for the author given the lack of detailed written source material for Acadia, especially as compared to Canada, New England, or even Newfoundland. The author does a good job of suggesting some of the deeper and more abstract historical analysis he gleans from his work without overburdening the story itself.

There are some places where the author's own perspective is clearly revealed, as well as places where he brings some baggage from being an American rather than a Canadian looking at this relatively unfamiliar history (for example, he suggests intermarriage between the French and Native Americans in Acadia was unusual even by comparision to the rest of Canada, when such intermarriage was quite common in the Canadian interior). I suspect some of the analytical points look much different to those more steeped in Canadian history and its themes.

But the book is most interesting read together with histories of New England or Canada. The Acadian story highlights some of the choices made that altered the cultures of each area, such as the differing relationships with Native Americans, or the differing relationships with the mother countries. For those interested in more popular and accessible history, I might suggest reading this together with "The Unredeemed Captive", for example.

In a number of cases, I would have enjoyed still more attention to some of the relationships between the settlers and their land and transplanted political institutions, and Faragher's work only begins to scratch the surface. The fact that the signeurial tenure system did not prosper in Acadia while it became well established in the St. Lawrence River Valley, for example, is an area where still more detail would have been welcome. Likewise, the adoption of quasi-representative government along the New England model (and the later quashing of this representation because of the Acadians' Catholicism) is an area rich for further investigation and review. At the same time, whenever one wants yet more detail in a 400 page work of history, the author has a success on his hands!

Being descended from French Canadians, I had more than a passing interest in the heartbreaking saga of the Acadian people. In "A Great and Noble Scheme: The Tragic Story of the Expulsion of the French Acadians from Their American Homeland" author John Mack Faragher traces the long and troubled history of these truly unique people. Determined to remain neutral in the ongoing struggle between the British and the French for supremacy on the North American continent, the Acadians constantly found themselves at odds with officials on both sides of the conflict. Yet the reality was that for decades the Acadians led a peaceful, prosperous and largely independent existence, forging alliances of convenience with both local Indian tribes as well as French and British interests depending on the circumstances.

Over the years the Acadians insistance on remaining neutral became more and more unacceptable to local British officials and ultimately the Acadians would be viewed as a thorn in their side. Many of these officials called for drastic measures to deal with the Acadian problem. In fact, plans were in the works to expel the Acadians from their land as early as the mid 1720's. But as events unfolded the actual removal of the Acadian people would not begin in earnest for another three decades.

"A Great and Noble Scheme" is a meticulously researched and well written book. John Mack Faragher has succeeded in capturing the essence of these tragic events. Much like the Cherokee "Trail of Tears" that would occur nearly a century later, the removal of the Acadians from their adopted homeland in L'Acadie is a cruel and disturbing chapter in the history of this continent. At the time British officials attempted to justify their actions as a "cruel necessity". Many historians would argue that the expulsion of the French Acadians is a clear case of ethnic cleansing. I suggest you read "A Great and Noble Scheme" and draw your own conclusions. Highly recommended.

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