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Geoffrey Gilbert Plank

An Unsettled Conquest: The British Campaign Against the Peoples of Acadia (Early American Studies) Hardcover – Download: Adobe Reader, October 27, 2000

by Geoffrey Plank (Author)

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Part of: Early American Studies (99 books)

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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.

Print length

256 pages
Language

English
Publisher

University of Pennsylvania Press
Publication date

October 27, 2000
Dimensions

6.25 x 1 x 9.5 inches
ISBN-10

0812235711
ISBN-13

978-0812235715
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"A magnificent synthesis. . . . This is a work that must be read not only for its Acadian history but also for its prefiguration of contemporary forms of totalitarianism."—Journal of American History

"A story that resonates down to our own day."—Toronto Star

"An evocative and compelling book."—Ian K. Steele, author of Warpaths: Invasions of North America, 1513-1765

"A compelling book, and it thoroughly traces the fates of the Acadians and Mi'kmaq who were caught between contentious British and French empires."—Times-Picayune (New Orleans)

"Ultimately, the story of Nova Scotia's violent integration into the British system offers a case study in the limits of voluntarism in the ramshackle empire that preceded the Seven Years' War."—William and Mary Quarterly

"Well-written. . . . A good introduction to a very compelling and complex story."—Journal of Military History

About the Author

Geoffrey Plank is Associate Professor of History at the University of Cincinnati and author of Rebellion and Savagery: The Jacobite Rising of 1745 and the British Empire, also available from the University of Pennsylvania Press.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ University of Pennsylvania Press (October 27, 2000)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 256 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0812235711
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0812235715
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.12 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.25 x 1 x 9.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #5,205,677 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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BRITISH GREED FOR LAND AND FISHING MOTIVATION FOR THE EXILE OF ACADIANS

Reviewed in the United States on November 24, 2005

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When Acadia was still part of the French Empire and Annapolis Royal was still known by its original name "Port Royal," my ancestors left France to settle in the new world. I bought this book to find answers to my questions about what happened to my family, who seemed to have vanished in 1790, but then resurfaced two generations later in Quebec. What happened in those two generations? The book gave me some clues, but no definitive answer to what may have taken place.

The book's focus is the expulsion of Acadians following the outbreak of the "Seven Years' War" between Great Britain and France. Popular belief is that the British policy makers' perception of a joint threat from the Acadians and Mi'kmaq Indians in the war with France was the catalyst for the "Grand Dérangement." But in peeling back the layers of how officials came to their decision to expel Acadian men (who refused an unqualified oath of allegiance to Britain), the author reveals how other motivating factors were at work including competition, suspicion and greed for fishing grounds and good farmland.

I was left still wondering how in the age of enlightenment, the British Empire could treat a group of successful European settlers with such callous disregard. It's easy to say that we, as human beings, have evolved beyond repeating such an injustice. However, I was struck by the remarkable similarity of contemporary reports from Zimbabwe of the dispossession of white owners of their successful ranches and farms. Again the motivating factor appears to be competition, suspicion and greed.

This book is a scholarly work and the research is clearly valuable. The many questions that remain unanswered will take time to study and understand. I commend Mr. Plank for taking this step toward such understanding.

2 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

I was very pleased with my copy of An Unsettled Conquest by Geoffrey ...

Reviewed in the United States on February 18, 2016

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I was very pleased with my copy of An Unsettled Conquest by Geoffrey Plank.
Odilon Boudreau

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C. Chitta

Tiny Print

Reviewed in the United States on September 10, 2005

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Haven't been able to really get into it because the print is so tiny and compacted. The writing is difficult to read. It seems to be biased favoring the English side.

One person found this helpful

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Ken Fontenot

Another Look Into The Expulsion Of The Acadians

Reviewed in the United States on May 17, 2006

I've read a number of books on the plight of the Acadian people, primarily the works of Carl Brasseaux, Barry Ancelet and Shane K. Bernard. This is the first work that I've read by Geoffrey Plank. In my private readings, I've come to consider Brasseaux the primary source of early Acadian history(pre-Grand Derangement up until the very late 1800's), Bernard the expert on the modern Cajun experience and Ancelet the key force in learning the growth and evolution of Cajun culture over the years. Plank, at least in this book, focuses his energies on the events just prior to and immediately after the British removal of the Acadians in Nova Scotia.

Plank spends quite a bit of time explaining the relationship between the Mi'k Maq peoples and the Acadians in Canada. He goes to great lengths to show that this strong relationship actually helped both groups survive well into the occupation of the British Empire. He also shows how the British attempted to use the trust developed between the two groups against them.

When all is said and done, however, the Acadian people are successfully removed and the Mi'k Maq are silenced. The Acadians are scattered throughout New England, many into indentured servitude, and families are broken up. However, the bulk of this strong group of people manage to keep their much-despised Catholic faith and culture. Some of them even make it back to Canada.

Plank doesn't explore the Acadians in Louisiana very much at all, but you can reference any of the aforementioned writers to get a grasp on that. Remember, Cajun history doesn't begin and end in Louisiana, it started in France, carried over to Canada, and then was scattered up and down the eastern U.S. coast and my beloved Gulf Coast. All the while, the Acadians faced prejudice and out-and-out bad luck, yet they still managed to survive where other cultures have buckled.

What Plank focuses on is researched and presented in a wonderful manner. He went into an area of my ancestor's history that amazes me to no end.

Highly recommended to anyone hoping to learn more about this tragic moment in the history of the Acadians and the Mi'k Maq people, who, thanks to this book, I have a newfound respect for.

6 people found this helpful

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M. A Michaud

A well-researched account of another ethnic cleansing

Reviewed in the United States on April 27, 2004

In this detailed history, Plank describes the British campaign to convert or deport French-speaking Catholics living in Acadia, roughly equivalent to today's Nova Scotia. The deportation was the culmination of a seventy-year effort to transform Acadia into a Protestant, English-speaking area loyal to the British crown. Plank uncovered an impressive array of sources, giving immediacy to some of this history. The Mi'Kmaq Indians, often allied with the Acadians, emerge as a significant third party in this long struggle, in which periods of relative peace and cooperation alternated with military conflict and dictatorial methods. My only criticism is that Plank has a tendency to repeat points in other words. A few pages describing today's Acadian cultural survivals in Canada and Louisiana would have been helpful.

3 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

C. Nicholls

My Introduction to Acadia

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 19, 2012

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This academic text was an eminently readable account of the eighteenth century transitions Acadia experienced, from the British designs to capture the territory from the French who had earlier removed the Mi'kmaq, to the eventual Acadian removal in the 1750s. Knowing very little about the history of Nova Scotia (the former French colony of Acadia) I found this book to be well written, enlightening and well researched. The way references have been made makes it easy to see where Plank got his information, and I prefer this method to what I have found quite commonly in the confusing mass-referencing at the end of paragraphs that other authors sometimes use.

The maps and images are particularly useful for understanding the region, and I found myself in constant reference to the maps in particular to really visualise the landscape of the early eighteenth century. This books does not focus exclusively on European colonists, as it discusses the native American nations that occupied the area with the French and British, and details their experiences with the Euopeans as well as conflicts and contact between the two European powers around the Bay of Fundy and on the peninsula.

Overall this is an important book on the subject, that was interesting and detailed, without being too dry. It gives examples of the lives of many different people, from Lieutenant General Edward Cornwallis, founder of Halifax, Scottish Whig Samuel Vetch, who had such grand designs for the Scottish habitation of Nova Scotia, to lesser known figures such as James Mews and the two Jean-Baptiste Jedre's, who were executed for piratical attacks on Massachussetts fishing ships. Plank uses trials and tribulations of everyday people where possible, to flesh out the procedures of those in power, and in the instance of the Mews' and Jedre's trial he indicates the difficulty the British had distinguishing the Mi'kmaq and Acadians from one another. For a very worthy introduction to the subject read Geoffrey Plank's 'An Unsettled Conquest'.

2 people found this helpful

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An Unsettled Conquest: The British Campaign Against the Peoples of Acadia (Early American Studies) Hardcover – Download: Adobe Reader, October 27, 2000

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