Les Réfugiés acadiens en France 1758–1785, l'impossible réintégration? (review)

During the last fifty years, writing about Acadian history has been a growth industry. Above all, the events of the Deportation of the Acadians by the British, in the mid-eighteenth century, from what are today the Maritime provinces of Canada, have been discussed and reinterpreted. In writing about the experience of those Acadians whose fortunes took them first to Virginia, then to England and France, and finally, in most cases, to Louisiana, Jean-François Mouhot has chosen to investigate one of the less examined aspects of the Deportation. One of the reasons for his choice was his knowledge of the way in which France accommodated close to a million 'Pieds-Noirs' who left Algeria after 1962. In concluding his study of the 'intégration des Acadiens en France au siècle des Lumières,' he writes that his aim had been a three-fold analysis: that of 'l'attitude du gouvernment: celle des réfugiés eux-même, et enfin ce qu'on peut appréhender de la réalité de leur (re)insertion dans la société d'Ancien Régime.' His work was awarded a doctorate by the European University in Florence in 2006.

In many ways this is a fine piece of scholarly endeavour. Mouhot's archival research is extensive and broad-ranging and his work will be not only a necessary but also a very helpful source for future scholars. He has visited the major archive collections in London, Madrid, Ottawa, and Paris and also the most important provincial archives in all four countries. He has also made considerable use of Internet sources. As a result, his narrative of the official French attitude to the Acadians and of their reaction to their treatment is firmly anchored by an extensive knowledge of primary resources. His complex and interesting arguments regarding the attitude of the French officials engaged in trying to establish the Acadians on Belle Isle and in the region of Poitier are well worth reading. In his analysis of the rural France in the eighteenth century, he might have considered the views of Fernand Braudel and others of the Annales school in more detail when describing the reception of the Acadians by their neighbours. Mouhot's attention to the way in which French government policies changed over the decades, to the arguments made by the supporters of changing government actions is exemplary. As well, his sympathy with the frustrations of those working at the local level makes for entertaining as well as enlightening reading. It is clear that Mouhot's interests lie in political and governmental history, rather than sociological and cultural studies.

This intellectual bent accounts for a major shortcoming in his analysis of Acadian identity in the eighteenth century. There is very little reference to Acadian experience in North America after the Deportation. While it would be unfair to ask for the sort of archival work in the American state archives that Mouhot has done so well elsewhere, there is also little reference to secondary sources about European colonial experience published in the United States, no evidence of a reading of the immense body of monographs on the early sense of a developing 'American' identity, or even of the articles more easily available in the pages of the William and Mary Quarterly. As a result, the fact that the Acadians had lived in a world very different from France for a minimum of five generations does not seem to be a matter for his contemplation. The consistent refusal of the majority of the Acadians to take up arms for either England or France seems, for Mouhot, to be beside the point: since the Acadians wished to speak French and to continue to be Catholic, their sense of identity must above all be grounded in an attachment to France. He rejects my own work in this area, at...