An Unsettled Conquest: The British Campaign against the Peoples of Acadia (review)

The past few years have seen renewed interest in the early history of Acadie/Nova Scotia and its unique mix of Native North American and diverse European peoples. The recent work of historians such as Naomi Griffiths, John Faragher, John Reid, et al., all publishing major works within the past four years, illustrate the complexity and multilayered nature of the history of this border region and its people. Professor Geoffry Plank has added a substantial volume to the exploration of this history, examining the period between 1689 and the removal from the colony of the largest group of its inhabitants beginning in 1755, years which encompassed the conquest of the colony by the British, the building of the fortress of Louisbourg by the French, the substantial growth of the Acadians, the persistent resistance of the native Mi'kmaq to British expansion, and the forced removal of the Acadians from the region.

Dr. Plank's purpose is clearly laid out in the introduction. He contends that, while at the beginning of the period under consideration, it was the British intention to assimilate the native population and deport the Acadians to France, a half-century later the positions were reversed; it was the Mi'kmaq who were "violently excluded" (p. 3) from British colonial society and the Acadians who were shipped off to the thirteen colonies in order to forcibly assimilate them. In looking at this tumultuous and unsettled time, Plank analyzes "the experiences and actions of all the region's peoples simultaneously . . ." (p. 5).

The subsequent chapters deal with the complex interactions of British, Native, Acadian, and cleric within the colony, as well as the continued and often highly damaging intervention of New Englanders and British and French officials in the affairs of the region. In examining these complicated relations between and within the various cultural communities, Plank is at his best and most helpful. He adds considerably to our understanding of the evolving relationships and the ways in which British policies became unworkable when faced with the harsh realities of the situation in what was quite possibly Britain's most unique North American colony. This is a more sophisticated, nuanced assessment of the interactions than we have had to date.

The book, of course, is not without its weaknesses, one of which is to be found on the title page itself. The study is subtitled "The British Campaign against the Peoples of Acadia," but in this at least the author fails to deliver what he promises. Rather than show Britain waging a campaign against the Mi'kmaq and Acadians of the colony, Plank shows the ways in which all groups used and at times misused, interacted with, fought against, the others. It is less the story of the British imperialists pursuing clear policies in the colony as it is the confusing picture of borderland peoples attempting accommodation or confrontation in the face of repeated and often ill-defined British and French imperialist intervention. It is too easy to see this as a British vs. everyone else process, and Plank sometimes falls into the trap of downplaying the actions of other players in the events of this tumultuous period. Of the torching of Beaubassin in 1750 he writes: "Then someone stoked a fire and the village burned." This hardly conveys accurately the actions behind the deliberate destruction of 140 Acadian houses by the Mi'kmaq. To then say that the Mi'kmaq "escorted" the homeless northward to French-held territory may also convey less than the actions warrant (p. 130).

Plank has provided us with an interesting, provocative, and on occasion controversial analysis of the interaction of the peoples of Acadie/Nova Scotia during the first half of the eighteenth century. In the process, he has added substantially to the debate about the nature of the colony during this period and the peoples who lived there and those who attempted to control...