A Great and Noble Scheme

The Tragic Story of the Expulsion of the French Acadians from Their American Homeland

By: John Mack Faragher

Narrated by: Paul Heitsch

In 1755, New England troops embarked on a "great and noble scheme" to expel 18,000 French-speaking Acadians ("the neutral French") from Nova Scotia, killing thousands, separating innumerable families, and driving many into forests where they waged a desperate guerrilla resistance. The right of neutrality - to live in peace from the imperial wars waged between France and England - had been one of the founding values of Acadia. Its settlers traded and intermarried freely with native Mikmaq Indians and English Protestants alike.

But the Acadians' refusal to swear unconditional allegiance to the British Crown in the mid-18th century gave New Englanders, who had long coveted Nova Scotia's fertile farmland, pretense enough to launch a campaign of ethnic cleansing on a massive scale.

John Mack Faragher draws on original research to weave 150 years of history into a gripping narrative of both the civilization of Acadia and the British plot to destroy it.

©2005 John Mack Faragher (P)2019 Tantor

Great story, problematic narration

This is a fascinating book but I have to agree with a previous review that the awkward pronunciation of the abundant French names was painful to the ears. Otherwise the narration was decent, but surely in all of bilingual Canada there is a reader who can pronounce both languages.

Acadia, noy canada

Let me air a couple of complaints. With no maps (Audible needs PDFs for maps), I found it a challenge to follow in the footsteps of the action. Looking online was not a big help as Faragher points out in the book that 9 out of 10 French place names have been changed to English. I don't speak french, so the French names and places were unintelligible from time to time, so I could not find them on Wikipedia or other sources as I could not spell them. As a result, I did not Audible a good way to comprehend the author's statements.
Like many Americans, my knowledge of Canada is limited although I am somewhat familiar with when the Dominion of Canada started and then added provinces. I am familiar with French & Indian War history, but Acadia is hardly mentioned in the books that I have read. It was eye-opening to me to see that the Acadians barely regarded themselves as French which created problems with the French and English. The fact that the Acadians were more interested in their (extended) families than their 'home' country 3000 miles away (France) is refreshingly non-national. Unfortunately the officials that they dealt with were highly nationalistic (my country is good, your country is bad), and this led to a series of travails. The neutral Acadians got caught between opposing forces and the results were an embarrassment to the human race.

A family history

Wonderful recorded history - such detail and I even heard a family name mentioned through out - I doubt most are even are aware of the history

A slice of unjustly ignored history!

Quite possibly the single best book ever written on this subject! John Mack Faragher’s highly detailed and comprehensive study on the outrageous and shameful expulsion of the French Acadians in the 18th century at the callous hands of the British and Yankee colonists ought to be included in the curriculum of every high school in both Canada and the U.S. But of course it is not, alas. It is not too much of an exaggeration to claim that this book changed my life when I first read it 10 years ago. Because of it, I rediscovered my love of writing historical fiction! Thank you Mr. Faragher!

How to right am unrightable wrong and …. the way forward now.

Funnily the Evangelina story and it’s presence in American Literature. I remember studying the poem and the work of Hawthorne and Longfellow but not as a commentary on an unknown phase of our history or the deep importance of the work.
Listening to this pulls together my life in Ontario, the Gaspé, and the US into a fuller picture.
Ethnic cleansing was not a new term but it certainly gained far greater significance at a personal level.
One can’t move into Acadian strongholds without becoming somewhat confused by both the stories and the facts you thought you knew.
It’s disconcerting to now recognize how much these events continue to negatively affect our countries today.
The section on collective guilt was strong and really tough to assimilate. This permeates all of our history and wars. When is guilt exonerated? This was also well presented in this book. He asks many of the same questions each of us has asked and yet never found acceptable answers.
How does one say I’m sorry if our life style doesn’t appreciatively change in response?

Informative and Engaging

Very interesting account of history. Good narration also. I have listened to this book twice now, and will again as there is a lot of detail.

Absolutely fascinating

As an Californian, I can’t say that I have ever dreamed of reading the history of early Nova Scotia. But I was absolutely astonished to see the connections between the story of the Acadians and the development of American history. This book is thorough, engaging, and gives tremendous insight into the events in eastern North America, as well as places like “Cajun” Louisiana, in the mid-18th century - the exact time when revolutionary fervor was beginning to form in the United States. The Acadians’ refusal to take up arms in often spurious British wars eventually led to their cruel removal. But how relevant that is to a similar sentiment among the American colonials! Neutrality may be a noble end, but it often comes with a heavy price. The only small criticism I might make is the author’s implication that average New Englanders wanted the removal. It is important to remember that in 1755 they were not Americans yet, and had absolutely no say in this operation, which originated in London.

Must Read For Acadians

I’ve heard this story in parts before, but it was good to hear it in full. Hard to comprehend what my ancestors had to endure. I know why family is so important to us now.

The fate of my ancestors.

This book is a thorough account of the actions that led up to the expulsion of my Acadian ancestors from L'Acadie, NS. It is an example of intertwined descendancies that I am descended from those who were expelled and those who replaced them. All this from one set of my grandparents.

Weak narration

The content may have been interesting, but the narrator's voice was so thin and the copious amounts of French were so painfully rendered that it was not pleasant to listen to.