An Unsettled Conquest: The British Campaign Against the Peoples of Acadia (Early American Studies)

Rating:
Summary: A well-researched account of another ethnic cleansing
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: A well-researched account of another ethnic cleansing
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: British Genocide attempts revealed
Review: The blood of the citizens of the Native American civilizations that occupied Eastern North America was spilled with much enthusiasm by the British during the 17th and 18th centuries. In fact their extermination campaign was so effective that the survivors were reduced to the depths of poverty. With the passage of time many were brought to the doorstep of oblivion and several passed the threshold.

Geoffrey Plank's "An Unsettled conquest" is one of the first efforts by an Anglo to document some of the atrocities the English committed. Until now their genocidal efforts in the Americas, in contrast to the documentation of Spanish efforts, were largely, perhaps in shame or in horror, ignored by Anglo writers. As a result not many in the modern world are aware that scalp proclamations were issued by them for men, women and children, and that they used germ warfare and other terror tactics against Native Americans that would make modern day terrorists proud.

It's long past the time for the unvarnished true history of North America to be written. Plank has taken a first step, perhaps others will now have the courage to finish the job. Then this fact will finally be accepted: Native North American civilizations were the ultimate in democratic social development. Modern society will probably never outdo them!