Acadian Hard Times


Book Description

Published in conjunction with an exhibit of the same name that will be mounted in several Maine locations during 1991. Historian Doty (U. of Maine) located 100 individuals from 15 families photographed by FSA photographers John Collier and Jack Delano. He interviewed many of them and presents their memories here with 168 photos, including current photos of people and places featured in the FSA collection. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR




Hard Times


Book Description

It is not widely known that Tatamagouche played an important role in the past history of Nova Scotia. Much of the heritage of our ancestors is fading in our collective memories as time passes. Perhaps the reader of this narrative may be intrigued enough to delve further to learn about the historical significance of the area. How many people nowadays know that almost three hundred majestic wooden sailing ships were built along the Tatamagouche waterfront, or that this was the location of the Acadian village that was the first site chosen for the horrible expulsion of those early settlers from the province? How many know of the existence of Fort Franklin, or of the British vs French and Mi’kmaq naval battle that took place in Tatamagouche Bay? Growing up in Tatamagouche in the 1940s and 1950s the author himself paid scant attention to such matters. Now he wishes that he had.




A Great and Noble Scheme: The Tragic Story of the Expulsion of the French Acadians from Their American Homeland


Book Description

"Altogether superb: an accessible, fluent account that advances scholarship while building a worthy memorial to the victims of two and a half centuries past." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) 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-eighteenth 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.




Talking Acadian


Book Description

One of the most fascinating of the many subcultures of North America is that of the French-speaking Acadians. TALKING ACADIAN: Communication, Work and Culture, by John Chetro-Szivos looks into the lives of the French-speaking American Acadians, particularly those who left eastern Canada to settle in Massachusetts in the 1960s. This book captures their feelings about family life and their values, mores and morals. It traces the ways they use communication to develop and maintain their culture. What the reader learns is that to talk about Acadians you must talk about work. This group gives us new insights into the world of work - a central feature of living for the Acadians and crucial to their self-definition. There are few sources about this culture and their experiences in the United States. This book makes contributions to communication studies, more specifically the Coordinated Management Meaning by analyzing the situated interactions of this community, demonstrating the capacity of communication to transmit the rules and grammar of a culture, and highlighting Cronen's consequentiality of communication. John Chetro-Szivos is a communication scholar and chair of the Department of Communication at Fitchburg State College in Massachusetts. He received bachelor's and master's degrees from Assumption College, a master's from Anna Maria College, and his doctorate in communication from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He has published several works in the field of communication, specifically on the Coordinated Management of Meaning theory and American pragmatism.




Acadian Driftwood


Book Description

Winner, Evelyn Richardson Award for Non-Fiction and Democracy 250 Atlantic Book Award for Historical Writing Finalist, Dartmouth Book Award for Non-Fiction, and the Margaret and John Savage Award for Best First Book (Non-fiction) A Hill Times' 100 Best Books in 2020 Selection On Canada's History Bestseller List Growing up on the south shore of Nova Scotia, Tyler LeBlanc wasn't fully aware of his family's Acadian roots -- until a chance encounter with an Acadian historian prompted him to delve into his family history. LeBlanc's discovery that he could trace his family all the way to the time of the Acadian Expulsion and beyond forms the basis of this compelling account of Le Grand Dérangement. Piecing together his family history through archival documents, Tyler LeBlanc tells the story of Joseph LeBlanc (his great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather), Joseph's ten siblings, and their families. With descendants scattered across modern-day Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, the LeBlancs provide a window into the diverse fates that awaited the Acadians when they were expelled from their homeland. Some escaped the deportation and were able to retreat into the wilderness. Others found their way back to Acadie. But many were exiled to Britain, France, or the future United States, where they faced suspicion and prejudice and struggled to settle into new lives. A unique biographical approach to the history of the Expulsion, Acadian Driftwood is a vivid insight into one family's experience of this traumatic event.




Contexts of Acadian History, 1686-1784


Book Description

In 1600 there were no such people as the Acadians; by 1700 the Acadians, who numbered almost 2,000, lived in an area now covered by northern Maine, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and the southern Gaspé region of Quebec. While most of their ancestors had come to live there from France, a number had arrived from Scotland and England. Their relations with the original inhabitants of the region, the Micmac and Malecite peoples, were generally peaceful. In 1713 the Treaty of Utrecht recognized the Acadian community and gave their territory -- on the frontier between New England and New France -- to Great Britain. During the next forty years the Acadians continued to prosper and to develop their political life and distinctive culture. The deportation of 1755, however, exiled the majority of Acadians to other British colonies in North America. Some went on from their original destination to England, France, or Santo Domingo; many of those who arrived in France continued on to Louisiana; some Acadians eventually returned to Nova Scotia, but not to the lands they once held. The deportation, however, did not destroy the Acadian community. In spite of a horrific death toll, nine years of proscription, and the forfeiture of property and political rights, the Acadians continued to be part of Nova Scotia. The communal existence they were able to sustain, Griffiths shows, formed the basis for the recovery of Acadian society when, in 1764, they were again permitted to own land in the colony. Instead of destroying the Acadian community, the deportation proved to be a source of power for the formation of Acadian identity in the nineteenth century. By placing Acadian history in the context of North American and European realities, Griffiths removes it from the realms of folklore and partisan political interpretation. She brings into play the current historiographical concerns about the development of the trans-Atlantic world of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, considerably sharpening our focus on this period of North American history.




Hope in Hard Times


Book Description

Arthur Rothstein, Russell Lee, John Vachon, and Marion Post Wolcott became some of the United States' best-known photographers through their pictures of Depression-era America. Their assignment, as one of their associates described it, was to have "a long look at the whole vast, complicated rural U.S. landscape with all that was built on it and all those who built and wrecked and worked in it and bore kids and dragged them up and played games and paraded and picnicked and suffered and died and were buried in it." In Montana the four photographers traveled to forty of the state's fifty-six counties, creating a rich record of the many facets of the Depression and recovery: rural and urban, agricultural and industrial, work and play, hard times and the promise of a brighter future. The photographers captured the dignity of Montanans as they struggled to scratch out livings from dried-up fields, nurture families in the shadows of Butte head frames, and foster communities on the vast expanses of the northern plains. Hope in Hard Times, features over 140 Farm Security Administration photographs to illustrate the story of the Great Depression in Montana and the experiences of the photographers who documented it. Today these striking images, from cities like Butte to small towns like Terry, present an unforgettable portrait of a little-studied period in the history of Montana. Selected from the Farm Security Administration Collection at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., the photographs in Hope in Hard Times offer viewers an unparalleled look at life in Montana in the years preceding the United States' entry into World War II.




Fiddles and Spoons (pb)


Book Description

Cecile Souris and her mouse family live under the floorboards of a little Acadian house in Grand Pré, owned by the Dubois family. The house--above and below the floor--is full of good food, laughter, and wonderful music, made with fiddles and spoons. But one day soldiers arrive and take the Dubois family--and the Souris family with them--far away from Grand Pré. Join them on an unforgettable journey in this heartwarming tale of courage, love, and joy as the Acadians continue to celebrate life with fiddles and spoons! This beloved story is now available in a second edition with a new design, including some new illustrations.




Acadian Redemption


Book Description

Acadian Redemption, the first biography of an Acadian exile, defines the 18th century society of Acadia into which Joseph dit Beausoleil Broussard was born in 1702. The book explains his early life events and militant struggles with the British who had, for years, wanted to lay claim to the Acadians' rich lands. The book discusses the repercussions of Beausoleil's life that resulted in the evolution of the Acadian culture into what is now called the Cajun culture. More than 50 vintage photographs, maps, and documents are included.




The Meeting Place


Book Description

Since their reunion, Nicole and Anne have formed a bond that goes beyond "sisters" to best friends. Their paths separate again when Nicole's soul-searching consideration of her uncle Charles' desire for an heir brings her to his estate in England. When Anne brings her young son to England, the bittersweet reunion starts both young women on a new journey. Will their mutual love and support be enough to sustain them as the secret of the birthright is uncovered?