Kennedy, Gregory M. W.

English

Histoire sociale / Social History (E-Journal, York University)

570 Histoire sociale / Social HistoryHistoire sociale – Social History, vol. XXXIX, no 78 (novembre-November 2006)REID, John G., Maurice BASQUE, Elizabeth MANCKE, Barry MOODY, GeoffreyPLANK, and William WICKEN — The Conquest of Acadia, 1710: Imperial, Colo-nial, and Aboriginal Constructions. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2004.Pp. 297.Canadian historiography is haunted by the Conquest of French North America in1760, not just because of its obvious prominence as a landmark event, but because ithas left our academic community riven. There is no consensus, indeed little commonground, among various interpretations of the event’s meaning and significance. Thisis a long overdue and welcome book that gives centre stage to the other conquestevent of French North America, that of Acadia in 1710. As the authors state in theirintroduction, this is no mere collection of essays, but rather a “coordinated effort toportray a multilayered reality”, with the ultimate goal of “assessing the conquest asan event and as an episode both in conjunctural time and in the longue durée” (pp. xi,xix). The authors embrace from the start the notion that this event meant differentthings to different people and that those meanings could change. The book creates asolid centre through an apt survey of existing historiography and a thorough narrativeof the event, and then builds on this with a series of analytical approaches that eachilluminate one of these meanings.Elizabeth Mancke and John G. Reid in “Elites, States, and the Imperial Contest forAcadia” discuss the “pivotal transition from delegated governance of colonies todirect metropolitan governance” in the second half of the seventeenth century that ledto the embroilment of Acadia into grand schemes and strategies (p. 27). The emer-gent Acadian rural elite did not always work well with the military officers sent byboth England and France to secure their possession, as Maurice Basque relays in“Family and Political Culture in Pre-Conquest Acadia”. He notes as important thateach Acadian settlement experienced the conquest differently and that, while thosewho had married into the official caste had a stake in France’s continuing rule, thegreat majority had “witnessed the French laying down their arms” before (p. 48). Forthem, the Conquest was neither a definitive, nor necessarily a negative, event.Geoffrey Plank’s “New England and the Conquest” emphasizes that retributionrather than expansion was the central motivation for most New Englanders. Ven-geance was “a matter of official policy” endorsed by both commanders and pastors(p. 70). Once that had been exacted, most New Englanders “preferred to stay iso-lated, protected from exposure to Acadians or native peoples, at home” (p. 85), andthose who did have an interest in developing the colony, such as fishermen, had anarrow focus on Canso and actually hindered efforts to govern and settle the land.William Wicken’s article reminds us that most of the region remained Mi’kma’kiand that the fall of the fort at Port Royal was simply not a “significant event” forAboriginals like Antoine Tecouenemac, who lived at Cap Sable and continued to fol-low his seasonal pattern of life (p. 86). Wicken notes that, even if the Mi’kmaq hadbeen interested in aiding Subercase, they were much too busy during the time of thesiege stocking up eels for the coming winter. Historians often discuss the difficulty ofmanaging militias at harvest time; to note the Mi’kmaq’s patterns and restrictionsstrikes me as a critical levelling perspective. Wicken crucially distinguishes the con-page511.fm Page 570 Thursday, April 5, 2007 12:06 PMHistoire sociale – Social History, vol. XXXIX, no 78 (novembre-November 2006)Comptes rendus / Book Reviews 571flict of 1722–1725 as a war fought on Mi’kmaq terms by Mi’kmaq, and that only the1726 peace treaty represented an acceptance of the “altered world” Utrecht had cre-ated (p. 99).John G. Reid’s “Imperialism, Diplomacies, and the Conquest of Acadia” focuseson the Utrecht negotiations, starting with the standard discussions of fisheries and searoutes. He provocatively argues that empire in this period was characterized by theillusion of stability, not just in Acadia but also in Quebec and New York — an illu-sion that covered the continuing negotiation between colonists and “the inherentlyunsystematic institutions of the early modern state” that truly constituted authority(p. 110). Echoing Wicken, he points out that Aboriginal scepticism about Europeansgiving away their land would leave much in doubt on the ground no matter how tidythe settlement.Barry Moody’s “Making a British North America” is arguably the most originalchapter in the book, looking closely at the precarious construction of a British urbanspace sharply divided from an enduring French rural territory. He examines theimpact of Anglican and Masonic influences and the interest that Massachusetts hadin preventing the development of a strong British colony to its north. Most impor-tantly, while acknowledging the “bewildering array of agencies and levels of govern-ment” and that this was a time of “British instability”, he directly assaults theconventional focus on British inability to extract allegiance from the Acadians. Heargues that “the real failure was the inability to acquire a population that would havestrengthened the British position”, which could have been done “if there had been thewill to do so” (p. 145).Maurice Basque’s next article returns to consider the perspective of the Acadianheads of families. He argues that, even at Annapolis Royal, accommodation with theBritish was far from complete, noting that only 36 of about 120 heads of familiessigned the limited oath to Caulfield in 1714, and he suggests there was a significant“uprising” of Acadians in support of St. Castin’s siege in 1711. Overall he highlightsthe essential pragmatism of these Acadians, who in a small world utilized “accom-modation, neutrality, and/or open support for French or British Crowns as a means topromote and protect their own interests” (p. 159). What these interests were and howthe imperial state might have accommodated them is an avenue that could be furtherdeveloped.Finally, Elizabeth Mancke’s “Imperial Transitions” describes how the Acadiandeclining of the oath of allegiance at a number of levels hindered the development ofthe colony. She emphasizes that the pursuit of colonies depended on acknowledge-ment by the colonists that they were subject to a particular monarch — not just sym-bolically but in paying taxes, staffing civilian governments, and perhaps defendingthe colony (p. 181). That the Acadians at no time as a group did any of these thingssuggests that neither the French nor the British was ever able to force this acknowl-edgement, which raises the question of whether Acadia was ever really anyone’s col-ony at all.This book leads to a number of provocative speculations on the nature of the colo-nizer-colonized relationship, indeed questioning whether there is such a thing as a“colonial era” (p. 208). I believe this could further be developed by the authors. Inpage511.fm Page 571 Thursday, April 5, 2007 12:06 PM572 Histoire sociale / Social HistoryHistoire sociale – Social History, vol. XXXIX, no 78 (novembre-November 2006)achieving their stated purpose they have started to open a veritable Pandora’s Box;they need to tell us “so what?” or to close the box again. Reconnecting this detailedanalysis of the fall of a French fort in 1710 with the overall historiography of FrenchNorth America could add a layer of significance that would deliver a shattering blowto conventional interpretations. One can hope that an approach like this to 1760might be on the horizon.Gregory M. W. KennedyYork UniversitySCHAMA, Simon — Rough Crossings: Britain, the Slaves and the American Revolu-tion. London: BBC Books, 2005. Pp. 437.“[H]owever awkward it is for orthodox history of the Founding Fathers and their rev-olution, the genesis of African-American liberty is, then, inseparable from the Britishconnection” (p. 18), so Simon Schama tells us. If one wants to see the first authenti-cally free African American society, he explains, we must look to Britain, not Amer-ica. With his characteristically bold flourishes, Schama exposes what numerousAmerican historians have long known: that the British emancipated thousands ofrunaway slaves who sought their protection during the Revolution and that manywere given land grants and the rights of British subjects in the British colony of NovaScotia. In the new republic of America, by contrast, slave society was furtherentrenched by the Founding Fathers.Rough Crossings is a big book that intertwines the history of the Black Loyalistswith that of the triumph and failures of the British abolition movement. It is writtenin the vivid prose we have come to expect from Britain’s most popular historian andcontains some wonderful moments. What disappoints is that Schama has chosen totell the story of “the slaves” of his title largely through the actions of two white pro-tagonists, Granville Sharp and John Clarkson, both of whom left richly detailed let-ters and journals for him to quote extensively. Yet, if the story of these runawayslaves is so significant, surely they, not Sharp or Clarkson, should be at the centre ofthe story, as agents in their own drama.Schama has given us a splendid account of the long neglected Granville Sharp, aman desperately in need of a good biographer, and his account of the complex deci-sion of Lord Mansfield in the Somerset case is the most cogent I have read. Equallycompelling is his portrait of John Clarkson, brother of Thomas, the man employed bythe Sierra Leone Company to coordinate the transport of 1,200 black settlers fromNova Scotia to Sierra Leone. The passionate, resourceful, highly-strung Clarkson isthe heart of the book, described on the book jacket as “the Moses of this, one of thegreat exoduses in British history”. Schama has great material in John Clarkson, wholeft an incredibly detailed daily journal, recording his weeping fits and hysteria, aswell as his less histrionic actions as the exodus coordinator and early governor ofSierra Leone.Listen to Schama’s description of Clarkson addressing a large congregation ofpage511.fm Page 572 Thursday, April 5, 2007 12:06 PM

Reid, John G., Maurice Basque, Elizabeth Mancke, Barry Moody, Geoffrey Plank, and William Wicken — The Conquest of Acadia, 1710: Imperial, Colonial, and Aboriginal Constructions

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Reid, John G., Maurice Basque, Elizabeth Mancke, Barry Moody, Geoffrey Plank, and William Wicken — The Conquest of Acadia, 1710: Imperial, Colonial, and Aboriginal Constructions

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Histoire sociale / Social History (E-Journal, York University)