In Ireland, heroic victories against the 1649-1653 Cromwell-led British invasion occurred, but -- as happened in Acadia -- the powerful British Fleet and Cromwell's merciless Army eventually overwhelmed Ireland. That, in 1654, the year after he ravaged Ireland, Oliver Cromwell ordered a successful attack on the French in Acadia was distressing but not surprising.

About 100 turbulent years later, in 1755, British Army Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Lawrence, Lt Governor of Acadia (now called Nova Scotia), set in motion the cruel expulsion of at least 7,000 Acadians from their homeland. British sympathizing historians continue to emphasize that the refusal of the Acadians to sign an unconditional oath of allegiance to the British Crown justified Lawrence's actions. This kind of land-grabbing British justification was familiar to the University Archivist.

It should be remembered, she thought, as she read accounts of the role of New England in Le Grand Derangement or Deportation des Acadians, that the New England colonies were still under British rule. In charge of the Massachusetts Bay Colony was William Shirley, an English-born British military officer. In command of onsite destruction of Acadia was Massachusetts resident John Winslow, a Major-General in the British Army. Twenty years later, the American Revolution would deal with this situation.