John Winslow was one of the most significant American military leaders of the generations before George Washington. Winslow’s career carried him to the corners of the Atlantic world, soldiers flocked to his banner, and his exploits were celebrated in song. But instead of creating a country, he destroyed one. Following the successful siege of the French Fort Beauséjour at Chignecto in 1755, Nova Scotia Governor Charles Lawrence ordered Winslow to deport Acadian families from their settlements in the middle of the province. Winslow found these instructions both surprising and disturbing, but he followed them, recording his actions in his journal.

The 1755 deportations of the Acadians forever altered the social and political landscape of Atlantic Canada and contributed to the unique character of the Acadian and Cajun communities that developed in their aftermath. In John Winslow at Grand-Pré Jonathan Fowler and Earle Lockerby have faithfully transcribed and extensively annotated Winslow’s eye-witness account of this seminal event of 18th-century North American history. Supported by maps, illustrations, and extensive contextualizing essays and appendices, this new presentation of Winslow’s 1755 journal provides an invaluable window on those troubled times.