True Stories from Nova Scotia's Past
True Stories from Nova Scotia's Past

Author: Dianne Marshall

Publisher: Formac Publishing Company Limited

Published: 2012-09-12

Total Pages: 169

ISBN-13: 1459501349

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CBC Radio's Information Morning history columnist Dianne Marshall is well known for the lively and surprising true stories she tells about Nova Scotia's past. Now the best of them have been gathered together in this enjoyable book. The stories cover 250 years of Nova Scotia history, often featuring people who don't make it into conventional history books. These incredible accounts include: the plot to assassinate US President Abraham Lincoln using germ warfare, hatched by several prominent Halifax businessmen and a visiting American doctor; a posse of 1,000 armed men swarming the city after a burglary, firing so many shots that some First World War vets thought war had broken out at home; and the story of Halifax madam Julia Donovan, whose prison term for keeping a bawdy house was commuted to a $100 fine in return for her work to elect the city's next mayor. Other stories in the collection feature characters from rum-running days at Smuggler's Cove in Digby County, and ghost-busters in Antigonish County. Dianne Marshall has an eye for character, a firm knowledge of historical context and a focus on what makes a good story. She brings many ordinary Nova Scotians with extraordinary experiences back to life in this readable collection.

Blood in the Water
Blood in the Water

Author: Silver Donald Cameron

Publisher: Steerforth

Published: 2021-11-23

Total Pages: 265

ISBN-13: 1586422936

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“Fascinating! [A] must-read for all concerned about how humans manage to live together. Or not.” —Margaret Atwood “Superb... an instant true crime classic.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) A masterfully told true story, perfect for fans of Say Nothing and Furious Hours: a brutal murder in a small Nova Scotia fishing community raises urgent questions of right and wrong, and even the very nature of good and evil. In his riveting and meticulously reported final book, Silver Donald Cameron offers a stunning, intricate narrative about a notorious killing and its devastating repercussions. Cameron’s searing, utterly gripping story about one small community raises a disturbing question: Are there times when taking the law into your own hands is not only understandable but the responsible thing to do? In June 2013, three upstanding citizens of a small town on Cape Breton Island murdered their neighbor, Phillip Boudreau, at sea. While out checking their lobster traps, two Landry cousins and skipper Dwayne Samson saw Boudreau in his boat, the Midnight Slider, about to vandalize their lobster traps. Like so many times before, the small-time criminal was about to cost them thousands of dollars out of their seasonal livelihood. Boudreau seemed invincible, a miscreant who would plague the village forever. Meanwhile the police and local officials were frustrated, cowed, and hobbled by shrinking budgets. One of the men took out a rifle and fired four shots at Boudreau and his boat. Was the Boudreau killing cold blooded murder, a direct reaction to credible threats, or the tragic result of local officials failing to protect the community? As many local people have said, if those fellows hadn't killed him, someone else would have...

Acadian Driftwood
Acadian Driftwood

Author: Tyler LeBlanc

Publisher:

Published: 2020

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781773101187

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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.

Madness, Mayhem and Murder
Madness, Mayhem and Murder

Author: Dean Jobb

Publisher:

Published: 2021-07-12

Total Pages: 246

ISBN-13: 9781989725610

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Jack Randell, skipper of a Lunenburg-based rum-running schooner, sparked a diplomatic row in 1929 when he tried to outrun the United States Coast Guard. Henry More Smith was a nineteenth-century thief so brazen that he swiped law books from the office of a Halifax judge, then returned them to collect a reward. Samuel Herbert Dougal was a monster who preyed on women and likely murdered two of his wives while serving with the British Army in Halifax in the 1880s. And Irish-American terrorists hatched a fiendish plot to blow up a Royal Navy warship anchored in Halifax Harbour in 1883. Their target? Prince George of Wales, a midshipman on board who would one day ascend to the British throne as King George V. Madness, Mayhem and Murder, the sequel to 2020's bestselling Daring, Devious & Deadly, is a collection of sixteen more true tales of crime and justice. The stories are drawn from almost two centuries of Nova Scotia's history, from the province's first murder case in 1749 to its last execution in 1937. The cast includes pirates and privateers, terrorists, shadowy Confederate agents, and a motley crew of smugglers, thieves, killers, duel-fighting gentlemen and a few people who were in the wrong place at the wrong time. These are stranger-than-fiction tales of crime and punishment, tragedy and redemption, and guilt and innocence, with a lot to say about the past - and the unending quest for justice.

No Great Mischief
No Great Mischief

Author: Alistair MacLeod

Publisher: Emblem Editions

Published: 2012-01-11

Total Pages: 292

ISBN-13: 1551995476

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Alexander MacDonald guides us through his family’s mythic past as he recollects the heroic stories of his people: loggers, miners, drinkers, adventurers; men forever in exile, forever linked to their clan. There is the legendary patriarch who left the Scottish Highlands in 1779 and resettled in “the land of trees,” where his descendents became a separate Nova Scotia clan. There is the team of brothers and cousins, expert miners in demand around the world for their dangerous skills. And there is Alexander and his twin sister, who have left Cape Breton and prospered, yet are haunted by the past. Elegiac, hypnotic, by turns joyful and sad, No Great Mischief is a spellbinding story of family, loyalty, exile, and of the blood ties that bind us, generations later, to the land from which our ancestors came.

Africville
Africville

Author: Shauntay Grant

Publisher: Groundwood Books Ltd

Published: 2018-09-01

Total Pages: 19

ISBN-13: 1773060449

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Finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award, Young People’s Literature – Illustrated Books When a young girl visits the site of Africville, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, the stories she’s heard from her family come to mind. She imagines what the community was once like — the brightly painted houses nestled into the hillside, the field where boys played football, the pond where all the kids went rafting, the bountiful fishing, the huge bonfires. Coming out of her reverie, she visits the present-day park and the sundial where her great- grandmother’s name is carved in stone, and celebrates a summer day at the annual Africville Reunion/Festival. Africville was a vibrant Black community for more than 150 years. But even though its residents paid municipal taxes, they lived without running water, sewers, paved roads and police, fire-truck and ambulance services. Over time, the city located a slaughterhouse, a hospital for infectious disease, and even the city garbage dump nearby. In the 1960s, city officials decided to demolish the community, moving people out in city dump trucks and relocating them in public housing. Today, Africville has been replaced by a park, where former residents and their families gather each summer to remember their community.

Empire of Deception
Empire of Deception

Author: Dean Jobb

Publisher: Algonquin Books

Published: 2015-05-19

Total Pages: 352

ISBN-13: 1616204966

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“A rollicking tale that is one part The Sting, one part The Great Gatsby, and one part The Devil in the White City.” —Karen Abbott, author of Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy In a time of unregulated madness, nowhere was it madder than in Chicago at the dawn of the Roaring Twenties. It was the perfect place for a slick, smooth-talking, charismatic lawyer named Leo Koretz to entice hundreds of people to invest as much as $30 million--upwards of $400 million today--in phantom timberland and nonexistent oil wells in Panama. It was an ingenious deceit, one that out-Ponzied Charles Ponzi himself. In this rip-roaring tale of greed, financial corruption, dirty politics, over-the-top and under-the-radar deceit, illicit sex, and a brilliant and wildly charming con man on the town and then on the lam, Empire of Deception proves that the American dream of easy wealth is truly a timeless commodity. “Captivating . . . Dean Jobb tells the story of Leo Koretz, a legendary con artist of Madoffian audacity, with terrific energy and narrative brio.” —Gary Krist, author of Empire of Sin “A brilliantly researched tale of greed, ambition, and our desperate need to believe in magic, it’s history that captures America as it really was--and always will be. A great read.” —Douglas Perry, author of Eliot Ness “Reads like a Gatsby-Ponzi mashup . . . Kudos to Jobb for unearthing this overlooked story and bringing to life a charming, witty, naughty, iconic American crook.” —Neal Thompson, author of A Curious Man “The granddaddy of all con men, Leo Koretz gives Jobb the opportunity to exhibit his impressive research and storytelling skills . . . A highly readable, entertaining story.” —Kirkus Reviews

Secret Treasure of Oak Island
Secret Treasure of Oak Island

Author: D'Arcy O'Connor

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2018-08-24

Total Pages: 313

ISBN-13: 1493039164

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It started on a summer afternoon in 1795 when a young man named Daniel McGinnis found what appeared to be an old site on an island off the Acadian coast, a coastline fabled for the skullduggery of pirates. The notorious Captain Kidd was rumored to have left part of his treasure somewhere along here, and as McGinnis and two friends started to dig, they found what turned out to be an elaborately engineered shaft constructed of oak logs, nonindigenous coconut mats, and landfill that came to be known as the Money Pit. Ever since that summer day in 1795, the possibility of what might be hidden in the depths of a small island off the south coast of Nova Scotia, Canada, has made it the site of the world's longest, most expensive, and most perplexing treasure hunt. Author D'Arcy O'Connor recounts the fascinating stories and amazing discoveries of past and current treasure seekers who have sought Oak Island's fabled treasure for over two hundred years. It has baffled scientists and madmen, scholars and idiots, millionaires and get-rich-quick schemers, psychics, engineers, charlatans, and even a former president of the United States. The island has consumed the fortunes-and in some cases, the lives-of those who have obsessively set out to unlock its secret. Despite all their efforts, the mystery remains unsolved, and not a single dime of treasure has ever been recovered. The present-day search is an archaeological dig exceeding anything ever done anywhere for similar purposes, and it may well result in the discovery of one of the world's richest and most historically significant treasures. But this is also the story of individuals who have dedicated years of their lives to discover what was buried long ago beneath this strange island. They are driven by a lust for gold, by archaeological curiosity, and by their determination to outwit the engineer who was responsible for the Oak Island enigma.

Nova Scotia Shaped by the Sea: A Living History
Nova Scotia Shaped by the Sea: A Living History

Author:

Publisher:

Published: 2017

Total Pages:

ISBN-13:

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The history of Nova Scotia is an amazing story of a land and people shaped by the waves, the tides, the wind and the wonder of the North Atlantic. Lesley Choyce weaves the legacy of this unique coastal province, piecing together the stories written in the rocks, the wrecks and the record books of human glory and error. In this true-life adventure, he provides a down-to-earth journey through the natural and man-made history that is both refreshing and revealing. The story begins after the retreat of the glaciers when the first people arrived, and over thousands of years evolved the highly civilized Mi’kmaq culture. The arrival of the Europeans disrupted their life, unleashing tumultuous conflicts that would last centuries. Then came the power struggle between France and England, which was fought at sea as well as on land. As England emerged the victor, the Acadians were driven from the land they loved. Once the wars subsided, the pirates and privateers still plundered the seas, but the honest sailors and shipbuilders of Nova Scotia led the province into a flourishing world trade. During the First World War, Nova Scotia was again thrust into military action, resulting in one of the most devastating explosions ever to rip through a city. Decades later, Halifax was torn apart again, this time by military riots. Here in the new century, it is clear that the way of life along this coast is changing. But while the wealth of the sea has been plundered by human greed, the dreams of life in harmony with the fierce yet beautiful North Atlantic live on, even as the coastline continues to be carved away by the restless surge of the waves.

The Cajuns
The Cajuns

Author: Dean W. Jobb

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2010-01-14

Total Pages: 311

ISBN-13: 0470739614

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One of the darkest events in Canadian history is replete with the drama of war, politics and untold human suffering. Starting in 1755, 10,000 people of French ancestry were expelled from their homes along Canada's east coast by a tyrannical British governor with the complicity of American sympathizers. While some Acadians returned home to try to evade capture and forge a living, others made their way to the Spanish colony of Louisiana, where they farmed and fished and began the vibrant "Cajun" culture that is renowned around the world. Award-winning author Dean Jobb has written a dramatic and compelling account of "Le grand derangement" -- the event that was immortalized in Longfellow's famous poem "Evangeline." Jobb brings a cast of characters to life so vividly that the reader is immediately captured by their stories. The richness of detail is remarkable. The quality of writing is cinematic. The year 2005 marks the 250th anniversary of the expulsion. This book is a bridge across the centuries for the descendants of a founding people of this nation, whose courage and resourcefulness still resonate in modern-day Acadie.