Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie

Although Evangeline is a fictional character, the story of the expulsion of the Acadians from Nova Scotia is based on a real event. The Acadians were originally from France. They began to settle in Acadie in the early 17th century. By the early 18th century, France had five colonies in North America, including Acadie. It was, however, the tragedy of the Acadians that they got drawn into the conflict between the two major colonial powers of the day.

During the War of the Spanish Succession, in which Britain and France were on opposite sides, the British captured Port Royal, which was then the Acadian capital, in 1710. After the war, Acadie was ceded to Britain under the Treaty of Utrecht (1713-14). The British sought to solidify control of the region by demanding that the Acadians swear allegiance to the British crown, but many Acadians refused. They also refused to fight against the French or any of the Indigenous tribes allied with the French.

By 1750, there were around 10,000 Acadians in Nova Scotia, according to one estimate. Friction between Britain and France continued to grow, and the French and Indian War began in 1754. This war pitted the British North American colonies against the French colonies. Each side allied itself to various Indigenous tribes. The British learned that some Acadians had taken part in military operations against them and were helping to keep supply lines open to the French-held Fortress Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. Once more the British government demanded that Acadians take an oath of allegiance to Britain, but the Acadians refused. This precipitated the event that is the subject of Evangeline: the deportation of the Acadians. The British decision was made in late July 1755, and deportations began at Fort Beauséjour in August and in Grand-Pré and other locations a month later. On September 5, the British commander, Colonel John Winslow, ordered the men of Grand-Pré to gather in the local church in the afternoon (just as Longfellow has it in the poem). The men were told that all their possessions, including homes, land, and livestock, would be confiscated, and they would be removed from the area.

Estimates of how many Acadians were expelled range from around 6,000 to 18,000, and their homes were burned down (as is described toward the end of Part 1, Canto V in the poem). They were sent to the 13 British American colonies as far south as Georgia. The deportations continued until 1764. Some Acadians were sent to France. Over the entire period, many thousands of Acadians died of hunger or disease or in shipwrecks at sea. In 1764, the British government allowed a small number to return to their original lands, although much of that land had since been occupied by British settlers. (In the Epilogue to Evangeline, Longfellow refers to this. Looking back from his 19th-century vantage point, he writes that now in Acadie “[l]inger a few Acadian peasants, whose fathers from exile / Wandered back to their native land to die in its bosom” [Lines 13-14]).

Many of the Acadians who went to France came back to North America, settling in Louisiana, which at the time was still under Spanish control. In May 1765, 650 Acadians arrived in New Orleans, and they ended up settling on both sides of the Mississippi. Their descendants became known as Cajuns. (Much of Evangeline is set in Louisiana, but Longfellow makes no mention of the Acadians as having arrived there via France.)