Evangeline and the Acadians

"Acadia was not quite as it is described by Longfellow in Evangeline, but it was a beautiful land." Now younger readers can meet the happy and hardworking Acadians who at first tried to tolerate suffering under British rule in order to stay in this land that offered them hope. As time passed, more battles broke out between the French and the English. Eventually even the Acadian priests were accused of being violent spies unloyal to the British. Bitterness crossed into both camps. The people who called this land "Acadia" and those that referred to it as "Nova Scotia" slowly stopped intermingling. Acadian parents would punish any child caught speaking English, and these unyielding people kept dreaming of a new home that offered hope, the hope this land once promised. Robert Tallant writes with a historically accurate and sympathetic voice. He speaks about the tragic expulsion of the Acadians and focuses on the circumstances that led up to the Acadians' forced exodus to many French-speaking places, including a haven some Acadians or Cajuns found called Louisiana.