Images of Acadia
Adrian Mourby reflects on the legacy of Nova Scotia's French Acadians.
In Nova Scotia there stands a statue to a woman who never existed. Nevertheless many pilgrims pause in front of her. Some even shed a tear. Evangeline Bellafontaine was the creation of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. When his epic poem about her love for Gabriel Lajeunesse was published 150 years ago it became an immediate best seller.
The statue of Evangeline is to be found today in Grand Pré near Wolfville in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. Here it was on September 5th, 1755, that the British military called together a group of French-speaking settlers. In the eyes of Lieutenant-Governor Lawrence these people were French but they themselves preferred to be called 'Acadians'. By 1755 they had been living in Nova Scotia for well over a century and they wished to remain neutral in the ongoing colonial struggle between Britain and France.
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