The Acadian Diaspora tells the extraordinary story of thousands of Acadians expelled from Nova Scotia and scattered throughout the Atlantic world beginning in 1755. Following them to the Caribbean, the South Atlantic, and western Europe, historian Christopher Hodson illuminates a long-forgotten world of imperial experimentation and human brutality.

The Acadians had a long and arduous journey from their paradise in Nova Scotia (Nouvelle-Écosse) with their expulsion and diaspora by the British. Tossed to the winds like seeds of grass they finally took root settling and finding peace and prosperity in the rich alluvial lands of South Louisiana. Étienne Guédry, who was content in Cobiquid, Nova Scotia, but who was subjected to threat, flight with his wife and two small children to Île Saint-Jean, in 1758 was captured by the British when the last remaining French stronghold at Fortresse de Louisbourg fell. Exiled with them to St. Malo, France were his friends from Cobiquid, Jean-Baptiste Hébert, Pierre Saulnier and family, and Gabriel Melanson with his wife Ysabelle and his teenage sister, Anne. Étienne mourned the deaths of his wife and children in France. He eventually remarried and his final voyage to la Louisiane (Louisiana) with his second family was by the benevolence of Spain after twenty-seven years of living in abject poverty. In Louisiana his line flourished and prospered. They reclaimed paradise in Nouvelle Acadie. (New Acadia) Like many others he settled his family on Bayou Lafourche, receiving the customary land grant from Spain of about one acre wide and in depth to the marshlands. He was given provisions: seeds, tools, a few livestock, and all needed to begin this new life. He was successful in his"strip farm" and in succeeding generations his descendants became prosperous as their holdings grew with the planting of sugar cane, rice, cattle ranching, and in the twentieth century, the oil industry. They were now called Cadiens. (Cajuns) This is a story of how the people known as Cajuns became a living monument to human fortitude and the will for survival. From their ancestors through the centuries echoes the cry, "N´oubliez pas!"....We don´t forget! -A.K. Keller

An evocative and beautifully written history of some of Canada’s earliest settlers, and their search for a definitive home. In 1604, a small group of migrants fled political turmoil and famine in France to start a new colony on Canada’s east coast. Their roughly demarcated territory included what are now Canada’s Maritime provinces, land that was fought over by the British and French empires until the Acadians were finally expelled in 1755. Their diaspora persists to this day. The Acadians is the definitive history of a little-known part of the North American past, and the quintessential story of a people in search of their identity. In the absence of a state, what defines an Acadian is elusive and while today’s Acadian community centred in New Brunswick is more confident than ever, it is entering a contentious debate about its future. James Laxer’s compelling book brilliantly explores one of Canada’s oldest and most distinct cultural groups, and shows how their complex, often tragic history reflects the larger problems facing Canada and the world today.

In 1600 there were no such people as the Acadians; by 1700 the Acadians, who numbered almost 2,000, lived in an area now covered by northern Maine, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and the southern Gaspé region of Quebec. While most of their ancestors had come to live there from France, a number had arrived from Scotland and England. Their relations with the original inhabitants of the region, the Micmac and Malecite peoples, were generally peaceful. In 1713 the Treaty of Utrecht recognized the Acadian community and gave their territory -- on the frontier between New England and New France -- to Great Britain. During the next forty years the Acadians continued to prosper and to develop their political life and distinctive culture. The deportation of 1755, however, exiled the majority of Acadians to other British colonies in North America. Some went on from their original destination to England, France, or Santo Domingo; many of those who arrived in France continued on to Louisiana; some Acadians eventually returned to Nova Scotia, but not to the lands they once held. The deportation, however, did not destroy the Acadian community. In spite of a horrific death toll, nine years of proscription, and the forfeiture of property and political rights, the Acadians continued to be part of Nova Scotia. The communal existence they were able to sustain, Griffiths shows, formed the basis for the recovery of Acadian society when, in 1764, they were again permitted to own land in the colony. Instead of destroying the Acadian community, the deportation proved to be a source of power for the formation of Acadian identity in the nineteenth century. By placing Acadian history in the context of North American and European realities, Griffiths removes it from the realms of folklore and partisan political interpretation. She brings into play the current historiographical concerns about the development of the trans-Atlantic world of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, considerably sharpening our focus on this period of North American history.

DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "Acadian Reminiscences" (The True Story of Evangeline) by Felix Voorhies. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.

THE TRUE STORY OF THE ACADIANS, 90th ANNIVERSARY EDITION by award-winning author M. M. Le Blanc, revising and enhancing the original 1927 book by her grandfather, renowned Acadian historian Louisiana Senator Dudley J. Le Blanc, the first non-fiction book about the Acadian Deportation by a direct descendent of Acadian survivors in both maternal and paternal lines. Original cover art from 1927 edition, complete Bibliography, charts and tables of deported Acadians, ship passenger lists, 6 Appendices including historical details of how Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote the poem "Evangeline," updated sources, new Endnotes, and more! 272 pages. Softcover. Published by BizEntine Press.