Evangeline and the Acadians

For ages 8-12, the tale of the Acadians and their exile from Nova Scotia plays against the backdrop of Evangeline, one of literature's most beloved poems by Longfellow. In this factual account, Tallant tells the true story of what happened to the Acadians when they were driven by the English from their beloved home in 1755. This history of the Acadians plight takes them from Nova Scotia to New Orleans and Southwest Louisiana where they settled.

Children's Literature

From the first days that the French settlers landed in the Canadian area now called Nova Scotia in the early 1600s, they knew hardship and struggle. Largely fishermen and farmers, they tried to live in peace under British rule, but tensions continued to grow as England and France periodically went to war over the next century. In 1755, after a final peace was declared to end the Seven Years War (The French and Indian War), the English forced the Acadians off their land and burned their farms and crops. About 5,000 to 7,000 Acadians, with only what little they could carry, were herded onto ships, sometimes separated from their families, and dispersed. Gradually, some of the Acadians found their way to the French colony that is now the state of Louisiana where they settled in the bayou country and lived by farming, fishing, and trapping. Originally published in 1957, the book has an old-fashioned flavor. Nevertheless, Robert Tallant, who has written extensively about Louisiana's history, writes a sympathetic, factual account of the history and culture of the people we now know as Cajuns and whose story Longfellow memorialized in his epic poem Evangeline. 2000 (orig. 1957), Pelican. Ages 10 to 12. Reviewer: Valerie O. Patterson

Robert Tallant is also the author of The Pirate Lafitte and the Battle of New Orleans, Gumbo Ya-Ya, Voodoo in New Orleans, Voodoo Queen, Mardi Gras As it Was, also published by Pelican.