Richard F. Mullins

Evangeline the Novel Richard F. Mullins

The Acadian Tragedy is arguably Canada's greatest piece of history. In 1755, Charles Lawrence, the acting British governor of Nova Scotia, ordered the arrest and deportation of over 7,000 French residents of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island. The deportation was a secretive, poorly planned and, in the end, botched and hastily executed affair. As a result, many French family members and lifelong friends were separated as they were indiscriminately shipped to the various American colonies all along the Atlantic Seaboard. For Charles Lawrence and the British, it was a triumph. For the French residents, it was a ruthless act of ethnic cleansing. For historians, the cruel expulsion ranks alongside the Chinese Opium War as one of the most unscrupulous events in British imperial history. Today, 260 years later, the grievous wound still festers among the three million descendants of those French exiles. The story isn't over. It goes on and on and on. Here, for the first time, is the complete story, a compelling fusion of the real history and the legendary love story. This is an unforgettable tale of intrigue, survival and the enduring power of first love.