GRAND PRE, NOVA SCOTIA

                                            A True Historic Place
                                               

            At the Grand Pre National Historic Site we were joined by a young docent dressed in period costume. He told us, “In 1680 Pierre Melanson, his wife and five children escaped from Port Royal because it was always under French-English conflict and settled in Grand Pre, French meaning great meadow. He and others who joined him built a dyke system to hold back the tides in Minas Basin creating rich pastureland for grazing and fertile fields for crops.” He demonstrated how the dykes worked with a small model.

            Grand Pre soon outgrew Port Royal, and by the mid 18^th century was the largest Acadian community around the Bay of Fundy and the coastline of Nova Scotia. The Minas area became the breadbasket of the colony and the Acadians prospered. Today a lot of apples as well as corn are grown in the Annapolis valley.

            In 1713 part of Acadia became Nova Scotia with Port Royal (now Annapolis Royal) its capital. The Acadians chose to remain and live under British rule. An oath of allegiance to the British crown was a point of contention for the next forty years. Many did sign the oath in 1730 when promised that they would not have to bare arms against the French.

            But in 1744 when England and France were again at war everything changed. Attacks and counterattacks occurred. Halifax became the capital of the colony in 1749.  The majority of the people living in the British colony were Acadians, their numbers were growing, and they lived on the most fertile farmland.

In 1755 the boats and guns of the Acadians living in the Minas area were confiscated. The governor decided to expel the Acadians from Nova Scotia and disperse them in British colonies south from Massachusetts to Georgia. The men and boys of the area were ordered to the church and were told they were to be deported as soon as ships arrived to take them away. Families were split apart and before 1755 ended more than 6000 Acadians were carried away. Their villages were burned to the ground.  Thousands more followed until 1763 when the two countries were again at peace.

Evangeline

       Henry Wadsworth Longfellow told this tragic story in his poem Evangeline in 1847. Grand-Pre was forgotten for nearly a century until   Americans wanted to visit the birthplace of the poem’s heroine. Of the original village only the dykelands and a row of willows remain. A lovely bronze stature of Evangeline stands at the front of the walkway to the church that has been reconstructed at the Grand-Pre Historic Site. It is said in many circles that Evangeline is the most famous Acadian who never lived.