A Letter From The Perspective Of An Acadian Child During The Expulsion

A letter from the perspective of an Acadian child during the expulsion

My dear friend,

I received your letter a month ago but I could not write you back at that time because of the ongoing situations here. I am unable to find proper words that could describe the situation of the expulsion. It was no less than a nightmare. We lost everything we had and have been suffering from the last month. It was such a terrifying scene when the British soldiers went house to house and town to town to take out all the fellow Acadians for imprisonment. I saw people going to jails and saw soldiers who separated the kids from their families. It was hard to see them loaded onto ships forcefully who were sent to British colonies. They separated each one of us and did not let us carry any personal belonging. You cannot imagine how difficult it was for us to travel to another country without proper food and clothes and it was even more difficult to leave our home and our land. When we reached New England, the citizens of England did not welcome us and rejected our existence in their country. They were so bad towards us that some of our people starved and died because we could not find food to survive. I witnessed some, escaping this traumatizing situation but was arrested by the British soldiers and were beaten to death. Some hid in the woods and saved their lives. Thousands of people died of the disease on the board ship and around 1,649 people drowned. Days started to become tougher than before as tried to start a new life here in New England but the native people are not allowing us to be independent and behave as we are their slaves. It is impossible for others to understand the pain we went through and the trauma we faced. No one could ever understand the feelings we had while leaving our home and our families. It will remain a horrific part of my past that I will never for

Works cited

ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL {"uncited":[],"omitted":[],"custom":[]} CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY “Acadian Expulsion (the Great Upheaval) | The Canadian Encyclopedia.” Accessed November 4, 2019. https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/the-deportation-of-the-acadians-feature.

“ARCHIVED - History: The Expulsion - Acadians - Explore the Communities - The Kids’ Site of Canadian Settlement - Library and Archives Canada.” Accessed November 4, 2019. https://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/settlement/kids/021013-2000.7-e.html.

“CBC - The Acadians - Timeline.” Accessed November 4, 2019. https://www.cbc.ca/acadian/timeline.html.

“New Heritage Minute Focuses on Dark History of the Acadian Expulsion | Historica Canada.” Accessed November 4, 2019. https://www.historicacanada.ca/content/new-heritage-minute-focuses-dark-history-acadian-expulsion.