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Premonitions

“It seems so real. Maman, I keep having this horrible dream over and over again. There’s fire everywhere around us. Our animals are dead and everybody’s running in every direction to escape. I wake up sweating and my heart’s beating so fast.”

Lecture de l’ordonnance d’expulsion des Acadiens dans l’église à Grand Pré, 1755. Source: Library and Archives Canada/c073709k.

Outnumbered

“We cannot stay here,” Hubert yelled as he pleaded with Marianne. “We’re doomed, outnumbered and weakened. Come dawn, they’ll either kill us all or throw those of us still standing on those ships.”

Crossing the bay at night in the cold. Nova Scotia Archives Photo Collection: Miscellaneous: Costumes: Acadian no.4

So Little Food

Isabelle exploded: “How can they expect us to make meals for this whole camp with so little food? Mothers come crying because they’re not eating enough to make milk for their infants.” Tears of anger and frustration streamed down her face. “Babies are crying all the time from hunger because they’re not getting enough food to grow. They’re starving, Gerrard!”

Remorse

François suddenly felt a deep remorse for having led his children on such a difficult journey. They had been wandering directionless for over a year, always on the verge of starvation, or worse, capture.

A Harsh Winter

Another eleven Acadians died, some families completely obliterated due to smallpox. Group burials were held, at times more than a dozen bodies were lowered to their place of rest on the same day. Grief and fear gripped the community. Acadians retreated and the villagers sought to avoid them.