In western France, political struggles between Catholics and Huguenots destroyed the homes of a people. Seeking a more peaceful home, they left for Nova Scotia. They named the new place La Cadie, from the Micmac word for "land of plenty" and possibly in mimicry of "Arcadia," the Greek land of milk and honey. However, the possession of Acadia traded hands between the British and the French for one hundred fifty years. Finally, in 1755, convinced that the Acadian settlers from France were loyal to the French crown and a threat to British rule in the New World, the British government expelled the Acadians from Nova Scotia, then under solid British sovereignty. The expulsion is called the grand dérangement. After decades of exile and wandering through American colonies and Caribbean islands, they established a new home in southern Louisiana, the remaining French colony in the New World. Under Spanish, French, and eventually American rule, the Cajuns (an American English corruption of "Acadians") established a new home among Native Americans, French creoles, black slaves, and new European settlers.
from Barry Ancelet et al.'s Cajun Country, pages xiv-xv, 9-11
The Evangeline Church at Grand Pré, Nova Scotia. The Acadian deportation order was issued inside the church in 1755.
The beach at Grand Pré from which the British deported the Acadians.