Evangeline

Evangeline St. Clare, or Little Eva as she’s known, is the angelic young heroine of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s great abolitionist novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, published in 1852. Saved from drowning in the river by the black slave, Uncle Tom, she persuades her father to purchase him, and later, to set him free. Although she is only a child of 5 or 6, she is wise beyond her years and, of course, good beyond any other earthling. Her gentle ways convert even the most hardened souls to the ideals of Christianity, most notably the raffish little slave girl, Topsy (a refreshingly wicked little character). Little Eva was adored by readers, who not only wept copiously at her sentimental death scene, but went even farther in homage by naming their newborn daughters “Eva” by the scores.

Evangeline is the heroine of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s epic poem “Evangeline, A Tale of Acadie” published in 1847. The poem is not only considered Longfellow’s masterpiece, but it is still widely taught in literature classes across America. The poem is historic fiction based on a true story that took place around Nova Scotia in the mid-1700s. The Acadian people were prosperous French settlers dating back to 1604 in modern-day eastern Canada, Nova Scotia and the northeastern states of America. Constantly antagonized by the English and Protestants (Acadia was largely a Catholic settlement), there were six wars in Acadia between 1689 and 1763. Finally defeated by the British after the French and Indian War, the Acadians were forcibly removed after refusing allegiance to the English crown (interesting factoid: the Louisiana ethnic group known as the Cajuns is descended from Acadian exiles). This massive deportation was known as the Great Upheaval, and in the middle of the chaos were two young lovers cruelly separated by fate. Evangeline was the beautiful 17 year old daughter of a wealthy farmer; she was “the pride of the village”, and the “noblest of all the youths was Gabriel, son of the blacksmith!” As they are separated, Evangeline assures her sweetheart “"Gabriel! be of good cheer! for if we love one another, / Nothing, in truth, can harm us, whatever mischances may happen!" How wrong was this poor innocent lass – for she would spend the rest of her life roaming the American landscape searching in vain for her lost love, only to have him die in her arms in the end. “As in the days of her youth, Evangeline rose in his vision. / Tears came into his eyes; and as slowly he lifted his eyelids, / …Vainly he strove to whisper her name, for the accents unuttered / Died on his lips, and their motion revealed what his tongue would have spoken. / Vainly he strove to rise; and Evangeline, kneeling beside him, / Kissed his dying lips, and laid his head on her bosom.” The poem is a romantic and sentimental portrayal of star-crossed lovers set against an interesting historic period of early America.