Evangeline

Romantic heroine of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's epic poem of 1847, I was one of the Acadians forced to leave Nova Scotia in the Great Expulsion of 1755. Tragically, the expulsion meant that I was torn from my lover, Gabriel, on our wedding day. Along with a group of fellow exiles, I made my way to Louisiana via the Mississippi River. Arriving in Louisiana I learned that, alas, Gabriel had arrived in Louisiana only to depart for the Ozarks. Thus began my wanderings in search of my love. It was in Philadelphia where I found him at last. Gabriel was on his death bed and died in my embrace! We are buried together in nameless graves in Philadelphia.