French settlers arrived in Grand-Pré in the 1680s, when the area was largely marshland. Over the next ninety years, French Acadians built up a series of dykes, reclaiming the land from the Fundy tides. After control of the land was transferred to the British in 1713, however, life became increasingly difficult for the Acadians. While the Acadians were willing to swear allegiance to the British crown, they were unwilling to take up arms against the French. In 1755, the British governor decided to solve the problem by deporting the Acadian population to France and other British colonies. While the deportation (known as the Great Upheaval) was meant to be orderly, many families were separated, never to see each other again.

Nearly a hundred years later in 1847, American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow immortalized the tragic deportation in his narrative poem "Evangeline." The story of two lovers separated in the deportation, Evangeline has become the symbol of the Great Upheaval and the Acadian people.