Cajuns

I

Introduction

Cajuns, individuals who share the French-based culture originally brought to Louisiana by exiles from the French colony of Acadia in the 18th century. The term Cajun is derived from Acadian, a name originally given to French colonists who settled near the Bay of Fundy in eastern Canada beginning in 1604. French Canadians in this region and many of their modern descendants throughout the world still refer to themselves as Acadians. In contrast, the Cajun community includes individuals from many different cultures that have intermixed in Louisiana over the course of two centuries. Nevertheless, the descendents of Acadian immigrants to Louisiana remain the heart of the Cajun community. In the 2000 United States census, some 88,000 people in Louisiana claimed either Cajun or Acadian heritage, and 111,000 claimed French Canadian heritage.

II

History

The struggle between Great Britain and France for dominance in North America culminated in the French and Indian War (1754-1763). In 1755 British military forces drove thousands of Acadian exiles into France, England, and the English colonies on the Atlantic seaboard. At the end of the war in 1763, the Treaty of Paris granted the exiles an 18-month grace period in which to relocate to France. Between 1764 and 1788, about 2,500 to 3,000 Acadians arrived in the French colony of Louisiana. They settled along the bayous Teche and Lafourche, and along the Mississippi River between New Orleans and Baton Rouge.

The Acadians quickly adapted to their new surroundings. Within a decade of their arrival in Louisiana, many achieved a standard of living comparable to that of their former settlements. However, many in the established community of Louisiana-born French-speakers, known as Creoles, did not welcome the Acadian immigrants. The most ambitious Creoles hoped to create a colonial society modeled on French feudalism, in which Creole aristocrats would rule over impoverished tenant farmers and slaves. In contrast, the Acadians, descendants of French peasants, had consciously attempted to build a democratic society based on equality during their 150-year residence in North America.

Friction between these two groups grew as slavery and the plantation economy took root in the areas originally settled by the Acadian exiles. First-generation Acadian immigrants remained unimpressed by the aristocratic trappings of slave ownership. However, second- and third-generation Acadians envied their affluent Creole neighbors and consciously altered their lifestyles to gain acceptance by them. By 1810 a majority of Acadian households in the original settlements owned slaves, and the children of Acadian planters began to intermarry with the children of the local Creole elite.

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Many Acadians who were unable or unwilling to adapt to the rapid transformation of the fertile bayou and river regions migrated to less desirable prairie, swamp, and marsh areas. In these marginal areas, the Acadians continued working as their ancestors had, engaging in small-scale farming and ranching. These farmers and ranchers constituted the majority of the Acadian population at the time of the American Civil War (1861-1865). At the beginning of the war, Acadian slave owners flocked to the Confederate cause. Less affluent Acadians were forcibly drafted into the Confederate Army, only to later desert the army in large numbers.

The upper and lower classes developed along different paths after the war. By the 1880s, the assimilation of the Acadian elite into the Creole planter class was largely complete. Common economic circumstances and increasing intermarriage between the two groups blurred the lingering differences between them. Likewise, less affluent Acadians intermarried with poor Creoles, British Americans, and European immigrants. Over time, these non-Acadian groups became completely absorbed by Acadian culture. Outsiders soon came to label all poor, French-speaking whites in southern Louisiana as Cajuns.

Economic circumstances in the late 1800s forced many small landowners in Louisiana to sell their property and rent fields from wealthy landlords. By 1900 nearly half of all Cajun families in southwestern Louisiana were tenant farmers. The resulting economic hardships forced many Cajuns to migrate to the newly established shipyards and refineries in eastern Texas during the early 20th century.

The impoverished Cajuns who remained in Louisiana found their French language and culture under siege. In 1921 the state of Louisiana mandated that all public school classes be taught in English. Some Cajuns who agreed with the negative stereotypes outsiders associated with their culture joined in the vigorous attempt to eradicate the French language spoken by Cajuns. This linguistic campaign, which lasted until the 1960s, gradually drove the Cajun culture to the brink of extinction.

III

Revival of Cajun Culture

In the late 1960s, a grassroots backlash against the suppression of Cajun culture developed. Like many American minorities, young Cajuns, particularly college graduates and students, began to assert a new ethnic pride. In 1968, responding to mounting political pressure, the state legislature established the Council for the Development of French in Louisiana (CODOFIL) to reverse the decline of Cajun culture. The legislature subsequently designated the French-speaking region of southern Louisiana as Acadiana in honor of the area’s Acadian settlers.

Although efforts to restore the French language within the community met with only limited success, other aspects of Cajun culture enjoyed a renaissance beginning in the late 1960s. Cajun music gained increasing popularity throughout the United States. In 1974 CODOFIL established the Festival de Musique Acadienne, an annual celebration of Cajun folk music, in the city of Lafayette, Louisiana. In 1977 the Festival de Musique Acadienne, the Louisiana Native and Contemporary Crafts Festival, and the Bayou Food Festival joined together to form Festivals Acadiens, held every year during the third weekend in September. In the 1980s restaurants throughout the world began to feature Cajun dishes, such as jambalaya, gumbo, and crawfish etouffee. Most Cajuns now view their heritage with great pride.