How many cajuns in louisiana

Lawrence planned the expulsion with William Shirley, governor of the Massachusetts colony, which provided British troops and ships for the operation. Supported by the Colonial Council, which administered the colony in the name of the British crown, Lawrence launched the expulsion in summer He summoned Acadian men to the capital at Halifax allegedly to discuss the return of their firearms, which British troops had earlier seized.

It was a ruse, however, and British troops arrested the Acadian men. Meanwhile, other British soldiers fanned out across the colony, using similar deceptions to round up the remaining Acadians. The church became their prison while other soldiers prepared Acadian women and children for deportation. Lawrence sent these ships to distant lands, scattering the Acadians throughout the British colonies of North America and beyond. Some historians estimate that as many as half of the approximately fifteen thousand Acadians died from exposure, disease, starvation, and violence related to their deportation.

After nearly a decade of wandering, one group of Acadian exiles found its way to Louisiana, which was then a Spanish Colony. Seeing the Acadians as potential buffers against encroachment by British settlers, the Spanish welcomed the exiles.

These first Acadians in Louisiana wrote to other distant groups of exiles, providing glowing descriptions of their new homes. Although a largely nonliterate people, some Acadians were able to read and write, and those who could not were able to find someone to read or write for them.

Stirred by these letters, other exiles made their way to Louisiana during the ensuing decades, arriving from Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, and France, among other places. About three thousand Acadian exiles eventually made their way to Louisiana. Like their ancestors, these exiles remained subsistence farmers, producing only enough material goods to survive. By the s, the Acadians had evolved from a single group of poor subsistence farmers into three distinct groups.

Members of this group might own a few slaves but certainly not as many as planters. Finally, a very large number of Acadians continued to labor as subsistence farmers, working their land without the assistance of slaves. It was from this mass of poor Acadians that the Cajun people would spring. The American Civil War — brought destruction to southern Louisiana. Troops from both sides of the conflict marched back and forth through the region, seizing crops and livestock, burning bridges, and interrupting trade and commerce.

While these southern Louisianans had once viewed their poor Acadian neighbors with contempt, they now occupied the same impoverished social stratum. Barriers crumbled between the groups as they worked side-by-side in the fields. As historian Carl A.

Brasseaux has shown, Acadians soon began to marry non-Acadians in large numbers. Acadians and members of other ethnic groups—mainly the descendents of French, Spanish, and German immigrants—combined and evolved into a new ethnic group dominated by a core Acadian identity.

This new ethnic group was called Cajun. Depicted in the artwork of illustrator Floyd Sonnier and painter George Rodrigue, these Cajuns are largely rural French-Catholic people. Like their ancestors, they maintained close ties to the earth, often making their living as farmers, trappers, and boat builders. The mobilization of millions of U. Most of them spoke French as their first, if not only, language.

World War II forced them to leave southern Louisiana for boot camps in far-flung sections of the United States, where everyone spoke English. They soon found themselves in ships, tanks, and foxholes around the globe with English-speaking GIs. By the early s, nearly Acadians had arrived and settled in Louisiana. Many lived in the bayou country where they hunted, fished, trapped, and lived off the bounty of the Mississippi River delta. The new arrivals learned new skills and shared what they brought with them with the many peoples already in the area: American Indians, free people of color, enslaved Africans and their descendants, and immigrants from Europe, Asia, and North and South America.

The Acadians became Cajuns as they adapted to their new home and its people. Their French changed as did their architecture, music, and food. The Cajuns of Louisiana today are renowned for their music, their food, and their ability to hold on to tradition while making the most of the present. Explore This Park. Info Alerts Maps Calendar Reserve. Events Festivals. Concert Series. Submit an Event.

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