Most of the French settlements in the New World were in the area of present day Canada. Some also settled in the area now known as Nova Scotia. They named their settlement "Arcadia," after a popular Italian poem written in the 1400's, about a utopian land. Apparently, when the French first saw the magnificent beauty of Nova Scotia, they were reminded of the beauty described in l'Arcadia and named the land after it. In time the "r" was dropped from Arcadia and the settlement became known as Acadia.
The actual story of the Acadian exile was best told in 1959 by Dr. Harry Oster in the booklet titled, Folksongs of the Louisiana Acadians.
The dramatic and tragic Acadian story begins when the first French colony in the New World was established in Acadia (modern Nova Scotia) in 1604 by settlers from provinces of northern France-Brittany, Normandy and Picardy.
During Queen Anne's War, the English won control of Acadia. According to the Treaty of Utrecht of April 13, 1713, the Acadians were to enjoy the free exercise of their religion, the choice either to remain in the country, keeping the ownership of all they possessed, or to leave the country, taking away with them all their movable goods and also the proceed of the sale of their movable property.
Despite the apparent freedom of the choice the British granted the French colonists, the governors were actually suite reluctant to permit the Acadians to settle in any other part of Canada, for they feared the influx of a substantial number of Acadians into another part of the country would create a concentration of Frenchmen potentially dangerous to British rule. Also, the British rulers took a sterner stand in their official demands; they insisted that either the Acadians "take an unrestricted oath of allegiance to the British crown or leave Acadia without taking their possessions." Although the Acadians refused to take an unrestricted oath, the English did not begin to dig their claws into the settlers until General Phillips came from Annapolis in 1720 to take over as governor. Almost at once Philips ordered the settlers to "take the oath of allegiance without any reservations or to leave the country within four months without being able to sell their possessions or to transport them." When the Acadians took him at his word and began arranging for their departure, Phillips expressed his annoyance at their refusal to take the oath by doing everything he could to prevent their leaving. The sentiments of his administration are amply clear in a letter Craggs, his Secretary of State, wrote him:
My dear Phillips:
I see you do not get the better of the Acadians as you expected ... It is singular all the same that these people should have preferred to lose their goods rather than be exposed to fight against their brethren. This sentimentality is stupid. These people are evidently too much attached to their fellowmen and to their religion to make true Englishmen ... The Treaty be hanged! Don't bother about justice and other baubles ... Their departure will doubtless increase the power of France; it must not be so; they must eventually be transported to some other place, where mingling with our subjects, they will soon lose their language, their religion and their remembrance of the past, to become true Englishmen.
Although Phillips finally accepted a restricted oath of allegiance which would exempt the Acadians from bearing arms against their own countrymen and Indian allies, the British government, when it as expedient to do so, declared the oath invalid on the technicality that Parliament had not given its consent.
In the French and Indian War, which began in 1747, the English and French once more locked horns in another of their innumerable wars. Lawrence, the governor of Acadia at that time, plotted secretly to exile the Acadians from Canada and to expropriate their rich lands. Since the British had brought over twenty-five hundred settlers from England in 1748 and established the city of Halifax, the government decided that the Acadians had outlived their usefulness to the empire. Lawrence insisted that the inhabitants of Grand Pré take an unqualified oath of allegiance to the English crown, swearing loyalty forever to England and agreeing to bear arms against her enemies.
When most of the Acadians refused, Lawrence summoned the men of Grand Pré to the village church on September 5, 1755. There Lawrence's aid, Winslow read them their cruel fate, "That your lands and Tenements; cattle of all kinds and Live Stock of all Sorts are forfeited to the Crown with all your Effects, Saving your money and Household goods; and yourselves to be removed from his province." Winslow then put the assembled four hundred and eighteen men of Grand Pré and vicinity under arrest.
Five days later the young men, the most likely source of rebellion, were forced onto the five transports then available.
As the two hundred and fifty young men were lined up between files of soldiers with fixed bayonets, the scene of grief that followed is almost indescribable. Every evidence of grief and excitement became manifest-cries of anger, tears and pleading for mercy, stubborn refusal to march, calling of father to son and son to father, of brother to brother ... A great many people from the village lined the road to the landing place, a distance of a mile and a half away, and as the young men moved down the road between the files of soldiers, praying, crying, singing, many of the assembled people fell on their knees and prayed or followed with mailing and lamentation.
As soon as the other Acadians had been driven fro their farms, Winslow ordered the buildings burned to the ground, often before the eyes of their agonized owners.
During the next eleven years, the British continued to deport Acadians, more than eight thousand of them, four thousand of whom died at sea of smallpox and other diseases. The surviving exiles were scattered widely, at first to New Haven, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Hampton Roads, Charleston, and Savannah-usually without advance notice to the governors. Almost everywhere their reception was cold; the Governor of Virginia sheltered them through the winter, but sent them to England in the spring. Philadelphia received them reluctantly, and Governor Reynolds of Georgia banished them as soon as they arrived because of a statute which forbade the settling of Catholics. Since almost everywhere the pathetic exiles found themselves unwanted, most of them pushed on to Louisiana, hoping to join other Frenchmen.
When the first group reached Louisiana in 1756, the French and Spanish welcomed them and helped them settle in the southwest of the state.
The story about the Louisiana Cajun begins with the exploration of the New World by French explorers. the French that LaSalle and other French-speaking explorers spoke, now called "17th century French," is the basis for the Cajun French Language. When Quebec, the first permanent French settlement in North America, was founded in 1604, "Standard French" did not exist. Instead, fifteen different dialects of French were spoken in France.
One of these dialects, Francien, was spoken in and around Paris, but wasn't any more "Pure" than the other fourteen dialects. But since Paris was the French capital, Francien was proclaimed the official court language in 1539, and all other dialects were banned from usage. Later, in 1633, forty of the most elite men in France met and formed the French Academy (l'Académie Française) under the direction of Cardinal Richelieu. They were mostly aristocratic politicians, military generals and royalty. The purpose of the French Academy, which is still in existence today, was to decide what was acceptable and not acceptable as official French usage. At the first meeting of the "Big Forty" in 1633, the members declared that the official court language, Francien, would be the acceptable language of the people, and they continued to speak their own dialect of French, and most Frenchmen still do today. So "Standard French," sometimes called "Parisian French" and incorrectly called "Pure French," is essentially a dialect like any other. One day in 1539, this particular dialect, spoken only around Paris, was proclaimed the official court language of the crown. Later, in 1633, this same dialect was proclaimed the official language of the entire country. From then on, Francien was the only language allowed to be used in legal matters and in all schools in France. Only by force would these two proclamations become fully effective. This force was to be used again later on the Cajuns.
The Acadians became known simply as Cajuns and adapted every quickly to Louisiana. Soon they began doing something which they were able to do up until World War II, they began assimilating other cultures.
The Germans had been brought to Louisiana in the early 1700's by John Law to aid in the settlement and development of Louisiana. Soon the Germans and the Cajuns began intermarrying, and the Germans became less German and more Cajun with each passing generation. As evidence of this, some of the most common Cajun surnames in some regions of Louisiana are originally German names like Huval, Schexnayder, Waguespack, and Zeringue.
It is remarkable, however, that there are no German words, with the exception of surnames, in the Cajun French vocabulary. But the most important German influence on the Cajuns was probably the accordion. Traditionally, a German instrument, no Cajun band is complete without one today. The discovery of this instrument must have been a joy for the Acadians, since their own music, which was played on tin fiddles and spoons or a triangle lagged for several years because when they were exiled from Acadia, they weren't permitted to bring any musical instruments with them.
The Cajuns also assimilated the Spanish. When the first Acadians arrived in 1756, Louisiana was under Spanish ruled. But the Acadians, like the French who were here before them, never really recognized the Spanish and continued to be loyal to France. The Spanish and the Cajuns also intermarried, which made the Spanish less Spanish and more Cajun. Most of the marriages were between Spanish men and French or Cajun women. It is interesting to note that in the case of these marriages, the children usually spoke the language of the mother, which was French. After a couple generations, the Ortegos, Diaz, and Romeros were Cajuns.
Unlike German, there are many Spanish words in the Cajun French vocabulary, words like tabasco and pias. Perhaps the most important Spanish influence of Cajun French is linguistic. It seems that when the Spanish began speaking French, they did it with a Spanish accent. The result is that the "r" in Cajun French is a Spanish "r," trilled on the tip of the tongue instead of the guttural "r" of modern French.
Since many of the early Acadian settlers were hunters, trappers and fishermen, they mingled with the Indians quite a bit. Although Cajuns did not completely assimilate the Indians, there exists an Indian influence in Cajun French. Words like filé and bayou are Indian in origin.
The Cajuns were also influenced by people of African blood. Intermarriages between blacks and whites in New Orleans was especially commonplace. In rural areas, intermarriages also existed, but the true bond between the blacks and the Cajuns was their common economic class, the lowest one possible, which is still true today. Cajun French words like gombo are African in origin.
The Cajuns lived isolated from the rest of the world and remained very proud of their French heritage until the 1920's. Then, everything that could possibly happen to destroy the Cajun culture and language began happening.
First, when public schools came into general existence and compulsory attendance laws were passed, French was forbidden to be spoken on the school grounds. Supposedly, the purpose of this law was to force Cajun children to learn English, so that they would be able to live in an Anglo-Saxon-dominated society. The effect of this law was that to be Cajun and to speak Cajun French was illegal, so people no longer wanted to be that way.
Huey Long's road building program, hailed by many because it ended much of the isolation of the people in the rural areas, also dealt a death blow to the Cajun culture. These new roads were nothing more for the Cajuns than "avenues of Americanization." As one old Cajun once said, "If they wouldn't have built all them new roads and bridges, maybe that big oil company lawyer wouldn't have found me so that he could steal my land."
And then there's the influence of industrialization, principally the oil and gas industry. The influence of Cajuns on this industry is seldom appreciated. They not only did most of the dirty work on the rigs, but often a sly oil company representative took advantage of Cajuns to get oil and gas reserves for little or nothing.
The two biggest influences on the Cajuns in the twentieth century have been World War II and television. World War II gave more Cajuns, mostly men, a chance to see the outside world than anything before or since. For the first time, Cajuns were exposed to something more than their ancestors had been. After a Cajun boy had ridden a train, heard other music, and eaten other foods than he was accustomed to, he didn't view home as he had before. World War II took the young men, the life-blood of the Cajuns off the farm and out of the swamp. The effect of this was two-fold. One, the fathers no longer had help to farm the land and run the trapping lines. Two, when the Cajuns returned, they had skills which they did not have before, and they went to the city instead of home to use those new-found skills.
After all of these things maimed the true Cajun culture and language, television came along and killed it. That murder, in part, can be considered mercy killing, because by 1950, when television became prominent in most Cajun households, the Cajuns were stripped of their culture and language and were unable to learn the American culture and language. Television provided that means. Television simply taught Cajuns how to speak English. Not only did television make Cajuns bilingual, it finished off what was left of their culture. With the advent of television came the disappearance of the last true Cajun custom, la veille. La veille was the custom of going to neighbors' houses at night to talk and socialize until bedtime. Until television, all Cajuns either went somewhere or received company every night.
