From Acadian to Cajun: The Great Upheaval
In 1755 British forces forcibly expelled over 10,000 French Acadians from their homeland in day Nova Scotia. The survivor of the event dubbed it Le Grand Deréngement or The Great Upheaval. This mass deportation event led to the Acadian immigration to Louisiana and the creation of one of Americas most well-known ethnic groups, the Cajuns.
French explorers first arrived in maritime Canada in the sixteenth century. It wasn’t until the early seventeenth century that they settled in the land they would come to know as Acadia. Acadia is made up of the lands now known as Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Maine.
Since they first arrived in Acadia the French settlers interacted with the native Míkmaw population. The Míkmaq (plural of Míkmaw) are the Indigenous People living in the land that the French chose to create New France. They are an integral part of the history of the Acadians.
Very early on in their settlement of Acadia the French explorers began to intermarry with Míkmaw women and produce children. These children were known as metís or mixed and along with the French families that made their way to Acadia in the mid-seventeenth century became the first Acadians. [1] The Catholic faith was extremely important to the Acadians. Jesuit priests settled with them and performed mass for the French Acadians and even considered any converted Míkmaw person a French citizen.
The land of Acadia was a place of abundance. The settlers created a complex agricultural system that relied heavily on the use of dikes, which they would systematically breach to bring nourishment to the land they farmed. They farmed various crops, but the land was most suited to growing wheat, which grey much faster and better than other places.
At the start of the eighteenth-century King Charles II of Spain died and the War of Spanish Succession broke out in Europe over who would replace him on the throne. King Louis XIV of France made moved to place his son on the throne. The war ended in a stalemate. In the peace negotiations the European leaders signed the Treaty of Utrecht, and land of Acadia was signed away by King Louis to the control of Queen Anne of Great Britain.
The British did not trust the Acadians. They wanted to make sure that they would not be in conflict with British interests, so they tried to make the Acadian leaders sign an oath of allegiance. The Acadians refused. They would not sign any document that would require them to take up arms against the French crown or the Míkmaq natives.
In 1730, the Acadians finally signed an oath of allegiance to the British crown. This oath promised that the Acadians would not have to take up arms against their home country nor the Indigenous groups the allied with. However, Lieutenant Governor Charles Lawrence distrusted the Acadians still and used an uprising at Fort Beauséjour near British Fort Lawrence as justification to expel the Acadians from their home.
The forced removal of the Acadians was likely inevitable under the governance of Charles Lawrence. The Acadians hated him and saw him as a cruel, self-willed leader. He ordered British officers to dismiss the need of Acadian people, and often threatened to burn their houses down and ravage their fields.
The Acadians were dispersed through various British colonies in the Americas. Governor Lawrence made it clear that he wanted the Acadians as dispersed as possible to make any attempt to reclaim their land impossible.
Many Acadians resettled in France. They found themselves having a hard time assimilating to life in Europe and many desired to return to the Americas. Many Acadians wanted to go to Louisiana. Louisiana formerly belonged to the French but was sold to the Spanish in 1762 at the end of the Seven Years War. Many Frenchmen remained in positions of power and a few Acadians had already established themselves there.[2]Acadians would also be able to practice their religion freely. Spain was, like France, a Catholic country. So, after the Peace of Paris ended the American Revolutionary War, the Acadians were allowed to leave France for Louisiana.[3]
The Acadians would eventually assimilate into life in the bayous, prairies and marshes of Louisiana, a very different climate and lifestyle to that of l’Acadie. They began to refer to themselves as ‘Cadiens and eventually Cajuns. [4]
Since their arrival, Cajuns has established their culture in the state. Through the years they have kept alive their tradition that are now recognizable throughout the world. Festivals like Mardi Gras and cuisine such as Gumbo and Boudin have become synonymous with the state of New Orleans.
In the 1960s the state of Louisiana developed the Council for the Development of French in Louisiana. “Acadiana” is the name that designates the cultural area comprising one third of Louisiana, and the Louisiana Acadian flag signifies these areas.
[1] John Mack Faragher, A Great and Noble Scheme: The Tragic Story of the Expulsion of the French Acadians from Their American Homeland (New York: W. W. Norton, 2005), 6.
[2] Leanna I. Thomas, “A Fractured Foundation: Discontinuities in Acadian Resettlement in Louisiana, 1755–1803,” Louisiana History: The Journal of the Louisiana Historical Association 55, no. 2 (2014): 198–227.
[3] Jean-François Mouhot, “The Emigration of the Acadians from France to Louisiana: A New Perspective,” Louisiana History: The Journal of the Louisiana Historical Association 53, no. 2 (2012): 136.
[4] Cécyle Trépanier, “The Cajunization of French Louisiana: Forging a Regional Identity.” The Geographical Journal 157, no. 2 (1991): 161–71.
