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Welcome to Cajun Country, a place to
make friends, eat well, and “pass a good time.”
Here, Cajuns will welcome you to their
celebrations, large and small, their restaurants and
dances – maybe even to their homes.
If you stay here for just a little while, we’re
sure you’ll want to come back often.
A Brief Cajun History:
Just
after the turn of the 17th Century the French
established a settlement in what is now Nova Scotia, one
of the Canadian Maritime Provinces.
A series of wars between England and France
placed control of the colony in the hands of first one
country and then the other; finally, in 1713, the Treaty
of Utrecht ceded Acadia to England once again.
Unsurprisingly, the French settlers refused to
sign a loyalty oath to the King of England, fearing that
they would someday be required to take up arms against
their own countrymen.
After
protesting more than 40 years, in 1755 the French
farmers in Acadia were expelled from their homes and
cast adrift among the other British colonies in America.
In what came to be called "Le Grand
Derangement" (The Great Craziness), families
were separated and forced onto ships under dreadful
conditions; more than half lost their lives.
Rejected at every turn because no preparations
had been made to receive them and they had no means of
support, many of the Acadians eventually immigrated to
Louisiana from both the English settlements on the
continent and from Santo Domingo in the Caribbean.
Settling
here with aid from Spain, they brought with them a
diverse heritage, farming skills, a love of music and
fun, and a determination to retain their language and
culture. The
poorest of the poor, they settled along the bayous north
of New Orleans, using the winding shallow swamps as
“roads” for both commerce and communication among
themselves; eventually, they spread to the plains to the
north and west, adding cattle ranching to farming and
fishing as a livelihood.
These
were the forefathers of today’s Louisiana Cajuns who
retain the deep-seated love of family, fondness for
music and dancing and reverence for good food that was
part and parcel of the French colonists ousted from
their land so long ago.
As time passed, their French-Acadian heritage incorporated Spanish,
French, German, Haitian, and Native American Indian
elements to form the distinctive, unique Cajun culture
found today in South Louisiana.
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