What on Earth Happened to the Acadians/Cajuns?

What on Earth happened to the Acadians, better known in most of the United States as the Cajuns? Hundreds of years ago, there was a distinct territory and culture that developed in North America that was a product of French imperialism, located in what is now modern day Canada. However, after conflicts with the British, their descendants had one of the most dramatic and interesting tales of trials and tribulations seen in any community in the US or Canada.

In today's video we're going to be discussing the history of the Acadians and what happened to their modern day descendants, such as the Cajuns, and how and why they ended up where they did, with many of these Acadian refugees ending up all across the globe. Thanks for watching!

Sources:

[christianlandgrave]

Here’s a fun fact: Boudreaux and Thibodeaux jokes exist in both south Louisiana and in Nova Scotia suggesting that the jokes are a centuries old tradition.

[Demographiaanthropology]

it's interesting how most of the French in Louisiana are actually originally from Nova Scotia rather than france

[Johnosaka]

I'm an Acadian from New Brunwick and also a public school French teacher in Nova Scotia, so I am lucky enough to experience my culture in both provinces. Your video was quite good, but much like The Dollop episode on the subject you missed a lot of important information. There is still a thriving Acadian community all over Atlantic Canada, and while there have been many attempts to assimilate us, we are still here. In New Brunswick and Nova Scotia we have our own French school boards. In New Brunswick we represent about 32% of the population, while in Nova Scotia, it is around 5%. The majority of people identifying as Acadians speak French, though many people who consider themselves Acadian have non-French ancestry (Irish, Scottish, Mi'qmaq, even Lebanese). In my hometown and even in New Brunswick as a whole people with last names like McGraw, Richardson, MacLaughlin are likely French speaking. Statistics don't account for the whole story. We're still here, we still speak French, and we still celebrate our culture.
Thank you for the video. I know you can't get everything 100%, especially considering how many you make. I appreciate the effort you put in.

[MeLancer]

Thank you for this excellent post. I live in the Fort Worth, Texas area. In the 1980s I worked for a company that employed a large number of Cajuns from south Louisiana. They continued to speak their French dialect between themselves and much of the time called themselves French. They made it very clear they were not Creoles. These Cajuns made excellent employees.

[beautyindarkness]

As a direct descendant of the Acadians, thank you for covering this.

[Euromerican]

Louisiana Cajun here. You got it right for the most part cher!

[_JCM_NB_]

Metis-acadian from nouveau Brunswick we are very much still here! Sadly alot of our language has been assimilated from us due to the traumas of our elders regarding many things but the connection and history will always have been !!

[mauiroy]

I'm Cajun. My family is from Houma, Raceland, and Thibodeaux. Manifest from the ship shows my family landed in Acadia in 1640. We were french fur trappers, canoe people that spread to the west, then down the Mississippi river to southern Louisiana by 1730. One of my ancestors was a Colonel in the Point Coupe militia in the American Revolutionary War, and some of my ancestors were with Jean Lafitte at Barataria. My family is part Chippewa and Houma indian. My grandmother spoke only Cajun french until she was 35 years old.

[alexanderjohnson]

As a direct descendant of the Acadians having people cover my ancestors makes me happy. My ancestors were some of first Acadians to settle in South Louisiana after being ousted by the British.

[hikiwa]

0:56 I love you.
There's so much information that are missing from the english wikipedia pages that talk about the English Conquest and their post-war threatment of the catholics in the Lower Canada. Acadiens, Irish, Québecois, Métis and even Scottish suffered greatly during their reign of assimilation and destruction. Masaman, if you ever want to talk in great details of the 'why' there are so little old French habitations left inbetween Montréal and Québec City, the main reason was the burning, destruction, raping of all the inhabitants of the regions, in their conquest, they sought to absolutely destroy the seigniorial system of New France. The hanging of Louis Riel, the Patriots hangings.. .All those things were made before the Durham report, which called all of them “a people with no literature and no history --” (without stating, that they destroyed most of the culture and literature, with the exile of all the nouveau-nobles, bourgeois and nobles back to France...)
A lot of Acadiens were shut in chapels and burnt alive, as catholic church had little values to protestants, reformists, etc. The men were sent away by ships to work as indebted workers, or simply put slaves. You should read up the poem 'Évangéline' which although a little fictionalize, does account for what the Acadians had to live through.
I'll give you a bunch of credited sources, I need for people to understand the plight of the people of 'lower' Canada, the British Empire was brutal and did a lot of horrible things that isn't represented whatsoever in the Anglo-sphere of the internet.
Love you brother, take care.

[lefloconblanc]

Je suis une descendante acadienne je suis Québécois ma mère et sa famille sont de la bay des chaleurs en Gaspésie j’ai bien aimé votre rapportage sur les acadiens

[jonathansgarden]

My grandfather knew French fluently. He wasn't allowed to speak it at school and gotten beaten a few times for doing so. My mom learned French in school on her own but didn't pass it down. No with my generation and the internet, i am purposely learning Cajun french to pass it down and to others!

[arthur__lt]

N'oublions pas les Acadiens ! 🇨🇦🇨🇵

[gabrielseaborn]

!!!! I can’t believe somebody finally made this video! The Acadians are such a fascinating group to talk about and I’m glad you did

[nathanriver]

As an Acadian, all I have to say is that we're still here (even though there aren't a lot of us).

Amusingly one of the Acadia day tradition at least in New Brunswick is the tintamarre, which is a parade where Acadians do as much noise as possible (literally).

[kamelhaj]

When I was learning French in high school (Buffalo, NY area), our class once crossed into Canada to attend a French Mass in Port Colborne, Ontario.

[kszush]

My Mother's family is French Cajun! My Father's family is Hungarian! How luckey am I to have had my Grandfather meet a Cajun Lady and fall in ❤️! Raised in South Louisiana, And I am Proud of It. Last name does not stop the Heritage! Everywhere I go they know where I'm from, just by the sound of my voice! Rock On+ Life Rocks!!

[charlene]

I wish people knew more about the suffering that my ancestors went through ...

[nowellm]

In 1961 a French-speaking National Guard outfit from from Lafayette, Louisiana, stayed at our barracks at Fort Sill, Oklahoma for their summer camp. Years later there was a documentary about Lafayette on television where old people were saying the youngsters weren’t speaking French anymore.

[GrantJBratcher]

My mom’s family was nearly entirely Cajun. Both sides of her family spoke French 2 generations ago. They told my grandparents that “French was a dirty language” and refused to speak it around them. This is due to the aftermath of Louisiana’s policy that education was compulsory and must be in English. So sadly know I just know a little French. We are very protective of our culture in other aspects though, for example our food, music, and surprisingly our flag are everywhere and I don’t think that is going anywhere. It has only been in the last. Pulled decades Cajun culture has seen a reserve me in pride and I hope we can assert ourselves more in the future.