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STANDARDS The material in this unit may be used to address the following Social Studies Standards:
EXPULSION OF ACADIANS OF ACADIA The French began colonizing Acadia in 1605. After repeated changes of ownership, the region came under permanent British control in 1713. Approximately 40 years later, Governor Charles Lawrence began to forcefully expel the Acadians from the region; the motive for this action is the subject of controversy among modern historians. Whatever the reason, the first groups were arrested and deported in 1755 and their property was confiscated or destroyed. Over the next eight years approximately 10,000 people suffered the same fate. However, some Acadians avoided arrest by fleeing to portions of Canada still under French control. AN UNWANTED PEOPLE The deported Acadians did not immediately come to Louisiana. The British sent many to their North American colonies on the eastern seaboard. Others made it to France or to the French West Indies. Sadly, many died before their ships reached their designated ports. The Acadians who survived found themselves unwelcome everywhere they went. THE ACADIANS COME TO LOUISIANA Some of the surviving scattered Acadians eventually learned of the existence of Louisiana, a colony then in Spanish hands but dominated by a French Catholic culture. Experts differ on how many of the 10,000 persons originally expelled from Acadia migrated to Louisiana between 1764 and 1785; the suggested numbers range from 2,600 to 3,200. The Spanish welcomed the Acadians because they needed settlers to act as buffers between settled portions of the colony and nearby British outposts. In fact, Spanish officials gave the immigrants food and tools to help them start their new lives. (Spanish-dictated settlement patterns are covered elsewhere in the EZ Content Blueprint.) THE ACADIANS BECOME CAJUNS Louisiana's environment was very different from that with which the Acadians were familiar. Extremely adaptable, they adjusted to a new topography and climate, foods and cash crops, diseases, insects, and house types. Most who settled in southeast Louisiana established small farms (as opposed to large plantations), while those who migrated to the southwest portion of the colony became cattle raisers. So successful were the Acadians at adapting that within ten years of their arrival most had equaled the prosperity they had previously known in Acadia. The result of all these adaptations was a new culture, eventually known as Cajun, which was different from that the Acadians had known in Canada. PRINTABLE VERSION
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