Where Cajuns Come From.

The Cultural Center hit it just right for us as it explained the origin and history of the Acadian – Acadjian- Cajun people. They actually arrived in Acadia from France in 1604, 16 years before the Pilgrim Fathers landed further south. In the 1750’s they were forcibly removed from the land, exiled and transported to other colonies by the British in a political move that looked very much like the clearing of the crofters in Scotland and similar actions in Ireland. The area was then renamed Novia Scotia (New Scotland) by the British. Several thousands fled, or otherwise made their way to the old French Colonies on the Gulf of Mexico and a community was set up in Louisiana, separate from the New Orleans French Colonialists. In 1790 the Slave revolt in Haitti meant that some 10,000 French/black refugees fled across the gulf to Louisiana and provided the Creole influence. So there were really three different French influences all jumbled in together in the bayou areas round the lower part of the Mississippi.