This research paper examines the sources of Cajun culture in Louisiana and discusses the forces in modern American life which threaten its traditions. The dominant factor which has shaped the distinctive features and character of Cajun culture is the tragic history of the Cajuns and their Acadian forbears. Ironically, just as Cajun culture is becoming more widely known, it is undergoing significant change and its fabric is gradually weakening.
Perhaps the most remarkable fact about the Cajun people is that they have survived their ordeals during the past four centuries. Cajun is a corrupted form of the French word for Acadian. It refers to people of French descent who were driven out of Acadia, (now Nova Scotia), by the British in the 1750s and who have lived in Louisiana since the late 18th century.
In the 17th century, beginning in 1605, small groups of settlers from the maritime coast and inland canals of western France established a thriving colony along the shores of the Bay of Fundy. They emigrated to Canada to escape from the religious strife then prevalent in France. Winzerling describes the original colonists as "convicts, laborers, some Huguenot ministers and Catholic priests, and some nobles" and the larger groups which followed them as a "sturdy, industrious, and religious element of Brittany and Touraine (4). Among their chief characteristics were a great capacity for hard work, piety, love of family, kindheartedness and simplicity. These features, especially the lack of pretentiousness, can be found among modern Cajuns. In describing his visit to them in 1990, Smith said, "I never met a Cajun who put on airs" (53). As the first European colonists in Canada, the Acadians developed their colony in relative isolation during the 17th century. They prospered by strenuous effort as farmers and fishermen in a "fertile land of orchards sheltered from winter winds by mountains to the north" (53). This harsh bu...