Creole Vs. Cajun - Kissing yet Distant cousins

   This  is the one everyone is too shy to ask. I can always tell they are trying to work up the nerve. To tourists, they feel it is like going to New York and asking "What's an Empire State Building?" But truly, it is a good question, and one that most locals can not answer completely correctly.

     To start with, as far as Creoles go, it seems that if you put two New Orleans historians in a locked room and ask "What exactly is a Creole?" only one will come out alive. The term has proved flexible (and arguable) over time but at the time of the founding of the city of New Orleans in 1718 it was simply defined as a person born in the newly founded colonies descended of French or Spanish parents. It was a fine point of separation to distinguish themselves from the early slaves, the native Americans, and even the Germans, who were already there. It, obviously, was meant as a class distinction, and that always was the case with the term.

     The issue got a bit more convoluted in 1803 with the Louisiana Purchase and Louisiana, grudgingly, becoming an American territory. As the first American appointed Governor, W.C.C. Claiborne, tried making English the first language of the territory, the lines became clearer. The French and English speakers shared no love for each other, (mutual disrespect would be an overly polite way of putting it)and the French language became a symbol of what a Creole was, and what he was was not a vulgar American. The freed slaves from the revolution in Saint Domingue (Haiti) who became the core of the Free Peoples of Color after immigrating here in mass were considered Creole and even slaves who were descendants of Africans (yet born in the Louisiana area) were considered the same, although for them, the term was Black Creole, providing a clear mark between the classes.

     A further group of Creoles in New Orleans were the descendants of the plaçage system. Due to a lack of proper Creole women (and an overabundance of Syphillis) young Creole men often took on Quadroon (1/4 black) mistresses. These relationships were lifelong, even if the Creole man took on a legal wife later on, and the mixed race children of these relationships were entitled to 1/3 of the estate upon the fathers death. These people formed the bulk of New Orleans artisan class and became quite wealthy and powerful within New Orleans, even during the Slavery era. So up until the civil war, plenty of people were Creoles by definition, but it was still the upper classes of direct French and Spanish Lineage who most used the term. Like everything in New Orleans, this changed after the Civil War. With the influx of newly freed slaves, the French speaking, mixed race culture that was formerly known as the Free People of Color, of course wanted to seperate themselves classwise from the ex-slaves, so for the first time consistently referred to themselves as Creoles. As that designation spread, according to the racism of the day, the term Creole fell out of favor with those that had always used it, the white descendants of the original French and Spanish settlers, lest anyone confuse them as being mixed race. To this day, here in New Orleans, this last definition is the one that sticks. Most families who call themselves creoles are the descendants of pre- civil war mixed race ancestry, who have had money, power, and social prestige since that time.

     The one thing that is clear, is that the Creoles were in New Orleans. While one can argue who "really" is a Creole, those who referred to themselves with that term in Louisiana were Cityfolk. It was a measure of culture and prestige, and entirely unrelated to the Cajuns who were happily isolated during this entire era in the Bayou territories of nearby Southern Louisiana.

     The term Cajun is a dialectical takeoff from "Acadian" which are the people the modern day Cajuns descend from. The Acadian territory in the far Northeast of Canada (New Foundland, Brunswick) was a place where the ruggedly independent and family minded French settlers trapped fur, lived quietly, and were not so concerned when in 1710 the territory passed from the French to the English as a spoil of war. Such political concerns of faraway lands didn't change their life until 1855 with Le Grand Derangement or the Great Disturbance. The English finally kicked the French Speaking Acadians off their land and sent them searching for a new home where they could survive and be left alone. Due to the common French Language, many Acadians made the long haul, to the utterly different climate of the Southern Louisiana territory.

     Here, in the wilder Bayou region, they settled and most fished, trapped, hunted, and farmed for a living. Some would raise cattle, many would grow rice in the territory that was perfect for it, they thrived in what, for many, would be considered a miserable climate. Hearty folks from many backgrounds came into this secluded area and married into the culture; Germans, Italians, Free People of Color, even Cubans, however, the French Language, or a more slang patois, was always spoken The Progency of this mix of people moving into the Acadian territory is who is known as Cajuns today. Still fiercely independent, still country folk, and still as isolated as a culture can be in a modern American world. 

     The original language of the two cultures is the same, the French descent of each is similar, but the cultures, and people, have little in common at this point. By practice, though, they both share the Louisiana custom of joie de vivre that makes coming down to learn more about either group a recommended pleasure.