Cajuns and Their Acadian Ancestors

Cajuns and Their Acadian Ancestors
Author :
Publisher : Univ. Press of Mississippi
Total Pages : 103
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9781604733211
ISBN-13 : 1604733217
Rating : 4/5 (217 Downloads)

Book Synopsis Cajuns and Their Acadian Ancestors by : Shane K. Bernard

Download or read book Cajuns and Their Acadian Ancestors written by Shane K. Bernard and published by Univ. Press of Mississippi. This book was released on 2010-02-11 with total page 103 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cajuns and Their Acadian Ancestors: A Young Reader's History traces the four-hundred-year history of this distinct American ethnic group. While written in a format comprehensible to junior-high and high-school students, it will prove appealing and informative as well to adult readers seeking a one-volume exploration of these remarkable people and their predecessors. The narrative follows the Cajuns' early ancestors, the Acadians, from seventeenth-century France to Nova Scotia, where they flourished until British soldiers expelled them in a tragic event called Le Grand Dérangement (The Great Upheaval)—an episode regarded by many historians as an instance of ethnic cleansing or genocide. Up to one-half of the Acadian population died from disease, starvation, exposure, or outright violence in the expulsion. Nearly three thousand survivors journeyed through the thirteen American colonies to Spanish-controlled Louisiana. There they resettled, intermarried with members of the local population, and evolved into the Cajun people, who today number over a half-million. Since their arrival in Louisiana, the Cajuns have developed an unmistakable identity and a strong sense of ethnic pride. In recent decades they have contributed their exotic cuisine and accordion-and-fiddle dance music to American popular culture. Cajuns and Their Acadian Ancestors: A Young Reader's History includes numerous images and over a dozen sidebars on topics ranging from Cajun music to Mardi Gras.

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