New Acadia: JustFly Explains How Cajun Culture And Canada’s East Coast Are Connected

SPONSORED POST 

Louisiana is a beloved state. The home of New Orleans and Mardi Gras, the state is a very popular tourist spot, according to online travel agency JustFly, and sits uniquely in the cultural spectrum of the United States Of America. While it sits about as far South as a state can, Louisiana is not your “typical” Southern state. With a French flair, a somewhat-European look and its own unique lingual dialects, Louisiana doesn’t have the same cowboyish feel of a place like Texas or Arizona. So, why has this state, which latitude says should be about as Southern as it gets, feel so different? One only has to look at JustFly’s review of the state’s history to see that its upbringing has played a huge role in its almost spooky standing.

While states all have interesting origins, Louisiana’s pulls from African, Spanish and French heritage. While some people enjoy reading history essays, I’m going to focus on the French fusion that has shaped the state. To do that you have to start with Acadia. French colonists arrived in Acadia, which at its peak was located in present-day Canadian provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Quebec and the U.S. State of Maine, in 1604. While the region experienced much in-fighting over its more than a century-long existence, Acadian culture was dealt a serious blow with the Acadian Expulsion.

Beginning in 1755, with Britain and France warring over the region, British forces began the forced deportations of Acadians to what was then called the Lower British American Colonies. While some Acadians fled into the province of Quebec, the eventual fall of the French colony inevitably led to most Acadians heading South. It was around this time that the word Cajun was created as a pejorative term. It was only later that the term became socially appropriate as a way to describe Acadian imports to what would become the state of Louisiana.

It was in 1803 that the then fresh-faced country of the United States of America purchased the entire state of Louisiana. This move immediately doubled the size of the country, gave the United States access to the Gulf Of Mexico and the Mississippi River, and set the standard for territorial purchases in the United States. It also ultimately gave Acadians, who had gone from France, to New France, to Canada, to Louisiana, a place to finally put down their roots, according to JustFly, and cultivate the Cajun culture into the enjoyable experience that it has become today.