Créoles de la Louisiane (French) Moun Kréyòl la Lwizyàn (Louisiana Creole) Criollos de Luisiana (Spanish) | |
|---|---|
 | |
    | |
| Total population | |
| Indeterminable | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
 Louisiana, California, Texas[1] | |
| Languages | |
| English, French, Spanish and Louisiana Creole | |
| Religion | |
| Predominantly Roman Catholic | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| African Americans, French, Cajuns, Creoles of color, Isleños, Haitians (Saint-Domingue Creoles), Québécois, Alabama Creoles
Peoples in Louisiana |
Kingdom of France 1718–1763
Kingdom of Spain 1763–1802
French First Republic 1802–1803
United States of America 1803–1861
Confederate States of America 1861–1862
Louisiana Creoles (French: Créoles de la Louisiane, Louisiana Creole: Moun Kréyòl la Lwizyàn, Spanish: Criollos de Luisiana) are a Louisiana French ethnic group descended from the inhabitants of colonial Louisiana before it became a part of the United States during the period of both French and Spanish rule. They share cultural ties such as the traditional use of the French, Spanish, and Creole languages[note 1] and predominant practice of Catholicism.[3]
The term Créole was originally used by French Creoles to distinguish people born in Louisiana from those born elsewhere, thus drawing a distinction between Old-World Europeans and Africans from their Creole descendants born in the New World.[3][4][5] The word is not a racial label—people of European, African, or mixed ancestry can and have identified as Louisiana Creoles since the 18th century. After the Sale of Louisiana, the term "Creole" took on a more political meaning and identity, especially for those people of Latinate culture. The Catholic Latin-Creole culture in Louisiana contrasted greatly to the Anglo-Protestant culture of Yankee Americans.[6]
Although the terms Cajun and Creole today are often portrayed as separate identities, Cajuns have historically been known as Creoles.[7][8] Presently, some Louisianians may identify exclusively as either Cajun or Creole, while others embrace both identities.
Creoles of French descent, including those of Québécois or Acadian lineage, have historically comprised the majority of white-identified Creoles in Louisiana. In the early 19th century amid the Haitian Revolution, refugees of both whites and free people of color originally from Saint-Domingue arrived in New Orleans with their slaves having been deported from Cuba, doubled the city's population and helped strengthen its Francophone culture.[9] Later 19th-century immigrants to Louisiana, such as Irish, Germans, and Italians, also married into the Creole group. Most of these immigrants were Catholic.
New Orleans, in particular, has always retained a significant historical population of Creoles of color, a group mostly consisting of free persons of multiracial European, African, and Native American descent. As Creoles of color had received superior rights and education with Spain & France than their Black American counterparts, many of the United States' earliest writers, poets, and civil activists (e.g., Victor Séjour, Rodolphe Desdunes and Homère Plessy) were Louisiana Creoles. Today, many of these Creoles of color have assimilated into (and contributed to) Black American culture, while some have retained their distinct identity as a subset within the broader African American ethnic group.[10][11][12]
In the twentieth century, the gens de couleur libres in Louisiana became increasingly associated with the term Creole, in part because Anglo-Americans struggled with the idea of an ethno-cultural identity not founded in race. One historian has described this period as the "Americanization of Creoles", including an acceptance of the American binary racial system that divided Creoles between white and black. (See Creoles of color for a detailed analysis of this event.) Concurrently, the number of white-identified Creoles has dwindled, with many adopting the Cajun label instead.
While the sophisticated Creole society of New Orleans has historically received much attention, the Cane River area in northwest Louisiana—populated chiefly by Creoles of color—also developed its own strong Creole culture.
Today, most Creoles are found in the Greater New Orleans region or in Acadiana. Louisiana is known as the Creole State.[13]
- ^ Louisiana Creole at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
Tradición Hispano - Canariawas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ a b Kathe Managan, The Term "Creole" in Louisiana : An Introduction Archived December 4, 2013, at the Wayback Machine, lameca.org. Retrieved December 5, 2013
- ^ Bernard, Shane K, "Creoles" Archived June 12, 2011, at the Wayback Machine, "KnowLA Encyclopedia of Louisiana". Retrieved October 19, 2011
- ^ Helen Bush Caver and Mary T. Williams, "Creoles", Multicultural America, Countries and Their Cultures Website. Retrieved February 3, 2009
- ^ Elizabeth Gentry Sayad (2004). A Yankee in Creole Country. United States of America: Virginia Publishing Company. p. 91.
- ^ Landry, Christophe (January 2016). A Creole Melting Pot: the Politics of Language, Race, and Identity in southwest Louisiana, 1918-45 (PhD thesis). University of Sussex.
- ^ Cleaver, Molly Reid (October 16, 2020). "What's the Difference between Cajun and Creole—or Is There One?". Historic New Orleans Collection. Retrieved June 29, 2024.
- ^ Scott, Rebecca J. (November 2011). "Paper Thin: Freedom and Re-enslavement in the Diaspora of the Haitian Revolution" (PDF). Law and History Review. 29 (4): 1062–1063. doi:10.1017/S0738248011000538.
- ^ Steptoe, Tyina (December 15, 2015). "When Louisiana Creoles Arrived in Texas, Were They Black or White?". Zócalo Public Square. Retrieved March 20, 2021.
- ^ "Creole People in America, a brief history". African American Registry. Retrieved March 20, 2021.
- ^ "Beyoncé, Creoles, and Modern Blackness". UC Press Blog. Retrieved March 20, 2021.
- ^ Christophe Landry, "Primer on Francophone Louisiana: more than Cajun", "francolouisiane.com". Retrieved October 19, 2011
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