While sitting on
the front steps of a very modest home in the small Cajun community of Church
Point in Louisiana, Nolan Lavergne talked to his son about the happiness
and hardships of growing up on a tenant farm in rural St. Landry Parish.
His son was a rookie high school American History teacher who asked a seemingly
simple question: "Who was your grandfather?" The father did not
know. "Well, Daddy, I'm going to find out for you," said the son. Thus began a fourteen-year-long project culminating in
Lives of
Quiet Desperation, a look at the ancestry of Gary M. Lavergne,
a Louisianian of French descent. In addition to a substantial genealogy
with over 1,200 names, Lavergne includes a series of concise essays placing
generations in historical context. Special treatment is given to the forces
that helped to determine the migrations of various groups of French-speaking
people, and the pioneers who helped to build new worlds in Canada and French
Louisiana. Particular emphasis is placed upon defining and describing the
differences between Cajuns, Creoles, and other Louisiana French cultures. The vast majority of the ancestors were simple, poor, tenant farmers
with large cohesive families. the uncommon were pioneers of note. they
all faced considerable odds and led lives of quiet desperation.
This page is an excerpt from LIVES OF QUIET DESPERATION and is made available to the public.
However, Gary M. Lavergne retains copyright and
all rights are reserved. THE GRAND DERANGEMENT: Cajuns Settle Louisiana From Lives of Quiet Desperation by Gary M. Lavergne The French colonial experience in Louisiana from Pierre le Moyne, Sieur
d' Iberville's founding of Biloxi in the late 1690s to the signing of the
Treaty of Paris of 1763, which ceded Louisiana to Spain and drove France
out of North America, was not at all successful or pleasant. Like other
French colonial possessions, Louisiana suffered from a lack of investment,
a shortage of settlers, and neglect. It was not until shortly after the
Spanish took administrative control of the Louisiana colony that any significant
population increase took place. In 1784, Spanish Governor Don Bernardo
de Galvez ordered a census of the colony. It was revealed that from 1766-1784
Louisiana's population had doubled to 27,500; New Orleans had grown to
a city of about 5,000. The largest group of immigrants during this time
period was the Acadian exiles. "Acadia" was an early term for the maritime provinces of eastern
Canada and the coastal region of northern Maine. It was established as
a proprietary colony by Pierre Duguay, Sieur de Monts. One year earlier
he had acquired a decade- long monopoly over the region's rich fur and
fish assets. Initially, the colonization of the area was a near-disaster.
In 1605, in a second attempt to colonize, de Monts transferred the colony
to present-day Port Royal, Nova Scotia; it became the first permanent settlement
in Acadia. By 1610 the colony consisted of only 25 men, but the foundations
of a permanent settlement were laid. Crops were sown, land had been parceled
out among the settlers, and the fur trade had been reestablished. But as
Carl Brasseux documents in his landmark The Founding of New Acadia, the
French hold on Acadia was tenuous at best. The lack of a firm political
and financial commitment to colonization would characterize the French
colonial experience in the New World. In 1613 Port Royal was demolished
by an English privateer named Samuel Argall. In 1628 the French in Acadia
had become so demoralized that they could not prevent the settling of Scottish
Calvinists at Port Royal by Sir William Alexander, who had been granted
proprietary rights by the King of England who named the area "Nova
Scotia." During this period, the French held onto their claims by
continuing their fur-trading operations. The restoration of French domination
of the area occurred with the signing of the Treaty of St. Germain-en-Laye
in 1632, and through the Company of New France, the French began to concentrate
on securing Acadia as a stronghold. Vulnerable outposts were reinforced,
the fur trade was expanded, and most importantly, immigration to Acadia
was finally encouraged. In July, 1632 three hundred French settlers landed
and after being organized into military units reoccupied Port Royal. Like
Quebec, Acadia's strategic importance was geographic; it was mid-way between
New England and Canada (Quebec). Like other French colonial possessions,
Acadia suffered greatly from internal dissension and outright warfare among
economic rivals. In the 1650s, while France was preoccupied with a European
war, the British seized Acadia and held it for 16 years; by the late 1660s
the French regained control. As the British threat loomed, and Acadia became
a battleground among imperialist nations, internal dissension subsided
and the Acadians began to close ranks. The insularity from other French
influences and the necessity to guard against the ever-present British
danger forged a French culture quite different from what was found in New
Orleans, Quebec or Continental France. Numerous attempts by the British
to make Acadians loyal subjects were met with obstinacy and derision, not
so much because of the loyalty of the Acadians to the French Crown, Quebec,
or their Catholic faith, but more so because of generations of absolute
and unrelenting isolation. As Brasseaux states: The role of geographic isolation in creating, molding, and nurturing
early Acadian society cannot be overemphasized. Chronic isolation enhanced
the impact of the frontier on the transplanted Frenchmen for it dictated
not only the need for economic self- sufficiency, but also for a clannish,
self-contained society, able and willing to carve a new life far from other
European outposts in North America. Such independence was absolutely essential
in the Acadian settlements whose lines of communication with the outside
world were often tenuous at best. Over time the insular Acadians sought to alleviate tensions with the
British by professing to be French Neutrals, asking only not to be required
to fight against other Frenchmen. For a time the British agreed. (The neutrality
argument would be attempted again, without success, during the American
Civil War as Union troops marched through Louisiana in 1863.) This understanding,
however, was short lived as the British became alarmed at the birthrate
of the Acadians. In 1737, the Acadian population stood at approximately
7,500; by 1749, it had zoomed to 18,000. The fact that Acadians occupied
the best lands in Nova Scotia and were thus preventing English colonists
from moving there exacerbated tensions with British authorities. Acadians had large, closely-knit families, who after five generations
developed their own culture. God, family, and land were important. No one
was rich--no one was poor. There was little or no interest in a formal
education; no premier educational institutions were founded. Acadians produced
nothing resembling political parties and, unlike most ethnic groups, no
single prominent leader ever emerged amongst the ranks of the people. When
left alone, Acadian life was calm, gentle and tolerant. In November, 1975,
during a lecture on Acadian life, Glenn Conrad claimed that during a 42
year period there was not a single recorded crime. Children married young
and were provided for by neighbors. In many respects, Acadian life, characterized
by an almost complete lack of social classes, resembled an often sought
proletarian utopia. The chronic insularity of the Acadians also produced a stubbornness
and a determination to question and resist authority. As a people, Acadians
were very quick to challenge English, French, and Catholic political and
moral rule. Anti-clericism among Acadians is a consistent theme of Acadian
colonial history. As Brasseaux documents in The Founding of New Acadia,
they came to view the Catholic church in much the same light as the colonial
government; it was established to provide essential services without undo
disruption to routine activities and without undue financial burden. For
pastors or government officials to exert too much leadership beyond those
parameters deemed essential would be to invite spasms of protest. It is
a mentality that has been perpetuated to this day. Consequently, the most
harmonious ecclesiastical and civil parishes were those with docile leadership.
Brasseaux continues: For many if not most of the late seventeenth- and eighteenth-century
Acadians, Catholic missionaries were shadowy figures who provided the settlers
minimal contact with the church hierarchy. Forced to fend for themselves,
even to the point of conducting paraliturgical services, the immigrants
ultimately came to divorce religion from the area's traditionally dominant
religious institution. Priests consequently became little more than petty
religious administrators, stripped of their cloak of religious invincibility
and vulnerable to personal criticism...It was with this mental framework
that the Acadians faced exile...after the Grand Derangement. The epic battle between the forces of British and French Imperialism
for domination over the North American continent was the Seven Years War.
Also called the French and Indian War (1756-1763), the British were successful
in defeating the French and a coalition of Indian allies. Before the onset
of the war, in 1754, the British began to fear a revolt in Acadia. They
required an oath of allegiance to the British Crown, including the promise
to bear arms in defense of England. The alternative for the Acadians was
to leave the colony. And so began the Grand Derangement, or the diaspora
of the Acadians from their home of five generations. They were allowed
to take their furniture and money; many families were separated and sent
to different destinations; their homes were burned and their land taken.
The displaced Acadians were packed on ships and distributed from Massachusetts
to Georgia. Virginia, the home of Thomas Jefferson, George Washington,
George Mason, and Patrick Henry, all architects of American Civil Liberties,
refused to accept the Acadian refugees because of a prevalent religious
prejudice against Catholics. Some others were taken to England and then
relocated to France after the war. The result of the Seven Years War, the Treaty of Paris of 1763, gave
the Acadians 18 months to leave the English Colonies. Where were they to
go? The Acadians themselves wanted to return to Nova Scotia; the British
quickly vetoed that idea. The French denied relocation to Louisiana. (The
secret Treaty of Fontainbleu giving Louisiana to Spain had not yet been
made public.) By 1764 the Acadians flooded Santo Domingo. In 1765, the
first group of Acadians arrived in Louisiana at New Orleans. In was the
Spanish who allowed the Acadians to relocate in the prairie land of the
Attakapas District (St. Martinville) in April of 1765. In 1766 another
flood of Acadians arrived from Santo Domingo and were forced to settle
along the Mississippi River, the "Acadian Coast." Spanish Governor
Don Antonio de Ulloa's idea was to create a buffer zone of Acadians between
the English colonies and New Orleans. He allowed no further settlements
in Attakapas. Finally, in 1785, those Acadians who had been sent to England
during the war and were relocated in Poitou in France afterwards arrived
and were settled along Bayou LaFourche. And so it was the Spanish, more
than the French, who were responsible for the end of the Acadian Odyssey,
i.e. the Acadian relocation to Louisiana. Once ejected from Nova Scotia, the Acadians were an unwanted people.
An anti-papal movement throughout the American colonies brought derision
upon the helpless Acadians; they were summarily despised everywhere they
went. Occasionally, a compassionate individual like Henry Callister of
Oxford in England would be concerned enough to petition British authorities
in behalf of the Acadians, or even donate substantial sums of money for
clothes and other provisions for the destitute Acadians. Unfortunately,
this type of individual effort was rare and had little or no positive effect.
More often, schemers like Louis Elizabeth de la Vergne (no known relation
to the author) and "every land shark and swindler" tried unsuccessfully
to exploit the exiles. De la Vergne futilely proposed the settlement of
120 Acadian families on his barren, war ravaged estates in the province
of Lorraine in France. Again, the Acadians stubbornly clung to their insular
heritage, and bitterly resisted all efforts by others to create a serfdom.
Indeed, not the least of the problems faced by the displaced Acadians were
the attempts of other Frenchmen, i.e. the Louisiana Creoles, still of a
monarchial mentality, to create a peasant class of the Acadians. It resulted
in conflict between and among the Louisiana French and insularity for the
Acadians all over again. The Acadians were forced to adapt to more than just new political and
social surroundings. Indeed, in a matter of a few months they had been
relocated from frigid maritime Canadian provinces to an insufferably hot
and humid climate closely related to a tropical rain forest. Seemingly
endless precipitation is outdone only by the dangers of floods and the
hurricane season. Louisiana rains are legendary: Choosing homesteads were often difficult exercises in anticipating where
flood plains began and ended. The tortuous heat and humidity must have
tested the vitality and persistence of the Acadians who were more familiar
with a frigid, almost Arctic climate. It surely brought the Acadians even
closer together and thus reinforced their tradition of insularity. THE NEW DERANGEMENT There are still vestiges of insularity among Acadian descendants. Traces
of the Acadian language, music, food (although heavily influenced by the
Spanish and Africans), and accented English can be readily recognized in
what is now called "Acadiana." The attitude that government and
church were established to provide essential services without undo disruption
to routine activities and without undo financial burdens prevail. And yet
the forces of education, industrialization, commerce, and technology brought
competing influences and cultures to the "Land of Evangeline."
The construction of Interstate Highway 10 made once isolated Acadian communities
quite accessible. The flowering of the oil and gas industries during the
1960s and 1970s and its economic boom created a plethora of skilled positions
that few Cajuns could fill. Consequently, there occurred an influx of skilled
labor to Southwest Louisiana, bringing with them other influences and traditions.
The founding of a major university in Lafayette and the age of mass communications
brought the world to the doorsteps of the descendants of the once decidedly
insular Acadians. Concern over the demise of the Cajun culture resulted
in the creation, by act of the Louisiana Legislature, of the Council for
the Development of French in Louisiana (CODOFIL). Cajun culture and insularity, however, face a new diaspora. Far greater
than threats ever posed by the British or Spanish, is the incompatibility
of traditional Cajun values with the realities of modern American life.
The explosion of information, knowledge, high technology, mass communications,
mobility, and competition are an anathema to insularity and laissez le
bon temps roullez. The historic Acadian neglect for education has resulted
in a people who know very little of their own history, and are too often
ill prepared for jobs of the real world of work. The dependence on an oil,
natural gas, fishing, and an agricultural based economy devastated Louisiana
during the 1980s when all of those industries went bust simultaneously.
The axiom that a government job, while it paid little, was secure, was
no longer true in Louisiana where tax revenues dwindled and hundreds of
state government jobs and services were eliminated due to a depleted tax
base and no support for revenue enhancements. Consequently, many Acadian
descendants, this author included, were forced to look elsewhere for meaningful
employment. There is a New Derangement taking place in Louisiana, which is one of
only four states of the United States who will have fewer Congressional
Districts as a result of the 1990 Census. Evidence of the New Derangement
occurred to this author shortly after moving from Church Point, Louisiana,
to Austin, Texas in the Summer of 1989. After receiving a call from another
Austinite and former Church Point native, the author was told of a meeting
of the "CIA" which were initials for "Cajuns in Austin"
Thinking that the group consisted of a few close friends, the author was
shocked to find out that at times there could be as many as 200 people
in attendance. Austin is only a mid-sized city and an average of 400-500
hundred miles from most Cajun communities. Cajuns have always been survivors. The New Derangement may not eliminate
the Cajun culture. Scholars like Glenn Conrad, Mathe Allain, and especially
Carl Brasseaux at the Center for Louisiana Studies of the University of
Southwestern Louisiana (USL) are working not only to preserve a unique
heritage worth preserving, but to replace fiction and legend with historic
fact. Scholarly works like The Founding of New Acadia and In Search of
Evangeline: The Birth and Evolution of the Evangeline Myth are slowly replacing
fabrications like Longfellow's Evangeline and Acadian Reminiscences as
sources of Acadian history and heritage. It is left for the descendants
of the Acadians to decide that their own heritage is worth preserving;
that their history needs no embellishing; and that survival may mean a
little more enlightenment and a little less insularity.
| Gary's Bio
|Before Brown| Worse
Than Death| Bad Boy From Rosebud |
Sniper in the Tower | Cajuns
|
