tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16608579585354481392024-03-13T06:40:43.188-05:00Bayou Teche DispatchesA blog dedicated to the discussion of south Louisiana history and culture, particular along Bayou Teche and its vicinity.Shane K. Bernardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00454946054965548589noreply@blogger.comBlogger57125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660857958535448139.post-70314648516153429212023-06-28T00:28:00.002-05:002023-06-28T16:51:16.802-05:00Welcome to Bayou Teche Dispatches. . . .<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nUZSe47GwFs/Xp8ND495neI/AAAAAAAADJs/o7e4ODzBQkQ21FaGjl5Mi6Jl1j-NUucYACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/s-l1600%2B%25285%2529.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="645" data-original-width="1024" height="251" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nUZSe47GwFs/Xp8ND495neI/AAAAAAAADJs/o7e4ODzBQkQ21FaGjl5Mi6Jl1j-NUucYACLcBGAsYHQ/s400/s-l1600%2B%25285%2529.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Cypress logging raft on the Teche, ca. 1910 (postcard).</span></td></tr>
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<b style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;"><i>Bayou Teche Dispatches</i> </b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">is a collection of my writings about south Louisiana history and culture. Often it consists of material I could not use in my books for one reason or another, but which I nonetheless found fascinating. I hope you enjoy reading these articles as much as I enjoyed researching and writing them.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">If you publish information from these articles, however, please remember to cite this blog as your source and, if applicable, to supply a return link. Please do not repost articles in their entireties, but short block quotations that fall within range of "fair use" are acceptable.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">~ Shane K. Bernard</span></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">Please visit the </span></i><br />
<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif"><a href="http://bayoutechedispatches.blogspot.com/2018/05/bayou-teche-dispatches-store.html" target="_blank">Bayou Teche Dispatches Store</a></span></i></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">to purchase the author's books</span></i></div>
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<i><b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Table of Contents</span></b></i><div><span style="font-family: courier new, courier, monospace;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></div><div><i style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right; white-space: nowrap;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px;">❧</span> <a href="https://bayoutechedispatches.blogspot.com/2023/06/petit-manchac-tale-of-two-lafayettes.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Petit Manchac: A Tale of Two Lafayettes</a></span></i></div><div><i style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right; white-space: nowrap;">Fact or a misreading of source material?</span></i></div><div><div><span style="font-family: courier new, courier, monospace;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></div><div><i style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right; white-space: nowrap;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px;">❧</span> </span></i><span style="font-family: courier new, courier, monospace;"><i><a href="http://bayoutechedispatches.blogspot.com/2022/05/state-of-genre-swamp-pop-in-21st-century.html" target="_blank">State of the Genre: Swamp Pop Music in the 21st Century</a><br /></i></span><div><span style="font-family: courier new, courier, monospace;"><i>How is this south Louisiana/southeast Texas sound faring 50+ years after its heyday?</i></span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier new, courier, monospace;"><i><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><i><span style="line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right; white-space: nowrap;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px;">❧</span> </span></i><a href="https://bayoutechedispatches.blogspot.com/2022/05/born-of-elite-white-reactionism.html" target="_blank">Born of "Elite" White Reactionism?: Assessing Claims about the Rise of Cajun Ethnicity</a> </p>Disputing statements that Cajuns appeared only about 50 years ago</i></span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier new, courier, monospace;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i><span style="line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right; white-space: nowrap;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px;">❧</span> <a href="https://bayoutechedispatches.blogspot.com/2019/06/of-cajuns-and-creoles-brief-historical.html" target="_blank">Of Cajuns and Creoles: A Brief Historical Analysis</a></span></i></span><br /><i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right; white-space: nowrap;">A look at the relationship between these ethnic groups</span></i><span style="font-family: courier new, courier, monospace;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span><div><div><i><span style="line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px;"><span style="font-family: courier new, courier, monospace;"><span style="white-space: nowrap;"><br /></span></span></span></span></i></div><div><i><span style="line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px;"><span style="font-family: courier new, courier, monospace;"><span style="white-space: nowrap;">❧ <a href="https://bayoutechedispatches.blogspot.com/2020/09/notes-on-birth-of-cajun-ethnic-identity.html" target="_blank">Notes on the Birth of Cajun Ethnic Identity</a> </span></span><br /></span></span></i><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><i>An effort to clarify this important topic</i></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></b></i><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px;"><span style="font-family: courier new, courier, monospace;"><span style="white-space: nowrap;">❧ <a href="https://bayoutechedispatches.blogspot.com/2020/09/thoughts-on-cajuns-and-whiteness.html" target="_blank">Thoughts on Cajuns and "Whiteness"</a></span></span></span></span></i><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><i><span style="line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px;"><span style="font-family: courier new, courier, monospace;"><span style="white-space: nowrap;">Were Cajuns always, or did they become, "white"?</span></span></span></span></i></div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><i><span style="line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px;"><span style="font-family: courier new, courier, monospace;"><span style="white-space: nowrap;"><br /></span></span></span></span></i></div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><i style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right; white-space: nowrap;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px;">❧</span> <a href="https://bayoutechedispatches.blogspot.com/2022/02/prairie-de-jacko-why-name.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">"Prairie de Jacko": Source of the Name?</a></span></i><i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br />Notes on an 18th-century place name along the Teche</span></i></div></span></div><div><i style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right; white-space: nowrap;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px;"><br /></span></span></i></div><div><i style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right; white-space: nowrap;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px;">❧</span> <a href="https://bayoutechedispatches.blogspot.com/2020/01/notes-on-founding-of-opelousas.html" target="_blank">Notes on the Founding of Opelousas</a></span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Did it happen in 1720 or not?</span></i><br />
<i><b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></b></i><i style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right; white-space: nowrap;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px;">❧</span> <a href="https://bayoutechedispatches.blogspot.com/2019/12/when-jimi-hendrix-appeared-on-my.html" target="_blank">When Jimi Hendrix Appeared on My Father's Live TV Show </a></span></i><br />
<i style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://bayoutechedispatches.blogspot.com/2019/12/when-jimi-hendrix-appeared-on-my.html" target="_blank">in Lafayette, Louisiana, January 1965</a></span></i><br />
<i style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right; white-space: nowrap;">The rock-guitar pioneer visited Lafayette</span></i><br />
<i><b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></b></i>
<i style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right; white-space: nowrap;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px;">❧</span> <a href="https://bayoutechedispatches.blogspot.com/2019/09/electronic-cajuns-and-creoles-early.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Electronic Cajuns and Creoles: </a></span></i><i style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://bayoutechedispatches.blogspot.com/2019/09/electronic-cajuns-and-creoles-early.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Early Television</a></span></i><br />
<i style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://bayoutechedispatches.blogspot.com/2019/09/electronic-cajuns-and-creoles-early.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">as an Americanizing Agent</a></span></i><br />
<i style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right; white-space: nowrap;">TV's impact on these two ethnic groups</span></i><br />
<i style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right; white-space: nowrap;"><br /></span></i>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i><span style="line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right; white-space: nowrap;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px;">❧</span> </span></i><i><a href="https://bayoutechedispatches.blogspot.com/2019/08/a-tool-for-fighting-fake-news.html" target="_blank">A Tool for Fighting Fake News & Conspiracy Theories: Teach Critical Thinking in American Classrooms</a></i></span><br />
<i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">"Not what to think, but how to think"</span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="background-color: white;"><i><span style="line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right; white-space: nowrap;"><i><span style="line-height: 18.48px;">❧</span> </i><a href="https://bayoutechedispatches.blogspot.com/2018/08/a-portrait-andonia-thibodeaux-of-bayou.html" target="_blank">Portrait of a Cajun Woman:</a> </span></i><i><span style="line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://bayoutechedispatches.blogspot.com/2018/08/a-portrait-andonia-thibodeaux-of-bayou.html" target="_blank">Andonia Thibodeaux </a></span></i></span></span><br />
<i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right; white-space: nowrap;"><a href="https://bayoutechedispatches.blogspot.com/2018/08/a-portrait-andonia-thibodeaux-of-bayou.html" style="background-color: white;" target="_blank">of Bayou Tigre</a></span></i><br />
<i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right; white-space: nowrap;">An old tin-type photograph leads to a literary find</span></i><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i><span style="line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right; white-space: nowrap;"><br /></span></i>
<i><span style="line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right; white-space: nowrap;">❧</span> </i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i><a href="http://bayoutechedispatches.blogspot.com/2017/05/another-civil-war-gunboat-on-teche-uss.html" target="_blank">Another Civil War Gunboat on the Teche: The U.S.S. Glide, aka Federal Gunboat No. 43</a></i></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i style="background-color: white;">A legal document reveals the presence of one more gunboat on the bayou</i></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i><b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></b></i>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i><span style="line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right; white-space: nowrap;">❧</span> </i><i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><a href="http://bayoutechedispatches.blogspot.com/2016/06/coming-soon-my-new-book-about-bayou.html" target="_blank">Now Available: My New Book about Bayou Teche</a></span></i></span></span><br />
<i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">A narrative history of Bayou Teche and journal of canoeing the present-day bayou</span></i><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i><b><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></b></i>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right; white-space: nowrap;">❧</span> </span></i><i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><a href="http://bayoutechedispatches.blogspot.com/2016/02/a-railroad-history-of-avery-island.html" target="_blank">A Railroad History of Avery Island</a></span></i></span></span><br />
<i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">An article I wrote for someone else's blog in 2010</span></i><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></i>
<i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right; white-space: nowrap;">❧</span> <a href="http://bayoutechedispatches.blogspot.com/2012/10/sur-la-teche-exploring-bayou-by-canoe.html" target="_blank">Sur le Teche: Exploring the Bayou by Canoe, Stage 1</a></span></i></span><br />
<i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Port Barre to Arnaudville</span></i><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span>
<i><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right; white-space: nowrap;">❧ </span><a href="http://bayoutechedispatches.blogspot.com/2014/04/rough-rider-redux-photo-of-theodore.html" target="_blank">Rough Rider Redux: A Photo of Theodore Roosevelt in Downtown New Iberia?</a></span></i></span><br />
<i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">A forgotten photo of Theodore Roosevelt in Cajun Country</span></i><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></i>
<i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right; white-space: nowrap;">❧ </span><a href="http://bayoutechedispatches.blogspot.com/2013/10/although-i-am-historian-and-thus-write.html" target="_blank">A Fiction Interlude: My Short Story "The Phrenologist"</a></span></i></span><br />
<i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">A short story about racism set in antebellum New Orleans</span></i><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></i>
<i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right; white-space: nowrap;">❧ </span><a href="http://bayoutechedispatches.blogspot.com/2013/09/a-floating-dancehall-on-teche-club-sho.html" target="_blank">A Floating Dancehall on the Teche: The Club Sho Boat</a></span></i></span><br />
<i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">A riverboat that became a nightclub and restaurant</span></i><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></i>
<i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right; white-space: nowrap;">❧ </span><a href="http://bayoutechedispatches.blogspot.com/2013/02/a-meteor-over-cajun-louisiana-window-on.html" target="_blank">A Meteor over Cajun Louisiana: Window on Atomic-Age Anxieties</a></span></i></span><br />
<i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Confusing a meteor for an atomic bomb</span></i><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></i>
<i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right; white-space: nowrap;">❧ </span><a href="http://bayoutechedispatches.blogspot.com/2013/02/films-documenting-south-louisianas.html" target="_blank">A Film Documents South Louisiana's Logging Industry, ca. 1925: Responsible Stewardship or Environmental Disaster?</a></span></i></span><br />
<i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Digitized film about cypress logging along the Teche</span></i><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></i>
<i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right; white-space: nowrap;">❧ </span><a href="http://bayoutechedispatches.blogspot.com/2013/02/a-glimpse-from-1968-historic-films.html" target="_blank">A Glimpse from 1968: Historic Films Looked at Cajuns and Creoles in Epic Year</a></span></i></span><br />
<i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Digitized French films capture an important year in south Louisiana history</span></i><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></i>
<i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right; white-space: nowrap;">❧ </span><a href="http://bayoutechedispatches.blogspot.com/2013/04/now-available-my-childrens-history-of.html" target="_blank">Now Available: My Children's History of the Cajuns in English and French Editions</a></span></i></span><br />
<i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Buy my Cajun book for kids so I can pay off my credit card</span></i><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></i>
<i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right; white-space: nowrap;">❧ </span><a href="http://bayoutechedispatches.blogspot.com/2013/05/cajuns-of-teche-bad-history-wartime.html" target="_blank">"Cajuns of the Teche": Bad History, Wartime Propaganda, or Both?</a></span></i></span><br />
<i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">A 1942 film with excellent images, horrible script</span></i><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></i>
<i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right; white-space: nowrap;">❧ </span><a href="http://bayoutechedispatches.blogspot.com/2013/01/a-snake-worm-and-dead-end-in-search-of.html" target="_blank">A Snake, a Worm, and a Dead End: In Search of the Meaning of "Teche"</a></span></i></span><br />
<i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Searching for the meaning of the word "Teche"</span></i><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></i>
<i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right; white-space: nowrap;">❧ </span><a href="http://bayoutechedispatches.blogspot.com/2013/01/impalas-bowling-and-swamp-pop-johnny.html" target="_blank">Galaxies, Bowling and Swamp Pop: Johnny Preston and The Cajuns in Escondido</a></span></i></span><br />
<i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Examining a Cajun reference in a chain e-mail about old gas stations</span></i><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></i>
<i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right; white-space: nowrap;">❧ </span><a href="http://bayoutechedispatches.blogspot.com/2012/10/serendipity-and-fort-tombecbe-value-of.html" target="_blank">Serendipity and Fort Tombecbe: Cooperation between Historians and Archaeologists</a></span></i></span><br />
<i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Accidentally finding a map of a fort coincidentally excavated by my friend</span></i><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></i>
<i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right; white-space: nowrap;">❧ </span><a href="http://bayoutechedispatches.blogspot.com/2012_07_01_archive.html" target="_blank">Notes on Two Nineteenth-Century Engravings of South Louisiana Scenes</a></span></i></span><br />
<i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Vintage magazine images of Cajun and Creole women</span></i><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></i>
<i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right; white-space: nowrap;">❧ </span><a href="http://bayoutechedispatches.blogspot.com/2012/07/finding-history-right-around-corner.html" target="_blank">Finding History Right around the Corner: Heroism on the Cajun Home Front</a></span></i></span><br />
<i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">A nearly forgotten World War II landmark a block from my residence</span></i><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></i>
<i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right; white-space: nowrap;">❧ </span><a href="http://bayoutechedispatches.blogspot.com/2012/06/my-fathers-autograph-book-on-history.html" target="_blank">My Father's Childhood Autograph Book on the History Channel?</a></span></i></span><br />
<i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">When Dad met Hank Williams, Sr.</span></i><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></i>
<i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right; white-space: nowrap;">❧ </span><a href="http://bayoutechedispatches.blogspot.com/2012/05/my-oddball-collection-cajun-warplane.html" target="_blank">My Oddball Collection of Cajun Warplane Photos</a></span></i></span><br />
<i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Cajun-themed combat aircraft</span></i><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></i>
<i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right; white-space: nowrap;">❧ </span><a href="http://bayoutechedispatches.blogspot.com/2012/04/elodies-gift-family-photographic.html" target="_blank">Elodie's Gift: A Family Photographic Mystery</a></span></i></span><br />
<i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">An old tin type image given to me by a great-aunt</span></i><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></i>
<i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right; white-space: nowrap;">❧ </span><a href="http://bayoutechedispatches.blogspot.com/2012/04/nike-cajun-rocket-how-it-got-its-name.html" target="_blank">The Nike-Cajun Rocket: How It Got Its Name</a></span></i></span><br />
<i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">A rocket named "the Cajun"?</span></i><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></i>
<i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right; white-space: nowrap;">❧ </span><a href="http://bayoutechedispatches.blogspot.com/2012/04/middle-name-or-clerical-error-joseph.html" target="_blank">Middle Name or Clerical Error?: Joseph Broussard dit Beausoleil and "Gaurhept"</a></span></i></span><br />
<i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Perpetuation of a historical error</span></i><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></i>
<i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right; white-space: nowrap;">❧ </span><a href="http://bayoutechedispatches.blogspot.com/2010/08/debunking-alleged-origin-of-word.html" target="_blank">Debunking the Alleged Origin of the Word "Coonass"</a></span></i></span><br />
<i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Finding a word by accident that wasn't yet supposed to exist</span></i><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></i>
<i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right; white-space: nowrap;">❧ </span><a href="http://bayoutechedispatches.blogspot.com/2012/03/more-on-that-word-coonass-labor-dispute.html" target="_blank">More on That Word "Coonass": A Labor Dispute Trial Documents Its Use in 1940</a></span></i></span><br />
<i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">The earliest known use of this controversial word</span></i><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></i>
<i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right; white-space: nowrap;">❧ </span><a href="http://bayoutechedispatches.blogspot.com/2012/03/to-err-is-human-errata-in-my-books.html" target="_blank">"To Err Is Human": Errata from My Books</a></span></i></span><br />
<i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Everyone makes mistakes</span></i><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></i>
<i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right; white-space: nowrap;">❧ </span><a href="http://bayoutechedispatches.blogspot.com/2012/02/old-bull-durham-tobacco-ad-in-new.html" target="_blank">An Old Bull Durham Tobacco Ad in New Iberia, or Palimpsests on the Teche</a></span></i></span><br />
<i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">This vintage advertisement has since been destroyed</span></i><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></i>
<i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right; white-space: nowrap;">❧ </span><a href="http://bayoutechedispatches.blogspot.com/2012/01/remembering-polycarp-cajun-childrens-tv.html" target="_blank">Remembering Polycarp: A Cajun TV Show Host for Children</a></span></i></span><br />
<i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Everyone loved Polycarp!</span></i><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></i>
<i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right; white-space: nowrap;">❧ </span><a href="http://bayoutechedispatches.blogspot.com/2012/01/from-jet-fighters-to-football-origin-of.html" target="_blank">From Jet Fighters to Football: Origin of the Phrase "Ragin' Cajun"</a></span></i></span><br />
<i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Where this catchy term originated (as far as anyone knows)</span></i><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></i>
<i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right; white-space: nowrap;">❧ </span><a href="http://bayoutechedispatches.blogspot.com/2011/02/elusive-andre-masse-pioneer-of.html" target="_blank">The Elusive André Massé, Pioneer of the Attakapas</a></span></i></span><br />
<i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">An almost mythical explorer of the Teche region</span></i><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></i>
<i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right; white-space: nowrap;">❧ </span><a href="http://bayoutechedispatches.blogspot.com/2011/12/more-on-elusive-andre-masse-early_14.html" target="_blank">More on the Elusive Andre Massé, Early Settler of the Attakapas District</a></span></i></span><br />
<i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Revelations about him in a historical document</span></i><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></i>
<i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right; white-space: nowrap;">❧ </span><a href="http://bayoutechedispatches.blogspot.com/2011/12/la-chute-waterfall-on-bayou-teche.html" target="_blank">La Chute: A Waterfall on Bayou Teche?</a></span></i></span><br />
<i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">A waterfall in largely flat south Louisiana</span></i><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></i>
<i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right; white-space: nowrap;">❧ </span><a href="http://bayoutechedispatches.blogspot.com/2011/10/gumbo-in-1764.html" target="_blank">Gumbo in 1764?</a></span></i></span><br />
<i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">The earliest known reference to gumbo in Louisiana</span></i><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></i>
<i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right; white-space: nowrap;">❧ </span><a href="http://bayoutechedispatches.blogspot.com/2011/10/more-on-that-word-gumbo-okra-sassafras.html" target="_blank">On That Word "Gumbo": Okra, Sassafras, and Baudry's Reports from 1802-1803</a></span></i></span><br />
<i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">More on the history of gumbo in Louisiana</span></i><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></i>
<i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right; white-space: nowrap;">❧ </span><a href="http://bayoutechedispatches.blogspot.com/2011/09/la-pointe-de-repos-early-acadian.html" target="_blank">La Pointe de Repos — Early Acadian Settlement Site along the Teche</a></span></i></span><br />
<i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Colonial-era settlement near present-day Parks, Louisiana</span></i><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></i>
<i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right; white-space: nowrap;">❧ </span><a href="http://bayoutechedispatches.blogspot.com/2011/08/in-1889-famed-louisiana-author-george.html" target="_blank">A 1795 Journey up the Teche: Fact, Fiction, or Literary Hoax?</a></span></i></span><br />
<i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">It almost fooled me . . . almost</span></i><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></i>
<i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right; white-space: nowrap;">❧ </span><a href="http://bayoutechedispatches.blogspot.com/2011_07_01_archive.html" target="_blank">All the Same Place: Isla Cuarin, Côte de Coiron, Île Petite Anse, Petite Anse Island & Avery Island</a></span></i></span><br />
<i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Evolution of a place name in the south Louisiana coastal marsh</span></i><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></i>
<i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right; white-space: nowrap;">❧ </span><a href="http://bayoutechedispatches.blogspot.com/2011/05/grevembergs-of-attakapas-early-cattle.html" target="_blank">The Grevembergs, Early Cattle Ranchers of the Attakapas</a></span></i></span><br />
<i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">When someone accidentally transposes two numerals</span></i><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></i>
<i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right; white-space: nowrap;">❧ </span><a href="http://bayoutechedispatches.blogspot.com/2011/03/tracking-decline-of-cajun-french.html" target="_blank">Tracking the Decline of Cajun French</a></span></i></span><br />
<i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Research behind the language stats in my book The Cajuns</span></i><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></i>
<i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right; white-space: nowrap;">❧ </span><a href="http://bayoutechedispatches.blogspot.com/2011/03/secret-codofil-papers.html" target="_blank">The Secret CODOFIL Papers</a></span></i></span><br />
<i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">I waited how long for the FBI to release these documents?</span></i><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></i>
<i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right; white-space: nowrap;">❧ </span><a href="http://bayoutechedispatches.blogspot.com/2010/07/agnus-dei-artifact-found-on-banks-of.html" target="_blank">Agnus Dei Artifact Found on Banks of Bayou Teche</a></span></i></span><br />
<i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">A religious symbol turns up in the mud at Breaux Bridge</span></i><br />
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</div></div></div></div></div></div>Shane K. Bernardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00454946054965548589noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660857958535448139.post-33388601046893736642023-06-27T09:31:00.092-05:002023-07-02T12:46:19.347-05:00Petit Manchac: A Tale of Two Lafayettes<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">The year 2023 marks the bicentennial of Lafayette Parish, Louisiana </span><span style="font-family: courier;">—</span><span style="font-family: courier;"> the seat of which was Vermilionville, renamed Lafayette in 1884 to honor the Marquis de Lafayette of American Revolution fame. This two-hundredth anniversary seems an opportune time to reconsider a popular notion about early Vermilionville / Lafayette history: namely, that the community had been founded on a site known as "Petit Manchac" — the latter word thought to be of </span><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Mobilian or Choctaw origin </span></span><span style="font-family: courier;">meaning "rear" or "rear entrance."</span><span style="color: #666666; font-family: courier;">(1)</span></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: courier;"><br /></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjljU2K4DldgElIoOYJqDsmo7O8jNAycNHbvJLuNFgSGmFvU7UNglF8lLccgqMcnVQiWutTTgNGXj2LCgiW61Ibk-YulXfDS-tcostDhOfgFzhRCICRk1N_7_uobhi-6grxuPVxQx87nQvL07HXpCS-U3icnhU7ts1hcry7bBNm-OHnKAbLHrG2srkndp0/s800/1678717824448.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="800" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjljU2K4DldgElIoOYJqDsmo7O8jNAycNHbvJLuNFgSGmFvU7UNglF8lLccgqMcnVQiWutTTgNGXj2LCgiW61Ibk-YulXfDS-tcostDhOfgFzhRCICRk1N_7_uobhi-6grxuPVxQx87nQvL07HXpCS-U3icnhU7ts1hcry7bBNm-OHnKAbLHrG2srkndp0/w400-h400/1678717824448.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Logo of the Lafayette Parish <br />bicentennial celebration.<br /><br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">This claim that </span><span style="font-family: courier;">Vermilionville / Lafayette began as </span><span style="font-family: courier;">Petit Manchac </span><span style="font-family: courier;">can be found in numerous sources spanning the past century. "</span><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Petit Manchac, Vermilionville, Lafayette," observed Father </span></span><span style="font-family: courier;">Charles Léon Souvay in 1921, "</span><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: left;">each of these three names might well be taken to typify a distinct period in the life of the thriving little city by the Bayou Vermilion." </span><span style="font-family: courier;">"The settlement, then called Petit Manchac,</span><span style="font-family: courier;">" asserted the World War II-era tome </span><i style="font-family: courier;">Louisiana: A Guide to the State, "</i><span style="font-family: courier;">became the governing seat of Lafayette Parish." "'Petit Manchac' Grew Up into Lafayette,” noted a Lafayette newspaper headline in 1959. "Petit Manchac, the original name of Lafayette, even before Vermilionville, means the little back door!" stated <i>New Orleans Magazine</i> in 2013.</span><span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: courier;">(</span><span style="font-family: courier;">2</span><span style="font-family: courier;">)</span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">But is this true? Was Petit Manchac the name of the colonial-era site that became Vermilionville and then Lafayette, a city of about 120,000 people in present-day Lafayette Parish, Louisiana.</span><span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: courier;">(</span><span style="font-family: courier;">3</span><span style="font-family: courier;">)</span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH-WcRRfgsIG1hO8lGnqx-zDG2soJl-HlbyKfynlhWq2iAq6KTH-lsZbi9HX6t4KgyoUE7GgvBPYzRcvK84OvXoFEsnTmAIr3uZLaY9qQt1n9_HIFartjXGgtFEvy2xV-wCgEkWfqLlAt-gxmcrzdfJvApJSwmKmkCAmq-l1MPEzpoE2puSTbO6ZR_A_k/s1086/Louisiana%20New%20York%20Published%20by%20J.H.%20Colton,%20%5B1855%5D.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="847" data-original-width="1086" height="313" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH-WcRRfgsIG1hO8lGnqx-zDG2soJl-HlbyKfynlhWq2iAq6KTH-lsZbi9HX6t4KgyoUE7GgvBPYzRcvK84OvXoFEsnTmAIr3uZLaY9qQt1n9_HIFartjXGgtFEvy2xV-wCgEkWfqLlAt-gxmcrzdfJvApJSwmKmkCAmq-l1MPEzpoE2puSTbO6ZR_A_k/w400-h313/Louisiana%20New%20York%20Published%20by%20J.H.%20Colton,%20%5B1855%5D.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Vermilionville, later Lafayette,<br />Lafayette Parish, Louisiana,<br />from J. H. Colton's 1855 map of Louisiana.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Putting aside the Petit Manchac issue for a moment, <i>Manchac</i> in itself has referred over time to a number of Louisiana geographic features. For example, it is the name of a bayou running through the parishes of East Baton Rouge, Ascension, and Iberville. Furthermore, Manchac refers to a small present-day community in Tangipahoa Parish. Manchac Pass is a short waterway connecting Lake Maurepas to Lake Pontchartrain. Historically, Manchac was the name of a colonial-era British fort (also called Fort Bute) and its environs located where Bayou Manchac meets the Mississippi River.</span><span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: courier;">(</span><span style="font-family: courier;">4</span><span style="font-family: courier;">)</span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Because all these features bearing the name Manchac sit <i>in southeast Louisian</i>a, it seems a little odd that the future site of </span><span style="font-family: courier;">Vermilionville / Lafayette </span><span style="font-family: courier;">—</span><span style="font-family: courier;"> found<i> in south-central Louisiana</i> </span><span style="font-family: courier;">—</span><span style="font-family: courier;"> should have been called Petit Manchac. Odd, because </span><span style="font-family: courier;">Vermilionville / Lafayette sits in a region with a slightly different history and culture, where the Attakapas, not the Mobile or Choctaw, resided, and where place names deriving from the latter two tribal languages are less commonly known or altogether unknown.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Although not impossible, it does seem unlikely that </span><span style="font-family: courier;">Vermilionville / Lafayette traces its origin to a place called Petit Manchac</span><span style="font-family: courier;">. There is, for example, no known primary-source evidence for the claim (at least as far as I am aware) </span><span style="font-family: courier;">— no known handwritten colonial-era or early-American document referring to </span><span style="font-family: courier;">Vermilionville / Lafayette as Petit Manchac.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">So where does the story about Petit Manchac morphing into </span><span style="font-family: courier;">Vermilionville / Lafayette </span><span style="font-family: courier;">come from? </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">I believe the association of </span><span style="font-family: courier;">Vermilionville / Lafayette</span><span style="font-family: courier;"> with Petit Manchac quite possibly came <i>from someone's misreading of a 19th-century work of history </i></span><span style="font-family: courier;">—</span><span style="font-family: courier;"> namely, </span><span style="font-family: courier;">Charles Gayarré's </span><span style="font-family: courier;">French-language book <i>Histoire de la Louisiane</i>, published in </span><span style="font-family: courier;">two-volumes </span><span style="font-family: courier;">between 1846 and 1847</span><span style="font-family: courier;">.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihzuTFcHkor3NQ6AHvAgz49QzA6LHOvpe35WQhzr90BaDJM5wNPvXdB9WvLUP8eKU7KAaqxyzqD4TKG3XqKLxgOiZ26MAhLQe5DRJFN0akgzum3ibeYnAOyrjpKbLmCOlHF4oFe7MPmiC2_Iw-avQShFPCjZuL3JXoKY2Akvvfzdx6F4c5_cTJ-dLOQS0/s756/Gayerr%C3%A9%202.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="756" data-original-width="543" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihzuTFcHkor3NQ6AHvAgz49QzA6LHOvpe35WQhzr90BaDJM5wNPvXdB9WvLUP8eKU7KAaqxyzqD4TKG3XqKLxgOiZ26MAhLQe5DRJFN0akgzum3ibeYnAOyrjpKbLmCOlHF4oFe7MPmiC2_Iw-avQShFPCjZuL3JXoKY2Akvvfzdx6F4c5_cTJ-dLOQS0/s320/Gayerr%C3%A9%202.jpg" width="230" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: justify;">Volume 2 of Gayarré's <br /></span><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: justify;"><i>Histoire de la Louisiane </i>(1847).</span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">This idea, I should say, is not at all mine, though I concur with it wholly. Rather, the idea comes from my fellow historical researcher Donald Arceneaux and archaeologist Donny Bourgeois. It was they who noticed and interpreted the following passage in Gayarré's book </span><span style="font-family: courier;">(which I translate)</span><span style="font-family: courier;"> </span><span style="font-family: courier;">—</span><span style="font-family: courier;"> the earliest known reference to Petit Manchac:</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">"The English . . . [in] Their vessels, went up the [Mississippi] river under the pretext of going to [Fort] Manchac and to Baton Rouge, stopping, after having passed New Orleans, at the place where the town of Lafayette now stands. . . . The name 'petit Manchac' stuck with this place."</span><span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: courier;">(</span><span style="font-family: courier;">5</span><span style="font-family: courier;">)</span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: courier;">There it is </span><span style="font-family: courier;">—</span></i><span style="font-family: courier;"><i> the association of Petit Manchac with the future site of "the town of Lafayette." </i></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Seems pretty clear and matter-of-fact.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS4jDgI-y3JMh8uvfmPLR3R0doKlQdRF9L9XHW0bdCvybOm5_SjeKblsUEcS7L9CUfpC6HXFCBq1hsend1v01p0GTwf6XUp9V4LvodD9QUzMXgkboSIkFBKD37Qvd8qlq1dn2i6R_exCSIOGD_psWnIzxY14P1Px9VrXZAVUEPEtopbUoJm8wsMYgQCOo/s750/Gayarr%C3%A9%20quote.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="750" data-original-width="539" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS4jDgI-y3JMh8uvfmPLR3R0doKlQdRF9L9XHW0bdCvybOm5_SjeKblsUEcS7L9CUfpC6HXFCBq1hsend1v01p0GTwf6XUp9V4LvodD9QUzMXgkboSIkFBKD37Qvd8qlq1dn2i6R_exCSIOGD_psWnIzxY14P1Px9VrXZAVUEPEtopbUoJm8wsMYgQCOo/w288-h400/Gayarr%C3%A9%20quote.jpg" width="288" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier;">The crucial passage in Gayarré.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">A closer reading of the passage, however, reveals that Gayarré <i>d</i></span><span style="font-family: courier;"><i>id</i></span><i style="font-family: courier;"> not refer to Lafayette in Lafayette Parish, Louisiana</i><span style="font-family: courier;">. Rather, he referred to </span><i style="font-family: courier;">a different Lafayette</i><span style="font-family: courier;">, one located some 135 miles to the south-southeast, on the Mississippi River just upstream of</span><span style="font-family: courier;"> New Orleans. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">And there was indeed a town called Lafayette on that stretch of the Mississippi </span><span style="font-family: courier;">—</span><span style="font-family: courier;"> a town in fact so close to New Orleans that it eventually became part of New Orleans itself. I refer to the Crescent City neighborhood called Faubourg Lafayette, now the 10th Ward, comprising part of </span><span style="font-family: courier;">New Orleans' </span><span style="font-family: courier;">renowned Garden District. “The city of Lafayette,” the state declared in 1852, “is hereby incorporated with the city of New Orleans, and shall form part of the city of New Orleans. . . .”</span><span style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; font-family: courier;">(6)</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrtoiz8By5BPmRugtYPyXhnJZH33E-bH4IwI1zJlGcfN-zJC4AskVHSRhzsuUD3xsPMi9n35ZwcRNOyxIXjX76ek63bA4HDvuUjiofThN70XHt0TGosYrNR9B292x0tggjYArEuVYWrODu8mtGWDnk9kfGwj0uNg0UY_-fPNcAYgsgARAzVsiYxBGnCiA/s996/Map-of-New-Orleans_1834_Zimpel.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="658" data-original-width="996" height="264" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrtoiz8By5BPmRugtYPyXhnJZH33E-bH4IwI1zJlGcfN-zJC4AskVHSRhzsuUD3xsPMi9n35ZwcRNOyxIXjX76ek63bA4HDvuUjiofThN70XHt0TGosYrNR9B292x0tggjYArEuVYWrODu8mtGWDnk9kfGwj0uNg0UY_-fPNcAYgsgARAzVsiYxBGnCiA/w400-h264/Map-of-New-Orleans_1834_Zimpel.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier;">The faubourg of Lafayette (at left),<br />in relation to central New Orleans (right),<br />from Charles Zimpel's map of New Orleans (1834).</span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">With this information in mind, it seems to me the assertion</span><span style="font-family: courier;"> that Lafayette / Vermilionville developed from a place called Petit Manchac is incorrect; and that this error likely stemmed directly or indirectly from a misreading of Gayarré's </span><i style="font-family: courier;">Histoire de la Louisiane</i><span style="font-family: courier;">. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">The alternative, I should note, would be that early south Louisiana boasted <i>not one but two </i>sites called Petit Manchac,<i> both of which grew into communities named Lafayette</i> </span><span style="font-family: courier;">—</span><span style="font-family: courier;"> a highly unlikely proposition. The simpler explanation is that someone misread Gayarré and that others repeated that error. This is, unfortunately, not an uncommon occurrence in historical writing.<span style="color: #666666;">(7)</span></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i style="font-family: courier;"><br /></i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i style="font-family: courier;">Thanks to Carl Brasseaux and Don Arceneaux for proofing this blog article.</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="color: #666666;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier;">NOTES</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="color: #666666;">(1)</span>William A. Read, "Louisiana Place-Names of Indian Origin," <i>University Bulletin </i>XIX (February 1927): 36. Read did not seem entirely convinced of the etymology, tentatively suggesting "<i>Perhaps it springs</i> . . . from Mobilian or Choctaw <i>imashaka</i>, 'rear,' or probably 'rear entrance.' . . ." </span><span style="font-family: courier;">(emphasis added).</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: courier;">(</span><span style="font-family: courier;">2</span><span style="font-family: courier;">)</span></span><span style="font-family: courier;">Reverend Charles Léon Souvay, "Rummaging through Old Parish Records: An Historical Sketch of the Church of Lafayette, La., 1821-1921," </span><i style="font-family: courier;">St. Louis Catholic Historical Review </i><span style="font-family: courier;">III (October 1921): 242; </span><i style="font-family: courier;">Louisiana: A Guide to the State </i><span style="font-family: courier;">(New York: Hastings House, 1945), p. 402; Lydia Krause, </span><span style="font-family: courier;">"'Petit Manchac' Grew Up into Lafayette,” <i>Daily Advertiser</i>, 30 January 1959, Sec. A, 1–5; Charles Paxton, "The Legacy of Native Acadiana," <i>New Orleans Magazine</i>, 1 August 2013, https://www.myneworleans.com/the-legacy-of-native-acadiana/, accessed 27 June 2023. For ease of reading I have corrected Souvey's spelling of Vermilionville from his nonstandard "Vermillionville."</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: courier;">(</span><span style="font-family: courier;">3</span><span style="font-family: courier;">)</span></span><span style="font-family: courier;">"QuickFacts: Lafayette City, Louisiana; Lafayette Parish, Louisiana," US Census Bureau, population estimate of 1 July 2022, https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/lafayettecitylouisiana,lafayetteparishlouisiana/PST045222, accessed 27 June 2023.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: courier;">(</span><span style="font-family: courier;">4</span><span style="font-family: courier;">)</span></span><span style="font-family: courier;">See Richard Campanella, "What Might Have Happened at Manchac," </span><i style="font-family: courier;">64 Parishes</i><span style="font-family: courier;">, Winter 2022, https://64parishes.org/what-might-have-happened-at-manchac, accessed 27 June 2023.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: courier;">(</span><span style="font-family: courier;">5</span><span style="font-family: courier;">)</span></span><span style="font-family: courier;">Charles Gayarré, </span><i style="font-family: courier;">Histoire de la Louisiane</i><span style="font-family: courier;">, Vol. 2 (New Orleans: Magne & Weisse, 1847), 127. It is worth noting that </span><span style="font-family: courier;">Gayarré himself does not cite a source for his claim that the New Orleans faubourg of Lafayette was once called Petite Manchac </span><span style="font-family: courier;">—</span><span style="font-family: courier;"> but whether or not his assertion </span><span style="font-family: courier;">is correct is a separate issue from that surrounding Vermilionville / Lafayette.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; font-family: courier;">(6)</span><span style="font-family: courier;"><i>The Statutes of the State of Louisiana</i>, ed. U. B. Phillips (New Orleans: Emile La Sere, 1855), 383 (Sec. 43, 1852-55-1).</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: courier;">(7)</span></span><span style="font-family: courier;">That earliest instance of a misreading may in fact be Souvay's 1921 essay in </span><i style="font-family: courier;">St. Louis Catholic Historical Review </i><span style="font-family: courier;">(see n. 2 above). T</span><span style="font-family: courier;">hough he footnoted that work, Souvey did not mention the source of his claim that Petit Manchac became Vermilionville/Lafayette.</span></p>Shane K. Bernardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00454946054965548589noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660857958535448139.post-24170092320313995742022-05-16T10:51:00.167-05:002023-01-17T10:44:49.765-06:00State of the Genre: Swamp Pop Music in the 21st Century<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><i>I thank John Broven, C. C. Adcock, Yvette Landry, and Count D. for proofing the below essay in whole or part and offering their insights.</i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><i style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 15.4px; text-align: start;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: courier; line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right; white-space: nowrap;">❧</span></i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">In early August 2021 local media outlets reported that a south Louisiana musical landmark, the Southern Club in Opelousas, had collapsed — putting an end to occasional efforts to preserve the 72-year-old structure as a historical landmark. A month later, swamp pop pioneer Warren Storm died at age 84, having played music almost right up to the end. Indeed, after his death I spotted an Internet ad promoting a show that, had Storm lived, he would have played the very next weekend. A music journalist once quoted Storm as declaring (in what source, I can’t remember), “They’ll have to pry the drumsticks from my cold, dead hands.”<b><span style="color: #999999;">(1)</span></b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><b><span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span></b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><b><span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span></b></span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdtaHnq0IPQUm6ouqN0noKHnzAUGVTL_2drhj9Hywjn88x_gt3-5-gta_0mziqeG37G-kYTMBu7rolX0gJ_40FrWnGzUBHax23Ep1U-45Hd-ph-2vxywtO5bRwBSujBHyQACSmciXgx-3kjqhzNEneGk71rbBA2KuGKrIlgftuA_J2udc12Xf1YrnL/s988/WS%20Obit.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="907" data-original-width="988" height="294" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdtaHnq0IPQUm6ouqN0noKHnzAUGVTL_2drhj9Hywjn88x_gt3-5-gta_0mziqeG37G-kYTMBu7rolX0gJ_40FrWnGzUBHax23Ep1U-45Hd-ph-2vxywtO5bRwBSujBHyQACSmciXgx-3kjqhzNEneGk71rbBA2KuGKrIlgftuA_J2udc12Xf1YrnL/s320/WS%20Obit.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Warren Storm's obituary.<br />Source: www.theadvocate.com</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">These two unfortunate events, along with the previous year’s death of my father, swamp pop entertainer Rod Bernard, underscored for me how many first-generation swamp pop performers had passed away since the early 1990s when I interviewed them for my book <i>Swamp Pop: Cajun and Creole Rhythm and Blues</i> (University Press of Mississippi, 1996).<b><span style="color: #999999;">(2)</span></b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><b><span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span></b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><b><span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span></b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><b><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Swamp-Pop-Creole-Rhythm-American/dp/0878058753" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="200" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtSFa2UzAFfr6LYx1zZb-rkU8DwUjb3SLpDqKZ7raeLa4ZeWoZOwES4wpPlDjCNyoe72xdzI1m8ZPQYKvdlSSS6HuQ7Wk0mEqc87JJzj8QGxAlNvbuPGXSTOfniQsgfSQCwnnbv3aqWfJWREdUSfXjtMtFkDK0ui8zEKFHRjkIs23WXNjyPcO7xNPp/s1600/swamp%20pop%20book%20cover.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Swamp-Pop-Creole-Rhythm-American/dp/0878058753" target="_blank">My 1996 book about the genre.</a></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">At that time about thirty years ago practically all the major swamp pop originators were still alive — and one, Huey “Cookie” Thierry (of Cookie and the Cupcakes), had seemingly sprung back from the dead. Wrongly believed to have been killed years earlier in a southern California automobile accident, he reappeared in south Louisiana after a twenty-seven-year absence, and just in time for me to interview him for my study. (Five years later he really did pass away at age 61.)</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Of the numerous swamp pop artists I interviewed for my book, I count seventeen who have gone to “that big Yesterday’s Lounge in the sky,” as south Louisiana performer C. C. Adcock quipped in a tribute to Storm, his one-time Lil’ Band o’ Gold drummer-vocalist. Those deceased swamp poppers — besides Storm and Dad — include Bobby Charles, Joe Barry, Van Broussard, John Fred, Lil’ Bob, Little Alfred, Clint West, Phil Phillips, and both King Karl and his musical partner Guitar Gable. This list includes only the major lead vocalists and bandleaders, not the many backing musicians, producers, promotors, club owners, and deejays I interviewed who are no longer living — among them producers and record men J. D. Miller, Lee Laverge, and Eddie Shuler, club owner Lionel “Chick” Vidrine, and deejay Buddy King, to name a few. (I should not omit music writer Larry Benicewicz of Baltimore, a swamp pop admirer who documented the sound by interviewing and photographing many of its artists for <i>Bluesrag</i> magazine.)</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">So how is the swamp pop genre doing today, some six decades after its heyday, with so many fewer of its original music makers?</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixHfxU2QgLQBqFagBIux8K_2XMW0AVRvEhjcpQJme9ploRyOt-lcVvts4Rl8jHsbgmvW4797XqRQLkRxPN3Dy87KjaFeVRInD9B_QrK8iS58Dd0SIv3IF57JWaNCzYPu-gEU7Wi4K7VdeuISqbLt5XOn6WMwXLmdOtxO6Jo7hiTkhDUVridaxyC5Rt/s400/YOMM.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="389" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixHfxU2QgLQBqFagBIux8K_2XMW0AVRvEhjcpQJme9ploRyOt-lcVvts4Rl8jHsbgmvW4797XqRQLkRxPN3Dy87KjaFeVRInD9B_QrK8iS58Dd0SIv3IF57JWaNCzYPu-gEU7Wi4K7VdeuISqbLt5XOn6WMwXLmdOtxO6Jo7hiTkhDUVridaxyC5Rt/s320/YOMM.jpg" width="311" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier;">An early swamp pop record<br />in 78 RPM format, 1955.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">That heyday spanned roughly 1958 to 1964, ending when the Beatles and other British Invasion acts blindsided the pop music world. Those six years comprised an era when swamp pop (which did not yet bear that name) was not “oldies” music, but a new, youthful, cutting-edge rhythm and blues (or just as easily “rock ‘n’ roll”) idiom made by teenaged Cajuns and black or mixed-race Creoles — a multiracial musical idiom born amid (and despite) the racial segregation of the post-World War II-era South. As I described or attempted to define the sound in my book about the genre:</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><blockquote><span style="font-family: courier;">I consider swamp pop to be a rhythm and blues hybrid that is influenced mainly by New Orleans rhythm and blues, country and western, and Cajun and black Creole music, and that is indigenous to southeast Texas and the [22-parish] Acadiana region of south Louisiana.<span style="color: #999999;"><b>(3)</b></span></span></blockquote></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">I also observed in that book, “Swamp poppers are appearing in public on increasingly fewer occasions. . . .” and noted that “swamp pop — still rarely featured outside south Louisiana and southeast Texas nightclubs — has in recent years attracted only a handful of younger swamp pop artists. . . . “ As my father despaired, “I’m just a little afraid . . . that these beautiful songs might all die with us.”<span style="color: #999999;"><b>(4)</b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">I’m pleased to say, however, that in my estimation swamp pop music is doing better than ever — or at least better than it’s done since its heyday fizzled out in 1964.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtYfVBoRA8oA-qA19dvpFL1-sg51w5OvQfqhVloEiEvUHfNvdQRJoG2ogp9eH9Rvtq_bskpzZ-bDjprMdemL4JC9p_U7q6A_kOdf7Z-0sGwiPrAi5mdVBSyi3dQr4MePlaVR9w_MKp-awfoKmk2uTQiqHLoSrhDN-ygWmQ1BXPjnl_dWnsKAHQit_Y/s3316/JACCookieCupcakes807.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2036" data-original-width="3316" height="245" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtYfVBoRA8oA-qA19dvpFL1-sg51w5OvQfqhVloEiEvUHfNvdQRJoG2ogp9eH9Rvtq_bskpzZ-bDjprMdemL4JC9p_U7q6A_kOdf7Z-0sGwiPrAi5mdVBSyi3dQr4MePlaVR9w_MKp-awfoKmk2uTQiqHLoSrhDN-ygWmQ1BXPjnl_dWnsKAHQit_Y/w400-h245/JACCookieCupcakes807.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Swamp pop pioneers Cookie and the Cupcakes, ca. 1959.<br />Source: The Johnnie Allan Collection,<br />Center for Louisiana Studies,<br />University of Louisiana At Lafayette</span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">A survey of some of the trends and events impacting the world of swamp pop — which does seem to constitute a “subculture” among those who make and consume the music — supports my contention: the state of swamp pop near the end of the first quarter of the 21st century is amazingly stable. The genre seems to be flourishing in its south Louisiana and southeast Texas homeland, though more so in some sections of the region than others. Specifically, swamp pop has become over the decades more popular <i>on the east side </i>of the Atchafalaya River than on the west. This is surprising, because historical evidence shows that swamp pop originated and developed<i> on the west side</i> of the Atchafalaya River, in south-central and southwest Louisiana, as well as in southeast Texas.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNDGiflkjagCRfOLbJalxBrSHvsMQzs3kcMUyWrHxeMME9BxsTQaC_pCF2os-JKrH4V68FCxfPV1QM1TXtB2Sj9t1EQRGoxbL3ly0eBKEFYthqRAmJaq1oKzIxL5h3h2vfcoUUUBUi5Oz9wHi5xv1VfvUAX1y6a4ZRw85x9MHBE62XcIEp4yGinjEN/s2817/Map%202.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2452" data-original-width="2817" height="349" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNDGiflkjagCRfOLbJalxBrSHvsMQzs3kcMUyWrHxeMME9BxsTQaC_pCF2os-JKrH4V68FCxfPV1QM1TXtB2Sj9t1EQRGoxbL3ly0eBKEFYthqRAmJaq1oKzIxL5h3h2vfcoUUUBUi5Oz9wHi5xv1VfvUAX1y6a4ZRw85x9MHBE62XcIEp4yGinjEN/w400-h349/Map%202.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Louisiana map showing <br />east and west sides of the Atchafalaya River.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Why this shift from west to east happened, I don’t know, but I have encouraged more than one graduate student to consider it as a thesis or dissertation topic. (So far there have been no takers.)</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Not only do the majority of today’s most ardent swamp pop fans seem to live east of the Atchafalaya River — say, from Morgan City toward the suburbs of New Orleans — but many of the most active, younger swamp pop musicians live or at least perform frequently in that region. Those artists include crowd favorites Don Rich (from Assumption Parish), known for local classics like "<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VN_q4ZIo2bE" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Throw Away The Key</a>" and "<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kq35COKsjNk" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Every Day Is A Holiday</a></span><span style="font-family: courier;">"; </span><span style="font-family: courier;">Damon Troy (</span><span style="font-family: courier;">originally from </span><span style="font-family: courier;">Lafayette Parish, now in Bridge City, Texas, near the Louisiana border), whose "Shoulda, Coulda, Woulda Loved You" has become a swamp pop standard; and Ryan Foret & Foret Tradition (Jefferson Parish), whose cover of "<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRhIZ-ryB7w">Tee Nah Nah</a>," for instance, is now a staple of the genre. Yet the popularity of these musicians on local radio and local nightclub stages doesn’t entirely explain the status quo. </span><i style="font-family: courier;">Why do Cajuns and others east of the Atchafalaya regard the genre as so incredibly relevant to their lives?</i><span style="font-family: courier;"> I wish I knew the answer.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/music/player/albums/B07D3G7H6R?marketplaceId=ATVPDKIKX0DER&musicTerritory=US&trackAsin=B07D3GTMFW" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="300" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCeLxq531q31jo2v6QZgKB2nGbNtbSeauXddd0ZpNMj6qKTLRg_zBzzEOv0J2c354jC9L8_yixBidAWNbQr36gNNN_Wc75dsfjGmaueXXGkDbPK2tqFnqeJoUxttU0DiqPnY2OSJrvACeMtgp4NuAPhbEzNQWRYxXU0wK5DiTh9PET5H5s1zU4v2Ho/s1600/ryan-foret-shes-mine.jpg" width="300" /></a></span></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/music/player/albums/B07D3G7H6R?marketplaceId=ATVPDKIKX0DER&musicTerritory=US&trackAsin=B07D3GTMFW" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: courier;">A younger generation <br />of swamp pop artist.</span></a></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">In any event, swamp pop persists.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">The ongoing swell of appreciation for the genre certainly owes something to </span><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: 16px;">the increasing availability of swamp pop music in digital formats. Although this trend began in the early 1990s, if not a bit earlier, it blossomed beginning in the mid- to late '90s. Notable releases include the <i>Swamp Gold</i> series, issued over several years in a series of eight CDs. Produced by Jin Records — a major player in the swamp pop business since the beginning — the <i>Swamp Gold </i>series spurred the Ville Platte company to issue other swamp pop "best-of" CD compilations. These included the <i>Swamp Gold Country</i> series (featuring swamp pop artists performing in a more rural vein), and the single-disk releases <i>Swamp Pop Sweethearts</i>, <i>Swamp Gold: Louisiana Legends</i>, and <i>Swamp Gold: Merry Christmas Wishes to All</i>.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: 16px;">Similarly, CSP Records of Texas, which had been making swamp pop in its own right for decades — witness its several Van Broussard CDs — issued its own ten-disk "best-of" series, <i>Pure Swamp Pop Gold</i>. Then there was the Ace label of England, which released three <i>Swamp Pop By The Bayou</i> compilations, as well as its eight-disk <i>Boppin' By The Bayou </i>series. In addition, producers issued a slew of </span><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: 16px;">original releases by individual swamp pop artists, </span><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: 16px;">including veterans and newcomers, </span><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: 16px;">as well as </span><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: 16px;">various-artists compilations </span><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: 16px;">on a variety of other, lesser-known labels.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><a href="https://acerecords.co.uk/swamp-pop-by-the-bayou" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibx0R8MowvDmnovPpDPrVi2fzNPzale_zgGoY8PIIop2PbskvkyzMTubxiS1R58Eb5DOx9tcTu80v15IIjjQ3pAo0cN6B4g-TeVXWunG5JaxSahxmt22YE5C6_Lm2xQt0vB0rwLI-wywb7H-9CQQCU0Pro0JH9Jc7b34fQfYw_arjs4eCyidCf7vnn/s320/CDCHD-1397_1200_1200.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://acerecords.co.uk/swamp-pop-by-the-bayou" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: courier;">A swamp pop compilation from the UK.</span></a></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">The genre's current popularity can also be traced to a surge in local radio stations playing swamp pop. As recently as the 1990s very few local radio stations played swamp pop — a complaint I heard repeatedly from many of my swamp pop interviewees, most memorably Bobby Charles — but today the genre is regularly broadcast throughout south Louisiana and southeast Texas (and beyond, thanks to stations live-streaming on the Internet). Swamp pop-friendly stations include, among many others, KRVS in Lafayette (tagline "Radio Acadie"), KBON in Eunice ("Louisiana Proud"), KVPI of Ville Platte ("Proud supporter of our own Swamp Pop music," declares its website), Gumbo 94.9 (WGUO) of Houma (featuring, for example, "The Swamp Pop & French Music Show with Bobby Richard"), KQKI of Bayou Vista (which I'm told has its own swamp pop jingle), and KMRC of Morgan City (promising "All Swamp Pop!" and asserting on its website, "The very popular Swamp Pop music format has proven itself to be one of the most popular for all ages. It is our music and local.")</span><b style="font-family: courier;"><span style="color: #999999;">(5)</span></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Swamp pop's current favor also owes a considerable debt to Lil’ Band o’ Gold, a now-dormant Acadiana “supergroup” whose lineup included Warren Storm, Steve Riley, and C. C. Adcock, among several other acclaimed local musicians. Although some music aficionados denigrated swamp pop as too commercial, even a bit hokey, compared to more folksy Cajun and zydeco music, Adcock and Riley had an aptitude for repackaging swamp pop for a younger and in some ways more discriminating audience. (“People looked down on it,” Adcock once observed, “they thought those guys were corny and campy, which they kinda are” — though to Adcock “corny and campy” are decidedly virtues.)<b><span style="color: #999999;">(6)</span></b> Much younger than the swamp pop veterans around them, Adcock and Riley knew how to take this indigenous, often overlooked south Louisiana/southeast Texas sound and “make it cool again.”</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBvb5nwrPNUy18_lQBBzBzvwaFX7XokZCgnVlcwZUa760_4IW8zD1HWrV_Wg1uABh8U0j1VjU5XpTkyq-mIXWpmDdNkgtEUk3J5ukh6jhKB_4OcUQ09GOoongVcwgbLIngvbR0IHpHdTVahn2Sh8KGmgD4hQzUf-__WGMAg5wcDsf4rRQCp97ho0Dk/s600/lil-band-o-gold-1254.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="408" data-original-width="600" height="272" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBvb5nwrPNUy18_lQBBzBzvwaFX7XokZCgnVlcwZUa760_4IW8zD1HWrV_Wg1uABh8U0j1VjU5XpTkyq-mIXWpmDdNkgtEUk3J5ukh6jhKB_4OcUQ09GOoongVcwgbLIngvbR0IHpHdTVahn2Sh8KGmgD4hQzUf-__WGMAg5wcDsf4rRQCp97ho0Dk/w400-h272/lil-band-o-gold-1254.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Lil' Band o' Gold, ca. 2000.</span></td></tr></tbody></table></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Lil’ Band o’ Gold gave Warren Storm a platform for a late-career “comeback” — a term inevitably prompting fans of every artist to retort “They never left!” — beginning in the late 1990s and snowballing in the 2000s. In turn, Storm and his Lil’ Band o’ Gold bandmates helped “pull the genre out of the doldrums,” as one south Louisiana journalist aptly wrote. Not only did Lil’ Band o’ Gold issue three albums (<i>Promised Land</i>,<i> Lil’ Band O’ Gold Plays Fats</i>, and the eponymous <i>Lil’ Band O’ Gold</i>), it also released an excellent film documentary, <i>The Promised Land: A Swamp Pop Journey</i>, that captured a time (2009) and place (or two places, south Louisiana and neighboring southeast Texas) in the band’s life. As Adcock explained, “The basic idea was to make a film so that we could explain to people what Lil</span><span style="font-family: courier;">’ </span><span style="font-family: courier;">Band O’ Gold is and what swamp pop is.” (A New York City showing of the film resulted in no doubt the only swamp pop reference ever in the pages of </span><i style="font-family: courier;">Vanity Fair</i><span style="font-family: courier;">.)</span><b style="font-family: courier;"><span style="color: #999999;">(7)</span></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><b><span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span></b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7y_fcOzm5eHSkXsxl4A-wblLymGQtX5l8sLPeJ_fxeK7xNk8F_WUMUUHJ8Uvjxn5eTrUzLbSWyP89CrOtwfOtmEzbg8ahF_uOPcCqegcYlZsdjkT1puKqaFy1BHmYXlC5oy9w1Qri3-T7vP1LOpsqQvenGASQCzsc4K5A6E9kigTLEjQyeqOK8Lky/s1024/P_Promised_Land-664x1024.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="664" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7y_fcOzm5eHSkXsxl4A-wblLymGQtX5l8sLPeJ_fxeK7xNk8F_WUMUUHJ8Uvjxn5eTrUzLbSWyP89CrOtwfOtmEzbg8ahF_uOPcCqegcYlZsdjkT1puKqaFy1BHmYXlC5oy9w1Qri3-T7vP1LOpsqQvenGASQCzsc4K5A6E9kigTLEjQyeqOK8Lky/w260-h400/P_Promised_Land-664x1024.png" width="260" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Poster for <br />LBOG's documentary (2009).</td></tr></tbody></table><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Newfound popularity — for Storm, the group, and swamp pop music in general — took Lil’ Band o’ Gold to Australia, New Zealand, and the UK, where it played at the wedding of British pop singer Lily Allen. It also backed <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CD0ZJe7a5U" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">former Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant in the studio and on stage</a>. At New Orleans’ famed Tipitina’s nightclub, Plant listened offstage as Storm jammed with his lifelong musical hero, Fats Domino, who by chance dropped by the club during a soundcheck. “Fats and Warren are just singin’ and playin’,” remembered Adcock, “and Plant comes down and stands in the doorway and just watches. And he’s witnessin’ a moment. He knows it — and you know I think what a total class-act [he was]. Plant just stood and soaked it up, there was no ego, he wasn’t all jumpin’ up to sit in too — he just stood there, quietly enjoying a very special moment.”<b><span style="color: #999999;">(8)</span></b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><b><span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span></b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2Go0Ro12bCgFF8BLZ6vMHavcF3zHCvoHfYycoIkUsL_bDEsFCDgFT15Ab2o645-hs5ULLn97WJSrI_sIolz2OiK8TYyTEEo79ZNUAX3vvh89MaJ7_9zDpxKRP_u-WeBh8OcyIECD2naD9gHwOTUdRmUa4SSXrsBzwu5x06vN9OuOv7LOC3Z6Cb0Tr/s574/hou_mus_warrenrobert.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="565" data-original-width="574" height="394" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2Go0Ro12bCgFF8BLZ6vMHavcF3zHCvoHfYycoIkUsL_bDEsFCDgFT15Ab2o645-hs5ULLn97WJSrI_sIolz2OiK8TYyTEEo79ZNUAX3vvh89MaJ7_9zDpxKRP_u-WeBh8OcyIECD2naD9gHwOTUdRmUa4SSXrsBzwu5x06vN9OuOv7LOC3Z6Cb0Tr/w400-h394/hou_mus_warrenrobert.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Robert Plant and Warren Storm, 2007.<br />Source: Warren Storm Collection, <br />Center for Louisiana Studies, <br />University of Louisiana At Lafayette</td></tr></tbody></table><b><span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span></b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">All the attention must have perplexed Storm, who had been playing the same musical sounds in the same regional nightclubs for over a half-century. And sometimes it seemed that half-century had skipped over Storm. As Adcock recalled of their time with Plant, “Warren — he has no real idea who Robert is and he just keeps callin’ ‘im ‘Fred’ all day.” In fact, Storm referred to him repeatedly, no doubt in jest, as “Fred Zeppelin.” Adcock continued, “All through the session he’s telling ‘Fred’ that he’s doin’ a good job. So I end up taking him aside and tellin’ him, ‘Warren, this is Robert Plant, you know from Led Zeppelin, the guy’s a rock god’, cos, you know . . . and then I hear Warren saying to him ‘thank you for the session Mr. Robert Plank!’”<b><span style="color: #999999;">(9)</span></b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><b><span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span></b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><b><span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span></b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><b><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><a href="https://yvettelandry.com/product/warren-storm-t-shirt/"><img border="0" data-original-height="449" data-original-width="500" height="287" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj86Na7cRMD8S5GIqvgTjV-3oPUDfD9ef0iAUKC7ctRf9NjFH44jDaPRuIK4phmEzOEWgJvIfiaxRn7m_Vbsd8gvO0SzPr5YExTCn7eD-eK5ZnGVqBduTFMgGh_MPQjxzQtR-g58n48MZPyWs3RHUMc6-cZjIpxwx4qKwhWG2dMAqBPHe9W8Tgq1oR9/s320/warren-storm-tshirt-front.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://yvettelandry.com/product/warren-storm-t-shirt/">Warren Storm T-shirt,<br />ca. 2020.</a></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span></b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Storm eventually left Lil’ Band o’ Gold to focus on performing with his customary group, billed variously with some formulation of “Warren Storm, Willie Tee & Cypress.” Then, in 2019, Lafayette-area Storm devotee Yvette Landry introduced the venerable drummer and vocalist to yet another generation, much as Adcock had done in the 1990s and early 2000s.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">In 2019 Landry published a book about her musical hero titled </span><i style="font-family: courier;">Taking the World, by Storm: A Conversation with Warren “Storm” Schexnider, The Godfather of Swamp Pop</i><span style="font-family: courier;">. She also helped to issue a companion CD recorded at Dockside Studio in Maurice, Louisiana. (In 2021 </span><i style="font-family: courier;">Variety</i><span style="font-family: courier;"> magazine noted that a Storm “bio pic” titled </span><i style="font-family: courier;">In a Good Place Now</i><span style="font-family: courier;"> was in the works, describing the project as “a feature film based on the life of musician Warren Storm.” The film would tell “this intimate story of Landry and Storm” and “feature a soundtrack with a variety of artists interpreting their versions of swamp pop featuring The Yvette Landry Band.”)</span><span style="color: #999999; font-family: courier;"><b>(10)</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: courier;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: courier;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: courier;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><a href="https://yvettelandry.com/product/warren-storm-taking-the-world-by-storm-book/" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1080" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhR1zezW31IaWexHZHlpmS-VRuOoFfADdusXwpVGXNvMCosn_FpKr3HrQb10jE3Bve8_dabxkFjcvKKRHdBNIO70T_6wOe8MOPidj8A-MDDvl1u34sLEVD1iFXGgSx9kADJ1MOSoIHnSsIpXX8sk22AV6YM1CrjAm8Qc0xKGA83UiyJ4_r4fde8cHAH/s320/WarrenStorm-TakingTheWorldByStorm-WebsiteBanner-Book.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://yvettelandry.com/product/warren-storm-taking-the-world-by-storm-book/" target="_blank">Yvette Landry's 2019 book<br />about Warren Storm.</a></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">After Storm's departure Lil’ Band o’ Gold continued to tour with local veteran drummer Clarence “Jockey” Etienne until he passed away in 2015 at age 81. Whether with Storm or Etienne, the band introduced some important new tracks to the swamp pop catalog. These included “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJfqq7jJVy4" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Spoonbread</a>,” “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ob2Gy48oYu8">I Don’t Wanna Know</a>,” and a cover of John Fred and the Playboys’ “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oq7CxkRzUR0" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Shirley</a>.” It even recorded its own south Louisiana version of Electric Light Orchestra’s 1981 hit “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEXoQFW90dE" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Hold On Tight</a>,” complete with Cajun accordion riffs.<span style="color: #999999;"><b>(11)</b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Swamp pop pioneer Tommy McLain had been loosely associated with Lil’ Band o’ Gold for years, occasionally showing up at its gigs to belt out his classics “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiABttoehxw" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Sweet Dreams</a>” and “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ra5QBtxVrcs" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Before I Grow Too Old</a>,” among others. In the late 2010s, however, Adcock began to produce what became a new McLain album. (Titled <i>I Ran Down Every Dream</i>, it was issued in August 2022 by Yep Roc Records.) Around age 80 and having just spent several weeks in a Louisiana hospital (with a non-COVID illness), McLain found himself whisked off to London to perform live with Adcock.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Ran-Down-Every-Dream-FIRST/dp/B09XL87BQS" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="1400" data-original-width="1398" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQkyAjHGRTaWIK-Ve-Rr-SbUsu9v6cX84sCQE0Xy00IqmSvXQ3P3RmrBhehzZsVz9a0p4kohu98desZSNLoUpTSxyEcdDJqThdmsb85in04QNGSDzYYt6ZHBvssiYR9G4qstXzE6up6ofalhUhQH7BFIX3G0eJmnuvLsubbE7MYguOwBDZaAHJSVBp/s320/Tommy.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Ran-Down-Every-Dream-FIRST/dp/B09XL87BQS" target="_blank">Tommy McLain's 2022 album.</a></span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">The album, meanwhile, came together and in spring 2022 the project — still in production and unreleased — caught the attention of <i>Rolling Stone</i>. “McLain takes another crack at the big time with <i>I Ran Down Every Dream</i>, his first pop album in decades,” observed the magazine. “[T]he title track, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjBWpQPWFLc" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">a duet and co-write with [Elvis] Costello</a>, has just been released. . . .” McLain recalled to <i>Rolling Stone</i>, “I’ve had a great career, but I was doing a lot of casinos here in Louisiana and I got burned out. . . . I was doing ‘Sweet Dreams’ and ‘Matilda’ every night. I wanted to take swamp-pop a little further.” Of the title track, <i>Rolling Stone</i> noted, “A bit of swamp noir, it showcases McLain’s warm rasp and also features a vocal cameo by Costello. ‘With Tommy, you are going to hear a man singing from his soul, a beautiful man,’ Costello says. ‘He’s one of the great unsung heroes of American vocalizing, and he still sounds as good as he did when he cut “Sweet Dreams” in 1966.’”</span><b style="color: #999999; font-family: courier;">(12) </b><span style="font-family: courier;">In advance of the album's release McLain, by then aged 82, appeared with Adcock at the 2022 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival (as did, it's worth noting, swamp pop veterans Johnnie Allan and T.K. Hulin — average age, 81 — and younger swamp pop disciples Ryan Foret and Foret Tradition, and Yvette Landry and her band, the Jukes). </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">When </span><i style="font-family: courier;">I Ran Down Every Dream</i><span style="font-family: courier;"> finally appeared in August 2022 it garnered McLain a detailed feature article</span><span style="font-family: courier;"> </span><span style="font-family: courier;">in </span><i style="font-family: courier;">The New York Times</i><span style="font-family: courier;">, </span><span style="font-family: courier;">complete with color photos</span><span style="font-family: courier;">. “On a June evening at the Colony music club in Woodstock, N.Y.,” began the article by Jim Farber, “an 82-year old man slowly ambled onto the stage and gingerly took a seat at his keyboard. The packed crowd, here for the headliner, was drinking heavily, talking loudly and looking everywhere but the stage. That is, until the man, Tommy McLain, cut the din with a voice so sure, soaring and strong that, suddenly, heads snapped in his direction and conversations ceased.</span><b style="color: #999999; font-family: courier;"><span style="color: black; font-weight: 400;">”</span>(13)</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="color: #999999;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="color: #999999;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="color: #999999;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpAGyVPhluWIC2VKnRzjgE7plf0Y8f25x2TW26otnnGW6LyEAg6I7pnDxed-q-CfLpNUbODr9JfBd-P5So15xX0GCEW9_91HA5weekLg-HS4gpEsUnHMFVnVeLdLml3GXHB0fHivLsbrZ6X6xSNmP2R4OWE1jkCgLsuY9nK_1nSMOHEtZ1H_wQgUeX/s500/s-l640.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="500" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpAGyVPhluWIC2VKnRzjgE7plf0Y8f25x2TW26otnnGW6LyEAg6I7pnDxed-q-CfLpNUbODr9JfBd-P5So15xX0GCEW9_91HA5weekLg-HS4gpEsUnHMFVnVeLdLml3GXHB0fHivLsbrZ6X6xSNmP2R4OWE1jkCgLsuY9nK_1nSMOHEtZ1H_wQgUeX/s320/s-l640.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The <i>Green Book</i> soundtrack, 2018.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><b><br /></b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">McLain was not the only swamp popper making news: the music of Bobby Page and the Riff Raffs — a Lafayette-area group formed over sixty years earlier — appeared not once, not twice, but three times in </span><i style="font-family: courier;">Green Book</i><span style="font-family: courier;">, the 2018 Oscar winner for Best Picture. The movie’s soundtrack, issued on Sony’s Milan label, included only one of these tunes, namely “I Love My Baby” — the omitted tracks being “Tired of Hanging Around” and the frenetic “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAgpW3fO6ok" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Ba Da</a>,” the latter attributed to Riff Raffs band member Roy “Boogie Boy” Perkins. (Interestingly, about a decade ago I heard a familiar song playing in a national commercial for Yoplait Go-Gurt: it was Perkins’ boisterous “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izuagNfAARw" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Drop Top</a>.”) These recordings by Roy Perkins, Bobby Page, and the Riff Raffs came from the Ram Records catalog. Though based in Shreveport in northwest Louisiana, Ram had recorded Page (real name Elwood Dugas), Perkins (Ernie Suarez) and the Riff Raffs back in the ‘50s when swamp pop was a new sound. One of the most notable tracks deriving from those sessions was “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtzuVJV_LFE" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Hippy-Ti-Yo</a>,” a bilingual rock’n’roll version of the Cajun folk song “Hip et Taiaut,” linked in turned to the Creole tune “Zydeco Sont Pas Salé.</span><span style="font-family: courier;">”</span><b style="color: #999999; font-family: courier;">(14)</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: courier;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="color: #999999;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhH9w2O7Bd5ka4kRNvSAuRWIGbbSoCK23VQSBnCDBy4xb8gs0wlwaIkSl-Yv2raFz4zDPEhjkE18QlNa_c7VVRSiXT38AFpQTP83lu7Y1f3yTyHhlTiHAWTHCgI9sBUJKHTdhTXyrZcr8bd7mRxdOOZkcNmRbmCTpq4OT0vs_Vo5Klck1au5lXxvqzg/s3546/JABobbyPage&RiffRaffsRoyPerkins909.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2412" data-original-width="3546" height="272" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhH9w2O7Bd5ka4kRNvSAuRWIGbbSoCK23VQSBnCDBy4xb8gs0wlwaIkSl-Yv2raFz4zDPEhjkE18QlNa_c7VVRSiXT38AFpQTP83lu7Y1f3yTyHhlTiHAWTHCgI9sBUJKHTdhTXyrZcr8bd7mRxdOOZkcNmRbmCTpq4OT0vs_Vo5Klck1au5lXxvqzg/w400-h272/JABobbyPage&RiffRaffsRoyPerkins909.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Bobby Page & The Riff Raffs, ca. 1959;<br />Roy Perkins on bass at left.<br />Source: Johnnie Allan Collection,<br />Center for Louisiana Studies Collection,<br />University of Louisiana at Lafayette</span></td></tr></tbody></table><b><br style="color: #999999; font-family: courier;" /></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Meanwhile, one of my father’s songs, “The Fantasy Is Over,” appeared in a 2015 episode of Fox’s dark comedy series <i>Last Man on Earth</i>. Disappointingly, the song is barely audible in the background of a barroom scene: only the plinking of the track’s honky-tonk piano can be heard, not Dad’s voice. I commend the show, however, for its honesty in reporting the song’s use and paying the royalties (such as they were), because I doubt Dad himself would have noticed his song playing in the background. However, another of Dad's original compositions and recordings, "Hurricane Watch," appeared <i>more audibly</i> on the HBO series <i>Irma Vep </i>— providing the soundtrack to <a href="https://youtu.be/Z523Ja6beLc" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">a silent-movie police raid on a wild French party</a>.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq4JlkMYb7ZwUfGBUoa2sPUUXihj7wAEqJ_mrJo7dM9Eef6jjqXJmuciyTYTu7PSVtSPED6_51eqftPtErLwGUWQ0xmPCKwnngC3QomKqoundu6w43lDVE95RfJSzXzCmUIAfFzLdXFg00CYo-zEoZFJyWgw5s2rqmpctWB8Z1XSsLj9j4CCqudn1-/s2943/RodBernardcaApr1958861.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2196" data-original-width="2943" height="299" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq4JlkMYb7ZwUfGBUoa2sPUUXihj7wAEqJ_mrJo7dM9Eef6jjqXJmuciyTYTu7PSVtSPED6_51eqftPtErLwGUWQ0xmPCKwnngC3QomKqoundu6w43lDVE95RfJSzXzCmUIAfFzLdXFg00CYo-zEoZFJyWgw5s2rqmpctWB8Z1XSsLj9j4CCqudn1-/w400-h299/RodBernardcaApr1958861.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier;">My dad, Rod Bernard (at mic, <br />with guitar), ca. 1958.<br />Source: <i><a href="https://www.dailyworld.com/">Daily World</a></i> newspaper</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">I mentioned Yvette Landry’s book about Warren Storm: Landry was, however, not the only author to issue a book about, or at least mentioning, swamp pop. Other works include Rick Koster's <i>Louisiana Music: A Journey From R&B To Zydeco, Jazz To Country, Blues To Gospel, Cajun Music To Swamp Pop To Carnival Music And Beyond </i>(2002); Tom Aswell’s <i>Louisiana Rocks!: The True Genesis of Rock and Roll </i>(2009); Todd Mouton’s <i>Way Down in Louisiana: Clifton Chenier, Cajun, Zydeco, and Swamp Pop Music</i> (2015); and noted photographer Philip Gould’s <i>Ghosts of Good Times: Louisiana Dance Halls, Past and Present</i> (2016), whose cover featured an image of the Southern Club a few years before its collapse. Four years later came Gene Tomko's <i>Encyclopedia of Louisiana Musicians: Jazz, Blues, Cajun, Creole, Zydeco, Swamp Pop, and Gospel</i> (2020).</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><a href="https://www.louisianamusicfactory.com/product/john-broven-south-to-louisiana-the-music-of-the-cajun-bayous-2nd-edition-book/" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="300" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQbVfrQD9bBl6Fva-A-2gYwSyftg6bgpRVm1K9dZitndU7kiGYqPBDfgvW_eEBDkLJ38w2u810a7FfohVJnGVZMxMSMNCmBkNSOqhmy1knjCb7fTYVFypBFoVoycsogWd3SRSIF4g8hbVOhDgEcmyjJ7ZDz1JXIsCzJeQ7V0ncADJXbhYsDn-Ji8NC/s320/john-broven-south-to.jpg" width="213" /></a></span></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.louisianamusicfactory.com/product/john-broven-south-to-louisiana-the-music-of-the-cajun-bayous-2nd-edition-book/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: courier;">Broven's reissued <i>South to Louisiana:</i><br /><i>The Music of the Cajun Bayous</i><br />(2nd edition).</span></a></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Perhaps most notably, however, in terms of impact and sheer space dedicated to swamp pop music was the 2019 reissue of John Broven’s seminal <i>South to Louisiana: The Music of the Cajun Bayous</i>. This revised and expanded second edition appeared 36 years after the original edition — which more than any other source had introduced the term “swamp pop” to the genre’s homeland. (Another British music writer, Bill Millar, coined the term “swamp pop” in the 1970s – or perhaps his editor did. Even Millar wasn’t sure. But it was Broven who popularized the phrase, albeit with help from receptive music personalities, particularly long-time record producer Floyd Soileau and prolific swamp pop artist Johnnie Allan.) Broven also touched on swamp pop in his <i>Record Makers and Breakers: Voices of the Independent Rock ‘n’ Roll Pioneers</i>, issued by the University of Illinois Press in 2010.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Today, toward the end of the first quarter of the twentieth century, we not only have Swamp Pop</span><span face="Roboto, arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #4d5156; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;">™</span><span style="font-family: courier;"> brand soda drinks created in Lafayette — and for a time had Shrek</span><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: courier;">®</span></span><span style="font-family: courier;"> Swamp Pops</span><span face="Roboto, arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #4d5156; font-size: 14px; text-align: left;">™</span><span style="font-family: courier;">, an ice pop issued by Nestlé (quite possibly a fluke unrelated to the musical genre) — but the advent of “queer swamp pop,” as </span><i style="font-family: courier;">Glide.com </i><span style="font-family: courier;">noted of Lafayette-born artist Bruisey Peets (Ben Usie), who represents a younger generation of swamp pop aficionados. “From swamp to shining swamp,” </span><i style="font-family: courier;">Glide</i><span style="font-family: courier;"> observed, Peets “has steadily evolved with his unique brand of queer swamp pop.”</span><b style="font-family: courier;"><span style="color: #999999;">(15)</span></b><span style="font-family: courier;"> Granted, some of Peets’ music doesn’t sound like traditional piano-triplety, sax-laden swamp pop — check out, for example, “Poached Eggs” — but neither did “Opelousas Sostan” nor “Cajun Rap Song.” There is, however, a clear swamp pop vibe on his track “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dt_QAQ_oKVk" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">U Already Know</a>.”)</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivHHN5f5lPh990R_BdSYdnlY8Q9srmiH5N9cmslON9KATindkRENXnqlRU7kCLCDKmIQ8r4lguW3rYvQJjQLOBO3CRQiz3kuRnUJyGwvKMo996WRk3T26ffk3eRfTO5U-55B8uiJBBjYCdqLeQRCrVzqnjlmbg7wcxHVq9rtBBSFDIJrp-JID0b5lG/s447/SP-V2-Art-Large-Web.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="447" data-original-width="445" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivHHN5f5lPh990R_BdSYdnlY8Q9srmiH5N9cmslON9KATindkRENXnqlRU7kCLCDKmIQ8r4lguW3rYvQJjQLOBO3CRQiz3kuRnUJyGwvKMo996WRk3T26ffk3eRfTO5U-55B8uiJBBjYCdqLeQRCrVzqnjlmbg7wcxHVq9rtBBSFDIJrp-JID0b5lG/w399-h400/SP-V2-Art-Large-Web.png" width="399" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier;">The Revelers' delightfully retro <br />album cover for one of their swamp pop EPs.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Among other young musicians to publicly embrace swamp pop in recent years are </span><span style="font-family: courier;">The Revelers, a </span><span style="font-family: courier;">Grammy-nominated band from </span><span style="font-family: courier;">south Louisiana</span><span style="font-family: courier;">. Established by founding members of the Red Stick Ramblers and the Pine Leaf Boys, the group is known for playing a variety of genres, including, but not limited to, Cajun, zydeco, and swamp pop. In 2014 and 2016 it released </span><i style="font-family: courier;">The Revelers Play the Swamp Pop Classics Vol. 1 & 2 </i><span style="font-family: courier;">— an artistic statement firmly declaring the vital role of swamp pop in their own collective musical heritage. (I confess the only swamp pop “classic” I recognize among the eight tracks is “Before I Grow Too Old” — not that it matters.) Then there has been the occasional swamp pop song to come seemingly out of nowhere, issued by artists not usually associated with the peculiar genre. Take, for instance, Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears’ “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GX_FqyjbIIo" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Bitch, I Love You</a>" (2009) — well, that’s the title — and Shovels & Rope’s “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChIOIypEx0I" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Coping Mechanism</a>” (2014). These examples by younger, not-necessarily-swamp-pop musicians, demonstrate how the genre remains a relevant sound in the early 21st century — even among artists far removed from swamp pop’s 1950s origin in the rural and small-town honkytonks of Cajun and Creole south Louisiana.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><a href="https://store.shopping.yahoo.co.jp/hoyhoy-records/elsotano1001.html"><img border="0" data-original-height="457" data-original-width="457" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaKEe6BxQB9KiQj92XFi5ybG7HjZaHezZv_tRX-5Y-uxXpePQPGoy59tIDdWIOjzaLglyfJvfy6d9DWjac_fnuqnuPLVsW00DRHpAIhlXZyf5A921kSCuGQTjzBkOm_CyYb7GqlqNjwhu6axeQRqk9207fENedhbBiSOWpxP0rCQM6DlkNZa8Wifp4/s320/Teardrops.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><a href="https://store.shopping.yahoo.co.jp/hoyhoy-records/elsotano1001.html">Japanese CD containing<br />“Teardrops (In The Days Of Quarantine).”</a></span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Interestingly, swamp pop lent itself to international current events when the Tokyo-based group Los Royal Flames recorded (with some of their friends) “Teardrops (In The Days Of Quarantine).” A typical swamp pop ballad in the mold of “Mathilda” — featuring the plaintive vocals of Japanese musician and swamp pop fan Count D. — the song revolves around COVID’s hindrance of a budding romance. The Japanese lyrics translate as: </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: courier;">A bird in the sky, fly across the rivers,</span></i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: courier;">Go to a window of her house and bring my feeling to her.</span></i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: courier;">I look up at the night sky</span></i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: courier;">And I can see the stars shining brightly.</span></i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: courier;">They tell me that I should wipe away my tears</span></i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: courier;">And one day the long nights will end.</span></i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: courier;">Your long hair, your brown eyes, your spilling smile.</span></i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><i>Take off our masks and kiss you over a six-feet wall.</i><b><span style="color: #999999;">(16)</span></b></span></div></blockquote><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Yet another trend worth noting is a tendency for the term “swamp pop” to be increasingly applied to music that is clearly not swamp pop (unless the meaning of swamp pop is changing, as perhaps it is). I first noticed this trend a few years ago when eBay sellers described swamp pop records as “northern soul.” While there are similarities between the two sounds, the term is ironic: not only is swamp pop not “northern,” it could be no more “southern” without falling into the Gulf of Mexico. Then there are the frequent references to artists like Tony Joe White and CCR (both of whom I admire) as “swamp pop” — to split hairs, they seem </span><span style="font-family: courier;">to me </span><span style="font-family: courier;">more like “swamp rock” — not to mention various other performers dubbed “swamp pop” even though they have no discernable link to the south Louisiana genre. Not that I complain — it’s merely an interesting development. As is the recent claim by one budding singer who, fusing “southern rock, indie pop-rock, country, and modern pop,” announced she “is calling this new style of music ‘Swamp Pop’” — unaware, it seems, that the term has already been in use for a half-century.</span><span style="color: #999999; font-family: courier;"><b>(17)</b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: 12pt;">As of 2022 swamp pop appears to be as popular as ever in its
homeland and (if in a small way) abroad. The sound clearly has an enduring
relevance to its south Louisiana/southeast Texas fan base, much of which consists (though
not exclusively) of older, working-class Cajuns. Swamp pop also continues to attract
an overseas <span style="font-size: medium;">“</span>cult following</span><span style="font-family: courier;">”</span><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: 12pt;"> in places like Britain, Germany, Japan, and Scandinavia,
where listeners with quirky musical tastes — </span><i style="font-family: courier; font-size: 12pt;">and thank goodness for their quirky musical tastes</i><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: 12pt;"> — have embraced this once underappreciated genre confined not
too long ago to obscure vinyl records and analog audiotapes, as well as to equally
obscure rural and small-town radio stations, jukeboxes, and dancehalls.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLxKwMCvOjWvdSr-v1TCoLzkT5mBlOVJ1dLNVn6NQzz4Fh8bEaFRz9raP4GTTokttbEU1_RINBh2nWbXmsncy6XZlnH1aEBVd3h97tg0EgD5XGB9n5F9iiZRnQ6mjfFpl1L7es68__Pks6R98H1LiIBmk4jS3XSk2RKW41tEkB_FlRZoz0LGTjGC_r/s1024/SouthernClub%20(2).jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1024" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLxKwMCvOjWvdSr-v1TCoLzkT5mBlOVJ1dLNVn6NQzz4Fh8bEaFRz9raP4GTTokttbEU1_RINBh2nWbXmsncy6XZlnH1aEBVd3h97tg0EgD5XGB9n5F9iiZRnQ6mjfFpl1L7es68__Pks6R98H1LiIBmk4jS3XSk2RKW41tEkB_FlRZoz0LGTjGC_r/w400-h300/SouthernClub%20(2).jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier;">The Southern Club,<br />a few years before its collapse.<br />Source: Jiro “Jireaux” Hatano<br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Swamp pop’s present-day appeal can be traced in part to impresarios
like musicians Adcock, Riley, and Landry, and to companies like Jin, CSP, and Ace,
all of whom have cleverly repackaged swamp pop for old and new audiences. T</span><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: 12pt;">hese gatekeepers have elevated swamp pop from a sound once deemed passé
and campy to one with newfound currency and an ironic hipness — a hipness stemming from that self-same campiness and from an anachronistic sound firmly
rooted (at least in the case of its tell-tale ballads) in the </span><span style="font-family: courier;">“woe-is-me, what</span><span style="font-family: courier;">’</span><span style="font-family: courier;">s-the-use-of-living</span><span style="font-family: courier;">”</span><span style="font-family: courier;"> </span><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: 12pt;">teenage laments of the 1950s and early ‘60s.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Moreover, swamp pop’s advocates have successfully taken advantage of the digital music revolution — typified, for example, by iTunes, Spotify, and Pandora — to reach fans at home and around the globe, the youngest of whom might never have known vinyl disks, audiotapes, or CDs, but know how to access enjoyable music through</span><span style="font-family: courier;"> digital platforms</span><span style="font-family: courier;">. This time — unlike in 1964, when the British Invasion struck — “progress” and “innovation” have benefitted swamp pop music and its creators.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Boosted by these several positive trends, I see no reason to think the genre cannot thrive into the foreseeable future and beyond, and continue to take its place alongside its two equally indigenous sister genres, Cajun and zydeco music. As one of those swamp pop-heavy radio stations declares, “</span><span style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); font-size: 15.84px;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><i>It is our music and local</i>.”</span></span><b style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; font-family: courier; font-size: 15.84px;"><span style="color: #999999;">(18)</span></b></div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; text-size-adjust: auto;" /><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="color: #999999;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="color: #999999;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPTvLfgx8fBa_gfbxyK7MF9-CYywvmNTqfVNlkPa0ufaOV9nZWsMOsmlW2YUYAO378-hVB5eZh79T1CLg0jWrwtXPh6xCflyiVHw0G103Zk-QKD3aG7jI0J4_edLAUm9ajibZWP0-IfkZwg0K9wl6TfjaPxoCROLPpRiIH2w1BKDZDwNmzoAg9p7Fr/s510/treats.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="508" data-original-width="510" height="319" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPTvLfgx8fBa_gfbxyK7MF9-CYywvmNTqfVNlkPa0ufaOV9nZWsMOsmlW2YUYAO378-hVB5eZh79T1CLg0jWrwtXPh6xCflyiVHw0G103Zk-QKD3aG7jI0J4_edLAUm9ajibZWP0-IfkZwg0K9wl6TfjaPxoCROLPpRiIH2w1BKDZDwNmzoAg9p7Fr/s320/treats.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nestlé<span style="text-align: justify;">’</span>s Shrek® Swamp Pops™<br />ice pops, ca. 2007.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="color: #999999;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><i>Notes</i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><b><span style="color: #999999;">(1)</span></b> "Southern Club Dance Hall in Opelousas Collapses," KATC.com, 6 August 2021, www.katc.com/news/st-landry-parish/southern-club-dancehall-in-opelousas-collapses, accessed 17 May 2022; </span></span><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: courier;">"Acadiana swamp pop pioneer Warren Storm dies at age 84," <i>The Acadiana Advocate</i>, 7 September 2021, www.theadvocate.com/acadiana/news/article_d09c4722-1053-11ec-a31d-c7bc38709d20.html, accessed 17 May 2022.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="color: #999999;"><b>(2)</b></span> </span></span><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: courier;">"Swamp pop musician and broadcaster Rod Bernard dies at 79," <i>The Acadiana Advocate</i>, 14 July 2020, www.theadvocate.com/acadiana/news/article_a5591546-c5da-11ea-93a1-b3090e4d2b50.html, accessed 17 May 2022.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="color: #999999;"><b>(3)</b></span> Shane K. Bernard, <i>Swamp Pop: Cajun and Creole Rhythm and Blues</i> (University Press of Mississippi, 1996), 8.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="color: #999999;"><b>(4)</b></span> Ibid., 112, 113.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier;"><b style="color: #999999;">(5) </b></span><span style="font-family: courier;">Quoted from </span><span style="font-family: courier;">KVPI website, www.classichits925.com, accessed 21 May 2022; KRMC website, www.kmrcradio.com/, accessed 21 May 2022.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier;"><b style="color: #999999; text-align: justify;">(6) </b></span><span style="font-family: courier;">Christiaan Mader, </span><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: justify;">“</span><span style="font-family: courier;">How Swamp Pop Invaded the U.K. and Stole Nick Lowe</span><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: justify;">’</span><span style="font-family: courier;">s Heart,</span><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: justify;">”</span><span style="font-family: courier;"> <i>The</i> (Lafayette, La.) <i>Current</i>, 21 May 2019, thecurrentla.com/2019/how-swamp-pop-invaded-the-u-k-and-stole-nick-lowes-heart/, accessed 21 May 2022.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="color: #999999;"><b>(7)</b></span> Reese Fuller, “In Search of The Promised Land,” Reese Fuller website, 15 April 2009, www.reesefuller.com/articles/in-search-of-the-promised-land/, accessed 7 March 2022; “Top Three Parties: Virtuous Vixens, a Swamp Thing, Literal Translation,” <i>Vanity Fair</i>, 12 May 2009, www.vanityfair.com/news/2009/05/literal-translation-virtuous-women-a-swamp-thing, accessed 11 May 2022.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="color: #999999;"><b>(8)</b></span> “Lil’ Band O’ Gold to tour NZ,” <i>Stuff</i> (New Zealand), 16 September 2010, www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/blogs/4133447/Lil-Band-O-Gold-to-tour-NZ, accessed 7 March 2022.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="color: #999999;"><b>(9)</b></span> Ibid.; C. C. Adcock, n.p., to Shane K. Bernard, New Iberia, La., 10 May 2022, email correspondence in the possession of the author.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="color: #999999;"><b>(10)</b></span> Yvette Landry, Lafayette, La., to Shane K. Bernard, New Iberia, La., 14 January 2022, 9 May 2022, email correspondence in the possession of the author.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="color: #999999;"><b>(11)</b></span> C. C. Adcock, n.p., to Shane K. Bernard, New Iberia, La., 17 September 2021, 28 September 2021, 12 January 2022, 16 January 2022, email correspondence in the possession of the author.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="color: #999999;"><b>(12)</b></span> David Browne, “How Elvis Costello Saved Tommy McLain from Playing Casinos,” 19 April 2022, <i>Rolling Stone</i>, www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/tommy-mclain-elvis-costello-collab-1338297/, accessed 9 May 2022.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh28VOK1BwesS8-im8spNehoW1SYWdexPLuiwLjJ4_KRZ91DBKufL_Hw9rdpKGdoxGwW_v2_2CgJqMK0vkrLCsM4XVuY_0H0RGXHoBnhMY1Ig-6y7OBUp01z8av-6EV7fINLSOfliwWAuCpoN-FLGUg4vaKUinH06JPXhuE--f_ty2ybFvT_3o9XkjH/s500/R-5376383-1391865048-3397.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="500" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh28VOK1BwesS8-im8spNehoW1SYWdexPLuiwLjJ4_KRZ91DBKufL_Hw9rdpKGdoxGwW_v2_2CgJqMK0vkrLCsM4XVuY_0H0RGXHoBnhMY1Ig-6y7OBUp01z8av-6EV7fINLSOfliwWAuCpoN-FLGUg4vaKUinH06JPXhuE--f_ty2ybFvT_3o9XkjH/s320/R-5376383-1391865048-3397.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier;">A Johnnie Allan compilation<br />on the British Ace label.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="color: #999999;"><b>(13) </b></span>Jim Farber, “After Four Decades, the Swamp-Pop Singer Tommy McLain Rises Again,” <i>New York Times</i>, 24 August 2022, www.nytimes.com/2022/08/24/arts/music/tommy-mclain-i-ran-down-every-dream.html, accessed 26 August 2022.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="color: #999999;"><b>(14)</b></span> Bernard, <i>Swamp Pop</i>, 86-89.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="color: #999999;"><b>(15)</b></span> “Song Premiere: Queer Swamp Pop Act Bruisey Peets Finds Culinary Inspiration in </span><span style="font-family: courier;">‘</span><span style="font-family: courier;">Poached Eggs,</span><span style="font-family: courier;">’</span><span style="font-family: courier;">”</span><span style="font-family: courier;"> n.d. [ca. 2021], </span><i style="font-family: courier;">Glide</i><span style="font-family: courier;">, glidemagazine.com/263691/song-premiere-queer-swamp-pop-act-bruisey-peets-finds-culinary-inspiration-in-poached-eggs/, accessed 10 May 2022.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="color: #999999;"><b>(16)</b></span> Count D. [pseudonym; actual ID omitted by request], Tokyo, Japan, to Shane K. Bernard, New Iberia, La., 12 January 2021, email correspondence in the possession of the author.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: courier;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="color: #999999;"><b>(17)</b></span> Markos Papadatos, "Review: Jesslee Releases her High-Adrenaline Single ‘Ammunition,’" <i>Digital Journal</i>, www.digitaljournal.com/entertainment/review-jesslee-releases-her-high-adrenaline-single-ammunition/article#:~:text=Jesslee%20is%20calling%20this%20new,of%20those%20genres%20could%20b, accessed 10 May 2022.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #999999; text-align: justify;"><b>(18)</b></span><span style="text-align: justify;"> </span>KRMC website, www.kmrcradio.com/, accessed 21 May 2022.</span></div>Shane K. Bernardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00454946054965548589noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660857958535448139.post-71161164722243293182022-05-07T15:27:00.019-05:002022-05-22T17:06:11.253-05:00Essays on Current Issues in Cajun and Creole Studies<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimTeBJmlyjYfe-_5vl0P21gFDXX9tLwIsXYBur-8EQBSAMjsGOEdH3LiFd-lPZCngEErxExDd2p8ZsuyYui55cfOc8xlo70nSSvhCXMh483LMecp217UrmgaCR_d-RRifLqWVz_DaytzyNbdn_8q-fi5SAeXSAw1bBbgoiWZUBBd_Y4uobFOv3O4KH/s1080/Cajun%20Creole%20Books.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="844" data-original-width="1080" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimTeBJmlyjYfe-_5vl0P21gFDXX9tLwIsXYBur-8EQBSAMjsGOEdH3LiFd-lPZCngEErxExDd2p8ZsuyYui55cfOc8xlo70nSSvhCXMh483LMecp217UrmgaCR_d-RRifLqWVz_DaytzyNbdn_8q-fi5SAeXSAw1bBbgoiWZUBBd_Y4uobFOv3O4KH/s320/Cajun%20Creole%20Books.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Writings about Cajuns & Creoles.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>The below four essays of mine address current issues in Cajun and Creole studies. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Given my training as a historian (though one familiar with folkloric and sociological methods — my Ph.D. minor field, for example, being Rural Sociology of Minorities), I wrote these articles largely from a historical perspective, as opposed to, say, an anthropological or linguistic perspective.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: courier;"><div style="text-align: justify;">Yet, as I preface each essay, I wrote these works not only as a historian, but as someone who identifies as both a Cajun and a Creole. As I note in one of these essays, <span style="background-color: white; color: black; text-align: justify;">“</span>[M]any of my ancestors were Creoles of French heritage. My own family tree abounds with tell-tale Creole surnames: de la Morandière, Soileau, de la Pointe, Fuselier de la Claire, Brignac, Bordelon, de Livaudais, and others. . . . As such, I could, if I chose to do so (and sometimes I do), identify as Creole — doubly so because Cajuns themselves are to begin with a kind of Creole.”</div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">It is my hope these essays will somehow, in their own small way, assist the field of Cajun and Creole studies by engaging in, and spurring on, the marketplace of competing ideas — which is, after all, how scholarship works or ought to work.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i><span style="background-color: white; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: justify;"><br /></span></span></i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: justify;">I trust those with whom I express disagreement will accept this critique in the collegial spirit it is intended.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier;">The four essays, in no particular order, are: </span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier;"><i style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-size: 15.4px; text-align: center;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 18.48px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; white-space: nowrap;">❧ </span></span></span></span></i><a href="https://bayoutechedispatches.blogspot.com/2019/06/of-cajuns-and-creoles-brief-historical.html " target="_blank">Of Cajuns and Creoles: A Brief Historical Analysis</a> </span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier;"><i style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-size: 15.4px; text-align: center;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 18.48px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; white-space: nowrap;">❧ </span></span></span></span></i><a href="https://bayoutechedispatches.blogspot.com/2022/05/born-of-elite-white-reactionism.html" target="_blank">Born of “Elite” White Reactionism?: Assessing Claims about the Rise of Cajun Ethnicity</a></span><span style="font-family: courier;"></span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier;"><i style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-size: 15.4px; text-align: center;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 18.48px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; white-space: nowrap;">❧ </span></span></span></span></i><a href="https://bayoutechedispatches.blogspot.com/2020/09/notes-on-birth-of-cajun-ethnic-identity.html " target="_blank">Notes on the Birth of Cajun Ethnic Identity</a> </span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier;"><i style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-size: 15.4px; text-align: center;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 18.48px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; white-space: nowrap;">❧ </span></span></span></span></i><a href="https://bayoutechedispatches.blogspot.com/2020/09/thoughts-on-cajuns-and-whiteness.html" target="_blank">Thoughts on Cajuns and <span style="background-color: white; color: black; text-align: justify;">“</span>Whiteness</a></span><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: justify;"><a href="https://bayoutechedispatches.blogspot.com/2020/09/thoughts-on-cajuns-and-whiteness.html" target="_blank">”</a></span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div><br /></div>Shane K. Bernardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00454946054965548589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660857958535448139.post-39013605415669216842022-05-05T14:31:00.645-05:002023-06-29T09:50:52.225-05:00Born of "Elite" White Reactionism?: Assessing Claims about the Rise of Cajun Ethnicity<div style="text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: courier;"><span>This essay is one of four in which I address current issues in Cajun and Creole studies. The other essays can be found </span><a href="https://bayoutechedispatches.blogspot.com/2022/05/essays-on-current-issues-in-cajun-and.html" target="_blank">here</a></span><span style="font-family: courier;">.</span></i></div><span style="font-family: courier;"><div style="font-style: italic; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="font-style: italic; text-align: justify;">I wrote these works not only as a historian, but as someone who identifies as both a Cajun and a Creole. As I note in one of these essays, “[M]any of my ancestors were Creoles of French heritage. My own family tree abounds with tell-tale Creole surnames: de la Morandière, Soileau, de la Pointe, Fuselier de la Claire, Brignac, Bordelon, de Livaudais, and others. . . . As such, I could, if I chose to do so (and sometimes I do), identify as Creole — doubly so because Cajuns themselves are to begin with a kind of Creole.”</div><div style="font-style: italic; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="font-style: italic; text-align: justify;">And as I write elsewhere in this blog, “[I]t is my hope these essays will somehow, in their own small way, assist the field of Cajun and Creole studies by engaging in, and spurring on, the marketplace of competing ideas — which is, after all, how scholarship works or ought to work.”</div><div style="font-style: italic; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="font-style: italic; text-align: justify;">I trust those with whom I express disagreement will accept this critique in the collegial spirit it is intended.</div><div style="font-style: italic; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="font-style: italic; text-align: justify;">I thank Dr. Barry Jean Ancelet, Dr. Carl A. Brasseaux, Dr. David Cheramie, independent researcher Don Arceneaux, and former CODOFIL president Warren A. Perrin for proofing the below essay and offering their insights.</div><div style="font-style: italic; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="font-style: italic; text-align: justify;"><i>To clarify the thrust of the below essay: I do not seek to counter general assertions that the Louisiana state agency CODOFIL, either purposely or by neglect, excluded Creoles of African descent from its cultural, economic, and touristic mission. </i><i>Rather, I seek to counter the very specific assertion that </i><i>CODOFIL conspired to exclude Creoles of African descent <span style="color: #999999;">by creating </span></i><span style="color: #999999;"><i>in or after 1968 </i><i>a new, White ethnic identity </i><i>called </i><span>“</span><i>Cajun.</i><span>”</span></span></div><div style="font-style: italic; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="font-style: italic; text-align: justify;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-style: normal; text-align: center;"><span><i style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: courier; line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right; white-space: nowrap;">❧</span></i></span></div><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-style: normal; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: courier;"></span></p><br style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-style: normal; text-align: left;" /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUopb39xR56j1IqN8tRihwe7mhHTH9yR6fqyGv7qTMKcsH9HJgbpR-KXy0jkfJkDzZlLC4cT8v4n-H-RA0bZPj4y7x3Oo71GOvfcPU1zlzN8b6OCycYpOVnT7Lk7hQnRlot9_WUJQMz_MMWUFrSo_lY-CtKzAntLmbVeC3uYugL-NXNQhNvhelnR-s/s1024/Cajun%20Family%20HR%20enhanced(2).jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="783" data-original-width="1024" height="338" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUopb39xR56j1IqN8tRihwe7mhHTH9yR6fqyGv7qTMKcsH9HJgbpR-KXy0jkfJkDzZlLC4cT8v4n-H-RA0bZPj4y7x3Oo71GOvfcPU1zlzN8b6OCycYpOVnT7Lk7hQnRlot9_WUJQMz_MMWUFrSo_lY-CtKzAntLmbVeC3uYugL-NXNQhNvhelnR-s/w441-h338/Cajun%20Family%20HR%20enhanced(2).jpg" width="441" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div><span style="font-family: courier;">"Family of Cajun farmer living near New Iberia,"</span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier;">by Russel Lee, 1938, </span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier;">Source: Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div></td></tr></tbody></table></div><div style="font-style: italic; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">A handful of scholars and activists have claimed or strongly implied that Cajuns are something less than a bona fide ethnic group. Confusing the rise of Cajun ethnicity (which occurred in the 1800s) with the rise of the Cajun pride movement (which occurred in the 1960s), they allege the group coalesced only a few decades ago — in the ‘60s or later. </span><span style="font-family: courier; text-indent: 0in;">As one source asserts, </span><span style="text-indent: 0in;">“Cajun identity emerged in post-Vietnam Louisiana,” </span><span style="text-indent: 0in;">adding</span><span style="text-indent: 0in;"> </span>elsewhere <span style="text-indent: 0in;">“Cajun is a new identity. . . an identity from the 1960s onward.” </span><span style="font-family: courier; text-indent: 0in;">A sociolinguist who embraces this assessment contends it reveals</span><span style="font-family: courier; text-indent: 0in;"> “the ideological roots of the Cajun movement among white reactionary responses to civil rights.”</span><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: left; text-indent: 0in;"><b style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="color: #999999;">(1)</span></b><span style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;"> In other words, not only are Cajuns a recent ethnic group, little more than five decades old, but they originated as an expression of overt White supremacy. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-indent: 0in;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-indent: 0in;">An early source for this claim is a</span><span style="text-indent: 0in;"> French Canadian geographer who in 1991 stated, referring to the Council for the Development of French in Louisiana (CODOFIL), a state-funded French education group launched in 1968:</span></div></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Despite
the fact that the Creole identity had always carried a positive image for white
and black francophones of Southern Louisiana, it is under the Cajun label that
CODOFIL proceeded to unify the region. This choice can only be interpreted as
the desire for the French Louisiana elite to assure for the region a “white”
identity. . . .<b><span style="color: #999999;">(2)</span></b></span><span style="font-family: courier; text-indent: 0in;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier; text-indent: 0in;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1vVJ1-lLjYA19yVnEBcCYMJuKxkNDGbuvEAiBykEOs7YS8OJ_iiu0TnQ6zGgSVxik_eNAErVOkGoCvNdFAusnFolPMeaUb6sFZoSHLp-Jd0bm6RfT2OuBY161mvZA6noXYJWIjEQ1kdjMEO_5dtrvmp8zX0SaSIza5VTkb2uWNkdG_K6dCAr8d5aw/s1024/Seal_of_Conseil_Pour_le_D%C3%A9veloppement_du_Fran%C3%A7ais_en_Louisiane_(CODOFIL).svg.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1013" data-original-width="1024" height="317" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1vVJ1-lLjYA19yVnEBcCYMJuKxkNDGbuvEAiBykEOs7YS8OJ_iiu0TnQ6zGgSVxik_eNAErVOkGoCvNdFAusnFolPMeaUb6sFZoSHLp-Jd0bm6RfT2OuBY161mvZA6noXYJWIjEQ1kdjMEO_5dtrvmp8zX0SaSIza5VTkb2uWNkdG_K6dCAr8d5aw/s320/Seal_of_Conseil_Pour_le_D%C3%A9veloppement_du_Fran%C3%A7ais_en_Louisiane_(CODOFIL).svg.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier;">CODOFIL logo.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: courier; text-indent: 0in;"><br /></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: courier;">The
implication that Cajuns are less than a bona fide ethnic group hinges on the
claim (to cite the aforementioned sociolinguist) that “the Cajun movement” sought
through CODOFIL to recast “Louisiana’s white population as a marginalized group
under the ‘Cajun’ label.”</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: courier; text-indent: 0in;">But
is this true?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Did
a White “French Louisiana elite” conspire in the late 1960s to construct a new
ethnic identity called “Cajun” for the purpose of excluding Creoles of African
heritage?</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: courier; text-indent: 0in;">The argument is, to say the least, dubious,
partly because there is no real </span><i style="font-family: courier; text-indent: 0in;">primary-source</i><span style="font-family: courier; text-indent: 0in;"> evidence to support it. (If
there is, what is it?) Moreover, by CODOFIL’s birth in 1968 Cajuns had long been
recognized as a viable Louisiana ethnic group — either, depending on the source,
an entirely separate Acadian-derived people or (as I believe) a partly
Acadian-derived subset of the larger Creole population. Thus, for example, </span><i style="font-family: courier; text-indent: 0in;">The
Indianapolis Journal</i><span style="font-family: courier; text-indent: 0in;"> observed in 1898, “[A] large element of the French
population of the State [of Louisiana] are not creoles, but Acadians, or, as
they call themselves and are generally called, ‘Cajuns.’” Conversely, the </span><i style="font-family: courier; text-indent: 0in;">San
Francisco Chronicle</i><span style="font-family: courier; text-indent: 0in;"> noted a little over a decade earlier (in 1887), “The
Americans, and even the Creoles, have corrupted the name Acadian into ‘Cajun,’
. . . [and] as ‘Cajuns,’ they are known all over the state. They are, in fact,
Creoles.” Clearly, one of these late 19</span><sup style="font-family: courier; text-indent: 0in;">th</sup><span style="font-family: courier; text-indent: 0in;">-century sources viewed the
Cajuns as Creoles, one did not; both, however, regarded the population as a
living ethnic group “generally called” and “known all over the state” as
Cajuns. </span><span style="font-family: courier;">Thus, we have lawmaker L. O. Broussard's assertation, made during a Louisiana state legislative session </span><i style="font-family: courier;">in 1921</i><span style="font-family: courier; text-indent: 0in;">, that "he was proud that he was a Cajin [</span><i style="font-family: courier; text-indent: 0in;">sic</i><span style="font-family: courier; text-indent: 0in;">]. . . ."</span><b style="font-family: courier; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="color: #999999;">(4)</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: courier;">These
examples and many others from the late 19<sup>th</sup> century and onward prove
that Cajun ethnicity did not suddenly materialize from nothingness after CODOFIL’s
birth in 1968.<b><span style="color: #999999;">(5)</span></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><b></b></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPXiF8sBZqERO-qwapNbsph1xm9cxvVRCBhVi4cRqRM8C0BP8SZoKqo93QFr9wr7RrT-rregu8C68bijDrpNvp2XEePDwzCOrdBOjmym-OPVXrFknPaFsPmU3tgP742gDoQclPRU0vHPtD2O_yD6tTK5LCYPT17ge7_UJDrOT3OvPR_JKDawmrQJbR/s668/The%20Cajun%20drama%201926.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="668" data-original-width="406" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPXiF8sBZqERO-qwapNbsph1xm9cxvVRCBhVi4cRqRM8C0BP8SZoKqo93QFr9wr7RrT-rregu8C68bijDrpNvp2XEePDwzCOrdBOjmym-OPVXrFknPaFsPmU3tgP742gDoQclPRU0vHPtD2O_yD6tTK5LCYPT17ge7_UJDrOT3OvPR_JKDawmrQJbR/w242-h400/The%20Cajun%20drama%201926.jpg" width="242" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Title page, <br />Carver's 1926 drama.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: courier;"><b><span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span></b></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: courier;">In
fact, anthropologist Jacques Henry and I, among others, have found primary-source
references to the ethnic group as early as 1851 using the French term <i>Cadien</i>
and as early as 1862 using the English form <i>Cajun</i> (not to mention other mid- to late-19<sup>th</sup>-century spellings like <i>Cadjin</i>).<b><span style="color: #999999;">(6)</span></b> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3rV0lOlXxE0BqskMgB0KNDsvth4MkCGal3E4MFIEENBt_t_fMKcIfvP1z0LEiE1-lPux-Lw--M_xf1EULyCjHNtxQMa30oTSxTvwqFgnjAeWAX5eYmBTbG-V3pRd6cHjseNTu7l1brU9kPUk7ZmGptNYz9UBrixlHP2DI80rBfpSfKrza6c6mlP1h/s469/IMG_5579.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="353" data-original-width="469" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3rV0lOlXxE0BqskMgB0KNDsvth4MkCGal3E4MFIEENBt_t_fMKcIfvP1z0LEiE1-lPux-Lw--M_xf1EULyCjHNtxQMa30oTSxTvwqFgnjAeWAX5eYmBTbG-V3pRd6cHjseNTu7l1brU9kPUk7ZmGptNYz9UBrixlHP2DI80rBfpSfKrza6c6mlP1h/s320/IMG_5579.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Title card from the 1942 Columbia Pictures <br />short documentary <i>Cajuns of the Teche.</i><br />Source: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: courier;">After the
Civil War the term appears with growing frequency in a variety of source
material — the late 19<sup>th</sup>-century fiction of George Washington Cable
and Kate Chopin; the title of Ada Jack Carver’s 1926 prize-winning drama; the subject of a 1942 Columbia Pictures short documentary; the nose
art of World War II U.S. aircraft; and the name of a mid-1950s sounding rocket used
by NASA’s precursor, to name only a few. (For more about historical “Cajun”
references, see my article <a href="https://bayoutechedispatches.blogspot.com/2020/09/notes-on-birth-of-cajun-ethnic-identity.html" target="_blank">here</a>.)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqqVNFUrClmFP5jWQWr8xdjPP_jJv6ks6hAiifucSKhBR3egH9MKhXIJmL2bh6MEl2HhjPR74WV3_ooaUV037yjAFm778D3hQKqQ7jhlGifjcYw9-_cKkFiyCdJpNuw1fqHm20uMJ_3Uy5h9T7AeAWMvgAXKXGW1p2vA3Sn3F1Z-K8TYofRjpgtv3V/s581/Cajun%20Queen%201%20358%20SMALL.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="420" data-original-width="581" height="289" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqqVNFUrClmFP5jWQWr8xdjPP_jJv6ks6hAiifucSKhBR3egH9MKhXIJmL2bh6MEl2HhjPR74WV3_ooaUV037yjAFm778D3hQKqQ7jhlGifjcYw9-_cKkFiyCdJpNuw1fqHm20uMJ_3Uy5h9T7AeAWMvgAXKXGW1p2vA3Sn3F1Z-K8TYofRjpgtv3V/w400-h289/Cajun%20Queen%201%20358%20SMALL.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Homage to Cajun beauty: <br />the B-29 bomber <i>Cajun Queen</i>,<i><br /></i>in Asia or the Pacific, WWII.<br />Source: author's collection</span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: courier; text-indent: 0in;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: courier; text-indent: 0in;">Then
there is the claim that the French revival movement advanced by CODOFIL was
pro-Cajun. CODOFIL’s founding can certainly be viewed as an expression of Cajun
pride and empowerment. Many of its original legislative supporters, for example,
identified as Cajuns, as did many of its inaugural members. Moreover, CODOFIL
often responded to perceived affronts to the Cajun people.</span></p>
<div style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: courier;">In
reality, however, the organization at once took on a much broader mission:
promoting continental French in Louisiana — the French of the <i>Académie
Française</i>. Indeed, the bill creating CODOFIL made no mention of Acadians,
Cajuns, or Cajun French — nor, tellingly, do the minutes of CODOFIL’s first
executive meeting, held in October 1968. Those minutes refer only to the goal of advancing
“French” and “Louisiana French.”<b><span style="color: #999999;">(7)</span></b></span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><b><span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><b></b></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhE2BXzrZALomXnsmiUOH3HLUr_qi7SrYtUN04INX9eoaHYaTWqNb2t03k9yQzqIND0RSzJwRYpYq0qAv3aS3j-rqXOXpEOhr1Pf9SpeE7xB5kGMNk01jq4rvPqJpv_S5xGnYW2oQLbg798OFLijAW6cjPxbsmSX4MTP78FzoYRK8yMgo0nczZOg916/s2479/CODOFIL%20minutes%20page.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2479" data-original-width="1753" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhE2BXzrZALomXnsmiUOH3HLUr_qi7SrYtUN04INX9eoaHYaTWqNb2t03k9yQzqIND0RSzJwRYpYq0qAv3aS3j-rqXOXpEOhr1Pf9SpeE7xB5kGMNk01jq4rvPqJpv_S5xGnYW2oQLbg798OFLijAW6cjPxbsmSX4MTP78FzoYRK8yMgo0nczZOg916/w453-h640/CODOFIL%20minutes%20page.png" width="453" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Excerpt, minutes of 1st CODOFIL meeting,<br />October 1968.<br />Source: UL Lafayette Archives</span></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="font-family: courier; text-indent: 0in;"><br /></span></span></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="font-family: courier; text-indent: 0in;">Furthermore, claims that CODOFIL sought to exclusively preserve or promote Cajun culture are undercut by its long-serving president’s open scorn for Cajun French. That president, James R. “Jimmie” Domengeaux, publicly revealed his disdain for the dialect when, for instance, he aggressively suppressed <i>Cajun French I</i>, a textbook prepared by local Cajun educator James Donald Faulk.</span></span></p><p></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiafq0Yz2yuKCmFZ64habSRQc9g17V1JkX2qxeAGiTJL6D5_czDCgvxPXBimUui9y_c9OFZCD3mKHk6MiaoclsRelOGbcsc_EQuacCudUIlXeSk86EwlmBQmKPJ0CPWDmU8cWTDRXCGWYg1jKI_qh3GEZ6JF3yKB7ZroAPi_dTAaeKfe7Tdm-iBJEcV/s816/JD%201.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="733" data-original-width="816" height="359" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiafq0Yz2yuKCmFZ64habSRQc9g17V1JkX2qxeAGiTJL6D5_czDCgvxPXBimUui9y_c9OFZCD3mKHk6MiaoclsRelOGbcsc_EQuacCudUIlXeSk86EwlmBQmKPJ0CPWDmU8cWTDRXCGWYg1jKI_qh3GEZ6JF3yKB7ZroAPi_dTAaeKfe7Tdm-iBJEcV/w400-h359/JD%201.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Jimmie Domengeaux, <br />shown the year of CODOFIL's birth.</span><br /><span style="font-family: courier;">Source: </span><i style="font-family: courier;">La Louisiane</i><span style="font-family: courier;">, September 1968 <br />(film, 15 mins. 2 secs.),</span><br style="font-family: courier;" /><span style="font-family: courier;">ORTF, France</span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Domengeaux squelched the book even as many
language educators in the state considered <i>Cajun French I</i>
well-intentioned if flawed (in large part because it rendered Cajun French in
an English-based phonetic code while omitting conventional French spelling).<span style="color: #999999; font-weight: bold;">(8)</span>
As I remarked in my dissertation and subsequent book <i>The Cajuns:
Americanization of a People </i>(2003):</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Domengeaux
opposed [Faulk’s textbook] simply because he despised Cajun French, and a
bitter public feud erupted when CODOFIL’s leader dismissed the textbook as “a
bunch of chicken scratches.” Faulk fired back, “All the Cajun people are for
me. They hate his guts.” Domengeaux ultimately succeeded in blocking the use of
Faulk’s textbook in classrooms — but in doing so he caused a public relations
disaster. The media depicted CODOFIL as an anti-Cajun Goliath, a charge that
had been levied for years by some grassroots activists. Newspaper headlines
reinforced this perception: “CODOFIL Chief Trying to Block Cajun French Book,” “CODOFIL
Frowns on Cajun French Textbook,” “CODOFIL Versus Local Man.” . . .<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzXNXzbHIYMBJwcH3zknawRzSDxk5MbExLyOqVwp7Ph5e7GpvO1MmtyIR6dg1UnLFUx1gmNAwgw2ZMQBqLSiLZsjyklH8v_JZldknDsysk6xbfjF9rWYVA-hn-agckBBJ_al52pNqd1CoY2xOaXBHsiyrSD4lxttokzoTH_MGug7yA3QINadEuCv6F/s862/Faulk%20Book.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><img border="0" data-original-height="862" data-original-width="696" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzXNXzbHIYMBJwcH3zknawRzSDxk5MbExLyOqVwp7Ph5e7GpvO1MmtyIR6dg1UnLFUx1gmNAwgw2ZMQBqLSiLZsjyklH8v_JZldknDsysk6xbfjF9rWYVA-hn-agckBBJ_al52pNqd1CoY2xOaXBHsiyrSD4lxttokzoTH_MGug7yA3QINadEuCv6F/w258-h320/Faulk%20Book.jpg" width="258" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Faulk's <i>Cajun French I </i>(1977).</span></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: courier;">I continued:</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Domengeaux further damaged the French
preservation movement when during the Faulk affair he told a United Press
International journalist that Cajun French was “worse than redneck English.” An
Associated Press reporter attributed a similar remark to Domengeaux a year
later, when esteemed Columbia University folklorist Alan Lomax criticized CODOFIL’s
use of imported French instructors. Moreover, Domengeaux defended his practice
of hiring foreign instructors by asserting, “They can speak French better than
any damn Louisianian.”<b><span style="color: #999999;">(9)</span></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Given
this, it hardly seems likely Domengeaux conspired with other elites to elevate Cajuns
and their dialect, either to exclude Creoles or for any other reason.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMy6cBdLq9-TCC08st2j5Mxt2FXrvw1qyTvWFwb5_2SqflMnqomNo0sez74YnI-u3VY9_b58hn_r8-pq304NdiEn534kvOAyY6FahEfLyVJtrahbuKjUQa-XR4YSeM1KfKDkIwQIYw-vPWLpWRqhrdGP3u_1CUoLpnkDCig8Bo3NHLo5uQT2vPfgBR/s1119/JD%20cropped%20IMG_5554.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="817" data-original-width="1119" height="293" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMy6cBdLq9-TCC08st2j5Mxt2FXrvw1qyTvWFwb5_2SqflMnqomNo0sez74YnI-u3VY9_b58hn_r8-pq304NdiEn534kvOAyY6FahEfLyVJtrahbuKjUQa-XR4YSeM1KfKDkIwQIYw-vPWLpWRqhrdGP3u_1CUoLpnkDCig8Bo3NHLo5uQT2vPfgBR/w400-h293/JD%20cropped%20IMG_5554.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Domengeaux </span><span style="font-family: courier;">speaking to Creoles in French.</span><br style="font-family: courier;" /><span style="font-family: courier;">Source: </span><i style="font-family: courier;">La Louisiane</i><span style="font-family: courier;">, September 1968<br />(film, 15 mins. 2 secs.),</span><br style="font-family: courier;" /><span style="font-family: courier;">ORTF, France</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: courier; text-indent: 0in;">Although
unrelated to CODOFIL’s activities, it is an unfortunate truth that for years the
term “Cajun” has been applied to many things decidedly non-Cajun, including things
actually “Creole” (a subject I address <a href="https://bayoutechedispatches.blogspot.com/2019/06/of-cajuns-and-creoles-brief-historical.html" target="_blank">here</a></span><span style="font-family: courier; text-indent: 0in;">). This practice understandably perturbs Creoles.
It may surprise some, however, that this blanket use of the term also perturbs
Cajuns — especially when those faux attributions are of a ridiculous “New
Orleans-style Cajun pizza” variety, to quote folklorist and linguist Barry Jean
Ancelet. As Cajun musician and grassroots activist Dewey Balfa once lamented, “Cajun
is being so commercialized. Someday it’s going to be too much, if it ain’t
already.”</span><b style="font-family: courier; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="color: #999999;">(10)</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;"><b style="font-family: courier; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;"><b style="font-family: courier; text-indent: 0in;"></b></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_wJwd2f6ARkazVgPRwqr4ho81-gKOXNvKgMPk4nIZKdnFc8yoWT27aoV4EAqocdq8hFsAu_v0_CQUUmMNisEhsIvlOIEGHiT4dd2ULcpaMX_jYe5M0916yIkqoufMkoKemMrgiOD4xjN2g4Im2y_QB3CnNHAaOimdFKeRLhrhJBUBm_WKXatlpXOk/s1641/Cajun%20Squirrel.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1641" data-original-width="1417" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_wJwd2f6ARkazVgPRwqr4ho81-gKOXNvKgMPk4nIZKdnFc8yoWT27aoV4EAqocdq8hFsAu_v0_CQUUmMNisEhsIvlOIEGHiT4dd2ULcpaMX_jYe5M0916yIkqoufMkoKemMrgiOD4xjN2g4Im2y_QB3CnNHAaOimdFKeRLhrhJBUBm_WKXatlpXOk/w345-h400/Cajun%20Squirrel.jpg" width="345" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Example of an odd "Cajun" product.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><b style="font-family: courier; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span></b><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Rather
than blame the slapdash use of “Cajun” on a cabal of White French-speaking
elites and their acolytes, would it not make more sense to blame, say, <i>the
media and hospitality industries</i>, the latter of which includes the <i>tourism
and culinary fields</i>? These economic sectors certainly had the motive (revenue)
and the influence (national and local radio, television, and print ads — not to
mention restaurant menus) to stress “Cajun” at the expense of “Creole.” But perhaps
those industries did not “choose” between “Cajun” and “Creole” at all, but merely
used “Cajun,” trendy catchword as it became in the 1980s, out of ignorance? Or perhaps
they seized on “Cajun” because they worried “Creole” — a nebulous term to some that
can spark confusion and debate — would baffle uninitiated consumers?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;"><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Cajuns-Americanization-Shane-K-Bernard/dp/1578065232" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="1360" data-original-width="907" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwS618x1IHEFq6BBBky9CnX_zYt04vXnt2L_qeEyD6bs1L5jJ_K7oSoxrpiO-NB7fFr4IYpkUVhyLWlM6rhsxkuwJpuct693410HH0ZS2F10wYV2bGvXjvEEEjyXW-dQeBt8H7qkS-wiLrbiWomT8JyIBdHqBD0Lx6fEsbLdPfwMv3fM9aNuBddcCp/s320/Bernard%20book%202.jpg" width="213" /></a></span></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Cajuns-Americanization-Shane-K-Bernard/dp/1578065232" target="_blank"><br />I trace the "Cajun craze" <br />in my 2003 book.</a></span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: courier; text-indent: 0in;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: courier; text-indent: 0in;">I,
however, believe a more likely culprit for the ubiquity of the “Cajun” label
might be found in a pervasive force beyond anyone’s real control — namely, the
currents of American pop culture. Since the “Cajun craze” of the 1980s (sparked,
oddly enough, by a culinary phenomenon called <i>blackened red fish</i>), pop
culture has demonstrated an amazing ability to conjure up the word “Cajun” in
some truly bizarre ways. As I observed in my <i>Americanization</i> book:</span><span style="font-family: courier; text-indent: 0in;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Something
peculiar happened to Cajun culture in the late twentieth century. Once derided
as backward, it suddenly became associated with words like “hot,” “chic,” and “trendy.”
Mainstream society not only discovered Cajun culture, it embraced it, usurped
it, and reshaped it almost beyond recognition. . . . A soft drink company in
north Louisiana hawked Cajun Cola. A condiment manufacturer in Arizona
introduced Ass Kickin’ Cajun Hot Sauce. A mollusk farm in Oregon marketed “Cajun-Style”
Kitchen-Sliced Slugs. . . . Country star Ricky Skaggs reached the <i>Billboard</i>
Top Ten with “Cajun Moon,” British pop band Adam and the Ants sang about “Cajun
Twisters,” and heavy metal rock group Exodus recorded a tune called “Cajun
Hell.” . . . Cookbooks appeared with strange titles like <i>Microwave Cajun
Country Cookbook</i>, <i>Cajun Vegetarian Cooking</i>, and <i>Kosher Cajun
Cookbook</i>. . . . Marvel comics added a Cajun super hero, Gambit, to its
pantheon of crime fighters like Spiderman, the Incredible Hulk, and Captain
America. Meanwhile, hack writers issued cheap romance novels with titles like <i>Cajun
Rose</i>, <i>Cajun Summer</i>, and <i>Cajun Caress</i>. Even the underworld of
hardcore pornography exploited the Cajun frenzy. . . .<b><span style="color: #999999;">(11)</span></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Those
espousing the “French Louisiana elite” theory do, it must be admitted, cite one
piece of <i>circumstantial </i>evidence for dubbing “the Cajun movement” a “White
reactionary” effort born of racism. That circumstantial evidence: CODOFIL’s
president, the aforementioned James R. “Jimmie” Domengeaux, <i>made racist
statements</i>. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Which
is true.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Domengeaux,
however, was one man; and one man alone does not make a movement.<b><span style="color: #999999;">(12)</span></b><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: courier;">In
fact, one of Domengeaux’s closest allies in CODOFIL’s French revival effort was
Dr. Raymond S. Rodgers, a non-Cajun northerner, Columbia graduate, and
University of Southwestern Louisiana political science professor. Embracing the
1960s counterculture, Rodgers belonged to the local anti-racist Human Relations
Council (which met in his Lafayette residence), openly criticized local
conservatives, and identified his own political philosophy (to quote Rodgers
himself) as “racial liberalism.”<b><span style="color: #999999;">(13)</span></b><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><b><span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><b></b></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4-6i7BrJOXPoRtrvD0XhT7FC1tsi9Gmje8pelLeXpf8w46j1LEjSmx5-Q46Mi8v-mX28f5qZeJAC0fqQsnIq0b7xXw6tMJLuw8pl1sde8XmUmCnzoA4cpnsshxM4fwtZ0HoHvy1LjImOVfnfEEGvVwugDNaxMO3oycqUDo3se8No8dkIc0PHyaQp0/s3000/Raymond%20Rodgers%20ca%201973%20City%20of%20Vancouver%20Archives.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3000" data-original-width="2254" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4-6i7BrJOXPoRtrvD0XhT7FC1tsi9Gmje8pelLeXpf8w46j1LEjSmx5-Q46Mi8v-mX28f5qZeJAC0fqQsnIq0b7xXw6tMJLuw8pl1sde8XmUmCnzoA4cpnsshxM4fwtZ0HoHvy1LjImOVfnfEEGvVwugDNaxMO3oycqUDo3se8No8dkIc0PHyaQp0/s320/Raymond%20Rodgers%20ca%201973%20City%20of%20Vancouver%20Archives.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Raymond S. Rodgers, ca. 1973.<br />Source: City of Vancouver Archives<br />(<i>Vancouver Sun</i>/Pacific Press)</span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: courier;"><b><span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span></b></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Another
inaugural CODOFIL member was Haitian-born Creole educator Dr. Roch Mirabeau, director
of the non-English language program at historically Black Southern University. Then
there were Mirabeau’s fellow progressive-minded CODOFIL members: USL language
professor Dr. Hosea Phillips; USL political science professor Dr. Philip F. Dur;
state foreign language specialist and high-school language educator Audrey
Babineaux George; <i>Athénée Louisianais</i> literary society president James
Bezou; USL college student and future language professor Ginette Baillargeon;
Cajun and Creole music activists Paul Tate and Revon Reed, the latter of whom
worked closely with renowned Creole musicians Bois-Sec Ardoin and Canray
Fontenot.<b><span style="color: #999999;">(14)</span></b><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><b><span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><b></b></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4Jvl9AT1t6gjIs2Bq8Cus96-OsDeVxUhhThXol9M1gu4uCV5qGAAp8lUoi2eQpZ4Sx5fDKncF6OWx6eeZnbjzYLEhmGq4n-k9zmmyf-FBNLjHyHRi_mjDeWu4GaT-GxKgyPrsxMiH5iKvd6ta9GFE1FVYpBw7ZoW48d-RQ8q1IBal3JRUdqfogvap/s700/ARH00445.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="700" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4Jvl9AT1t6gjIs2Bq8Cus96-OsDeVxUhhThXol9M1gu4uCV5qGAAp8lUoi2eQpZ4Sx5fDKncF6OWx6eeZnbjzYLEhmGq4n-k9zmmyf-FBNLjHyHRi_mjDeWu4GaT-GxKgyPrsxMiH5iKvd6ta9GFE1FVYpBw7ZoW48d-RQ8q1IBal3JRUdqfogvap/s320/ARH00445.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><i>La Musique Creole</i>, originally issued 1974,<br />with liner notes by CODOFIL member Revon Reed.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: courier;"><b><span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span></b></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: courier;">These
hardly seem like “White reactionaries” bent on segregating Louisiana’s Black
and mixed-race Creoles from their White counterparts. This is not to say that <i>some</i>
early CODOFIL members were not reactionaries. Domengeaux, Roy Theriot, and C.
J. “Bobby” Dugas, for example, could certainly be illiberal.<b><span style="color: #999999;">(15)</span></b> And no
doubt some CODOFIL members viewed the organization as a negative counter to the
civil rights movement — but one should avoid broad-brushing an entire
organization (and movement) based on the attributes of only a few members. Many
involved with CODOFIL, such as the aforesaid progressives, did not recoil from
the civil rights movement. Some even embraced it. Ancelet, for example, recalls of young CODOFIL-linked scholars who like himself came of
age in the late 1960s and early ‘70s: “[M]any of our generation of 'activists'
insisted consistently on including Cajuns and Creoles in our considerations. We
deliberately included all angles of the Louisiana French experience out of a
desire to be thorough. We also worked actively against efforts to disparage or
exclude any part of the mix from the whole story.”<b><span style="color: #999999;">(16)</span></b><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><b><span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><b></b></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoWMAxJjFOm4mZwBKXOLCsO2IXPh-jUNKpDYjFRqJcTjPKb_s3rJTdGYikSSqJOl9EGSxt-wz2UnhdbtSgCLNqb-4DEdbJGzSAgwQC5aOj8yve_Y3xj6yg66DQozmRfQ6rhYr1WLl0wIoBN0qUJ2vFadP7FmJc3Z7Vk3lvldKpkHBnQlkAE_jJZvhW/s2429/Anacelet%20book%202.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2429" data-original-width="1670" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoWMAxJjFOm4mZwBKXOLCsO2IXPh-jUNKpDYjFRqJcTjPKb_s3rJTdGYikSSqJOl9EGSxt-wz2UnhdbtSgCLNqb-4DEdbJGzSAgwQC5aOj8yve_Y3xj6yg66DQozmRfQ6rhYr1WLl0wIoBN0qUJ2vFadP7FmJc3Z7Vk3lvldKpkHBnQlkAE_jJZvhW/s320/Anacelet%20book%202.jpg" width="220" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier;">One of Barry Jean Ancelet's books.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="text-indent: 0in;"><br /></span></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="text-indent: 0in;">Indeed,
the rise of CODOFIL is properly viewed not as a localized south Louisiana event that occurred in a vacuum, but as part of a national upsurge in ethnic pride and
empowerment taking its cue from the Black-led civil rights movement. As I wrote
in </span><i style="text-indent: 0in;">Americanization</i><span style="text-indent: 0in;">:</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">[T]he
1960s . . . exerted a major impact on ethnic groups across America. A new “Age
of Ethnicity” developed in reaction to the Anglo-conformism of previous times,
as minorities demanded their rights and honored their heritage. This trend grew
out of the civil rights and black power movements, as well as the
counterculture, all of which had declared war on traditional attitudes. . . .
By 1970 <i>Newsweek</i> declared “ethnic power” a “rising cry” among the
American people.<b><span style="color: #999999;">(17)</span></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: courier;">A
remarkable irony, however, is that while no primary-source evidence exists of White
“French Louisiana elites” conspiring in the late 1960s per CODOFIL or any other
organization to exclude Creoles of African heritage, there is evidence of
Creole elites excluding Cajuns <i>from their society.<o:p></o:p></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: courier;"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: justify;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0qjTIAQO7AdzzWfDw9yPPp9O2x-MswN2UGSnHGutN-0ot8xhLcD42JwT7s0cFCjsGhdan_9YO9kW7O3v4CO-HflC9n_plAll7u5sUxgLzNd4roXoKdlV6rue4NsvhnPT3rrCmfMMS4azqaXu05vSSf334CjO8ULZjoXCoh5IDMBHmaAqJieKNcv2L/s400/FONA.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="color: black; font-family: courier;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="260" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0qjTIAQO7AdzzWfDw9yPPp9O2x-MswN2UGSnHGutN-0ot8xhLcD42JwT7s0cFCjsGhdan_9YO9kW7O3v4CO-HflC9n_plAll7u5sUxgLzNd4roXoKdlV6rue4NsvhnPT3rrCmfMMS4azqaXu05vSSf334CjO8ULZjoXCoh5IDMBHmaAqJieKNcv2L/s320/FONA.jpg" width="208" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: justify;">Brasseaux's 1987 book,<br /><i>The Founding of New Acadia.</i></span></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="line-height: normal; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: courier;">These were 19th-century White Creoles, but Creoles nonetheless. As historian Carl A. Brasseaux observed in <i>The Founding of New Acadia: The Beginnings of Acadian Life in Louisiana</i>,<span style="color: #666666;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); font-size: 15.84px;"><i> </i></span></span>“Creole-Acadian tensions were compounded . . . by the [Creole] aristocracy’s growing conviction that its less affluent and less ambitious neighbors were a crass and uncultured people, whose standards of conduct must be altered to meet Creole standards of behavior. . . .” Similarly, educator Shields McIlwaine noted of the Creole attitude toward Cajuns: “[T]he 'descendants of Evangeline' . . . had been, as Cable said, 'the jest of the proud Creole' — the French aristocracy, who often had a word for the poorer Cajuns: '<i>Canaille</i>!' — that was their way of saying poor-white trash.”<span style="color: #999999;"><b>(18)</b></span></span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: courier;">This
anti-Cajun classism among Creoles is evident in the primary-source record. In
1901, for instance, an observer noted:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">There
is still a disposition to look with contempt on the Acadian on the part of
some. . . . [T]he creole regards it as the greatest indignity to mistake him
for an Acadian.<b><span style="color: #999999;">(19)</span></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Similarly,
in 1898 a journalist affirmed:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">The
creoles, many of whom boast of the bluest of the blue blood, have always
treated their plebeian fellow countrymen [the Cajuns] with a good-natured
contempt (which the Cajuns bitterly resent) and have so far done nothing for
their social or mental advancement.<b><span style="color: #999999;">(20)</span></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNf8ezIYqlEiBSfn5LW9o3HhmfMwaQfQQv7ruXutX1z5e0lzH1CHDbwSIJpr8n41-MfUKxxUWUrjKwvCiZjBjeBJjetbyZZ6Iqxg2VUtTULNtLhNChDZbNT1hQB6XoOIH_GS68PZq3BPru3UA-xetunlrUKR9i37jdVVT2i5K6YJkb-9mWM1tvHle0/s630/Cajun%20Creoles%20Indianapolis%20Journal%20(1898).jp2.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="141" data-original-width="630" height="99" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNf8ezIYqlEiBSfn5LW9o3HhmfMwaQfQQv7ruXutX1z5e0lzH1CHDbwSIJpr8n41-MfUKxxUWUrjKwvCiZjBjeBJjetbyZZ6Iqxg2VUtTULNtLhNChDZbNT1hQB6XoOIH_GS68PZq3BPru3UA-xetunlrUKR9i37jdVVT2i5K6YJkb-9mWM1tvHle0/w440-h99/Cajun%20Creoles%20Indianapolis%20Journal%20(1898).jp2.jpg" width="440" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Source: <span style="text-align: justify;"><i>T</i></span><i>he Indianapolis Journal, 28 January 1898</i>.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: courier;"><i><br /></i></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><i>The
Yale Literary Magazine</i> remarked in 1889 of a noted Louisiana
writer’s depiction of Cajuns:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">[O]n
the faintly undulating prairies of Opelousas, live another people of French
ancestry, the descendants of the Acadians who were driven from Nova Scotia. The
Creoles look down upon these home-living country-folk. . . .<b><span style="color: #999999;">(21)</span></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">And
an 1881 federal census study maintained (referring overtly to the issue of
exclusion):</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0.5in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">The Creoles proper will not share their
distinction with the native descendants of those worthy Acadian exiles who . .
. found refuge in Louisiana. These remain “cadjiens” or “cajuns”. . . .<b><span style="color: #999999;">(22)</span></b></span><span style="font-family: courier;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: courier; text-indent: 0in;">Nevertheless
— I contend it is best for all parties to cast off acrimony about one group
excluding another. After all,</span><i style="font-family: courier; text-indent: 0in;"> is it not the very nature of racial and ethnic
groups to exclude others?</i><span style="font-family: courier; text-indent: 0in;"> As pioneer sociologist Fredrik Barth asserted, “[T]he
ethnic</span><i style="font-family: courier; text-indent: 0in;"> boundary</i><span style="font-family: courier; text-indent: 0in;"> . . . defines the group, not the cultural stuff that it
encloses. . . . [The boundary] entails criteria for determining membership and ways
of signalling membership and exclusion” [Barth’s emphasis].</span><b style="font-family: courier; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="color: #999999;">(23)</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><b><span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><b></b></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0JNejy-Y_tyjXD0GLlD3ZT-gH8PSc3Ffy_5Hqm3tgcE-Bv7k-d3mQR2iK19icW6lIrYMd0sT7412WJyOE0ADMlfWyKJ1Fj6lEjBpjvynyIuUTw_d_k4bl5d-QORO4d9_PgFJEUQJKNPBaEDJZBNzb3RbQSgIClGmhHOrqltW0yTsALgMqZSyBPuJx/s2550/Barth.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2550" data-original-width="1650" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0JNejy-Y_tyjXD0GLlD3ZT-gH8PSc3Ffy_5Hqm3tgcE-Bv7k-d3mQR2iK19icW6lIrYMd0sT7412WJyOE0ADMlfWyKJ1Fj6lEjBpjvynyIuUTw_d_k4bl5d-QORO4d9_PgFJEUQJKNPBaEDJZBNzb3RbQSgIClGmhHOrqltW0yTsALgMqZSyBPuJx/s320/Barth.jpg" width="207" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Barth's 1969 classic<br />study of ethnicity.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="text-indent: 0in;"><br /></span></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="text-indent: 0in;">Instead,
I suggest that Cajuns and Creoles (of all colors) should work together for their mutual
benefit, as some have indeed been doing for decades. I urge this even more so
because in south Louisiana the word </span><i style="text-indent: 0in;">Creole</i><span style="text-indent: 0in;"> often</span><i style="text-indent: 0in;"> </i><span style="text-indent: 0in;">denotes, in its broadest
sense, a native-born person of French-speaking, Roman-Catholic heritage,
regardless of skin color . . . a description clearly embracing those who
identify as Cajuns.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: courier;">In
short, Cajuns <i>are</i> Creoles (as I discuss <a href="https://bayoutechedispatches.blogspot.com/2019/06/of-cajuns-and-creoles-brief-historical.html" target="_blank">here</a>).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiv2ShUmAm1IX4YFgrfJyVhLdlhze7IiS_CyPodviMuXHXo0MWsFNqOXmZ5FjoamO9Ogp6-giSNK0mIYsotuJh9lRRuPCDEfULbt6BPV8J_JJPQZWEJBjxBLc-OGlNc6FcHJPV4uUUxGxnd9pb-Zo2kd_P2f0SN7TwFV8mMLycHjCY7hf9ZHewhU1dj/s1080/Cajun%20Creole%20Books.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="844" data-original-width="1080" height="313" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiv2ShUmAm1IX4YFgrfJyVhLdlhze7IiS_CyPodviMuXHXo0MWsFNqOXmZ5FjoamO9Ogp6-giSNK0mIYsotuJh9lRRuPCDEfULbt6BPV8J_JJPQZWEJBjxBLc-OGlNc6FcHJPV4uUUxGxnd9pb-Zo2kd_P2f0SN7TwFV8mMLycHjCY7hf9ZHewhU1dj/w400-h313/Cajun%20Creole%20Books.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Books about Cajuns <br />and other types of Creoles.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: courier; text-indent: 0in;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: courier; text-indent: 0in;">Yet
the charge, unsupported by primary-source evidence, that a “French Louisiana
elite” conspired against Creoles of African heritage to benefit <i style="text-indent: 0in;">“</i>a new identity<i style="text-indent: 0in;">”</i> dubbed <i style="text-indent: 0in;">“</i>Cajun<i style="text-indent: 0in;">”</i> raises vital questions
for scholars and activists. For instance, cannot Creoles be appreciated, and their
language, history, and culture admired (as they ought to be), without
denigrating Cajuns? The same Cajuns who for so long have lived among the
Creoles, and between whom so much cross-cultural borrowing has occurred, in
both directions, that it is impossible to imagine one group without the other?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: courier;">It
similarly might be asked: is it <i>ever </i>acceptable for scholars and activists <i>to advocate
</i>for one racial or ethnic group at the expense of another? I do not mean
choosing to study or to devote oneself to one group and not another. Rather, I
mean to actively champion one group <i>by demeaning another</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Beyond
this, however, looms what I consider a much more significant issue: namely, what
are the moral implications for scholars and activists who insist that a living,
thriving ethnic group — one found in the historical record for over a century
and a half —<i> is illegitimate, even in a sense non-existent</i>? Who tell a
people its dialect is fictitious and thus unworthy of study </span><span style="font-family: courier;">— </span><span style="font-family: courier; text-indent: 0in;">or as one of these scholar-activists recently</span><span style="font-family: courier; text-indent: 0in;"> claimed, and rather flippantly at that, </span><i style="font-family: courier; text-indent: 0in;">“the label ‘Cajun French’ is unsuitable for academic
research. . . .”</i><b style="font-family: courier; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="color: #999999;">(24)</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: courier;">In
today’s moral climate, which calls on us to respect professed identities and to spurn attempts at </span><span style="font-family: courier;">racial and ethnic</span><span style="font-family: courier;"> </span><span style="font-family: courier; text-indent: 0in;">erasure,
is it appropriate to tell Cajuns: “Your label is wrong — your story is untrue —
you do not exist”? </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Those
who seek to advance the study of racial and ethnic groups should, I assert,
respect those communities’ beliefs — not deride them or, worse, seek to
supplant them with their own, perhaps doctrinaire beliefs. The fact of the
matter is, there are over a hundred thousand people, largely in south Louisiana
and east Texas, who identify as “Cajuns”; and who consider “Cajun French” — a
term Ancelet regards as rightly denoting Louisiana French when spoken by Cajuns
— as their traditional tongue.<b><span style="color: #999999;">(25)</span> </b>These proud, self-aware people are
not going away, nor are they likely to respond (certainly not affably) to claims
they and their dialect are illegitimate and deserving of erasure.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyv0Jt4gfV_T-ep4h6CXX3i5a62Ahc-fM0bmNfJlFzv-nyFg3e7S7Md32fOxo49zPuGVEIT9oe9Wkc59tLtKjNaHrfw1bSc0-SuFrT4wfj-JWRdwWRPgTMLleBCIdhChAHCNS2WqryRrkFeYhU6I4U_v2qLLS2N5hkMzo5mHKmDVcXut7uMxbRsWCo/s500/81UxpZ4NBNL._SS500_.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="500" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyv0Jt4gfV_T-ep4h6CXX3i5a62Ahc-fM0bmNfJlFzv-nyFg3e7S7Md32fOxo49zPuGVEIT9oe9Wkc59tLtKjNaHrfw1bSc0-SuFrT4wfj-JWRdwWRPgTMLleBCIdhChAHCNS2WqryRrkFeYhU6I4U_v2qLLS2N5hkMzo5mHKmDVcXut7uMxbRsWCo/s320/81UxpZ4NBNL._SS500_.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><i>Notes</i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><b style="font-family: courier;"><span style="color: #999999;">(1)</span></b><span style="font-family: courier;"> </span><span style="font-family: courier;">Christophe Landry, “Basic Louisiana History & The Acadian(A) [<i>sic</i>] Flag Debacle,</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: courier;">”</span><span style="font-family: courier;"> 15 August 2018, Louisiana Historic & Cultural Vistas, www.mylhcv.com/basic-louisiana-history-the-acadiana-flag-debacle/, accessed 11 May 2022; ________, “Crawfish, Cajuns And Acadians,<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">”</span> 4 June 2018, www.mylhcv.com/myth-making-acadians-louisiana-cajuns/, accessed 11 May 2022; Oliver Mayeux, “Language Revitalization, Race, and Resistance in Creole
Louisiana,” in </span><i style="font-family: courier;">Louisiana Creole Peoplehood: Afro-Indigeneity and Community</i><span style="font-family: courier;">,
ed. Rain Prud’homme-Cranford et al. (Seattle: University of Washington Press,
2022), 144. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">See, for example, Jules Bentley, “Blanc Like Me: Cajuns Vs. Whiteness,” July 2019, <i>Antigravity</i>, antigravitymagazine.com/feature/blanc-like-me-cajuns-vs-whiteness/, accessed 2 May 2022; Alexandra Giancarlo, “‘Don’t Call Me a Cajun!’: Race and Representation in Louisiana’s Acadiana Region,” <i>Journal of Cultural Geography</i> 36, No. 1 (2018): 23-48, accessed per www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08873631.2018.1500088, 14 September 2020; Nicholas Adam Tate, “Cultural Commodification, Homogenization, Exclusion, and the Council for the Development of French in Louisiana,” master's thesis, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Spring 2021, www.proquest.com/openview/aca17bafcf3d2682bceb89e206843ef2, accessed 23 May 2022.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">See also my essay “Thoughts on Cajuns and ‘Whiteness,’” </span><a href="https://bayoutechedispatches.blogspot.com/2020/09/thoughts-on-cajuns-and-whiteness.html" style="font-family: courier;">blog article</a></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Interestingly, Tate concluded that </span><span style="font-family: courier;">“</span><span style="font-family: courier;">There is no evidence in the CODOFIL archives to suggest that CODOFIL intentionally sought to exclude Creoles of Color from the Louisiana French Movement or from participating in programs or policies.</span><span style="font-family: courier;">”</span><span style="font-family: courier;"> Rather, Tate asserts that CODOFIL unintentionally excluded Creoles of African heritage who, however, </span><span style="font-family: courier;">“</span><span style="font-family: courier;">also excluded themselves as a means to maintain their distinct culture and francophone identity.</span><span style="font-family: courier;">” </span><span style="font-family: courier;">Tate, “Cultural Commodification,</span><span style="font-family: courier;">” </span><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: courier;">59, 69.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><b style="font-family: courier;"><span style="color: #999999;">(2)</span></b><span style="font-family: courier;"> </span><span style="font-family: courier;">Cécyle Trépanier, “The Cajunization of French Louisiana: Forging a Regional Identity,” <i>The Geographical Journal</i> 157 (July 1991): 164.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Trépanier drew heavily on the work of Eric Waddell. See E. Waddell, “La Louisiane française: une poste outre-frontière de l’Amérique française ou un autre pays et une autre culture?” <i>Cahiers de géographie du Québec </i>23 (September 1979): 199–215, accessed per the website of the International DOI [Digital Object Identifier] Foundation, doi.org/10.7202/021434ar, 29 April 2022</span><span style="font-family: courier;">.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">I disagree with </span><span style="font-family: courier;">Trépanier</span><span style="font-family: courier;">’</span><span style="font-family: courier;">s unnuanced assertion that “the beautification of the Cajun identity began to take place in the late 1960s” (p. 161). What began to take place in the 1960s was the rise of Cajun pride and empowerment <i>as a movement</i>. Prior to that decade, however, Cajun identity (which long predated the 1960s) had </span><span style="font-family: courier;">never been </span><span style="font-family: courier;">uniformly</span><span style="font-family: courier;"> </span><span style="font-family: courier;">viewed as sullied and therefore in need of </span><span style="font-family: courier;">“</span><span style="font-family: courier;">beautification</span><span style="font-family: courier;">.</span><span style="font-family: courier;">”</span><span style="font-family: courier;"> </span><span style="font-family: courier;">As I note elsewhere, early appearances of the word </span><i style="font-family: courier;">Cajun </i><span style="font-family: courier;">“include not only negative, but neutral and positive occurrences” (despite occasional present-day claims that </span><span style="font-family: courier;"><i>Cajun</i> had been used </span><span style="font-family: courier;">solely</span><span style="font-family: courier;"> </span><span style="font-family: courier;">as a </span><span style="font-family: courier;">negative term </span><span style="font-family: courier;">prior to the late 1960s)</span><span style="font-family: courier;">. Thus we see positive historic declarations such as </span><span style="font-family: courier;">“</span><span style="font-family: courier;">Cadiens . . the true name of this valiant population</span><span style="font-family: courier;">” (1877)</span><span style="font-family: courier;"> and </span><span style="font-family: courier;">“</span><span style="font-family: courier;">those worthy Acadian exiles who . . . [are called] </span><span style="font-family: courier;">‘</span><span style="font-family: courier;">cadjiens</span><span style="font-family: courier;">’</span><span style="font-family: courier;"> or </span><span style="font-family: courier;">‘</span><span style="font-family: courier;">cajuns</span><span style="font-family: courier;">’</span><span style="font-family: courier;">. . .” (1881). (This partly explains why we find more than one or two U.S. aircraft in World War II bearing the loving nickname </span><i style="font-family: courier;">Cajun</i><span style="font-family: courier;"> on their fuselages — about a quarter-century before </span><span style="font-family: courier;">Trépanier claims the identity it stood for began to be </span><span style="font-family: courier;">beautified.) Source: </span><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: left;">see my essay “Notes on the Birth of Cajun Ethnic Identity,</span><span style="font-family: courier;">”</span><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: left;"> <a href="https://bayoutechedispatches.blogspot.com/2020/09/notes-on-birth-of-cajun-ethnic-identity.html" target="_blank">blog article</a>.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyPyZ3R8qRTtdXLhGcxcllqtIsFEv4VFEsgi-nVopBF_8e3vXwztB1Qg1HSoMNTJPDyjbgq5rztXZAZ1E9_9wEllem8QQbcrJi4JhHGo4h8eBK4E5J-NLhcIIBBu9i50rE8bRM_aKu9PbemZQ_2c5BKhmMWklFHfTgTeqdKVLL9R-WtksGPsML90ns/s897/B26%20Little%20Cajun%20cropped.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="897" data-original-width="797" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyPyZ3R8qRTtdXLhGcxcllqtIsFEv4VFEsgi-nVopBF_8e3vXwztB1Qg1HSoMNTJPDyjbgq5rztXZAZ1E9_9wEllem8QQbcrJi4JhHGo4h8eBK4E5J-NLhcIIBBu9i50rE8bRM_aKu9PbemZQ_2c5BKhmMWklFHfTgTeqdKVLL9R-WtksGPsML90ns/s320/B26%20Little%20Cajun%20cropped.jpg" width="284" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier;">The <i>Little Cajun</i> in WWII</span>,<span style="font-family: courier;"><i><br /></i>a literal homage to Cajun beauty. <br />Source: author's collection</span></td></tr></tbody></table><b style="font-family: courier;"><span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span></b><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><b style="font-family: courier;"><span style="color: #999999;">(3)</span></b><span style="font-family: courier;">
Mayeux, “Language Revitalization,” 147.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><b><span style="color: #999999;">(4)</span>
</b>“The ‘Cajuns’ of Louisiana,” <i>Dallas (Tex.)
News</i>, reprinted in <i>The Indianapolis Journal</i>, 28 January 1898, 7; “The
Acadians: A Picturesque People Unchanged by Time,” <i>San Francisco Chronicle</i>,
reprinted in <i>The Abbeville (S.C.) Press and Banner</i>, 29 June 1887, 7; “Acts Hereafter Only in English,” <i>The</i> (Opelousas, La.) <i>Star-Progress</i>, 18 May 1921, p. 2.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: left; text-indent: 0in;">Some
critics might assert that while, yes, the word “Cajun” did exist in abundance
between the 1860s and the late 1960s, it was never used </span><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: left; text-indent: 0in;"><i>as an ethnic label,</i> only <i>as </i></span><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: left; text-indent: 48px;"><i>a </i></span><span style="text-align: left; text-indent: 48px;"><i><span style="font-family: courier;">classist term for all poor white French-speakers regardless of ethnicity</span></i></span><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: left; text-indent: 0in;">. Such classist usage does exist in the historical record, but so do many clear instances of </span><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: left; text-indent: 48px;">“</span><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">Cajun</span><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: left; text-indent: 48px;">”</span><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;"> as an ethnic label. An 1898 source, for example, described Cajuns as </span><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: left; text-indent: 48px;">“</span><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">the descendants of the exiled Acadians</span><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: left; text-indent: 48px;">”</span><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">; an 1881 source called them </span><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: left; text-indent: 48px;">“</span><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">the native descendants of those worthy Acadian exiles</span><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: left; text-indent: 48px;">”</span><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">; and so on. Thus, to assert that </span><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: left; text-indent: 48px;">“</span><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">Cajun</span><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: left; text-indent: 48px;">”</span><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;"> was never used </span><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: left; text-indent: 48px;">early on</span><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: left; text-indent: 48px;"> </span><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">as an ethnic label is false</span><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: left; text-indent: 0in;">. See T. W. Poole, <i>Some Late Words about Louisiana </i>(New Orleans: E. Marchand, 1889), 26; George E. Waring Jr. and George W. Cable, <i>History and Present Condition of New Orleans, Louisiana: Social Statistics of Cities, Tenth Census of the United States </i>(Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1881), 10.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier; text-indent: 0in;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAmijbPvKmdaYXmx6M026douusm_lDWOc2r-oIEGhnhnNr0Pn9PigzvwLfoxruVRffdxNfQF10sKSSsXqbdgP1RUsi6o_H3YriJxgaW83uTm1oNdELZdvCal8ajHwhwBXURBdCZoapaL0mPNobxQLgfH741OrvxLGspQyK0QrU4SEm8Umnu4ds1qjT/s1440/IMG_5577.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1223" data-original-width="1440" height="272" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAmijbPvKmdaYXmx6M026douusm_lDWOc2r-oIEGhnhnNr0Pn9PigzvwLfoxruVRffdxNfQF10sKSSsXqbdgP1RUsi6o_H3YriJxgaW83uTm1oNdELZdvCal8ajHwhwBXURBdCZoapaL0mPNobxQLgfH741OrvxLGspQyK0QrU4SEm8Umnu4ds1qjT/s320/IMG_5577.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier;">A 1955 ad for a New Iberia restaurant:<br />“Cajun ethnicity did not suddenly materialize<br />from nothingness after CODOFIL’s birth in 1968.”<br />Source: author's collection.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: courier; text-indent: 0in;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Regarding this same topic of Cajun ethnicity, historian Carl A. Brasseaux notes, </span><span style="font-family: courier;">“</span><span style="font-family: courier;">Eighteenth-century writers — and mainstream historians of the past 150 years — have clearly established that the French colonists of the Bay of Fundy Basin had forged a new, collective ethnic identity as Acadians long before their expulsion from Canada in 1755. . . . </span><span style="font-family: courier;">During the ensuing years of exile and wandering, the Acadians were universally regarded by their reluctant hosts as a distinct people with a common ethnic identity. That identity clearly remained intact after successive waves of surviving Acadians made their way to Louisiana between 1764 and 1788. At the time of their arrival and for decades afterward, the exiles' ethnicity was clearly and unequivocally recognized by established Louisianians, including proto-Creoles, who clearly viewed the immigrants as the 'other'. Indeed, as low-class, insolent, and often combative interlopers. The resulting acrimonious relationship between the two groups, based on socio-economic, linguistic, cultural differences and divergent, incompatible world views remained intact as the two groups evolved and matured side-by-side in southern Louisiana over the following two-and-a-half centuries. Ethnic identities remained stable even as ethnic labels changed in response to the region's evolving general linguistic landscape, in which <i>Acadien</i> (ca. 1764) morphed into <i>Cadien</i> (ca. 1770-ca. 1850), and, finally, <i>Cajun</i> (ca. 1850). . . . Contemporary writers clearly recognized that the two communities were separate and distinct throughout this evolutionary process. This does not mean that, after centuries of evolutionary adaptation to the same physical and cultural landscapes, there were not similarities. . . .” </span><span style="font-family: courier;">Carl A. Brasseaux, Lafayette, La., to Shane K. Bernard, New Iberia, La., 9 May 2022, </span><span style="font-family: courier;">email correspondence in the possession of Shane K. Bernard.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><b><span style="color: #999999;">(5)</span> </b>Nor is it a case of “Cajuns” suddenly
“becoming White” in 1968 or thereafter. With very few exceptions (and there are
a few), historical primary-source documents refer to the Cajuns and their
Acadian ancestors as “White.” See
Bernard, “Cajuns and ‘Whiteness,’” <a href="https://bayoutechedispatches.blogspot.com/2020/09/thoughts-on-cajuns-and-whiteness.html" target="_blank">blog article</a>.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier; text-indent: 0in;">Those
asserting a recent Cajun ethnogenesis fondly quote an anonymous Creole elder of
Breaux Bridge who once averred, “We were called Creoles before this Cajun
business” — as though this statement, subject to interpretation, were a
self-evident absolute truth, unopposed by various other sources, including the
memories of the Cajun people themselves. (The “we” in this quotation has been
variously interpreted to mean either “Creoles of African descent” or, more
broadly, “all Creoles, regardless of skin color or heritage.” Rendered in its
original tongue, the statement is “</span><i style="font-family: courier; text-indent: 0in;">On s’appelait des Creoles avant cette
affaire de Cadjin</i><span style="font-family: courier; text-indent: 0in;">.”)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">See Trépanier, “Cajunization,” 167.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><b><span style="color: #999999;">(6)</span>
</b>Jacques Henry, “From <i>Acadien</i> to <i>Cajun</i>
to <i>Cadien</i>: Ethnic Labelization and Construction of Identity,” <i>Journal
of American Ethnic History</i> 17 (Summer, 1998): 29-62.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><b><span style="color: #999999;">(7)
</span></b>Minutes, CODOFIL Meeting, 27 October 1968, TD,
Clyde L. Rougeou Papers, University of Louisiana at Lafayette Archives, Dupré
Library, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Lafayette, La</span><span style="font-family: courier;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><b><span style="color: #999999;">(8)</span>
</b>Barry Jean Ancelet, Scott, La., to Shane K.
Bernard, New Iberia, La., 6 May 2022, email correspondence in the possession of
Shane K. Bernard.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><b style="font-family: courier;"><span style="color: #999999;">(9)</span>
</b><span style="font-family: courier;">Shane K. Bernard, </span><i style="font-family: courier;">The Cajuns: Americanization
of a People</i><span style="font-family: courier;"> (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2003), 126-27.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><b><span style="color: #999999;">(10)</span>
</b>Barry Jean Ancelet, “From Evangeline Hot Sauce
to Cajun Ice: Signs of Ethnicity in South Louisiana,” <i>Louisiana Folklore
Miscellany</i>, 1996, reprinted on <i>Folklife in Louisiana</i>,
www.louisianafolklife.org/LT/Articles_Essays/main_misc_hot_sauce.html, accessed
30 April 2022;<b> </b>Bernard, <i>Americanization</i>, 113.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><b><span style="color: #999999;">(11)</span>
</b>Bernard, <i>Americanization</i>, 112-13.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><b><span style="color: #999999;">(12)</span>
</b>Mayeux, “Language Revitalization,” 146. One
should not, like Mayeux, confuse CODOFIL president James R. Domengeaux
[1907–1988] with his extant nephew James H. Domengeaux [1959–]. It was the
latter, the nephew, who wrote the <i>Louisiana Law Review</i> article “Native-Born
Acadians and the Equality Ideal,” which asserted that pre-existing state and
federal laws protect Cajuns from ethnic discrimination. See James Harvey
Domengeaux, “Native-Born Acadians and the Equality Ideal,” <i>Louisiana Law
Review</i> 46 (July 1986): 1151-1195, accessible at
digitalcommons.law.lsu.edu/lalrev/vol46/iss6/3.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">According to Ancelet, CODOFIL
president James R. Domengeaux actually had no middle name, but at some point
began to be attributed as “James R. Domengeaux,” which had in fact been his
father’s name (the middle initial standing for “Rudolph”). James Domengeaux
obituary, 12 April 1988, “United States, GenealogyBank Obituaries, 1980-2014,”
FamilySearch.org, familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QKRT-K28B, accessed 1 May
2022; Barry Jean Ancelet, Scott, La., to Shane K. Bernard, New Iberia, La., 27
April 2022, email correspondence in the possession of Shane K. Bernard.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><b><span style="color: #999999;">(13)</span>
</b>Bernard, <i>Americanization</i>, 88-89, 98-99.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><b><span style="color: #999999;">(14)</span></b>
Minutes, CODOFIL Meeting; Barry Jean Ancelet, Scott, La., to Shane K. Bernard,
New Iberia, La., 20 April 2022, email correspondence in the possession of Shane
K. Bernard; Barry Jean Ancelet, Scott, La., to Shane K. Bernard, New Iberia,
La., 26 April 2022, email correspondence in the possession of Shane K. Bernard.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><b><span style="color: #999999;">(15)</span></b>
Bernard, <i>Americanization</i>, 58, 74, 77.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><b><span style="color: #999999;">(16)</span></b>
Barry Jean Ancelet, Scott, La., to Shane K. Bernard, New Iberia, La., 5 May
2022, email correspondence in the possession of Shane K. Bernard.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><b><span style="color: #999999;">(17)</span></b>
Bernard, <i>Americanization</i>, 87.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><b><span style="color: #999999;">(18)</span></b>
Carl A. Brasseaux, <i>The Founding of New Acadia: The Beginnings of Acadian
Life in Louisiana, 1765-1803 </i>(Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press,
1987), 176; Shields McIlwaine, <i>The Southern Poor-White from Lubberland to
Tobacco Road</i> (Norman, Okla.: University of Oklahoma Press, 1939), 143
(italics added for the French <i>canaille</i>).</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier; text-indent: 0in;">I
do not touch in the main text on Creole-on-Creole classism, a form of
discrimination Brasseaux mentions, much less Creole enslavement of other
Creoles — including Creoles of African descent enslaving other Creoles of
African descent. For discussion of Creole-on-Creole classism, see </span><i style="font-family: courier; text-indent: 0in;">Carl A.
Brasseaux, Acadian to Cajun: Transformation of a People, 1803-1877</i><span style="font-family: courier; text-indent: 0in;">
(Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1992), 151-52; Carl A. Brasseaux, </span><i style="font-family: courier; text-indent: 0in;">French,
Cajun, Creole, Houma: A Primer on Francophone Louisiana </i><span style="font-family: courier; text-indent: 0in;">(Baton Rouge:
Louisiana State University Press, 2005), 102-3, 104-5. For discussion of Creole
enslavement of Creoles, see Shane K. Bernard, </span><i style="font-family: courier; text-indent: 0in;">Teche: A History of Louisiana’s
Most Famous Bayou</i><span style="font-family: courier; text-indent: 0in;"> (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2016), 66;
Carl A. Brasseaux, Keith P. Fontenot, and Claude F. Oubre, </span><i style="font-family: courier; text-indent: 0in;">Creoles of Color
in the Bayou Country</i><span style="font-family: courier; text-indent: 0in;"> (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1994), 71-2,
passim.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">In 2014 one scholar observed, "[I]t is worth noting that many Creoles of Color consider themselves socially superior to Cajuns. And the French of New Orleans (who are often called white Creoles or simply Creoles), they think themselves superior to Creoles of Color and also Cajuns. Several elderly informants have also told me that some years ago—around the 1940s—the New Orleans French and the Creoles of Color both refused to socialize with Cajuns." </span><span style="font-family: courier;">James Etienne Viator, "Kreyol-Ye, Kaden-Ye, e Lalwa a Langaj dan Lalwizyann [Creoles, Cajuns, and Law and Language in Louisiana]," <i>Loyola Law Review</i> 60 (2014): 294.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier; text-indent: 0in;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV0KHWgGq7yNdEhZEGjTMzT6tOW54Kjfr68gpgEdrs-aJxhYnUPAas9nrFQGldg6oieN6gGITF-xYGLQe4t7AIaQwa9yIv82ng6gmfocouyE5gr2uHH7irGMCQ7_oXI9b8zYTz014ILAk_gThlmQxU61kmv5WpdL34vf7NYUChWRyhPfS_o49eoVpA/s400/A2C.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="263" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV0KHWgGq7yNdEhZEGjTMzT6tOW54Kjfr68gpgEdrs-aJxhYnUPAas9nrFQGldg6oieN6gGITF-xYGLQe4t7AIaQwa9yIv82ng6gmfocouyE5gr2uHH7irGMCQ7_oXI9b8zYTz014ILAk_gThlmQxU61kmv5WpdL34vf7NYUChWRyhPfS_o49eoVpA/s320/A2C.jpg" width="210" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Brasseaux's 1992 study<br />of Cajun ethnicity.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: courier; text-indent: 0in;"><br /></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="color: #999999;"><b>(19)</b>
</span>“Louisiana Is White,” <i>The (Phoenix, Ariz.) Arizona Republican</i>, 19 August
1901, 1.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><b><span style="color: #999999;">(20)</span></b>
“Louisiana Acadians,” <i>The Paducah Daily Sun</i>, 26 January 1898, 2; see also “The 'Cajuns' of Louisiana,” <i>The Indianapolis Journal</i>, 28 January 1898, 7.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><b><span style="color: #999999;">(21)</span>
</b>George A. Hurd, “The Louisiana of Cable,” <i>The
Yale Literary Magazine</i>, April 1889, 307.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><b><span style="color: #999999;">(22)</span></b>
George E. Waring Jr. and George W. Cable, <i>History and Present Condition of
New Orleans, Louisiana: Social Statistics of Cities, Tenth Census of the United
States</i> (Washington, D.C.: Department of the Interior/U.S. Government
Printing Office, 1881), 10.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><b><span style="color: #999999;">(23)</span></b>
Fredrik Barth, <i>Ethnic Groups and Boundaries: The Social Organization of
Culture Difference</i> (Waveland Press, 1998), 15.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: courier;"><b>(24)</b>
</span><span style="font-family: courier;">Mayeux, “Language Revitalization,” 147.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="color: #999999;"><b>(25)</b>
</span>The 2020 national count for persons identifying in whole or part as “Cajun” was
107,553.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">In the late 1980s, however, Brasseaux
estimated Louisiana’s Cajun population at 500,000 to 700,000 — figures that
approximate the findings of the 1990 census, in which 432,549 Louisianians and
668,271 persons nationwide (including Louisiana) identified their heritage as “Acadian.”
(I cite the 1990 U.S. Census here because it is the census whose data I
analyzed for my 2000 dissertation, which became my 2003 </span><i style="font-family: courier;">Americanization</i><span style="font-family: courier;">
book.)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">For the purposes of this article,
however, I adhere to the more conservative 2020 estimate, which counted respondents
specifically identifying as “Cajun” (not “Acadian” as with the 1990 census).</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier; text-indent: 0in;">“Cajun,”
People Reporting Ancestry, 2020: American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates
Detailed Tables (B04006), Total U.S. Population,
data.census.gov/cedsci/table?q=United%20States&t=Ancestry&tid=ACSDT5Y2020.B04006,
accessed 2 May 2021; Brasseaux, </span><i style="font-family: courier; text-indent: 0in;">Founding of New Acadia</i><span style="font-family: courier; text-indent: 0in;">, 1; 1990 U.S.
Census of Population; Barry Jean Ancelet, Scott, La., to Shane K. Bernard, New
Iberia, La., 11 April 2022, email correspondence in the possession of Shane K.
Bernard.</span></p><br /></div>Shane K. Bernardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00454946054965548589noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660857958535448139.post-73079581076423645372022-02-13T16:40:00.035-06:002023-04-16T12:32:28.114-05:00Of Cajuns and Creoles: A Brief Historical Analysis<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><i>This essay is one of four in which I address current issues in Cajun and Creole studies. The other essays can be found <a href="https://bayoutechedispatches.blogspot.com/2022/05/essays-on-current-issues-in-cajun-and.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">here</a>.</i></span></div><i><br /></i><div style="text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: courier;">I wrote these works not only as a historian, but as someone who identifies as both a Cajun and a Creole. As I note below, </span><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: 16px;">“</span><span style="font-family: courier;">[M]any of my ancestors were Creoles of French heritage. My own family tree abounds with tell-tale Creole surnames: de la Morandière, Soileau, de la Pointe, Fuselier de la Claire, Brignac, Bordelon, de Livaudais, and others. . . . As such, I could, if I chose to do so (and sometimes I do), identify as Creole — doubly so because Cajuns themselves are to begin with a kind of Creole.”</span></i></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: 16px;"><i><br /></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: 16px;"><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: justify;">I trust those with whom I express disagreement will accept this critique in the collegial spirit it is intended.</span></span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;"><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: justify;"><br /></span></i></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><i>I thank Dr. Barry Jean Ancelet, Dr. Carl A. Brasseaux, Dr. David Cheramie, independent researcher Don Arceneaux, and former CODOFIL president Warren A. Perrin for proofing the below essay.</i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span><i style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: start;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right; white-space: nowrap;"><span style="font-family: courier; line-height: 18.48px;">❧</span></span></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">I have observed a growing effort, particularly among south Louisiana's Creole population, to rein in use of the word </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Cajun</i><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> to describe all things French in Louisiana. </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">(I mean </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Creole</i><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> in the broadest sense of the word: </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Creole</i><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> devoid of racial connotations and thus applying equally to persons who are black, white, or mixed-race. </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">Creole </i><span style="font-size: 12pt;">meaning “Native to Louisiana” or a bit more narrowly “Native to south Louisiana, and of Roman Catholic and French- or Spanish-speaking heritage.”) </span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jNrigxE3bfc/XQK78wJsQXI/AAAAAAAAC6c/1_k1x8Ixeu8VFm51wT8XcpE1ChT-MLzzACLcBGAs/s1600/venn.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><img border="0" data-original-height="405" data-original-width="720" height="225" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jNrigxE3bfc/XQK78wJsQXI/AAAAAAAAC6c/1_k1x8Ixeu8VFm51wT8XcpE1ChT-MLzzACLcBGAs/s400/venn.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier;">"The matter almost demands a Venn diagram for clarity."</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: courier; font-size: 12pt;">I concur with this effort: <i>things that are not Cajun should not be called </i>Cajun<i>.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Implicit in the critique of <i>Cajun</i> as a blanket term for all south Louisiana culture is an assertion that Creole history and culture should be acknowledged more frequently and more substantively. </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">This means, for example, that scholars should conduct more research into Creoles; that the tourism industry should highlight more Creole history and more Creole attractions; and that what is Creole should be identified as Creole, not as Cajun.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">I support all these notions, for while I self-identify as Cajun, many of my ancestors were Creoles of French heritage. My own family tree abounds with tell-tale Creole surnames: de la Morandière, Soileau, de la Pointe, Fuselier de la Claire, </span><span style="font-size: 16px;">Brignac,</span><span style="font-size: 16px;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Bordelon, de Livaudais, </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">and others. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">As such, I could, if I chose to do so (and sometimes I do), identify as Creole — doubly so because Cajuns themselves are to begin with <i>a kind of Creole</i>. After all, are they not, as I describe Creoles above, <i>native to south Louisiana and of Roman Catholic and French-speaking heritage?</i><u><o:p></o:p></u></span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-t4yDyTVs9Do/XQK8nwlDzEI/AAAAAAAAC6o/bi7Ke3KgoIIXG4DQDFXVsDCbayM2CofJwCLcBGAs/s1600/Creole%2BItalian.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><img border="0" data-original-height="488" data-original-width="488" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-t4yDyTVs9Do/XQK8nwlDzEI/AAAAAAAAC6o/bi7Ke3KgoIIXG4DQDFXVsDCbayM2CofJwCLcBGAs/s320/Creole%2BItalian.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier;">"It is interesting to note, for example, that in 2018 the University of Georgia Press issued a book titled <i>Creole Italian: Sicilian Immigrants and the Shaping of New Orleans Food Culture</i>."</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">I view Cajuns, however, as merely one type of Creole among several other types of Creoles. These types include black Creoles, white Creoles, mixed-race Creoles, French Creoles, Spanish Creoles, German Creoles, and perhaps still other types of Creoles who occupy part of Louisiana’s complex cultural landscape. (It is interesting to note, for example, that in 2018 the University of Georgia Press issued a book titled <i>Creole Italian: Sicilian Immigrants and the Shaping of New Orleans Food Culture</i>.) And then there are other types of Creoles in other states, other nations, and even on other continents. (I once used the word <i>Creole</i></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> while lecturing in front of a group of Brazilian tourists in south Louisiana. They gasped in horror, telling me that in their country <i>Creole</i> is equivalent to America's most dreaded racial slur. They actually referred to the Portuguese version of <i>Creole</i>, which is <i>crioulo</i>. The reliable Wikitionary.org backs up their claim; see its entry for <a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/crioulo#Portuguese" target="_blank">crioulo</a>.)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">In other words, Cajuns are </span><span style="font-size: 16px;">to me</span><span style="font-size: 16px;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">a subset of Creoles, just as, say, Cherokees are a subset of Native Americans, Ashkenazim are a subset of Jews, and Mexicans are a subset of Latinos. But this does not mean Cajuns do not view themselves as distinct from other Creoles. They clearly do and arguably </span><span style="font-size: 16px;">have</span><span style="font-size: 16px;"> done so </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">since their origin as an ethnic group. Sociologist Jacques Henry of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, for example, has observed, “The definition of Cajun ethnicity has been on-going since the arrival of Acadian exiles in Louisiana. It has taken place amidst the economic, social and cultural changes that have happened since the eighteenth century.”<b><span style="color: #999999;">(1)</span></b></span></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier;">The expulsion of the Cajuns' Acadian ancestors from Nova Scotia, 1755. Source: William Cullen Bryant, Sidney Howard Gay, Noah Brooks, <i>Scribner’s Popular History of the United States</i>, Vol. 3 (NY: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1896).</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Cajuns have not been in Louisiana as long as other types of Creoles. However, the Cajuns’ common ancestors, the Acadians — forcibly expelled from what are now the Maritime Provinces of Canada </span><span style="font-size: 16px;">by the British military</span><span style="font-size: 16px;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">— arrived in Louisiana beginning in 1764. By the late 1800s those exiles and their offspring had intermarried heavily with other south Louisiana ethnic groups (settlers of French, German, Spanish, even to some extent Anglo and Scots-Irish heritage) and become “Cajuns.” Thus, for example, R. L. Daniels wrote in 1879 of the word “Acadian — or rather its corruption ‘Cajun’ as they pronounce it.”<b><span style="color: #999999;">(2)</span></b> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">In 1893 Julian Ralph similarly observed that Acadians were "spoken of in their own country . . . as </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">‘</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Cajuns.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">’”</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">And in 1898 a journalist aptly noted, “[A] large element of the French population of the state are . . . Acadians, or, </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">as they call themselves and are generally called</i><span style="font-size: 12pt;">, ‘Cajuns’” [my italics].<b><span style="color: #999999;">(3)</span></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">UL sociologist <span>Henry thus concludes, </span>“<span>[B]y the turn of the [20th] century, Cajuns/<i>cadiens</i> are a group symbolically discrete. . . . [and] a breed apart.</span>”</span><b style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="color: #999999;">(4)</span></b><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> Cajun historian Carl Brasseaux echoes this view, stating, “[T]he Acadians [in Louisiana] were by 1803 on the threshold of a new and significant period of socioeconomic change, one that would transform them . . . into Louisiana Cajuns.”</span><b style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="color: #999999;">(5)</span></b><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> He continues this theme elsewhere, averring that by the end of Reconstruction in 1877, “[A]scriptive [i.e., attributed] distinctions between Acadians and neighboring groups had become blurred, giving rise to the creation of a new people — the Cajuns.</span><span style="font-size: 16px;">”</span><b style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="color: #999999;">(6)</span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
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<span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">If I myself sometimes gloss over the complex <span>relationship of Cajuns to Creoles, it is because I find it less confusing </span>for the uninitiated <span>if I avoid explaining</span>, “And, oh, by the way, <i>Cajuns are Creoles</i>.”<i> </i>(The matter almost demands a Venn diagram for clarity.) This may be one reason the Cajuns themselves have generally chosen not to identify as <i>both</i> Cajuns and Creoles: besides the fact that most </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Cajuns simply do not think of themselves of Creoles, there is widespread confusion and debate about the very meaning of <i>Creole</i>, even among south Louisiana natives.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Elista Istre's excellent recent volume <br />about Creole history, <br />from the University of Louisiana Press, Lafayette, La.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Ultimately, there is only so much one can do — or ought to do, I would assert — about people choosing to self-identify as members of one ethnic group or another</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">. According to U.S. census data, for example, there were </span><span style="font-size: 16px;">in 2020</span><span style="font-size: 16px;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">an estimated 100,000+ people across America who self-identified their ancestry as "Cajun."</span><b style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="color: #999999;">(7) </span></b><span style="font-size: 12pt;">I</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">f self-identification as "Cajun," or as a member of any ethnic group, is good enough for the U.S. Census Bureau, it is good enough for me. It is evidently</span><span style="font-size: 16px;"> good enough </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">for most scholars, few if any of whom would presume to tell anyone what they should or should not call themselves in terms of ethnicity.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;">As a historian I believe my role is to observe, chronicle, and interpret, and to do so as objectively as possible. To involve oneself too closely, too personally with a living subject of study like an ethnic group — such as by seeking to change that group’s behavior — is to relinquish objectivity and to cross into the realm of activism. And while activism in itself can be a rewarding pursuit, I do not believe it mixes well with scholarship. Granted, c</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">omplete objectivity is possible only in theory, but the very quest for objectivity can elevate the quality of research and analysis to a higher, more refined level. It can do so by guiding researchers around pitfalls like wishful thinking and what the history profession calls </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">filiopiety </i><span style="font-size: 12pt;">(</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">or <i>filiopietism</i>)</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">, a fancy term for “ancestor worship.” Such weaknesses can result in misunderstanding or, worse, deification of those who came before us — at the expense of their humanity.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Notes</i></div>
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">(1) Jacques Henry, “From Acadien to Cajun to Cadien: Ethnic Labelization and Construction of Identity,” <i>Journal of American Ethnic History </i>17 (Summer, 1998): 56.</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">(2) Ibid., 34.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">(3) “The ‘Cajuns’ of Louisiana,” <i>Wood County Reporter</i> (Grand Rapids, Wisc.) [reprinted from the <i>Dallas (Tex.) News</i>], 2 June 1898, 8.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">(4) Henry, "Ethnic Labelization," 39.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">(5) Carl A. Brasseaux,<i> The Founding of New Acadia: The Beginnings of Acadian Life in Louisiana, 1765-1803 </i>(Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1987), 198.</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">(6) ________, <i>Acadian to Cajun: Transformation of a People, 1803-1877</i> (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1992), xi.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b style="font-family: courier; font-size: 16px;"><span style="color: #999999;">(7)</span></b><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: courier;">“Cajun,” People Reporting Ancestry, 2020:
American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates Detailed Tables (B04006), Total U.S.
Population, data.census.gov/cedsci/table?q=United%20States&t=Ancestry&tid=ACSDT5Y2020.B04006,
accessed 2 May 2021</span></span><br /></span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><i>Selected Readings on Creoles</i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><i>This list makes no pretense of completeness. There are many other noteworthy sources about the subject.</i></span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Shane K. Bernard. “Creoles.” In <i>Encyclopedia of Louisiana</i> (https://64parishes.org), ed. David Johnson. Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities. Article published 8 December 2010, https://64parishes.org/entry/creoles.</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">________. “Creole.” In <i>The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture: Volume 6: Ethnicity</i>. Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press, 2007.</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Carl A. Brasseaux, Keith P. Fontenot, and Claude F. Oubre. <i>Creoles of Color in the Bayou Country</i>. Jackson, Miss.: University Press of Mississippi, 1994.</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">James H. Dormon, ed. <i>Creoles of Color of the Gulf South</i>. Knoxville, Tenn.: The University of Tennessee Press, 1996.</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Elista Istre. <i>Creoles of South Louisiana: Three Centuries Strong</i>. Lafayette, La.: University of Louisiana Press, 2018.</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Gary B. Mills. <i>The Forgotten People: Cane River’s Creoles of Color</i>. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1977.</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Gwendolyn Midlo Hall. <i>Africans in Colonial Louisiana: The Development of Afro-Creole Culture in the Eighteenth Century</i>. Louisiana State University Press, 1992.</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Sybil Kein, ed. <i>Creole: The History and Legacy of Louisiana’s Free People of Color</i>. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2000.</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Joseph G. Tregle. “Creoles and Americans.” <i>In Creole New Orleans: Race and Americanization</i>, ed. Arnold R. Hirsch and Joseph Logsdon, 131-85. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1992.</span></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">________. “On That Word ‘Creole’ Again: A Note.” <i>Louisiana History</i>, 23 (Spring 1982): 193-98.</span></div>
Shane K. Bernardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00454946054965548589noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660857958535448139.post-66059164455837395292022-02-12T10:20:00.027-06:002022-05-13T13:22:31.156-05:00Notes on the Birth of Cajun Ethnic Identity<div style="text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: courier;">This essay is one of four in which I address current issues in Cajun and Creole studies. The other essays can be found <a href="https://bayoutechedispatches.blogspot.com/2022/05/essays-on-current-issues-in-cajun-and.html">here</a>.</span></i></div><i><span style="font-family: courier;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>I wrote these works not only as a historian, but as someone who identifies as both a Cajun and a Creole. As I note in one of these essays, “[M]any of my ancestors were Creoles of French heritage. My own family tree abounds with tell-tale Creole surnames: de la Morandière, Soileau, de la Pointe, Fuselier de la Claire, Brignac, Bordelon, de Livaudais, and others. . . . As such, I could, if I chose to do so (and sometimes I do), identify as Creole — doubly so because Cajuns themselves are to begin with a kind of Creole.”</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>I trust those with whom I express disagreement will accept this critique in the collegial spirit it is intended.</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>I thank Dr. Barry Jean Ancelet, Dr. David Cheramie, independent researcher Don Arceneaux, and former CODOFIL president Warren A. Perrin for proofreading the below essay.</i></div></span></i><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span><i style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace; text-align: start;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right; white-space: nowrap;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px;">❧</span></span></i></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span>
I have noticed claims that Cajun ethnic identity did not originate until the late twentieth century — more particularly, that it did not emerge until the mid- to late 1960s. It arose at that time, some assert, </span></span><span style="font-family: courier;">merely </span><span style="font-family: courier;"><span>as a </span></span><span style="font-family: courier;"><span>negative response to the Black civil rights movement. It has also been claimed </span></span><span style="font-family: courier;">the very word <i>Cajun</i> d</span><span style="font-family: courier;">id not appear, at least not in print, until the mid-<span>twentieth</span> century (implying, oddly, the ethnic label came before the ethnic identity).</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8OYehDPNFUQ/X2jXyPPZWEI/AAAAAAAADMw/sf8CJDm05toey6lxUVaAJ-K41WyDwXEwACLcBGAsYHQ/s829/Cajun%2BBoys%2BLOC.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="829" height="290" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8OYehDPNFUQ/X2jXyPPZWEI/AAAAAAAADMw/sf8CJDm05toey6lxUVaAJ-K41WyDwXEwACLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h290/Cajun%2BBoys%2BLOC.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br />"Cajun children on Terrebonne Project," June 1940. </span><br style="font-family: courier;" /><span style="font-family: courier;">(Marion Post Wolcott, </span><a href="www.loc.gov" style="font-family: courier;">Library of Congress</a><span style="font-family: courier;">)</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;"></span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;"><span><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span>These assertions, it seems to me, are unfounded. </span></span><span style="font-family: courier;">Perhaps they stem from confusing </span><i style="font-family: courier;">the birth of Cajun identity </i><span style="font-family: courier;">with</span><i style="font-family: courier;"> the birth of Cajun pride. </i><span style="font-family: courier;">The Cajun pride movement did in fact begin in the 1960s — but that is not the same as the birth of Cajun ethnic identity. Or perhaps these misconceptions arise from conflating the birth of Cajun identity</span><i style="font-family: courier;"> </i><span style="font-family: courier;">with </span><span style="font-family: courier;">two other late-twentieth</span><span style="font-family: courier;">-century events. One happened in 1980, when a U.S. federal court declared Cajuns to be a bona fide ethnic group protected by the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The second event occurred a few years later, when geneticists discovered a common Cajun genotype — scientific evidence that Cajuns are, by virtue of tell-tale DNA, a distinct ethnic group.<span style="color: #999999;"><b>(1)</b></span></span></p>
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Genetic and judicial considerations aside, Cajun ethnic identity, I maintain, existed well before the late twentieth century. An abundance of historical proof supports this perspective, so much so, in fact, it prompts the question: If Cajun identity and even the word <i>Cajun</i> did not exist until, as claimed, relatively recently, why then is it so easy to find earlier — indeed, much earlier — references to that word and the identity it signifies? And not merely a few references, but numerous ones?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span></p><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vMlAqEHRFzw/X2jB5geo3AI/AAAAAAAADLg/vTdztK66ntEE8Um5SNVAEblyIEt6ov5owCLcBGAsYHQ/s1019/Cajun%2BWWI%2BArticle%2BDetail%2BB.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="441" data-original-width="1019" height="173" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vMlAqEHRFzw/X2jB5geo3AI/AAAAAAAADLg/vTdztK66ntEE8Um5SNVAEblyIEt6ov5owCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h173/Cajun%2BWWI%2BArticle%2BDetail%2BB.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i style="text-align: justify;"><br />The Troy (N.Y.) Record</i><span style="text-align: justify;">, 21 July 1943.</span></td></tr></tbody></table></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: courier;">For example, if we survey evidence from the World War II era, we find Cajuns mentioned in a 1942 syndicated newspaper article titled "Cajun Chefs Help Prepare U.S. Army Mess in London." (Yes, <i>London!</i>) The piece featured Cajun mess-hall cooks with surnames like Marx, Gateaux, Borque (Bourque), Carrier, and Guidry (names generally considered Cajun in south Louisiana, whether of Acadian origin or not). "Most of these men," explained Sergeant Marx of Crowley, referring to his kitchen staff in wartime London, "are Cajun French . . . and hardly any of them could speak English when they enlisted." One cook, Private Freddie Guidry — referring to his own 6-foot-1-inch, 242-pound frame — quipped boastfully to the reporter, "Cajuns always do things in a big way."<span style="color: #999999;"><b>(2)</b></span><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p><span style="font-family: courier;"> </span></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Interestingly, a few wartime images even show airplane "nose art" bearing the word <i>Cajun</i>. For example, the nickname <i>Cajun Queen</i> was painted on not one, but two B-29 bombers flown by a U.S. aircrew in the Pacific. Similarly, <i>Cajun Coonass</i> appeared on the fuselage of a C-47 transport plane in New Guinea. (Incidentally, that nickname is one of the earliest known uses of the controversial term <i>coonass</i> – see
<a href="http://bayoutechedispatches.blogspot.com/2010/08/debunking-alleged-origin-of-word.html" target="_blank">my previous blog article about this subject</a>).<span style="color: #999999;"><b>(3)</b></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="color: #999999;"><b><br /></b></span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bW1mZyUzWig/T8fgR3lS74I/AAAAAAAABJI/dk9kYbzU-s86aTEQYQz5-5a4NjG7OAWCACPcBGAYYCw/s581/Cajun%2BQueen%2B1%2B358%2BSMALL.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="420" data-original-width="581" height="289" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bW1mZyUzWig/T8fgR3lS74I/AAAAAAAABJI/dk9kYbzU-s86aTEQYQz5-5a4NjG7OAWCACPcBGAYYCw/w400-h289/Cajun%2BQueen%2B1%2B358%2BSMALL.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br />The <i>Cajun Queen</i> B-29 bomber,<br />Pacific campaign, World War II.<br />Author's Collection.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Jumping farther back
in time to the late nineteenth century, we find numerous references to <i>Cajun</i> as an ethnic group and an ethnic label. For instance, an 1898 article in <i>The Indianapolis Journal </i>(originally printed in <i>The Dallas News</i>) not only used the word <i>Cajun</i>, but did so in reference to a people it considered distinct from Creoles. "[A] large element of the French population of the State [of Louisiana] are not creoles," averred the paper's unnamed journalist, "but Acadians, or, as they call themselves and are generally called, 'Cajuns.'"<span style="color: #999999;"><b>(4)</b></span><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p><span style="font-family: courier;"> </span></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span>A decade earlier an 1888 article in <i>The </i>(Monroe, La.) <i>Ouachita Telegraph</i> (which first appeared </span></span><span>in the </span><i>New Orleans Picayune</i><span>) stated, "The word 'Cajun' is no more a term of reproach than the word 'Hoosier' applied to the natives of Indiana. It is associated with the idea of some rusticity and simplicity of manner and that is all. The writer has heard it playfully applied to a lovely Creole belle." Added the article, "The Acadian himself is a Creole." (As an aside, this corresponds to my own view of the Cajun-Creole relationship: as I state <a href="https://bayoutechedispatches.blogspot.com/2019/06/of-cajuns-and-creoles-brief-historical.html" target="_blank">in another blog article</a>, "Cajuns themselves are . . . a kind of Creole. . . .")<span style="color: #999999;"><b>(5)</b></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span><span style="color: #999999;"><b><br /></b></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3IQrjCdEIek/X2jCK1gbSII/AAAAAAAADLo/EGrAXIE1_5gDlDFdLHlWg9tl90tu48xoACLcBGAsYHQ/s598/Ouachita%2BTelegraph%2B1888%2BB.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="511" data-original-width="598" height="341" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3IQrjCdEIek/X2jCK1gbSII/AAAAAAAADLo/EGrAXIE1_5gDlDFdLHlWg9tl90tu48xoACLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h341/Ouachita%2BTelegraph%2B1888%2BB.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><i style="text-align: justify;"><br />The Ouachita Telegraph</i><span style="text-align: justify;"> (Monroe, La.), 28 April 1888</span><span style="text-align: justify;">.</span></span></td></tr></tbody></table><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span>Similarly, an 1887 <i>Abbeville </i>(S.C.)<i> Press and Banner </i>article (originally </span></span><span style="font-family: courier;">running</span><span style="font-family: courier;"> </span><span style="font-family: courier;">in </span><i style="font-family: courier;">The San Francisco Chronicle</i><span style="font-family: courier;">) observed, "The Americans, and even the Creoles, have corrupted the name Acadian into 'Cajun,' which terms these people resent strongly, yet, as 'Cajuns,' they are known all over the state. They are, in fact, Creoles, being the descendants of French parents born in a French colony, but they are an entirely distinct people from all other populations of Gallic descent in Louisiana."<span style="color: #999999;"><b>(6)</b></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p><span style="font-family: courier;"> </span></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span><span><span style="font-family: courier;"><span>We can </span></span><span style="font-family: courier;">find </span><i style="font-family: courier;">Cajun</i><span style="font-family: courier;"> used as an ethnic label </span><span style="font-family: courier;">still earlier in time — decades earlier, in fact</span><span style="font-family: courier;">. During the Civil War, for example, the term appeared in an 1862 issue of </span><i style="font-family: courier;">The Cincinnati Commercial </i><span style="font-family: courier;">(reprinted in </span><i style="font-family: courier;">The Delaware </i><span style="font-family: courier;">[Ohio]</span><i style="font-family: courier;"> Gazette</i><span style="font-family: courier;">). Detained at Camp Pratt near New Iberia, a reporter for the Ohio paper took note of local Cajuns </span><span style="font-family: courier;">serving</span><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: mediume;"> in the </span><span style="font-family: courier;">Confederate</span><span style="font-family: courier;"> forces. </span></span><span style="font-family: courier;">"</span><span><span style="font-family: courier;">You don</span></span><span style="font-family: courier;">'</span><span><span style="font-family: courier;">t know what a Cajun is?</span></span><span style="font-family: courier;">"</span><span><span style="font-family: courier;"> he inquired of his Midwest readers. </span></span><span style="font-family: courier;">"</span><span><span style="font-family: courier;">Of course you don</span></span><span style="font-family: courier;">'</span><span><span style="font-family: courier;">t, but I will try and tell you.</span></span><span style="font-family: courier;">"<span style="color: #999999;"><b>(7)</b></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zVMT2SuWmfk/X2jCswr4bsI/AAAAAAAADLw/cOeyLesUtaE4873x64KwTmfenzXDBLziQCLcBGAsYHQ/s677/Delaware%2Bgazette%2B1862%2BB.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="571" data-original-width="677" height="338" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zVMT2SuWmfk/X2jCswr4bsI/AAAAAAAADLw/cOeyLesUtaE4873x64KwTmfenzXDBLziQCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h338/Delaware%2Bgazette%2B1862%2BB.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i style="text-align: justify;"><br /><span style="font-family: courier;">The Delaware (Ohio) Gazette</span></i><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: justify;">, 12 December 1862.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span><span><span style="font-family: courier;">As for the word <i>Cadien</i>, which is merely the Louisiana French form of <i>Cajun</i>, it has been found in print as early as 1851. That year the Louisiana francophone newspaper <i>Le Pionnier de l</i></span></span><span><span style="font-family: courier;"><i>'Assomption</i> of Napoleonville ran a piece of local-color fiction containing the line, </span></span><span style="font-family: courier;">"</span><i><span style="font-family: courier;">Et moi, continua Jérôme, je m</span><span style="font-family: courier;">'</span></i><span style="font-family: courier;"><i>enfoncerai dans les campagnes afin de tâcher de vendre mes bonnets de coton aux Cadiens</i>.</span><span style="font-family: courier;">"</span><span style="font-family: courier;"> [Translation: </span><span style="font-family: courier;">"</span><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: courier;">And I, continued Jerome, will go deep into the countryside to try and sell my cotton caps to the <i>Cadiens</i>.</span></span><span style="font-family: courier;">"</span><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: left;">]<span style="color: #999999;"><b>(8)</b></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: left;"><span style="color: #999999;"><b><br /></b></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1u5ol8P15P4/X2p7cfOKn1I/AAAAAAAADM8/pKMTkLP_wWYTXJPU8i8-mpnjZIH1MCQPgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1829/Le%2Bpionnier%2Bde%2Bl%2527Assomption%252C%2B7%2BSeptember%2B1851%252C%2Bp%2B1%2BB.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1779" data-original-width="1829" height="389" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1u5ol8P15P4/X2p7cfOKn1I/AAAAAAAADM8/pKMTkLP_wWYTXJPU8i8-mpnjZIH1MCQPgCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h389/Le%2Bpionnier%2Bde%2Bl%2527Assomption%252C%2B7%2BSeptember%2B1851%252C%2Bp%2B1%2BB.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><i style="text-align: justify;"><br />Le Pionnier de l'Assomption </i><span style="text-align: justify;">(Napoleonville, La.), <br />7 September 1851.</span></span></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span><span style="font-family: courier;">Granted, many of these historic references deride the Cajun people as backward and ignorant; some even call the word </span><i style="font-family: courier;">Cajun</i><span style="font-family: courier;"> an insult. My point, however, stands: </span><i style="font-family: courier;">Cajun ethnic identity and the word </i><span style="font-family: courier;">Cajun</span><i style="font-family: courier;"> appeared long before the mid- to late twentieth century, whether describing a discrete ethnic group or, conversely, a type of Creole more or less (or not at all) distinct from other Creoles.</i><span style="font-family: courier;"> </span><span style="font-family: courier;">Indeed, the examples I provide above are merely a few such references. I provide additional examples below, all chosen from the nineteeth century, including some using the alternate spellings </span><i style="font-family: courier;">Cajan</i><span style="font-family: courier;">, </span><i style="font-family: courier;">Cajen</i><span style="font-family: courier;">, </span><i style="font-family: courier;">Cadian</i><span style="font-family: courier;">, </span><i style="font-family: courier;">Cadien </i><span style="font-family: courier;">and </span><i style="font-family: courier;">cadjien. </i><span style="font-family: courier;">This list is by no means comprehensive: other such references exist in the historical record and still others may await discovery.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: center;"><i style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace; text-align: start;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right; white-space: nowrap;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px;">❧</span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: center;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: center;"><span><i style="font-family: courier; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Addendum — Early Appearances </span></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: center;"><span><i style="font-family: courier; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">of the Word </span></i><span style="font-family: courier; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; text-align: justify;">Cajun </span></span><i style="font-family: courier; text-align: justify;">and Its Variants:</i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p><span style="font-family: courier;"> </span></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: courier;">"As a people, the 'Cajuns are very simple, for they live in communities so simple that straight conduct is a necessity. The men are fairly honest, but hot-blooded and often quarrelsome, the favorite weapon of the coast 'Cajuns being the knife. . . . These 'Cajuns are fine duck hunters, and know their country as no stranger can. . . ." ~ E. Hough, "The Sunny South — VI," <i>Forest and Stream</i> (23 March 1895), pp.
224-25.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p><span style="font-family: courier;"> </span></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: courier;">"Presently we saw our first Acadians — nowhere spoken of in their own country otherwise than as 'Cajuns." ~ Julian Ralph, "Along the Bayou Teche," <i>Harper's New Monthly Magazine</i> 87 (November 1893), p. 874. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p><span style="font-family: courier;"> </span></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: courier;">"The Cajun is <i>sui generis</i> [one of a kind]. He has even lost resemblance to his Canadian brother. . . . Dancing and festivals are weekly affairs, for in Cajun land everybody knows everybody else, and entire communities are often bound by ties of kindred." ~ M. A. Byrne, "Cajun Housekeeping," <i>Good Housekeeping</i> (October 1891), p. 170.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wdNSCcfiyig/X2jDDq4tUCI/AAAAAAAADL4/nrnU2OQiYD4wWHEaTbgtb3-QjkXXSNIBACLcBGAsYHQ/s501/Good%2BHousekeeping%2B1891%2BB.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="501" data-original-width="389" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wdNSCcfiyig/X2jDDq4tUCI/AAAAAAAADL4/nrnU2OQiYD4wWHEaTbgtb3-QjkXXSNIBACLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/Good%2BHousekeeping%2B1891%2BB.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i style="text-align: justify;"><br /><span style="font-family: courier;">Good Housekeeping</span></i><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: justify;"> (October 1891).<br /><br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">"</span><span style="font-family: courier;">In this delightful climate, where illness is almost unknown, people acquire the habit of living, and keep on ad infinitum, until, as [states] the proverb of the Cajuns (the descendants of the exiled Acadians), they get old, old, so old! then shrivel up and blow away." ~ T. W. Poole, <i>Some Late Words about Louisiana </i>(New Orleans: E. Marchand, 1889), p. 26.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">"Will the Reveille [newspaper] point out of these appointments of Cadiens those who are not creoles." ~ The (St. Martinville, La.) <i>Weekly Messenger</i>, 29 October 1887, p. 1.</span></p><div><br /><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NDMl3mkLzyw/X2jDVid_KXI/AAAAAAAADMA/K6YgLXnG530KtFCT13-pNhP7gYGEeeOBACLcBGAsYHQ/s663/The%2Bweekly%2Bmessenger%2B1887%2BB.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="420" data-original-width="663" height="254" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NDMl3mkLzyw/X2jDVid_KXI/AAAAAAAADMA/K6YgLXnG530KtFCT13-pNhP7gYGEeeOBACLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h254/The%2Bweekly%2Bmessenger%2B1887%2BB.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i style="text-align: justify;"><br /><span style="font-family: courier;">The</span></i><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="text-align: justify;"> (St. Martinville, La.) <br /></span><i style="text-align: justify;">Weekly Messenger</i><span style="text-align: justify;">, 29 October 1887.</span></span></td></tr></tbody></table><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">"</span><span><span style="font-family: courier;">The Creoles proper will not share their distinction with the native descendants of those worthy Acadian exiles who . . . found refuge in Louisiana. These remain 'cadjiens' or 'cajuns'. . . .</span></span><span style="font-family: courier;">"</span><span><span style="font-family: courier;"> ~ George E. Waring Jr. and George W. Cable, </span><i style="font-family: courier;">History and Present Condition of New Orleans, Louisiana: Social Statistics of Cities, Tenth Census of the United States</i><span style="font-family: courier;"> (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing
Office, 1881), p. 10.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p><span style="font-family: courier;"> </span></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: courier;">"[T]hese Acadians, or as in common colloquial parlance they are termed 'Cajuns, are generally illiterate, and as a race non-progressive and unenterprising. Though of America they refuse to become Americanized. . . ." ~ Louisiana Bureau of Agriculture and Immigration, <i>Louisiana Products, Resources and Attractions</i> (New Orleans: <i>Times-Democrat</i>, 1881), p. 234. <span style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4nWARfEAtIs/X2jEIf9ZqqI/AAAAAAAADMI/RjxFt2XasQYLOTLr1uLF0vSLC_4Zyb98QCLcBGAsYHQ/s624/Louisiana%2BBureau%2Bof%2BAgriculture%2B1881%2BB.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="339" data-original-width="624" height="217" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4nWARfEAtIs/X2jEIf9ZqqI/AAAAAAAADMI/RjxFt2XasQYLOTLr1uLF0vSLC_4Zyb98QCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h217/Louisiana%2BBureau%2Bof%2BAgriculture%2B1881%2BB.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i style="text-align: justify;"><br /><span style="font-family: courier;">Louisiana Products, Resources and Attractions</span></i><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="text-align: justify;"> (</span><span style="text-align: justify;">1881).</span></span></td></tr></tbody></table><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">"</span><span><span style="font-family: courier;">Among themselves they are '</span><i style="font-family: courier;">Créole Français</i><span style="font-family: courier;">'; and Acadian — or rather its corruption 'Cajun,' as they pronounce it — is regarded as implying contempt.</span></span><span style="font-family: courier;">"</span><span><span style="font-family: courier;"> ~ </span></span><span style="font-family: courier;">"</span><span><span style="font-family: courier;">The Acadians of Louisiana,</span></span><span style="font-family: courier;">"</span><span><span style="font-family: courier;"> </span><span style="font-family: courier;"><i>Scribner</i></span></span><span style="font-family: courier;"><i>'</i></span><span><span style="font-family: courier;"><i>s Monthly</i></span><span style="font-family: courier;"> XIX (January 1880), p. 383.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pJ_HHIwSvBg/X2jEdZfOBVI/AAAAAAAADMU/xxHh0aVNMCkzYEHXRBq1bE1RANXRyluGgCLcBGAsYHQ/s470/Scribners%2B1880%2BB.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="440" data-original-width="470" height="375" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pJ_HHIwSvBg/X2jEdZfOBVI/AAAAAAAADMU/xxHh0aVNMCkzYEHXRBq1bE1RANXRyluGgCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h375/Scribners%2B1880%2BB.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i style="text-align: justify;"><br /><span style="font-family: courier;">Scribner's Monthly</span></i><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: justify;"> XIX (January 1880).</span></td></tr></tbody></table><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">"</span><span><span style="font-family: courier;">'The Acadians of Louisiana,' — more familiarly called Cajuns — [are] a simple people, having much in common with their congeners described in Longfellow's poem.</span></span><span style="font-family: courier;">"</span><span><span style="font-family: courier;"> ~ </span><i style="font-family: courier;">Scribner's</i><span style="font-family: courier;"> preview, </span><i style="font-family: courier;">The Ellsworth</i><span style="font-family: courier;"> (Maine) </span><i style="font-family: courier;">American</i><span style="font-family: courier;">, 25 December 1879, p. 3.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p><span style="font-family: courier;"> </span></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: courier;">"[W]e found [the campground] had been taken possession of by 'Cadiens,' whose little skiffs were moored to the shore." ~ "The Dredge," <i>The Petite Anse Amateur </i>(Avery Island, La.), April 1879, pp. 25-26.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p><span style="font-family: courier;"> </span></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: courier;">"<i>Il est impossible de relire les pages émues de l'exode des Acadiens, ou plutôt des Cadiens, car tel est le nom véritable de cette vaillante population. . . .</i>" [Translation: "It's impossible to reread the emotional pages about the exodus of the Acadians, or rather the Cadiens, for such is the true name of this valiant population. . . ." ~ "<i>Bibliographie</i>," <i>The Opelousas Courier</i>, 17 November 1877, p. 1.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-25bC3Ksi0KY/X2jEylu8HPI/AAAAAAAADMc/ZC0ZWF77j5ICso9pASGfQ0E2OiP1DMLKQCLcBGAsYHQ/s648/The%2BOpelousas%2Bcourier%2B1877%2BB.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="648" data-original-width="557" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-25bC3Ksi0KY/X2jEylu8HPI/AAAAAAAADMc/ZC0ZWF77j5ICso9pASGfQ0E2OiP1DMLKQCLcBGAsYHQ/w344-h400/The%2BOpelousas%2Bcourier%2B1877%2BB.jpg" width="344" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i style="text-align: justify;"><br /><span style="font-family: courier;">The Opelousas Courier</span></i><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: justify;">, 17 November 1877.</span></td></tr></tbody></table><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">"The Cajan [sic] was as prolific as his Canadian cousin." ~ "Our People: Where They Came from Originally, the Source of the Population of Louisiana," </span><i style="font-family: courier;">The New Orleans Daily Democrat</i><span style="font-family: courier;">, 4 March 1877, p. 2.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p><span style="font-family: courier;"> </span></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: courier;">"The Acadians — abbreviated to 'Cajens' by our laconic race — form a small portion of the
Creole population." ~ Albert Rhodes, "The Louisiana Creoles," <i>The Galaxy</i> 16 (August 1873), p. 254; cited in Carl A. Brasseaux, <i>Acadian to Cajun: Transformation of a People, 1803-1877</i> (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1992), p. 102.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p><span style="font-family: courier;"> </span></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: courier;">"[Q]uite a lot of them ["French <i>habitans</i>" from Canada] came to Louisiana. Here they took the name of 'Cadiens,' a contraction of Canadians or of Arcadians [<i>sic</i>]. . . . [T]he Cadiens are scarcely the people to comprehend, or indeed to execute, the laws of a republic. . . . [They are] a sort of semi-Creole race. . . ." ~ "The Posse of Red River," <i>New Orleans Republican</i>, 27 May 1873, p. 2.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p><span style="font-family: courier;"> </span></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: courier;">"<i>Il entendait certains ignorants dire autour de lui: </i>'Damned <i>Cadians! — Les Acadiens ne sont pas Américans — Les Acadians sont des demi-créoles, etc.</i>'" [Translation: "He heard some ignorant people say around him: 'Damned Cadiens! — The Acadians aren't Americans — The Acadians are half-Creoles, etc.'"] ~ "<i>Acadiens</i>," <i>Le Louisianais</i> (St. James Parish, La.), 2 November 1867, p. 1.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Qag0zEdUVJc/X2jFKMWVKAI/AAAAAAAADMk/7YTxXwytZxUbsbBBM4k4YF8wqxH5yJYMACLcBGAsYHQ/s632/Le%2BLouisianais%2B1867%2BB.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="632" data-original-width="511" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Qag0zEdUVJc/X2jFKMWVKAI/AAAAAAAADMk/7YTxXwytZxUbsbBBM4k4YF8wqxH5yJYMACLcBGAsYHQ/w324-h400/Le%2BLouisianais%2B1867%2BB.jpg" width="324" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /><span style="font-family: courier;"><i style="text-align: justify;">Le Louisianais</i><span style="text-align: justify;">, 2 November 1867.</span></span></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;"><i>Notes</i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><b><span style="color: #999999;">(1)</span></b> See my book: Shane K. Bernard, <i>The Cajuns: Americanization of a People</i> (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2003), pp. 86-88, 93-94, 101-09, 136-37, 147. For more on the history of the word <i>Cajun</i>, including its variants, see Jacques Henry, "From <i>Acadien</i> to <i>Cajun</i> to <i>Cadien</i>: Ethnic Labelization and Construction of Identity," <i>Journal of American Ethnic History</i> 17 (Summer, 1998): 29-62. Henry's article remains important to understanding the development of Cajun ethnic labels, though it should be noted the article is somewhat out-of-date: working without today's Internet search capacities, Henry traced the word <i>Cajun</i> only as early as 1879 and found primarily negative references — though references are now known to extend back as early as 1862 and to include not only negative, but neutral and positive occurrences.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="background-color: white; text-align: left;"><span face="courier new, courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif">I choose neither to identify nor quote the sources to which I take exception and which prompted me to write this essay. Although that practice would be requisite for an academic publication, and would in some ways strengthen my assertions, </span></span><span style="background-color: white; text-align: left;"><span face="courier new, courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif">I nevertheless do not wish this discussion to involve personalities, but, rather, only issues of substance and the actual historical evidence.</span></span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p><span style="font-family: courier;"> </span></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><b><span style="color: #999999;">(2)</span></b> "Cajun Chefs Help Prepare U.S. Army Mess in London," <i>The Troy (N.Y.) Record</i>, 21 July
1943, p. 4.</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><b><span style="color: #999999;">(3)</span></b> Images of the <i>Cajun Queen</i> and <i>Cajun Coonass</i> can be found in my blog article: Shane K. Bernard, "<a href="http://bayoutechedispatches.blogspot.com/2012/05/my-oddball-collection-cajun-warplane.html" target="_blank">My Oddball Collection of Cajun Warplane Photos</a>," <i>Bayou Teche Dispatches</i>, 31 May 2012. The original <i>Cajun Coonass</i> still photograph is in the National Archives and Records Administration and is photograph #342-FH-3A-32507-79171a.c. It is dated "April,
1943" on verso; and "rec'd 7 Jan. 1944" on recto.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p><span style="font-family: courier;"> </span></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><b><span style="color: #999999;">(4)</span></b> "The 'Cajuns' of Louisiana," <i>Dallas (Tex.) News</i>, reprinted in <i>The Indianapolis Journal</i>, 28 January 1898, p. 7.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p><span style="font-family: courier;"> </span></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><b><span style="color: #999999;">(5)</span></b> "A Boston Criticism of Cable," <i>New Orleans Picayune</i>, reprinted in <i>The Ouachita Telegraph</i> (Monroe, La.), 28 April 1888, p. 1.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p><span style="font-family: courier;"> </span></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><b><span style="color: #999999;">(6)</span></b> "The Acadians: A Picturesque People Unchanged by Time," <i>San Francisco Chronicle</i>, reprinted in <i>The Abbeville (S.C.) Press and Banner</i>, 29 June 1887, p. 7.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p><span style="font-family: courier;"> </span></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><b><span style="color: #999999;">(7)</span></b> "The Louisiana Cajuns," <i>Cincinnati Commercial</i>, reprinted <i>in The Delaware (Ohio) Gazette</i>, 12 December 1862, p. 1.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><b><span style="color: #999999;">(8)</span></b> "<i>La Negresse du Diable</i>," <i>Le Pionnier de l'Assomption </i>(Napoleonville, La.), 7 September 1851, p. 1.</span></span></p></div>Shane K. Bernardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00454946054965548589noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660857958535448139.post-58528669575539400602022-02-11T17:36:00.012-06:002022-05-13T13:26:15.922-05:00Thoughts on Cajuns and "Whiteness"<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><i>This essay is one of four in which I address current issues in Cajun and Creole studies. The other essays can be found <a href="https://bayoutechedispatches.blogspot.com/2022/05/essays-on-current-issues-in-cajun-and.html" target="_blank">here</a>.</i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><i>I wrote these works not only as a historian, but as someone who identifies as both a Cajun and a Creole. As I note in one of these essays, “[M]any of my ancestors were Creoles of French heritage. My own family tree abounds with tell-tale Creole surnames: de la Morandière, Soileau, de la Pointe, Fuselier de la Claire, Brignac, Bordelon, de Livaudais, and others. . . . As such, I could, if I chose to do so (and sometimes I do), identify as Creole — doubly so because Cajuns themselves are to begin with a kind of Creole.”</i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><i>I trust those with whom I express disagreement will accept this critique in the collegial spirit it is intended.</i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><i>I thank Dr. Barry Jean Ancelet, Dr. David Cheramie, Dr. Phebe Hayes, independent researcher Don Arceneaux, and former CODOFIL president Warren A. Perrin for proofing the below essay. Thanks also to Dr. John Mack Faragher for proofing endnote six.</i></span></div><p style="text-align: center;"><i style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 15.4px;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px;"><span><span style="font-family: courier; white-space: nowrap;">❧</span></span></span></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">In <a href="https://bayoutechedispatches.blogspot.com/2019/06/of-cajuns-and-creoles-brief-historical.html">a recent essay</a> I
noted the understandable trend among some scholars and activists to reclaim
what is Creole from the overweening, often misapplied blanket term </span><i style="font-family: courier;">Cajun</i><span style="font-family: courier;">.
In <a href="https://bayoutechedispatches.blogspot.com/2020/09/notes-on-birth-of-cajun-ethnic-identity.html">another recent essay</a> I examined the much less explicable trend of asserting,
despite evidence to the contrary, that the word </span><i style="font-family: courier;">Cajun</i><span style="font-family: courier;"> — and indeed the
entire Cajun ethnic group — appeared only in the late 20th century.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WzxDV848qfI/X7wBTe1FDDI/AAAAAAAADQE/XskrbKQPsnIekVn1-k7c9IrZe1erG_muwCLcBGAsYHQ/s521/service-pnp-fsa-8a24000-8a24700-8a24751r.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><img border="0" data-original-height="521" data-original-width="411" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WzxDV848qfI/X7wBTe1FDDI/AAAAAAAADQE/XskrbKQPsnIekVn1-k7c9IrZe1erG_muwCLcBGAsYHQ/w315-h400/service-pnp-fsa-8a24000-8a24700-8a24751r.jpg" width="315" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier;">"Cajun sugarcane farmer with daughter, <br />near New Iberia, Louisiana," <br />Russell Lee, photographer (1938) <br />Source: <a href="https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2017738540/resource/" target="_blank">Library of Congress</a> </span></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Another questionable
claim, found recently in both academic and more journalistic or bloggish sources, concerns the <span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span>whiteness</span><span style="color: #999999; font-family: courier; text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace; text-align: justify;">"</span><b>(1)</b></span><span style="font-family: courier;"> of the Cajun people. In short, some writers
claim that </span><i style="font-family: courier;">Cajuns were not considered <span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace; font-style: normal;">"</span>white<span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace; font-style: normal;">"</span> until the 20th century and even, according to some, until the late 20th century</i><span style="font-family: courier;">.</span><span style="color: #999999; font-family: courier;"><b>(2)</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Historical evidence,
however, does not bear out this statement, which is often presented axiomatically, with little or no primary-source documentation, as if a self-evident truth.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Granted, the historical
record does contain at least a few references suggesting a certain non-white
quality to the Cajun people. In 1860, for example, a widely printed newspaper article noted of the Cajuns (called "</span><span style="font-family: courier;">Acadians" </span><span style="font-family: courier;">in the piece</span><span style="font-family: courier;">), </span><span style="font-family: courier;">"</span><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: courier;">[</span></span><span style="font-family: courier;">They] are a strange clannish people, resembling much in appearance and habits, the race of Gipsies [<i>sic</i>]." </span><span style="font-family: courier;">Then, in 1922, a Cajun surnamed Pitre sued a man for slander who supposedly called him <span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span>a damned dirty low-down 'Cadian' — pronouncing it 'Cajan' — and a damned half-breed n*****.<span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span> This, however, is not so strong an example as it may at first seem, because the defendant convinced a judge that he had not hurled the racial epithet at the Cajun plaintiff — who described himself in court as "of the Caucasian race, of Acadian descent" — but rather at a black messenger sent </span><span style="font-family: courier;">on behalf of the Cajun plaintive</span><span style="font-family: courier;">.</span><span style="color: #999999; font-family: courier;"><b>(3)</b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: courier;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="336" data-original-width="380" height="283" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-J-cy7BN1Bwg/X7wFcWGFTFI/AAAAAAAADQQ/oDfyqiDe_OQ7cOIey50ZqszP8rEH810awCLcBGAsYHQ/w320-h283/pitre%2Bv%2Bsacker.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="320" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><i>Pitre</i> v. <i>Sacker</i>,<br /></span><span style="font-family: courier;">in <i>The Southern Reporter</i> (1922)</span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span>Another questionable example dates from 1945, when a book reviewer described a novel's
fictional characters as <span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span>a poverty-stricken population of poor whites and
cajuns [</span><i>sic</i><span>]<span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span> — arguably suggesting Cajuns were something other than <span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span>poor
whites.<span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span> (<i>P</i></span><i>erhaps poor non-whites</i><span>?) </span><span>There is also the occasional
reference to Cajuns as non-whites that can be traced to a simple lack of cultural understanding. For
instance, in 1897 an Iowan visiting south Louisiana noted, <span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span>[T]he natives, a mixture of Negro and Mexican, are called 'Cajuns' (Acadians).<span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span> (Even so, this is not so egregious an error as one by a mid-20th-century author who traced the Cajuns' ethnicity to </span><span>Christian disciples in </span><span>first-century</span><span> </span><span>Armenia!)</span><span style="color: #999999;"><b>(4)</b></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: courier;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8sVvUeZrjNU/X7v4cXXy5RI/AAAAAAAADPs/e4jYd4LrT-ENZB5aeNE9rCNf6FdiiCtMACLcBGAsYHQ/s407/Decorah%2B%2528Iowa%2529%2BPublic%2BOpinion%252C%2B16%2BMarch%2B1897%252C%2Bp.%2B1..jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="196" data-original-width="407" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8sVvUeZrjNU/X7v4cXXy5RI/AAAAAAAADPs/e4jYd4LrT-ENZB5aeNE9rCNf6FdiiCtMACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Decorah%2B%2528Iowa%2529%2BPublic%2BOpinion%252C%2B16%2BMarch%2B1897%252C%2Bp.%2B1..jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i style="font-family: courier; text-align: justify;">Decorah</i><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: justify;"> (Iowa) <br /></span><i style="font-family: courier; text-align: justify;">Public Opinion </i><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: justify;">(</span><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: justify;">1897)</span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Found more frequently, however, are references to Cajuns as separated from the mass of white people not by race, but by class. In 1866</span><span style="font-family: courier;">, for instance, </span><span style="font-family: courier;">a writer for </span><i style="font-family: courier;">Harper's</i><span style="font-family: courier;"> described Cajuns as </span><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span>the descendants of Canadian French settlers in Louisiana; and by dint of intermarriage [with each other] they have succeeded in getting pretty well down in the social scale. </span><span style="font-family: courier;">Without energy, education, or ambition, they are good representatives of the white trash.</span><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span> </span><span style="font-family: courier;">This negative classist view persisted into the modern era, when, for example, United Artists re-released a 1956 motion picture set among hostile Cajuns </span><span style="font-family: courier;">under the new </span><span style="font-family: courier;">title </span><i style="font-family: courier;">Poor White Trash</i><span style="font-family: courier;">. Again, this trend reflects a perceived class distinction</span><span style="font-family: courier;">, not a racial one,</span><span style="font-family: courier;"> between Cajuns and other whites.</span><span style="color: #999999; font-family: courier;"><b>(5)</b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="color: #999999;"><br /></span></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-69KvPJAL7qo/X7vtZ3TeCZI/AAAAAAAADOQ/sKtSubhMsVQI8Rbe-BLP4Hc0YS4AQbzdQCLcBGAsYHQ/s469/PWT.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><img border="0" data-original-height="258" data-original-width="469" height="220" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-69KvPJAL7qo/X7vtZ3TeCZI/AAAAAAAADOQ/sKtSubhMsVQI8Rbe-BLP4Hc0YS4AQbzdQCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h220/PWT.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Ad for the Cajun-themed movie <i>Poor White Trash</i>,<br />originally released under the title <i>Bayou </i>(1956 & 1961).</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Turning from <i>class</i> back to the original issue of <i>race</i>: despite rare and iffy exceptions, the general trend </span><span style="font-family: courier;">is that others have overwhelmingly viewed Cajuns</span><span><span style="font-family: courier;"> as <span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span>white.<span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span> In fact, the historical record indicates
that Cajuns have been considered <span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span>white<span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span> since well into the 19th-century, when their
Acadian ancestors and other ethnic groups coalesced in south Louisiana to become the Cajuns.</span></span><span style="color: #999999; font-family: courier;"><b>(6)</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">I find this unsurprising because the Cajuns' ancestors hailed primarily from Europe (mainly
France, but also Germany, Spain, and elsewhere on the continent) and because Cajuns — according to commonly held standards persisting over time — <span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span>looked
white<span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span> and, for all practical purposes, <i>were </i><span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span><i>white.</i><span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span> (At
this point it is worth noting that race is increasingly viewed as an outmoded concept, one
unsupported by biology or other scientific fields. This is, however,
problematic for historians because, even if the idea of race is bankrupt, the
concept nevertheless remains an extremely strong catalyst in historical events.)<span style="color: #999999;"><b>(7)</b></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">I base my assertions
about Cajun <span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span>whiteness<span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span> on evidence like that found in the below list of </span><span style="font-family: courier;">historical
references. This list makes no pretense of completeness: there are no doubt
many more historical references to Cajuns as <span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span>white<span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span> remaining to be found.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Some of the below
sources express negative views of Cajuns as well as overtly racist sentiments about African Americans.
This unpleasant fact, however, has no bearing on the issue at hand: those
benighted sources, like the more innocuous ones, nonetheless viewed Cajuns as <span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span>white.<span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span> Indeed, I find it interesting that the racist sources, instead of rejecting
the perhaps suspect Roman Catholic, French-speaking Cajuns as something other than <span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span>white,<span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span> actually embraced them <i>as </i><span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span><i>white.</i></span><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span> (Likewise, I believe it speaks volumes that,
as historian Carl A. Brasseaux has noted of the racist White League chapters
formed in postbellum south Louisiana, <span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span>Acadians [Cajuns] constituted a
disproportionately large percentage of their memberships.<span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span> This prompts the
question, <span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span>If Cajuns were not viewed as 'white' until recently, why, then, did
so many belong to this 19th-century white supremacist group?<span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span>)</span><span style="color: #999999; font-family: courier;"><b>(8)</b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #999999; font-family: courier;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kgKN9ttftrg/X7vunDRprzI/AAAAAAAADOo/Cx1u3BDT_-UkQYDfmS50ZlK4PpfMKJ1VgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1360/71v%252BTh%252BG3EL.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1360" data-original-width="907" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kgKN9ttftrg/X7vunDRprzI/AAAAAAAADOo/Cx1u3BDT_-UkQYDfmS50ZlK4PpfMKJ1VgCLcBGAsYHQ/w213-h320/71v%252BTh%252BG3EL.jpg" width="213" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Brasseaux's <br /><i>Acadian to Cajun </i>(1992)</span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="color: #999999; font-family: courier;"><br /></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Here is the list of supporting
evidence for Cajun <span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span>whiteness<span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span>:</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;"><i style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, FreeMono, monospace; font-size: 15.4px; text-align: start;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px;"><span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;"><span style="white-space: nowrap;">❧</span></span></span></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span>They proposed to
hang the whole settlement because a colored man living there once killed a
white Acadian [Cajun].<span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span> </span><span style="font-family: courier;">~ <span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span>The Vigilantes of
Vermilion,<span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span> <i>New Orleans Republican</i>, reprinted in <i>The Opelousas
Journal</i>, 21 November 1873, p. 2.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mbVU_AcmuYw/X7v4DHFzv2I/AAAAAAAADPk/lKyAUz-BLwccB4KBtPV2TexTEd7PSVOywCLcBGAsYHQ/s511/Clarksville%2B%2528Tenn.%2529%2BWeekly%2BChronicle%252C%2B3%2BMay%2B1884%252C%2Bp.%2B4.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="444" data-original-width="511" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mbVU_AcmuYw/X7v4DHFzv2I/AAAAAAAADPk/lKyAUz-BLwccB4KBtPV2TexTEd7PSVOywCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Clarksville%2B%2528Tenn.%2529%2BWeekly%2BChronicle%252C%2B3%2BMay%2B1884%252C%2Bp.%2B4.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i style="font-family: courier; text-align: justify;">Clarksville</i><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: justify;"> (Tenn.)<br /></span><i style="font-family: courier; text-align: justify;">Weekly Chronicle </i><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: justify;">(</span><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: justify;">1884)</span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span>The Acadians are all
white . . . [and] are still a strong reminder of the old Norman stock of which
they come. . . .<span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span> </span><span style="font-family: courier;">~ <span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span>The Acadians,<span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span> </span><i style="font-family: courier;">New
York Telegram</i><span style="font-family: courier;">, reprinted in </span><i style="font-family: courier;">Clarksville</i><span style="font-family: courier;"> (Tenn.) </span><i style="font-family: courier;">Weekly Chronicle</i><span style="font-family: courier;">,
3 May 1884, p. 4.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_ABjNo5leC8/X7v2GQd_azI/AAAAAAAADO0/ARcKqifxqBE_Rkb2ORExn3-FyurvhJVMwCLcBGAsYHQ/s433/House%2Bof%2BBondage.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="380" data-original-width="433" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_ABjNo5leC8/X7v2GQd_azI/AAAAAAAADO0/ARcKqifxqBE_Rkb2ORExn3-FyurvhJVMwCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/House%2Bof%2BBondage.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: justify;">Albert, </span><i style="font-family: courier; text-align: justify;">The House of Bondage </i><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: justify;">(1890).</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span>Who were these 'Cadien
patrollers, Uncle Stephen?' 'Why, child, they were the meanest things in
creation; they were poor, low down white folks. . . .'<span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span> </span><span style="font-family: courier;">~ Octavia Victoria
Rogers Albert, <i>The House of Bondage; Or, Charlotte Brooks and Other Slaves</i>
[fictional work] (New York: Hunt & Eaton, 1890), p. 106.</span><span style="font-family: courier;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span>Nearly all the white
folks who trudged along the highway were Acadians. . . . and it is strange
indeed to hear that we must not call them 'Cajuns to their faces. . . .<span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span> </span><span style="font-family: courier;">~ Julian Ralph, <span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span>Acadians
at Home,<span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span> </span><i style="font-family: courier;">Harper's Magazine</i><span style="font-family: courier;">, reprinted in </span><i style="font-family: courier;">The Indianapolis Journal</i><span style="font-family: courier;">,
3 November 1893, p. 2.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Vu5kPvA-weo/X7v2aH9AmVI/AAAAAAAADO8/l0joPqd2-xkUYXQknIZKz7GrqqcTk-DzgCLcBGAsYHQ/s333/Harpers.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="255" data-original-width="333" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Vu5kPvA-weo/X7v2aH9AmVI/AAAAAAAADO8/l0joPqd2-xkUYXQknIZKz7GrqqcTk-DzgCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Harpers.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: justify;">Ralph, "Acadians at Home," <br /></span><i style="font-family: courier; text-align: justify;">Harper's </i><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: justify;">(1893)</span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span>It is a race war
rather than a political fight that is now waging in St. Landry Parish in
Louisiana. It is between the Acadians . . . and the negro [<i>sic</i>]. . . .
[N]ine-tenths of the white people are Acadians, descendants of the unfortunate
French settlers of Nova Scotia. They have no use for the negro, and the
national [natural?] antipathy between the two races is very strong.</span><span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span><span style="font-family: courier;"> </span><span style="font-family: courier;">~ No title, </span><i style="font-family: courier;">Waterbury</i><span style="font-family: courier;">
(Conn.) </span><i style="font-family: courier;">Evening Democrat</i><span style="font-family: courier;">, 17 April 1896, p. 2.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Py2Auz29g-M/X7v2uHzQr7I/AAAAAAAADPE/3_utrtJLGy0A_2ZgdXN6lzl228VK-FuGwCLcBGAsYHQ/s382/Waterbury%2B%2528Conn.%2529%2BDemocrat%252C%2B17%2BApril%2B1896%252C%2Bp.%2B2.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="382" data-original-width="354" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Py2Auz29g-M/X7v2uHzQr7I/AAAAAAAADPE/3_utrtJLGy0A_2ZgdXN6lzl228VK-FuGwCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Waterbury%2B%2528Conn.%2529%2BDemocrat%252C%2B17%2BApril%2B1896%252C%2Bp.%2B2.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i style="font-family: courier; text-align: justify;">Waterbury</i><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: justify;"> (Conn.)<br /></span><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: justify;"><i>Evening Democrat </i>(1</span><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: justify;">896)</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span>[A]mong these white
men, and forming a large portion of them, are the descendants of the Acadians
who were transported from Nova Scotia to Louisiana. . . .</span><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span> </span><span style="font-family: courier;">~ </span><i style="font-family: courier;">The Sunday at
Home</i><span style="font-family: courier;"> 45 (1897), p. 408.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span>But many of the best
white families in Louisiana, especially the descendants of the old Acadians,
keep their ancient simplicity and are unable to read.<span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span> </span><span style="font-family: courier;">~ <span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span>The Negro's Ballot,<span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span> </span><i style="font-family: courier;">The </i><span style="font-family: courier;">(Phoenix) </span><i style="font-family: courier;">Arizona Republican</i><span style="font-family: courier;">, 22 January 1898, p. 2.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span>The third class of
white colonists were the Acadians, or, as they are popularly called in
Louisiana today, 'Cagans.'<span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span> </span><span style="font-family: courier;">~ <span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span>Whites in the
Majority,<span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span> </span><i style="font-family: courier;">The </i><span style="font-family: courier;">(Washington, D.C.) </span><i style="font-family: courier;">Times</i><span style="font-family: courier;">, 12 August 1901, p. 3.
[Note: by <span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span>third class<span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span> the author does not mean <span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span>inferior<span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span>; he means by chance
Cajuns are the third group of white Louisianians discussed in his article.]</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span>[T]he Acadians in
Louisiana are about the most prolific white people on the globe.<span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span> </span><span style="font-family: courier;">~ No title, <i>The Colfax</i>
(Wash.) <i>Gazette</i>, 13 September 1901, p. 4.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-piPrXwWgEqk/X7v3EJTAjNI/AAAAAAAADPM/TBc85LWehbEQSj182UqOYYF_7z7pW57GQCLcBGAsYHQ/s523/The%2BColfax%2B%2528Wash.%2529%2BGazette%252C%2B13%2BSeptember%2B1901%252C%2Bp.%2B4.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="336" data-original-width="523" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-piPrXwWgEqk/X7v3EJTAjNI/AAAAAAAADPM/TBc85LWehbEQSj182UqOYYF_7z7pW57GQCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/The%2BColfax%2B%2528Wash.%2529%2BGazette%252C%2B13%2BSeptember%2B1901%252C%2Bp.%2B4.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i style="font-family: courier; text-align: justify;">Colfax</i><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: justify;"> (Wash.) </span><i style="font-family: courier; text-align: justify;">Gazette </i><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: justify;">(</span><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: justify;">1901)</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span>[Y]our Cajan will
give a lazy ha ha, where any other white man would swear. . . .<span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span> </span><span style="font-family: courier;">~ E. H. Lancaster, <span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span>The
Wooing of Angela<span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span> [fictional work], </span><i style="font-family: courier;">The Coalville</i><span style="font-family: courier;"> (Utah) </span><i style="font-family: courier;">Times</i><span style="font-family: courier;">, 5
December 1902, p. 3.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span>[T]he negroes [<i>sic</i>]
are being crowded out of work on the sugar plantations by white labor, such as
Acadians. . . .<span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span> </span><span style="font-family: courier;">~ <span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span>Negro's Critical
Position in the Industrial World,<span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span> </span><i style="font-family: courier;">The</i><span style="font-family: courier;"> (Raleigh, N.C.) </span><i style="font-family: courier;">News &
Observer</i><span style="font-family: courier;">, 7 December 1902, Section One, p. 11.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span>Then there are the 'Cajuns,'
white people, the descendants of the Acadians. . . .<span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span> </span><span style="font-family: courier;">~ <span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span>Louisiana Sugar:
Statement of Joe B. Chaffe, Representing the American Cane Growers' Association,<span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span> </span><i style="font-family: courier;">Senate Documents, 67th Congress, 2nd Session, 1921-1922, Vol. 5, Part 3</i><span style="font-family: courier;"> (Washington,
D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1922), p. 2308.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ix6LONF_pkQ/X7v3WrOAvFI/AAAAAAAADPU/29qGFSl-ywQfKLtv-HaXSIxLlJsNKQxjACLcBGAsYHQ/s629/Senate%2BDocuments%2B1922.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="209" data-original-width="629" height="133" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ix6LONF_pkQ/X7v3WrOAvFI/AAAAAAAADPU/29qGFSl-ywQfKLtv-HaXSIxLlJsNKQxjACLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h133/Senate%2BDocuments%2B1922.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i style="font-family: courier; text-align: justify;">Senate Documents </i><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: justify;">(1922)</span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span>The whites,
transported by separate barges, were Acadian farming families, chattering among
themselves in a thick, unfamiliar French dialect.<span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span> </span><span style="font-family: courier;">~ Will Irwin, <span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span>Except
for War, America Knows No Destruction Equal to That of Flood, Writes Noted
Author,<span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span> </span><i style="font-family: courier;">New Britain </i><span style="font-family: courier;">(Conn.) </span><i style="font-family: courier;">Herald</i><span style="font-family: courier;">, 17 May 1927, Sec. 2, p. 21.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span>A majority of the
white tenants are 'Cajuns.' These Cajuns are trustworthy, but as a rule are
illiterate.<span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span> </span><span style="font-family: courier;">~ Sherrod De Floy
Morehead, </span><i style="font-family: courier;">Merchant Credit to Farmers in Louisiana</i><span style="font-family: courier;"> (Russellville,
[Ark.?]: privately printed, 1929), p. 16.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span>One of the films in
the making is a story of the Cajuns, a little known group of primitive whites.<span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span> </span><span style="font-family: courier;">~ <span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span>Out Where the
Movies Begin,<span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span> (Washington, D.C.) </span><i style="font-family: courier;">Evening Star</i><span style="font-family: courier;">, 24 May 1933, p. B-12.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gfD31SSRlpw/X7v3jRhvz5I/AAAAAAAADPY/XtouUQ5iWbYwRzwk7KhAPLxi948Mw186gCLcBGAsYHQ/s509/%2528Wash%2BDC%2529%2BEvening%2BStar%252C%2B24%2BMay%2B1933%252C%2Bp.%2BB-12.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="250" data-original-width="509" height="196" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gfD31SSRlpw/X7v3jRhvz5I/AAAAAAAADPY/XtouUQ5iWbYwRzwk7KhAPLxi948Mw186gCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h196/%2528Wash%2BDC%2529%2BEvening%2BStar%252C%2B24%2BMay%2B1933%252C%2Bp.%2BB-12.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: justify;">(Washington, D.C.) </span><i style="font-family: courier; text-align: justify;">Evening Star </i><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: justify;">(</span><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: justify;">1933)</span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span>[The Creoles] often
had a word for the poorer Cajuns: 'Canaille!' — that was their way of saying
poor-white trash.<span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span> </span><span style="font-family: courier;">~ Shields McIlwaine, </span><i style="font-family: courier;">The
Southern Poor-White from Lubberland to Tobacco Road</i><span style="font-family: courier;"> (Norman, Okla.:
University of Oklahoma Press, 1939), p. 143.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span>[T]he Cajuns, the
Louisiana poor white descendants of Longfellow's Acadians. . . .<span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span> </span><span style="font-family: courier;">~ </span><i style="font-family: courier;">The Journal of
Negro History</i><span style="font-family: courier;"> 34 (1949), p. 123.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><i>Notes</i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="color: #999999;"><b>(1)</b></span> </span><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: courier;">In this essay I use the term </span></span><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace; text-align: justify;">"</span>whiteness</span></span><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace; text-align: justify;">"</span> to mean </span></span><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace; text-align: justify;">"</span>a set of characteristics and experiences generally associated with being a member of the white race and having white skin.</span></span><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace; text-align: justify;">"</span> Although I am primarily interested in this basic definition, the term </span></span><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace; text-align: justify;">"</span>whiteness</span></span><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace; text-align: justify;">"</span> can also refer, for example, to </span></span><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace; text-align: justify;">"</span>the way that white people, their customs, culture, and beliefs operate as the standard by which all other groups are compared</span></span><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace; text-align: justify;">"</span> and </span></span><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace; text-align: justify;">"</span>a historically contingent and socially constructed racial category, once defined . . . by privilege and power. . . .</span></span><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace; text-align: justify;">"</span> among other, similar definitions. </span></span><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Nicki Lisa Cole, </span></span><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace; text-align: justify;">"</span>The Definition of Whiteness in American Society,</span></span><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace; text-align: justify;">"</span> ThoughtCo.com, 8 November 2019, https://www.thoughtco.com/whiteness-definition-3026743, accessed 22 November 2020; </span></span><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace; text-align: justify;">"</span>Whiteness,</span></span><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace; text-align: justify;">"</span> National Museum of African American History and Culture/Smithsonian Institution, https://nmaahc.si.edu/learn/talking-about-race/topics/whiteness, accessed 22 November 2020; Teresa J. Guess, </span></span><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace; text-align: justify;">"</span>The Social Construction of Whiteness: Racism by Intent, Racism by Consequence,</span></span><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace; text-align: justify;">"</span> <i>Critical Sociology</i> 32 (July 2006), p. 667, per https://www.cwu.edu/diversity/sites/cts.cwu.edu.diversity/files/documents/constructingwhiteness.pdf, accessed 22 November 2020.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="background-color: white; text-align: left;"><span face="courier new, courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif">I choose neither to identify nor quote the sources to which I take exception and which prompted me to write this essay. Although that practice would be requisite for an academic publication, and would in some ways strengthen my assertions, </span></span><span style="background-color: white; text-align: left;"><span face="courier new, courier, monaco, monospace, sans-serif">I nevertheless do not wish this discussion to involve personalities, but, rather, only issues of substance and the actual historical evidence.</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="color: #999999;"><b>(2)</b></span> The
word <i>Cajun</i> is used in this essay to refer solely to the so-named people of south
Louisiana and a small portion of east Texas, not to the identically named
persons of different heritage who inhabit part of Alabama and who have been
described in modern scholarship as <span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span>not entirely White, Black, or
Indian but [who] constitute a triracial community somewhat reproductively
isolated and inbred.<span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span> See W. S. Pollitzer et al., <span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span>The Cajuns of Southern
Alabama: Morphology and Serology,<span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span> <i>American Journal of Physical Anthropology</i>
47 (July 1977): pp. 1-6; the quote is from the abstract of this article found
on the website of the National Library of Medicine,
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/888930/, accessed 19 November 2020.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="color: #999999;"><b>(3)</b></span> "Acadians in Louisiana," <i>The</i> [Baltimore, Md.] <i>Daily Exchange</i>, 19 October 1860, p. 1; <i>Pitre </i>v.<i> Sacker</i>, 23 June 1922, Louisiana Supreme Court, No. 23387 (151 La. 1079, 92 So. 705 [1922]), cited in <i>Louisiana Reports</i>, Vol. 151 (St. Paul: West Publishing, 1922), p. 1079.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="color: #999999;"><b>(4)</b></span> <span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span>A Lion in the
Streets<span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span> [book review], (Washington, D.C.) </span><i style="font-family: courier;">Evening Star</i><span style="font-family: courier;">, 10 June 1945,
p. C-3; Mrs. Geo. P. Bent, <span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span>From Sunny Climes,<span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span> </span><i style="font-family: courier;">Decorah</i><span style="font-family: courier;"> (Iowa) </span><i style="font-family: courier;">Public
Opinion</i><span style="font-family: courier;">, 16 March 1897, p. 1; </span><span style="font-family: courier;">André Cajun [pseudonym], <i>Why Louisiana Has. . . </i>(New Orleans: Harmanson, 1947), p. 16-21. This volume reads, </span><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span>The story of the class, or group of people in Louisiana known as </span><span style="font-family: courier;">'</span><span style="font-family: courier;">Cajuns</span><span style="font-family: courier; text-align: left;">'</span><span style="font-family: courier;">[,] began the hour St. Bartholomew, a disciple [of Jesus], gave up the ghost. The location of this sad event was the ancient land of Armenia. . . .</span><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span> The author goes on to state that </span><span style="font-family: courier;">over roughly 1,700 years </span><span style="font-family: courier;">a group of persecuted Christians migrated </span><span style="font-family: courier;">from Armenia</span><span style="font-family: courier;"> to </span><span style="font-family: courier;">France, Nova Scotia, and, finally, Louisiana, where they became the Cajuns.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fpbv22QniVk/X7v7GRX7S9I/AAAAAAAADP4/stxxJaf9_1Ia7Bz2ndu8kuZfekNgAdHYACLcBGAsYHQ/s692/Andre%2BCajun.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="692" data-original-width="494" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fpbv22QniVk/X7v7GRX7S9I/AAAAAAAADP4/stxxJaf9_1Ia7Bz2ndu8kuZfekNgAdHYACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Andre%2BCajun.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="text-align: justify;">André Cajun</span>'<span style="text-align: justify;">s<br /></span><i style="text-align: justify;">Why Louisiana Has. . . </i><span style="text-align: justify;">(1947)</span></span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="color: #999999;"><b>(5)</b></span> Shane K. Bernard, <i>The Cajuns: Americanization of a People</i> (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2003), pp. xvii, 121. In this 2003 book I note that Cajuns were known to be reviled by local blacks as <span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span>Acadian n*****s,<span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span> which would appear to be a prime example of labeling Cajuns as non-whites.</span><span style="font-family: courier;"> On closer examination, however, I see that the original 19th-century quote states, </span><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span>the n******, when they want to express contempt for one of their own race, call him [a fellow black person] an Acadian n*****.</span><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span> In other words, this pejorative was used as a black-on-black insult, not as an expression of Cajun non-whiteness. See </span><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: courier;">A.R.W. [Alfred Rudolph Waud], </span></span><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace; text-align: justify;">"</span>Acadians of Louisiana," <i>Harper's Weekly</i>, 20 October 1866, p. 670.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="color: #999999;"><b>(6)</b></span> One researcher has
questioned the <span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span>whiteness<span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span> of the original Acadian exiles arriving in
Louisiana, noting esteemed Yale historian John Mack Faragher's examination, in
his 2006 book </span><i style="font-family: courier;">A Great and Noble Scheme</i><span style="font-family: courier;">, of </span><i style="font-family: courier;"><span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace; font-style: normal;">"</span>métissage</i><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span> — the
intermarriage of French settlers in <i>Acadie</i> with the indigenous Míkmaq. While it
is true that Acadians and Míkmaq often produced </span><i style="font-family: courier;">métis</i><span style="font-family: courier;"> offspring, it is
important to avoid exaggerating the extent of this interracial mixing. </span><i style="font-family: courier;">Métissage</i><span style="font-family: courier;">
played a more important role in Acadia's early history, when French male
colonists turned to Native American women for companionship because of a lack
of female colonists. This trend,
however, became less common with the arrival of additional French women and
entire French families, as well as with the coming of French priests who
discouraged interracial dalliances. As Faragher himself notes, </span><i style="font-family: courier;"><span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace; font-style: normal;">"</span>métissage </i><span style="font-family: courier;">declined
as colonists spent more time farming and less time trading [with Native
Americans]. It was replaced by the recruitment of wayfaring Europeans.<span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span> The
historian further states that while in some ways the Acadians and Míkmaq were <span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span>brothers,<span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span> it was nonetheless the case that <span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span>Acadians and Míkmaq maintained separate
identities and separate communities. . . .<span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span> By the 1730s, Faragher observes, <span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span>Acadians
and Míkmaq were no longer as close as they once had been. </span><i style="font-family: courier;">Métissage</i><span style="font-family: courier;"> was
increasingly rare, and the [Roman Catholic] missionary Pierre Maillard pursued
a course that kept natives separate from [colonial] inhabitants.<span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span> In short,
while Acadians and Míkmaq were interrelated, Faragher does not go so far as to
assert that the Acadians had ceased to be primarily of European extract or, for
that matter, ceased to be considered by others as <span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span>white.<span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span> As a French-language Louisiana newspaper, <i>Le Louisianais</i>, therefore stated in 1873, "</span><span style="font-family: courier;"><i>Rappellons nous donc les Acadiens. Ils étaient blancs, pauvres, honnêtes et robustes</i>. . . ." — "</span><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Let us thus remember the Acadians. They were <i>white</i>, poor, honest and robust" [emphasis added]. </span></span><span style="font-family: courier;">See John Mack
Faragher, </span><i style="font-family: courier;">A Great and Noble Scheme: The Tragic Story of the Expulsion of the
French Acadians from Their American Homeland</i><span style="font-family: courier;"> (New York: W. W. Norton &
Company, 2006), pp. 63, 160, 203; </span><span style="font-family: courier;">"Local," Le Louisianais (Covent, La.), 15 February 1873, p. 1.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-h3owe6cqaPs/X7vt4UTxnRI/AAAAAAAADOY/RXkdBCM8S_sspvhx_Qr9oVQ4rCXBq3OiACLcBGAsYHQ/s500/9780393051353-us.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="330" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-h3owe6cqaPs/X7vt4UTxnRI/AAAAAAAADOY/RXkdBCM8S_sspvhx_Qr9oVQ4rCXBq3OiACLcBGAsYHQ/w211-h320/9780393051353-us.jpg" width="211" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="text-align: justify;">Faragher's </span><i style="text-align: justify;">A Great <br />and Noble Scheme </i>(2006)</span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="color: #999999;"><b>(7)</b></span> See for example
Elizabeth Kolbert, <span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span>There's No Scientific Basis for Race — It's a Made-Up
Label,<span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span> </span><i style="font-family: courier;">National Geographic</i><span style="font-family: courier;">, 12 March 2018,
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2018/04/race-genetics-science-africa/#clos,
accessed 19 November 2020; Megan Gannon, <span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span>Race Is a Social Construct,
Scientists Argue,<span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span> </span><i style="font-family: courier;">Scientific American</i><span style="font-family: courier;">, 5 February 2016,
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/race-is-a-social-construct-scientists-argue/,
accessed 19 November 2020; Melissa Rice, <span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span>Evolution and Race: Biologically,
Race is No Longer an Issue, Scientific Panel Agrees,<span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span> </span><i style="font-family: courier;">Cornell Chronicle</i><span style="font-family: courier;">,
11 February 2009,
https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2009/02/experts-biologically-race-no-longer-issue,
accessed 19 November 2020; <span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span>Executive Summary: AAPA Statement on Race and
Racism,<span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">"</span> American Association of Physical Anthropologists, ca. 27 March 2019,
https://physanth.org/about/position-statements/aapa-statement-race-and-racism-2019/,
accessed 19 November 2020.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><span style="color: #999999;"><b>(8)</b> </span>Carl A. Brasseaux,
<i>Acadian to Cajun: Transformation of a People, 1803-1877</i> (Jackson:
University Press of Mississippi, 1992), 144.</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-add-space: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></p>Shane K. Bernardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00454946054965548589noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660857958535448139.post-88288504617946419152022-02-10T14:49:00.008-06:002022-02-17T22:00:09.521-06:00"Prairie de Jacko": Source of the Name?<p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">I recently noticed an old Louisiana land document for sale on eBay. It concerned property located near the confluence of Bayou Teche and the Atchafalaya River. (What is called Bayou Teche on this map is today called the Lower Atchafalaya, the Teche now regarded as flowing into the Lower Atchafalaya at Patterson.)</span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhwj0XKgWQ-MHEiIHt-rP6Gwj1zg0KaswxVKJ1b2qIjPXgBpD5F5N__ojVikerqG_s5pZzDQmHxS9JcWVM7wExm9r_XKX--B5fR4R-sBZcBK8wGW7i4RNEC6yVu57VsMxoKBdI5GdESReiTKBdQJfwHF6_y1jNee-W7x1N19y3NXe0GXdbF0JdYS6DD=s1600" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1006" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhwj0XKgWQ-MHEiIHt-rP6Gwj1zg0KaswxVKJ1b2qIjPXgBpD5F5N__ojVikerqG_s5pZzDQmHxS9JcWVM7wExm9r_XKX--B5fR4R-sBZcBK8wGW7i4RNEC6yVu57VsMxoKBdI5GdESReiTKBdQJfwHF6_y1jNee-W7x1N19y3NXe0GXdbF0JdYS6DD=s320" width="201" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier;">The old Louisiana land document.<br />(Source: <a href="http://eBay.com">eBay.com</a>)</span></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">In other words, the document concerns land near the present-day community of Baldwin, across the Atchafalaya River from present-day Morgan City. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Note the document’s hand-drawn map. Written across parcels spanning both "Bayou Teche" and the Atchafalaya is the name "Jacko Derouen." (Yes, Jacko, as in Michael Jackson’s nickname — though I expect the south Louisiana "Jacko" would have pronounced his name the French way: ZHAH-KO.) Jacko Derouen’s full name also appears below the map, in the actual text of the document.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgdWYNrOsTQb0OIbWtjeG9sX00mRReSbclnUkgkpYx0dgaF-lywiPby2pSzs1d9c2JoC_T3FPv8CIxm-uuhTNJS6DmqxuVXcmvyL0QXe_EEwGC-4_agWfHA-2OYjd48YMBXNf4SaUA_BU8N0T3xqJn5jeJzFV3PMyzvqRoAnSywXRRpCQgcnpeDxjKQ=s892" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><img border="0" data-original-height="612" data-original-width="892" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgdWYNrOsTQb0OIbWtjeG9sX00mRReSbclnUkgkpYx0dgaF-lywiPby2pSzs1d9c2JoC_T3FPv8CIxm-uuhTNJS6DmqxuVXcmvyL0QXe_EEwGC-4_agWfHA-2OYjd48YMBXNf4SaUA_BU8N0T3xqJn5jeJzFV3PMyzvqRoAnSywXRRpCQgcnpeDxjKQ=s320" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Close-up of the hand-drawn map.<br />(Source: <a href="http://eBay.com">eBay.com</a>)</span></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">I believe this document answers a question of mine I’ve had for some years: Why in the 1700s was an expanse of land in that region called "Prairie de Jacko"?</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">From my previous research I knew the toponym appeared in Thomas Hutchins’ 1784 book <i>An Historical Narrative and Topographical Description of Louisiana and West-Florida</i>. In that work Hutchins stated "3 miles below the Tage [Teche] river on the western side is a large savanna known by the name of Prairu de Jacko [Prairie de Jacko]. From this savanna is about 33 miles to the sea.</span><span style="font-family: courier;">"</span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiNBgzRMOaeRDjsOfEcWiJC0LuSqS33RUGbFR8hMFVWGa4aZ_9DhjoS8k85cCn719OQMS1mxZxI67v1GspaTMm9pQZJe-RsL8wRyB3Bf1U23k-1oJPoUlPcPn8oV27KLeRkSgyL9Fk-SiNk8F4sECegHEFZPBdATl8RDHQzcx8GM77EqWsGmXF88rzH=s606" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><img border="0" data-original-height="532" data-original-width="606" height="281" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiNBgzRMOaeRDjsOfEcWiJC0LuSqS33RUGbFR8hMFVWGa4aZ_9DhjoS8k85cCn719OQMS1mxZxI67v1GspaTMm9pQZJe-RsL8wRyB3Bf1U23k-1oJPoUlPcPn8oV27KLeRkSgyL9Fk-SiNk8F4sECegHEFZPBdATl8RDHQzcx8GM77EqWsGmXF88rzH=s320" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Page detail from Hutchins' <br /><i style="text-align: justify;">An Historical Narrative </i><span style="text-align: justify;">(1784).<br />(Source: <a href="https://ufdc.ufl.edu/UF00100327/00001">University of Florida</a>)</span></span></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Another reference appears on Hutchins’ presumably earlier hand-drawn map of the Teche region. Found not in a Louisiana archives, but in the holdings of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, that map — which I believe Hutchins drew between 1779 and 1784 — shows the scrawled placename "Prari[e] de Jacob.</span><span style="font-family: courier;">"</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjlnikJwmZzlhZ72CkyqYLipGVTwirlu1msb76zpdr3wlBh5_vlAgrFT7Rctpd0PNybWy3kp4DTzY0z-wwMvu-pkPtRtMJr_bTHjXw5YLij0GEQHA5Y7P6wqoaieQrbe0JIkSNa0M3MdTemREiEBWFlF3-gJ-zcT4CmhH4_8CP40SOQibLi2Pi-LLjJ=s1732" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1170" data-original-width="1732" height="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjlnikJwmZzlhZ72CkyqYLipGVTwirlu1msb76zpdr3wlBh5_vlAgrFT7Rctpd0PNybWy3kp4DTzY0z-wwMvu-pkPtRtMJr_bTHjXw5YLij0GEQHA5Y7P6wqoaieQrbe0JIkSNa0M3MdTemREiEBWFlF3-gJ-zcT4CmhH4_8CP40SOQibLi2Pi-LLjJ=s320" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Hutchin's upside-down map (detail).<br />(Source: <a href="https://www.portal.hsp.org/">Historical Society of Pennsylvania</a>)</span></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">The name also appears in the 1779 journal of François Gonsoulin, who, though French in origin, served in Louisiana as a Spanish royal surveyor (the colony having passed from France to Spain in 1762-63). The Spanish government had tasked Gonsoulin, along with local Flemish settler Jean-Baptiste Grevemberg and several enslaved rowers, with exploring the course of the middle and lower Bayou Teche. They would travel downstream from newly founded New Iberia (then called Nueva Iberia) to the bayou’s mouth — a stretch that not only included the present-day Teche below New Iberia, but the waterways now considered the Lower Atchafalaya and the Atchafalaya itself. Even then this was a matter of contention. As I wrote in my 2016 book <i>Teche: A History of Louisiana’s Most Famous Bayou</i> (University Press of Mississippi): </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"></span></p><blockquote style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Indeed, he [Gonsoulin] bristled at those like [colonial leader] Bouligny who called the Lower Atchafalaya "el Rio Grande" or in French "Grand Rivière." They spoke "inappropriately," asserted Gonsoulin in his diary. On the contrary, the great river, he insisted, was "always the Teche.</span><span style="font-family: courier;">"</span></blockquote><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">In my <i>Teche</i> book I also included the below passage about Gonsoulin’s 1779 exploration of the bayou and its distributaries: </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"></span></p><blockquote style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">The <i>falua</i> [a type of boat] passed a flat grasslands, which Gonsoulin identified as "la Prairie à Jacob," or Jacob’s Prairie. (This is the same stretch Hutchins had called the Prairie de Jacko and the Prairie de Jacob.) </span></blockquote><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Teche-History-Louisianas-Famous-Americas/dp/1496809416" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: courier;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2550" data-original-width="1650" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi8qnw0IJVVsV80FiOBQ6yuudJY8PTKVlYxXnSJCKxdOn8tGrKbF5FJIB_mmtENsQo4Jpb4eoaShdKQ8XQXllta3CpxIttIE4Cb2vnCS4YJ3s3lrH8vlvYNckOeXbI_G8uJk-DOFVvCFSkiX10TNVtrxH7HG4wcF_qqt_rQ5NOLCM8tsGRe-IEsXisW=s320" width="207" /></span></a></span></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Teche-History-Louisianas-Famous-Americas/dp/1496809416" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Cover of my book <i>Teche</i>.</a></span></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">I assume the "Jacko" or "Jacob" mentioned by these early sources is none other than Jacko Derouen. This seems likely, given the peculiarity of the name <i>Jacko</i>: unlike the surname <i>Derouen</i> (commonly found in present-day south Louisiana), the </span><span style="font-family: courier;">"<i>pr</i></span><span style="font-family: courier;"><i>énom</i>" Jacko </span><span style="font-family: courier;">certainly strikes me as unusual, perhaps even unique, for the time and place in question. It could, however, be a diminutive, a corruption, or simply a misspelling of the common name "Jacob" — as the name is indeed rendered by Gonsoulin — or its French equivalent "Jacques." (There is indeed a Jacques Derouen mentioned in early 19th-century historical documents pertaining to south Louisiana.)</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgnx5cIU5Y_f2nwh2mOWZWVF7yaSBIZwWa-4HGN3ntusmGqrhkNQwkR2JY-Bms-h8Jkoc5WPnVz8HD1DASm5c6E4JCnKhZj7EYnWXJA9PVSClmO5I143phFyMg0hFXKN-Qs_3UogIcrlZWa58fy3epQ7TDCNTamfVfrZ3rva-0zRpNCOiNgLXqiH_2j=s558" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><img border="0" data-original-height="430" data-original-width="558" height="247" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgnx5cIU5Y_f2nwh2mOWZWVF7yaSBIZwWa-4HGN3ntusmGqrhkNQwkR2JY-Bms-h8Jkoc5WPnVz8HD1DASm5c6E4JCnKhZj7EYnWXJA9PVSClmO5I143phFyMg0hFXKN-Qs_3UogIcrlZWa58fy3epQ7TDCNTamfVfrZ3rva-0zRpNCOiNgLXqiH_2j=s320" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Page detail from<br />the <i>American State Papers </i>(1834)<br />re: Jacko Derouen’s land in 1813.<br />(Source: <a href="https://books.google.com/">Google Books</a>)</span></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Unfortunately, I know little about Jacko Derouen himself. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">It does seem a little odd that a prairie should bear the first name of a local settler, rather than their surname. This is, however, not the only such instance of this practice. Barthélémy Lafon’s 1806 map of Louisiana, titled <i>Carte générale du territoire d’Orléans comprenant aussi la Floride Occidentale et une portion du territoire du Mississipi</i>, identifies the two salt domes now called Avery Island and Weeks Island as the "Cotes à Judith" (which I would translate as "Hills [<i>Côtes</i>] of Judith" or "Judith’s Hills"). As with "Jacko," I assume "Judith" is a first name.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Regardless, I have never been able to identify the namesake for </span><span style="font-family: courier;">"Cotes à </span><span style="font-family: courier;">Judith," and I now wonder if Lafon did not merely garble the surname "Judice." That surname was present in south Louisiana by the 1730s and today is fairly common in the region. Indeed, this solution seems even likelier when one considers that in French, more so than in English, "Judith" sounds remarkably like "Judice.</span><span style="font-family: courier;">"</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">No doubt there is more out there to be found about these two south Louisiana toponyms.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiOiX-rrLONBRquKh4zn-Ybax_u688pnjF5tPUJYHzxBfaUSaRuL4nm6x9jidvI3whSfemqekC8foOJ49YOhedGAUXv8TvyGcH17XFsKXTEW3IR7X_G1Yz2BeHBYh36ZEb973oIN2MPUBZOyq7LEm7b2Sl-r8Qp8i05UDt1e34Lw4TXGl6ZfmK7UNAO=s789" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><img border="0" data-original-height="732" data-original-width="789" height="297" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiOiX-rrLONBRquKh4zn-Ybax_u688pnjF5tPUJYHzxBfaUSaRuL4nm6x9jidvI3whSfemqekC8foOJ49YOhedGAUXv8TvyGcH17XFsKXTEW3IR7X_G1Yz2BeHBYh36ZEb973oIN2MPUBZOyq7LEm7b2Sl-r8Qp8i05UDt1e34Lw4TXGl6ZfmK7UNAO=s320" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier;">The "Côtes à Judith"<br />from Lafon's 1806 map;<br />Bayou Teche shown at upper right.<br />(Source: <a href="https://www.loc.gov/">Library of Congress</a>)</span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>Shane K. Bernardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00454946054965548589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660857958535448139.post-70794868782478668932020-01-11T14:21:00.001-06:002021-10-31T22:14:20.529-05:00Notes on the Founding of Opelousas<div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">History is, like science, a self-correcting discipline: professional historians make their careers in part by correcting or refining the research and assertions of other historians. This is a laudable practice and should be encouraged — even by historians whose own research is called into question and perhaps refuted. As I myself am fond of quoting, "No one who cannot rejoice in the discovery of his own mistakes deserves to be called a scholar."</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; text-align: justify;"><br /></span></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gUEdxiXpe7I/XhTqQT1srFI/AAAAAAAADGY/5y_46oIHxGEtdnAsoibXOmLTXCk72h2CQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/WilliamShakespeare.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="770" data-original-width="770" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gUEdxiXpe7I/XhTqQT1srFI/AAAAAAAADGY/5y_46oIHxGEtdnAsoibXOmLTXCk72h2CQCLcBGAsYHQ/s200/WilliamShakespeare.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">What does Shakespeare</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"> have to do with Louisiana history?</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">This quote comes from noted Shakespeare scholar
Donald Foster, who in 2002 recanted his own claim that the Bard of Avon had
authored an anonymous poem titled </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">"</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">A Funeral Elegy.</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">"</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"> As the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">New York Times</i> reported, </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">"</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Now,
in a stunning development that has set the world of Shakespeare scholarship
abuzz, Professor Foster has admitted he was wrong.</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">"</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"> To me, such an admission is
nothing but praiseworthy. It's how scholarship should work.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">This brings me to an issue far removed from the
world of British poetry — to a seemingly minor issue that nonetheless has
garnered regional media attention in south-central Louisiana: namely, was the
town of Opelousas, Louisiana, founded in 1720 as sometimes asserted
in tourism brochures, on city welcome signs, and on the Internet, among other places?(1) Or was it
founded later, as claimed by several professional and avocational historians,
including Dr. Claude F. Oubre of LSU Eunice, </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Dr. Carl A. Brasseaux of UL Lafayette,</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"> genealogist </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Winston De Ville, independent researchers John Harper and Donald J. Arceneaux (the latter four of whom I thank for proofing this essay),
and myself?</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">In truth, I have never seen any evidence to
indicate that Opelousas was </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">founded in 1720 or, for that matter, any time before the
mid- to late-eighteenth century. And by </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">"</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">evidence</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">"</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"> I don</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">'</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">t mean twentieth-century
or early twenty-first-century </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">published</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"> </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">secondary-source material, such as a book of local history, an encyclopedia entry, a magazine article, or
a city government website. I mean <i>primary-source evidence</i> from or around 1720,
such as a handwritten colonial document in French or Spanish.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xbPKbw17nnI/XhUP4sCs4tI/AAAAAAAADHE/AHiQzvyR38ke1rhWtFTc3EhDqOfoGWlPwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/primary%2Bsource.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1208" data-original-width="801" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xbPKbw17nnI/XhUP4sCs4tI/AAAAAAAADHE/AHiQzvyR38ke1rhWtFTc3EhDqOfoGWlPwCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/primary%2Bsource.jpg" width="210" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Random example of a primary-source</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">document </span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">from the colonial era.</span></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">By the time of Opelousas</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">'</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"> alleged 1720 founding, New Orleans had existed for only two years, and the entire Louisiana colony, for a mere
twenty-one years. The region surrounding and adjacent to present-day Opelousas (that is, modern south-central and southwestern Louisiana) was during the early to mid-1700s a sort of no-man</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">'</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">s land claimed by both France and Spain. In fact, Spain located the capital of its Mexican province of Texas in what is today Louisiana (at Los
Adaes near Natchitoches, Louisiana, some 110 miles to the northwest of </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">present-day</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"> </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Opelousas).</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Because France and Spain were allied Bourbon
monarchies with a common perennial enemy — namely, Britain — the two Empires mutually refrained
from settling the disputed region. In this way, reasoned French and Spanish
administrators, they could avoid antagonizing each other.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VueHjyPhPrA/XhUO0P0bOYI/AAAAAAAADG8/wj4Fb54pjNUipAalna06zsB6BfMDlAuewCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/De_batz.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="580" data-original-width="322" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VueHjyPhPrA/XhUO0P0bOYI/AAAAAAAADG8/wj4Fb54pjNUipAalna06zsB6BfMDlAuewCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/De_batz.jpg" width="176" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Attakapas Indian,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">by Alexandre de Batz (1735).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Source: <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Indians_of_Several_Nations_New_Orleans_1735_de_Batz.JPG">Wikimedia.org</a></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">There was another reason France and Spain avoided incursions into the region: fear of the reputedly cannibalistic
Attakapas Indian tribe (whose very name, given to them by other, rival tribes, means </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">"</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Man-Eater</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">")</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">.(2) It is uncertain if
the Attakapas were actually cannibals, but it hardly mattered to colonial-age
settlers: they <i>believed</i> the Attakapas were cannibals, and that
was enough to curtail settlement in the region. In fact, the French in Louisiana rarely wandered from the protective
banks of Louisiana</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">'</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">s great river system. As a result, most French activity in
colonial Louisiana occurred right along the shores of the Red
and Mississippi rivers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">It thus would have been surprisingly early, and extremely incautious, for the French </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">to have settled the town of Opelousas </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">in 1720</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">. </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">And yet it nevertheless has been widely stated
that the French did precisely that. The year even appears on the City of Opelousas' official seal.(3)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CJRm2O5Qb9Y/XhTt9l8zLtI/AAAAAAAADGk/gucRanwzHjg9JScg0xagmiRfafLF9oMjACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/seal.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="288" data-original-width="288" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CJRm2O5Qb9Y/XhTt9l8zLtI/AAAAAAAADGk/gucRanwzHjg9JScg0xagmiRfafLF9oMjACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/seal.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Seal of the City of Opelousas.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">The claim also shows up — to cite only a few of a great many published examples — in <i>Fodor's</i> 2000 travel guide to the U.S. It states "Opelousas is the third-oldest town in the state" because it was "Founded by the French in 1720. . . ." Likewise, the <i>New Encyclopedia Britannica </i>observed in 1974 that Opelousas had been "Founded in 1720 as a French garrison and trading post. . . ." In 1954 the <i>Louisiana Municipal Review </i>magazine asserted "History shows that enterprising French adventurers operated a permanent trading post with the friendly Attakapas Indians on the site of present day Opelousas as early as 1720. . . ." </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Unfortunately, none of these sources cite a primary </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">(original colonial-era)</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"> </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">source. </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i>So what primary-source evidence is there for the 1720 date of origin?</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">As far as I know, there is no such evidence . .
. except for one document that I believe might be the
source of an <i>erroneous</i> 1720 date. That document is the French-language <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Carte de la Louisiane et du Cours du
Mississipi</i></span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"> by Guillaume de
l</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">'</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Isle, printed in 1718 and used shortly afterwards as the basis for John
Senex</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">'</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">s English-language </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i>Map of Louisiana and of the River Mississipi</i>,</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"> printed in 1721. Both maps could be said, therefore, to have been printed "around 1720."(</span><i style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">Mississipi</i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">, by the way,</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"> i</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">s an archaic, colonial-era spelling of the modern</span><i style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;"> </i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i>Mississippi</i>.)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-alw-jiPV7d0/XhTmG159xCI/AAAAAAAADF8/qPqBmFr8gsY3DohjN7uNatbkRp-oXIoHACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/delisle1%2Bbroad.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="745" data-original-width="979" height="302" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-alw-jiPV7d0/XhTmG159xCI/AAAAAAAADF8/qPqBmFr8gsY3DohjN7uNatbkRp-oXIoHACLcBGAsYHQ/s400/delisle1%2Bbroad.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Guillaume de l'Isle, </span><i>Carte de la Louisiane</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i>et du Cours du Mississipi</i> (1718).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Source: <a href="https://www.loc.gov/resource/g3700.ct000666/?r=0.291,0.551,0.168,0.098,0" target="_blank">Library of Congress</a></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Those two very similar maps depict the entire eastern
half of North America, from the Rocky Mountains in the west to the Atlantic Coast
in east. <span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">De l</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">'</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Isle and Senex's maps </span>also encompass parts of Spanish Mexico, French Louisiana (when the name </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">"</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Louisiana</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">"</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"> denoted about one-third of the entire North American continent), and the British colonies from
the Carolinas to New York.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">A close look at the section of d<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">e l</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">'</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Isle's</span> map covering littoral
south-central and southwestern Louisiana reveals the caption </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">"</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Indiens errans et Antropophages</i></span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">"</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"> — in
English, </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">"</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Wandering Man-Eating Indians.</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">"</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"> And there, right above the word </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">"</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Antropophages</i>,</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">"</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"> is the intriguing word </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">"</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Loupeloussa</i></span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">"</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jppcwswv0X0/XhTnaOf-z9I/AAAAAAAADGE/twjJDK6RhuUwHIvHrVPJphuH_-VnpNYxQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/delisle1%2BIndiens%2Berrans.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="528" data-original-width="1062" height="197" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jppcwswv0X0/XhTnaOf-z9I/AAAAAAAADGE/twjJDK6RhuUwHIvHrVPJphuH_-VnpNYxQCLcBGAsYHQ/s400/delisle1%2BIndiens%2Berrans.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">"Wandering Man-Eating Indians,"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">detail of the 1718 de l'Isle map.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">I believe it is this word </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">"</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Loupeloussa</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">"</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"> that some unknown or forgotten historical researcher, perhaps decades ago,
misinterpreted as referring to the town of Opelousas. <i>But it is not a
reference to the town.</i> Rather, it is a reference <i>to the Indian tribe
after whom the town was eventually named</i>. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">We can be certain of this for two reasons: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">First, the intriguing map label in question reads </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">"</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Loupeloussa</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">"</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"> – that is, </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">"</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">L</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">'</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Oupeloussa</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">",</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"> or in English translation </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">"</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">The Oupeloussa</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">"</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">. This
combination of the French article </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">"</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">L</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">'</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">"</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"> with the tribal name </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">"</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Oupeloussa</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">"</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"> indicates that <span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">de l</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">'</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Isle</span> applied the term not to a settlement, but to a group of people:
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">the </i>Oupeloussa tribe. De l'Isle did likewise on the map for many other </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">(though not all)</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"> </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Indian tribes, as when he labeled "</span><i style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">Les Cheraqui</i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">" (The Cherokee) and "</span><i style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">Les Chicachas</i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">" (The Chickasaw), to name only two of many such instances.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vYmE4v_HYuk/XhTyuGZr-oI/AAAAAAAADGw/otlEoQe9P1QsQTGzXnH8ZgSOf07g22uTgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/de%2Blisle%2Btribes%2B.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="981" height="146" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vYmE4v_HYuk/XhTyuGZr-oI/AAAAAAAADGw/otlEoQe9P1QsQTGzXnH8ZgSOf07g22uTgCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/de%2Blisle%2Btribes%2B.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Other tribes identified</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">on de l'Isle's <span style="font-size: 12.8px;">map.</span></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Second, just below the </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">"</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">L</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">"</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"> in </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">"</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Loupeloussa</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">"</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"> appears a diminutive symbol that looks like a house or other dwelling. </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">De l</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">'</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Isle expressly states in the key to his map that this symbol denotes "<i>Habitations des Indiens</i>" — Indian habitations. Not colonial settlements founded by Europeans and Africans, but Native American villages.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3lj_uXdkSWs/XhyhlFD9YyI/AAAAAAAADIs/KAf_G5q5p4sEYwXzdIUXewXYc_9-XxgBACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/delisle%2Bkey.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="615" height="156" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3lj_uXdkSWs/XhyhlFD9YyI/AAAAAAAADIs/KAf_G5q5p4sEYwXzdIUXewXYc_9-XxgBACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/delisle%2Bkey.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Key to de l'Isle's map.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">One might assert that the Native American village labeled <span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">"</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Loupeloussa</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">"</span> could have evolved into the modern-day
town of Opelousas. </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">This, however, is clearly not the case: both
the word </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">"</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Loupeloussa</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">"</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"> and its accompanying symbol appear on de l'Isle's map next to a
bayou flowing a short distance, and directly, into the Gulf of Mexico. The modern-day town of Opelousas, however, is not located a short distance from the Gulf of Mexico (St. Landry Parish, in which the town sits, being landlocked); nor does the town sit on a notable bayou (local bayous Yarbor and Tesson, for example, being little more than cement-lined <i>coulées </i>[ravines] inside the city limits); nor does the town sit on a bayou flowing directly into the Gulf of Mexico. (The two most notable bayous near but not in Opelousas — namely, the Teche and the Courtableau — likewise do not flow directly into the
Gulf of Mexico. Instead, they run more or less southeasterly into the Atchafalaya River
and its distributary, the Lower Atchafalaya River.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UlgIYEwf4y8/XhTnxyJKSsI/AAAAAAAADGM/sdlvZBSYhmIB03WF2H5jtN3BRE8-r97UwCEwYBhgL/s1600/delisle1%2Bvillage.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="446" data-original-width="616" height="288" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UlgIYEwf4y8/XhTnxyJKSsI/AAAAAAAADGM/sdlvZBSYhmIB03WF2H5jtN3BRE8-r97UwCEwYBhgL/s400/delisle1%2Bvillage.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">"Loupeloussa" label and its dwelling symbol</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">on the "Rio Mexicano,"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">detail of the 1718 de l'Isle map.</span> </span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">On even closer inspection of de l</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">'</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Isle</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">'</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">s map, we see
that the waterway on which the cartographer placed </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">"</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Loupeloussa</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">"</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"> and its dwelling symbol is
labeled </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">"</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">R. Mexicano</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">"</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"> — that is, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Rio
Mexicano</i> (or in English, the Mexican River). As I note in my 2016 book, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Teche: A History of Louisiana</i></span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">'</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">s Most Famous
Bayou</i> (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi), </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">"</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">[A]t one time or another
the [colonial] Spanish referred to the present-day Sabine and Mermentau rivers
. . . as the Rio Mexicano (Mexican River).</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">"</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"> Thus, it appears de l</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">'</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Isle placed the </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">"</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Loupeloussa</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">"</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"> tribe and its village on the Mermentau (the Sabine being too far
west </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">in this instance </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">to consider). And the Mermentau, interestingly, does indeed flow directly into the Gulf.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"></span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-k7htaGvI1Do/XhUSAFLGXjI/AAAAAAAADHQ/m7KmF7xeCQczs-innXVJvWebT9dpiDjqwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/senex.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="619" data-original-width="727" height="340" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-k7htaGvI1Do/XhUSAFLGXjI/AAAAAAAADHQ/m7KmF7xeCQczs-innXVJvWebT9dpiDjqwCLcBGAsYHQ/s400/senex.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">John Senex's English-language map,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">based on de l'Isle's earlier one (1721).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">(Source: <a href="https://www.loc.gov/item/2001624909/">Library of Congress</a>)</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">To summarize my analysis thus far: de l</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">'</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Isle</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">'</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">s circa 1720
map does not refer to the town of Opelousas, but to a village occupied by the Indian
tribe called the </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">"</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Loupeloussa,</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">"</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"> from whom the modern-day town — </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">eventually</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"> </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">founded some forty miles to the northeast — acquired its name.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">The tribe similarly gave its name to the </span><i style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">Poste des
Opelousas</i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">, a term referring not, as often believed, to a single village or outpost or garrison, </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">but to the entire southwestern
corner of Louisiana n</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">ow embracing St. Landry,
Calcasieu, Cameron, Beauregard, Allen, Jefferson Davis, Evangeline, and Acadia parishes.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zwv6WLPFmyg/XhUTNNbQc5I/AAAAAAAADHY/kXTuq7WyryY7ZTEWCEeqV7TZ5MXxWL7LgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Senex%2Bdetail.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="671" data-original-width="1106" height="242" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zwv6WLPFmyg/XhUTNNbQc5I/AAAAAAAADHY/kXTuq7WyryY7ZTEWCEeqV7TZ5MXxWL7LgCLcBGAsYHQ/s400/Senex%2Bdetail.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Detail of Senex's English-language map</span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;"> (1721),<br />based on </span>de l'Isle's earlier one.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">It would be several more decades, I believe,
before settlers of European and African heritage founded a town called
Opelousas. That event must have occurred some time after the mid-1700s. (When precisely the town came into existence I might explore in another essay.) I say this because, as far as anyone knows, the earliest permanent settlers in all
south-central and southwestern Louisiana (that is, excluding wandering traders like Joseph Blanpain, who passed through but did not remain in
the region) were the French pioneer <a href="https://bayoutechedispatches.blogspot.com/2011/02/elusive-andre-masse-pioneer-of.html">Andre Massé</a> and his enslaved Africans. And according to Massé's own
correspondence, he arrived in the region in or before 1746. Indeed, an 1809
document now in the Louisiana State Land Office, signed by planters Joseph
Sorrel and Claire Dauterive Dubuclet, testifies that </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">"</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">André Massé was the first
person who settled in this part of the country. . . .<o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XOwVCikj_0M/UJFqGbZnmXI/AAAAAAAABps/rGzPjQAHoWQIR3bTKY3S_q5T9XVOo8NQwCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/MasseDoc1.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1289" data-original-width="852" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XOwVCikj_0M/UJFqGbZnmXI/AAAAAAAABps/rGzPjQAHoWQIR3bTKY3S_q5T9XVOo8NQwCPcBGAYYCw/s320/MasseDoc1.jpg" width="210" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">"André Massé was the first person. . . .":</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">the Sorrel-Dubuclet document (1809).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Source: <a href="https://www.doa.la.gov/Pages/osl/Records.aspx" target="_blank">Louisiana State Land Office</a></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">If that is the case, no non-indigenous peoples settled in the region adjacent to and including modern-day Opelousas until
Massé appeared on the Teche around 1746. For this reason — along with French
and Spanish political concerns, widespread fear of the Attakapas tribe, and the
apparent misinterpretation of de l</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">'</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Isle</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">'</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">s map — it seems to me incredibly
doubtful that the town of Opelousas was founded any time before the region passed uncontested to Spanish control in 1762. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">A serious question remains</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">: </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">is there some other </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">colonial-era, </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">primary-source </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">evidence — evidence I might not know about and so have not considered — proving that Opelousas was founded in 1720</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">? If so, I would very much like to see it
and, if conclusive, adjust my view accordingly.</span></span><span style="text-align: center;"> </span><br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large; font-style: italic;">"It is vital, however (and I cannot stress this enough), that researchers distinguish between historical references to the Opelousas tribe, the </span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large;">Poste des Opelousas<i> political district</i></span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" style="font-size: large; font-style: italic;">, and the later town of Opelousas. I say this because they are not the same thing, but could be confused with one another."</span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">It is vital, however (and I cannot stress this enough), that researchers distinguish between historical references to the Opelousas tribe, the <i>Poste des Opelousas </i></span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">political district</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">, and the later town of Opelousas. I say this because they are not the same thing, but could be confused with one another. It would be easy, for example, to mistake a reference to the </span><i style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">Poste des Opelousas</i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"> district for a reference to a village or outpost or garrison called Opelousas. As I mentioned, however, the </span><i style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">Poste</i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"> was not a single small point on a map, but rather the entire southwestern part of the present-day state of Louisiana.</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DnTHSmDmrMc/XhymUpooN1I/AAAAAAAADJE/rAxXGBjrupgJIJe4Cx8wHS79AyohGm7jgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Darby%2BMap%2BDetail%2B4.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="704" data-original-width="1211" height="232" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DnTHSmDmrMc/XhymUpooN1I/AAAAAAAADJE/rAxXGBjrupgJIJe4Cx8wHS79AyohGm7jgCLcBGAsYHQ/s400/Darby%2BMap%2BDetail%2B4.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">The old <i>Poste des Opelousas</i> region</span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">.</span></span><br />
<div style="font-size: 12.8px;">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: 12.8px;">(Click to enlarge)</span></div>
<div style="font-size: 12.8px;">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Source: William Darby, </span><i style="font-size: 12.8px;">A Map of the State of Louisiana</i></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i style="font-size: 12.8px;">with Part of the Mississippi Territory</i><span style="font-size: 12.8px;"> (1816).</span></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Ultimately, if there is no indisputable primary-source evidence for the 1720 date, I suggest the claim, </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">in the best tradition of scholarship,</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"> be acknowledged as incorrect and discarded. There would be no shame in this, only merit.</span><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 15.4px; text-align: start;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right; white-space: nowrap;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px;">❧</span></span></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i>Notes</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">(1) The media broached this issue</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">, for example, </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">twenty years ago</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"> in </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Henri LeJeune, "Date Set on City's Seal May Not Match History," (Opelousas, La.) <i>Daily World</i>, Special Millennium Edition, 1 January 2000, pp. 1A, 3A; see also </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Bobby Ardoin, "Opelousas Planning 300th Birthday Celebration, Despite Dispute over City's Founding," (Opelousas, La.) <i>Daily World</i>, 4 January 2020, <a href="http://www.dailyworld.com/story/news/2020/01/04/opelousas-officials-schedule-300th-birthday-celebration-despite-dispute-over-citys-founding/2807156001/">www.dailyworld.com/story/news/2020/01/04/opelousas-officials-schedule-300th-birthday-celebration-despite-dispute-over-citys-founding/2807156001/</a>, accessed 14 January 2020.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"></span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i><br /></i></span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">(2) Tribal members</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"> today sometimes go by the name "Atakapa Ishak," the latter term being their traditional name for their own tribe (as opposed to "Attakapas," the name given them by other tribes).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">(3) </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">J. A. Allen, who designed the city seal in 1961, told the </span><i style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">Daily World </i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">newspaper in 2000 "that originally he had placed the date of the founding of the city at 1764," but at others' urging he changed the date to 1720 even though, explained the newspaper, "there was no specific document that could be found to place the date . . . [of the founding] of the city. . . ." </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">LeJeune, "Date Set on City's Seal May Not Match History," </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">p. 3A.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i>Quoted Sources</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Shane K. Bernard, <i>Teche: A History of Louisiana's Most Famous Bayou </i>(Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2016), 11.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Declaration of Joseph Sorrel and Clair Dauterive Dubuclet, [19 January (unclear, could read "February")] 1809, in Claim Papers S.W.D. [Southwestern District], T.14S. R.6-8E. & T.14S. R.9E. 58, Louisiana State Land Office, document no. 510.00174, Baton Rouge, La., https://wwwslodms.doa.la.gov/, accessed 4 September 2018.<i> </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i>Fodor's 2000 USA </i>(2000), 483.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i>Louisiana Municipal Review</i>, Vols. 22-23 (1958), 15.</span><br />
<i style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;"><br /></i>
<i style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">The New Encyclopedia Britannica </i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Volume 7 (1974), 545.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">William S. Niederkorn, "A Scholar Recants on His 'Shakespeare' Discovery,"<i> The New York Times</i>, 20 June 2002, www.nytimes.com, accessed 12 January 2020.</span><br />
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<i style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;"><br /></i>
<i style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">Thanks to UL Lafayette public history intern Stephanie Simon for proofing this essay.</i><br />
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Shane K. Bernardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00454946054965548589noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660857958535448139.post-5021430560781686612019-12-27T10:37:00.006-06:002020-12-09T13:15:03.901-06:00When Jimi Hendrix Appeared on My Father's Live TV Show in Lafayette, Louisiana, January 1965<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i>As a caveat, please read the addendum of 9 December 2020 at bottom, which documents a polite challenge to the claim that Jimi Hendrix appeared on my father's TV show. I still believe Hendrix appeared on the program and in the image capturing the event, but, in all fairness, the dissent is worth noting. — SKB</i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 15.4px; text-align: start;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right; white-space: nowrap;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px;">❧</span></span></i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i>I am indebted to Steve Rodham of the Jimi Hendrix fanzine </i>Jimpress<i> for permitting me to reprint my below article from the Summer 2020 issue (Issue 117). </i></span><i style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">I have added additional images and adapted the article's style and formatting to this blog. </i><i style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">Back-issue and subscription information for </i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Jimpress</span><i style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;"> can be found <a href="http://www.jimpress.co.uk/" target="_blank">here</a></i><i style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">. I am also obliged to noted Hendrix scholar Joel J. Brattin, professor of English at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts, for sharing his research with me and for putting me in contact with Steve at </i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Jimpress</span><i style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">. Finally, I thank Brett Judice, Danny Alvarado, and KLFY-TV 10, Lafayette, La., for providing me with a high-resolution scan of the photo that inspired this article.</i><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i><br /></i></span>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><a href="http://www.jimpress.co.uk/" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="389" data-original-width="275" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iDXk5sN-D2E/XgYum3VYMnI/AAAAAAAADEs/mK-Rm4_3EPcfj_1xkqkKjz_O9b-RX-NiQCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Jimpress.jpg" width="226" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier;">The Summer 2020 issue of <i><a href="http://www.jimpress.co.uk/" target="_blank">Jimpress</a></i>,<br />
the Jimi Hendrix fanzine.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 15.4px; text-align: start;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right; white-space: nowrap;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px;"><br /></span></span></i></span>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 15.4px; text-align: start;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right; white-space: nowrap;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px;"><br /></span></span></i></span>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 15.4px; text-align: start;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right; white-space: nowrap;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px;">❧</span></span></i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT:</span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">“A MILLION MILES AWAY . . .</span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">AND RIGHT HERE IN YOUR PICTURE FRAME”* —</span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">A PREVIOUSLY UNNOTICED JIMI HENDRIX PHOTOGRAPH, 1965</span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></i></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>*lyric excerpt from Jimi Hendrix, "Voodoo Chile," </i>Electric Ladyland<i> (1968).</i></span></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">by Shane K. Bernard</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">In early 1965, an as-yet-unknown Jimi Hendrix appeared on my father's weekend teen-age dance program called <i>Saturday Hop</i>. Hendrix, however, did not sing or play guitar on the show. As far as anyone knows, he merely stood there, at attention, dressed as a British soldier of the "Queen's Guard" (to use the unit's formal name). He wore a dress tunic, dark pants, and a tall bearskin hat. Fortunately, a black-and-white still photograph captures the occurrence — but only in late July 2019 did anyone realize Hendrix appeared in that image. Until then, his presence there, at that time, in that TV studio, in that fantastic costume, was entirely unknown. How this photographic revelation came to be is a complicated story — one that takes some time for telling and for Hendrix to take center stage.</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-quK4vt2JsvQ/XgYgo-tZ1tI/AAAAAAAADDQ/0Bxo5x0pR_8MKVPZ2pow_WWi-_kABgVMQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/SKB%2Bimage%2B%25281%2529.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><img border="0" data-original-height="465" data-original-width="569" height="326" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-quK4vt2JsvQ/XgYgo-tZ1tI/AAAAAAAADDQ/0Bxo5x0pR_8MKVPZ2pow_WWi-_kABgVMQCLcBGAsYHQ/s400/SKB%2Bimage%2B%25281%2529.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><i>The Photograph. </i>Little Richard and Jimi Hendrix on the set of my father<span>'</span><span>s live TV dance program, 1965. Hendrix is the faux British guard at far left. (Courtesy Brett Judice, Danny Alvarado, and KLFY-TV 10, Lafayette, La.)</span></span></td></tr>
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<i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></i>
<i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><b>In orange lingerie?</b></span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">The story began, for me at least, in mid-March 2017 with an unexpected phone call from best-selling crime-fiction novelist James Lee Burke. His imaginary Cajun detective, Dave Robicheaux — played on the big-screen by Alec Baldwin and Tommy Lee Jones — routinely solves crimes in and around the real-life town I call home, New Iberia, Louisiana.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xWbM-gYEDDg/XgY0BFhUQeI/AAAAAAAADFE/s1bGrn8NR8UV3o1M9SJM0ORuAZh6Lz4UQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/neonrain-184x300.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="184" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xWbM-gYEDDg/XgY0BFhUQeI/AAAAAAAADFE/s1bGrn8NR8UV3o1M9SJM0ORuAZh6Lz4UQCLcBGAsYHQ/s200/neonrain-184x300.jpg" width="122" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier;">James Lee Burke's first novel,<br />
<i>The Neon Rain </i>(1987).</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">As a fellow writer (I pen non-fiction) I claim only to be an acquaintance of Burke. I've never met him in person, but we've corresponded or spoken by phone a few times over the years. Oddly, we've never discussed writing and on that occasion two years ago we spoke about music. It was then that Burke related this story: in the mid-1960s, long before he published his first novel <i>The Neon Rain</i> (1987), Burke worked in Lafayette as a reporter for the <i>Daily Advertiser</i> newspaper. At that time, my father, "swamp pop" musician Rod Bernard — who scored a national hit in 1959 with the ballad "This Should Go On Forever" — held day jobs as both a deejay and program director at KVOL 1330 AM of Lafayette. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sV9IjANcgeY/XgYjx4R-aoI/AAAAAAAADDc/XxssgrlS9RkBfgQ0uniIx9E4WWGPWHqywCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/SKB%2Bimage%2B%25284%2529%2Bsm.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><img border="0" data-original-height="520" data-original-width="395" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sV9IjANcgeY/XgYjx4R-aoI/AAAAAAAADDc/XxssgrlS9RkBfgQ0uniIx9E4WWGPWHqywCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/SKB%2Bimage%2B%25284%2529%2Bsm.jpg" width="243" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Rod Bernard performing on the <i>Saturday Hop</i><br />
set, poster advertisement, ca. 1965.<br />
<span>(Author's collection)</span></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Every Saturday, however, Dad hosted an <i>American Bandstand</i>-style live-TV dance program variously called <i>Saturday Hop</i>, <i>The Rod Bernard Show</i>, and later <i>The Shondells</i> (after Dad's band, not to be confused with Tommy James' better-known group of the same name). Burke explained that Dad once managed to snag a performance by Little Richard, who had come to Lafayette for a live concert elsewhere in town. When Dad introduced Little Richard to the teen-aged dancers and to the viewers at home, the flamboyant rock 'n' roll icon, surrounded by an adoring, flag-waving entourage, promptly marched onto the low-budget set <i>dressed in women</i>'<i>s clothing</i>. As I recorded after my conversation with Burke: "Little Richard came out dressed in drag, wearing orange lingerie and earrings, and behind him was his 'posse,' dressed in bellhop uniforms and waving an American flag in one hand and a Little Richard flag in the other."<span style="color: #999999;">(1)</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--2QswOuTJhs/XgYmRPPgWzI/AAAAAAAADDs/NMQoWzGP7XEbeb6CwCw7vjr3MBnURGkVgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/SKB%2Bimage%2B%25285%2529%2Bsm.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" data-original-height="310" data-original-width="367" height="270" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--2QswOuTJhs/XgYmRPPgWzI/AAAAAAAADDs/NMQoWzGP7XEbeb6CwCw7vjr3MBnURGkVgCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/SKB%2Bimage%2B%25285%2529%2Bsm.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Dad and fellow swamp pop vocalists Warren Storm (center) <br />
and Skip Stewart (right) on the <i>Saturday Hop</i> set, ca. 1965.<br />
(Author's collection)</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Now this was the mid-1960s in south-central Louisiana: the deepest of the Deep South. A place where <i>Brown v. Board of Education</i> would not be heeded until around 1969 — about fifteen years after the U.S. Supreme Court issued that decision ostensibly ending segregation throughout America. Certainly, thought Burke as he watched the show unfold on TV, this would not go down well with Lafayette's many white, generally conservative inhabitants.</span><br />
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<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BTOdLxjCS88/XgYqKltF0ZI/AAAAAAAADEM/Cy7-1yqugcQkpG8SHCk7XDGxJxa79fqvwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/LR%2Bdetail.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="422" data-original-width="337" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BTOdLxjCS88/XgYqKltF0ZI/AAAAAAAADEM/Cy7-1yqugcQkpG8SHCk7XDGxJxa79fqvwCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/LR%2Bdetail.jpg" width="255" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Little Richard on Dad's show, 1965. <br />
(Courtesy Brett Judice, Danny Alvarado,<br />
and KLFY-TV 10, Lafayette, La.)</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">On the Monday after the show Burke called my father and asked if KLFY had received any complaints. "No," Dad replied, "there had been no complaints" — meaning, he added, Lafayette viewers were either unconcerned about the spectacle "or no one watches my show.</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">"</span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><b>The wonder of social media</b></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">In July 2019, more than two years after Burke told me this story, a life-long friend, Alan Benit, sent me a screen shot of a photo that, to my astonishment, captured that very appearance — Little Richard lip-syncing on Dad's show. Alan had spotted the black-and-white image in a recent Facebook posting by Cecil Doyle of KRVS 88.7 FM, a public radio station at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Doyle had originally posted the image on Facebook in 2010. He, in turn, had obtained it at least nine years earlier from music scholar and Lafayette native Ryan Brasseaux (now on faculty at Yale University). Brasseaux cannot offhand recall his source, but a print of the image hangs in KLFY's lobby — the same station that broadcasted my father's show in the 1960s. And that print may very well be the ultimate source of the digital image circulating on the Internet.<span style="color: #999999;">(2)</span></span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gg3ZEw9IFds/XgYo0Kz1Y3I/AAAAAAAADEA/8Dk9JjAXHpQOhvkF-tZDSMCdPqRYnt58wCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/SKB%2Bimage%2B%25286%2529%2Bsm.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><img border="0" data-original-height="309" data-original-width="420" height="235" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gg3ZEw9IFds/XgYo0Kz1Y3I/AAAAAAAADEA/8Dk9JjAXHpQOhvkF-tZDSMCdPqRYnt58wCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/SKB%2Bimage%2B%25286%2529%2Bsm.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Local swamp pop/soul band Lil' Bob & the Lollipops,<br />
on the set of <i>Saturday Hop</i>, ca. 1965.<br />
(Courtesy the Johnnie Allan Collection,<br />
Acadiana Manuscripts Collection, <br />
University of Louisiana at Lafayette)</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Regardless of provenance, no one seemed to realize that an entertainer even more legendary than Little Richard appeared in the image. It certainly did not come to mind on my first viewing: I thought only of Burke's story, with its references to bellhops and orange lingerie. Clearly, I reasoned, Little Richard and his entourage had either changed costumes during the program — quite an effort for a regional show in a small to medium market — or Burke had misremembered, and there had been no bellhops or orange lingerie. But one cannot fault Burke: already in his 80s when we spoke, the novelist was, after all, recalling an obscure event from over a half-century earlier. Besides, Burke's memory contained more than a grain of truth: Little Richard had, as usual, dressed extravagantly for the show (albeit in dark slacks and a shiny lamé jacket), and his entourage had, in fact, carried flags and worn uniforms. (Moreover, early in his career, Little Richard had indeed performed in drag.)<span style="color: #f4cccc;">(3)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">I soon posted the Little Richard image on my own Facebook page, dedicated to south Louisiana history. I also posted photographs from the period showing my father and other musicians on the same dance program set. And clearly it was the same set: the theatrical "flats" (oblong wooden frames covered in canvas) sporting musical motifs — a trumpet here, a guitar and a musical note there — were definite giveaways. A careful study of those images, including the one featuring Little Richard, reveals that some of the flats had been autographed by Dad's musical guests. (One can only wonder what happened to all those autographs.)</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NX3-X6ayQaw/XgYsl9zVEPI/AAAAAAAADEY/UIKWzXklXvEAXk2RJRVmORDSpNyj_jr_QCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/SKB%2Bimage%2B%25283%2529%2Bsm.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><img border="0" data-original-height="308" data-original-width="415" height="237" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NX3-X6ayQaw/XgYsl9zVEPI/AAAAAAAADEY/UIKWzXklXvEAXk2RJRVmORDSpNyj_jr_QCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/SKB%2Bimage%2B%25283%2529%2Bsm.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Dad performing on the set of <i>Saturday Hop</i>, ca. 1965.<br />
(Author's collection)</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><b>Hendrix – on Dad</b></span></i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">'</span><i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><b>s show?</b></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">The Little Richard image proved extremely popular on my Facebook page and attracted the attention of Scott Longon. As is often the case on social media, I'd never met Scott and, in fact, I didn't know anything about him. Regardless, Scott saw the Little Richard image and in response posted this intriguing question: "Shane, could the picture be from January 1965 when Jimi Hendrix was playing in Little Richard's back[ing] band?" Scott followed up with the comment, "Hard to tell if Hendrix is in the picture with those hats" — referring to the tall bearskin hats of the Queen's Guard. Scott was skeptical, posting again a short time later, "Well, further research indicates the guys in the uniforms were extras and not with the band."<span style="color: #999999;">(4)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">But I was not so sure: I scanned the faces of those ersatz British guardsmen standing stiffly at attention around Little Richard. And it struck me: <i>Jeez, that guardsman on the far left sure as hell looks like Jimi Hendrix!</i></span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-z14fusmTdAQ/XgYoPNGEqzI/AAAAAAAADD4/V59TVjR79GACGlssHThER5fLpNVedP4IwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/JH%2Bdetail.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="716" data-original-width="516" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-z14fusmTdAQ/XgYoPNGEqzI/AAAAAAAADD4/V59TVjR79GACGlssHThER5fLpNVedP4IwCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/JH%2Bdetail.jpg" width="230" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Detail of Hendrix in British guard uniform,<br />
Dad's show, 1965. (Courtesy Brett Judice, <br />
Danny Alvarado, and KLFY-TV 10, Lafayette, La.)</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i>It was Jimi Hendrix</i> — at that time spelling his name Jimmy Hendrix and performing under the pseudonym Maurice James. And despite initial doubts, it was Scott who had found crucial evidence proving, or almost proving, it was Hendrix. As unlikely as it seems, Hendrix's official Facebook page had once posted, and still had in its timeline, front and back scans of a postcard Hendrix had mailed to his father from Lafayette. Postmarked January 25, 1965, and advertising the Lafayette Holiday Inn (only six months earlier the Civil Rights Act had guaranteed black Americans equal access to public hotels), the postcard read in Hendrix's own hand, "I'm playing with Little Richard. . . . We're in Louisiana now."<span style="color: #999999;">(5)</span></span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lqGahvovFaw/XgYlBfNp4UI/AAAAAAAADDk/zyuR4NNdZGcN2jc6tJ5AIXBCU4XZ1nZmwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/SKB%2Bimage%2B%25287%2529%2B.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="450" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lqGahvovFaw/XgYlBfNp4UI/AAAAAAAADDk/zyuR4NNdZGcN2jc6tJ5AIXBCU4XZ1nZmwCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/SKB%2Bimage%2B%25287%2529%2B.jpg" width="288" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Postcard mailed by Hendrix from Lafayette, La., <br />
on January 25, 1965.<br />
(Source: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/JimiHendrix/" target="_blank">Jimi Hendrix Facebook page</a>)</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">That postmark date, January 25, 1965, happened to be the same day Little Richard played a concert in Lafayette. This show fell three days after "Little Richard and his Royal Show" had performed at the Bamboo Club in not-too-distant Lake Charles, Louisiana — and only two days after Little Richard could have appeared (with Hendrix in tow as a British guardsman) on Dad's live Saturday TV show broadcasted from Lafayette.</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Q0lEhhC5GoY/XgYtYGMxSBI/AAAAAAAADEg/FTkhgO6Cq9M8hzZp5g1rT9YacZFtz0oNACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Bamboo%2BClub.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><img border="0" data-original-height="206" data-original-width="354" height="186" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Q0lEhhC5GoY/XgYtYGMxSBI/AAAAAAAADEg/FTkhgO6Cq9M8hzZp5g1rT9YacZFtz0oNACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Bamboo%2BClub.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Advertisement, <i>Lake Charles American Press</i>, <br />
January 22, 1965.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Incidentally, no ads for Little Richard's Lafayette show of the 25th appeared in newspapers, perhaps because it was, as a German fan site records, a strictly "Private Function." Someone who attended the show, however, recounts it took place at a recreation hall run by Immaculate Heart of Mary, a Catholic church serving primarily African American congregants. The church property sat then, as it does today, on the corner of Surrey and 12th streets in Lafayette.<span style="color: #999999;">(6)</span> (See below Addendum of </span><span style="font-family: courier;">19 October 2020</span><span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">.)</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;">
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_x27GoVO36c/XgZt6SObNLI/AAAAAAAADFQ/HV2F7acMIDk2P0pPggkzfKruOtxvP8AJACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/12th%2Band%2BSurrey.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><img border="0" data-original-height="561" data-original-width="1187" height="187" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_x27GoVO36c/XgZt6SObNLI/AAAAAAAADFQ/HV2F7acMIDk2P0pPggkzfKruOtxvP8AJACLcBGAsYHQ/s400/12th%2Band%2BSurrey.png" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Immaculate Heart of Mary, corner Surrey and 12th, Lafayette, La.<br />
(Source: Google Maps)</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">To further remove doubt about the image actually showing Hendrix, one need only consult Joel J. Brattin's article in the June 2011 issue of <i>UniVibes</i>. In that issue Brattin — a professor of English at Worcester Polytechnic Institute and a noted Hendrix scholar — published a fuzzy screen shot of Hendrix in a British palace guardsman uniform. As Brattin wrote, "Three of Little Richard's band members (including a 22-year-old Jimmy Hendrix), attired in (red?) uniforms and wearing tall bearskin hats intended to remind viewers of British guards, stand stiffly at attention in the background, never moving at any point.</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">"</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xN-e-25P6Fw/XgYwtEMjMNI/AAAAAAAADE4/8yjDYQpLfhMKgqxFvnYcguMkTZXcTVXBwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/JH%2Bscreenshot.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="299" data-original-width="173" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xN-e-25P6Fw/XgYwtEMjMNI/AAAAAAAADE4/8yjDYQpLfhMKgqxFvnYcguMkTZXcTVXBwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/JH%2Bscreenshot.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Hendrix in British uniform<br />
on <i>American Bandstand</i>,<br />
March 6, 1965.<br />
(Source: <a href="https://www.univibes.com/" target="_blank">UniVibes magazine</a>)</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Captured nearly six weeks after Hendrix would have been photographed on my father's show, the image Brattin described shows Hendrix with Little Richard on Dick Clark's <i>American Bandstand</i>. Like that image, the newly identified <i>Saturday Hop</i> image of January 23, 1965 (the inferred date Hendrix and Little Richard appeared on Dad's show), will help to flesh out a murky period in Hendrix's life — a period just before his swift rise to true rock 'n' roll royalty. On a more personal level, however, I'm now able, every so often, to glance over at my teen-aged son — himself a budding rock and blues guitarist — and remind him anew each time of the stranger-than-fiction epiphany: "Dude, <i>Jimi Hendrix </i>was on <i>your Paw-Paw</i>'<i>s show!</i>"<span style="color: #999999;">(7)</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: courier;"><i>Addendum of 19 October 2020</i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Bam Arceneaux kindly sent me this vintage poster image advertising a gig for Little Richard and "The Royal Guards" at New Iberia's long-defunct Oriental Club. The performance was booked for Saturday, January 23 — and, as mentioned, the 23rd did indeed fall on a Saturday that year. So it seems Little Richard played more than one show in the Lafayette area during his early 1965 visit to the area, and would have performed, with Jimi Hendrix on guitar, at the Oriental Club the same day he lip-synced on my father's live TV program in nearby Lafayette.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vUlOp234HC8/X42zDwkH2LI/AAAAAAAADNU/CdwMwID3CIwbXcl6-y65r_X41NkFT7KNgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1086/Little%2BRichard%2BOriental%2BClub%2B1.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1086" data-original-width="899" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vUlOp234HC8/X42zDwkH2LI/AAAAAAAADNU/CdwMwID3CIwbXcl6-y65r_X41NkFT7KNgCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Little%2BRichard%2BOriental%2BClub%2B1.jpg" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Poster, Oriental Club, New Iberia, La.<br />(Courtesy Bam Arceneaux)</span></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 15.4px; text-align: center;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right; white-space: nowrap;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px;"><br /></span></span></i></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span><i style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 15.4px; text-align: center;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right; white-space: nowrap;"><span style="font-family: courier; line-height: 18.48px;"><span style="color: black; font-size: medium; text-align: justify; white-space: normal;">Addendum of 9 December 2020</span></span></span></i></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span><i style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 15.4px; text-align: center;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right; white-space: nowrap;"><span style="font-family: courier; line-height: 18.48px;"><span style="color: black; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; text-align: justify; white-space: normal;"><br /></span></span></span></i></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: courier;">In pursuit of historical objectivity I point out that Caesar Glebbeek, editor of the Jimi Hendrix magazine <i><a href="www.univibes.com" target="_blank">UniVibes</a></i>, does not believe the photo of Little Richard at KLFY-TV 10 in January 1965 shows Jimi Hendrix. In emails to me of December 2020, Glebbeek observed, "Just to let you know that in the TV show image, we do NOT see Jimi Hendrix." He added, "Jimi Hendrix was with Little Richard in Lafayette, of course[,] in late January 1965 but as a guitarist [not also as a British guardsman]. . . . [Regarding] the photo at your dad[']s TV show, [it is] NOT Jimi as guard. . . . Jimi was paid by LR [Little Richard] 50 dollars per show, and he would not be going to stand as guard as he was not being paid to do that. It would also be out of character for Jimi to go along with a silly thing like guard[-]standing..."<span style="color: #999999;">(8)</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Rather, Glebbeek asserts that the British guardsman who appears to me to be Hendrix is actually a different person; and that this different person appears in another circa 1965 photo of "Little Richard and His Royal Show" (aka "His Royal Company" and "The Royal Guards"). Here is a comparison of the two images (at left, a detail from the photo taken on the set of my father's show; at right, a detail from the other photo):</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-T6ZPqzWMs4g/X9D18cK7UpI/AAAAAAAADRg/mZQSME5FKxYxnWCRu99d6xfrmqFSCwcwwCLcBGAsYHQ/s589/comparison.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="364" data-original-width="589" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-T6ZPqzWMs4g/X9D18cK7UpI/AAAAAAAADRg/mZQSME5FKxYxnWCRu99d6xfrmqFSCwcwwCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/comparison.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier;">The same person or not?</span></td></tr></tbody></table></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: courier;">In other words, Glebbeek affirms that Hendrix was in Lafayette playing guitar with Little Richard that weekend in January 1965, but does not believe Hendrix appears in the photo of Little Richard on my father's show taken that same weekend — Hendrix being possibly out-of-frame, back at the hotel, or somewhere else.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: courier;">I politely disagree, if only because the British guardsman in question looks (in my opinion) not quite like the other, albeit similar guardsman, but he does look </span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: courier;">(again, in my opinion)</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: courier;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: courier;">exactly like Jimi Hendrix. In fact, I had examined the different circa 1965 photo of "Little Richard and His Royal Show" about a year ago when researching my blog article, and while I noticed a similarity between the guardsman in question and the person I believe to be Hendrix, I did not think it noteworthy because to me they were clearly two different people.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Incidentally, for what it is worth I ran the images in question through the "Compare-a-Face" app on <a href="https://www.familysearch.org/en/">FamilySearch.org</a> (which is decidedly not what the app is designed for, though as others have pointed out it can be gamed for such a purpose). When I compared the above two British guardsmen images to each other, the match rate was an impressive <i>99 percent</i>! Could it be, however, that the identical tunic, chin strap, and busby in each image contributed to such a high ranking? One would think not, if the app only looks at faces themselves — but is that even how the app works? </span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: courier;">I don't know.</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: courier;"> But </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: courier;">I do know that when this <a href="https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/0a3c5b7/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1978x1112+0+0/resize/840x472!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fe1%2Fa8%2F0c48e851873222576a1931a657ff%2Fsd-1511758737-mo5u9yky45-snap-image" target="_blank">third image</a>, which is definitely of Hendrix, is compared to the image of the person on my father's show, the match score is <i>93 percent</i>. Not too bad.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: courier;">The only conclusion I can glean from this experiment: that the person in the <i>Saturday Hop</i> photo may or may not be Jimi Hendrix — and I already knew that!</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: courier;">I do, however, concur with Glebbeek's suggestion that "As for the 'private fuction' in Lafayette, that is wrong info also . . . [A] Mix up with LR's [Little Richard's] days as preacher when he left RandR [rock'n'roll] music." I think this is a real possibility, because it strikes me as odd that a Catholic Church would have sponsored a Little Richard rock'n'roll concert. It would have made more sense for the church to have sponsored a later Richard visit, once he had become a Christian preacher. If so, then the source who remembered attending the concert at the Catholic Church slightly misremembered the event as a rock'n'roll concert instead of a religious event. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Regardless of all this, we know for certain that Little Richard appeared on my father's TV show on January 23, 1965, and we now know he appeared at the Oriental Club in New Iberia that very same day, undoubtedly with Jimi Hendrix on guitar — events explaining Little Richard's visit to the Lafayette area that weekend over a half-century ago.</span></span></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 15.4px; text-align: center;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right; white-space: nowrap;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px;"><br /></span></span></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 15.4px; text-align: center;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right; white-space: nowrap;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px;">❧</span></span></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 15.4px; text-align: center;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right; white-space: nowrap;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px;"><br /></span></span></i></span></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><b>Notes</b></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">(1) Shane K. Bernard, New Iberia, La., to Shannon E. K. Bernard, New Orleans, La., 5 March 2017, email correspondence.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">(2) Cecil Doyle, Facebook posting, 1 August 2019, www.facebook.com, accessed 4 August 2019; Brett Judice, Assistant Chief Engineer, KLFY-TV 10, Facebook posting, ca. July 2019, www.facebook.com, screenshot [image and text] sent to Shane K. Bernard by Alan Benit, 25 July 2019; Ryan Brasseaux, to Shane K. Bernard, New Iberia, La., 12 August 2019, email correspondence.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">(3) See for instance Richard Harrington, "'A Wopbopaloobop,'"<i> Washington Post</i>, 12 November 1984, www.washingtonpost.com, accessed 14 August 2019. As Harrington noted, "Little Richard had started his career performing in drag at southern roadhouses. . . .</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">(4) Scott Longon, Facebook posting, 29 August 2019, www.facebook.com, accessed 4 August 2019.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">(5) Jimi Hendrix Facebook page posting, 25 January 2013, www.facebook.com, accessed 6 August 2019.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">(6) Tour information for various musicians including Little Richard, 1965, on the website "Celebrating the Life and Times of Chuck Berry — Mr. Rock 'n' Roll," http://www.mbhomepage-design.de/tour1965.htm, accessed 17 August 2019. This site lists Little Richard as performing at a "Private Function" in Lafayette, Louisiana, on 25 January 1965. Advertisement for "Little Richard and His Royal Show," <i>Lake Charles </i>(Louisiana) <i>American Press</i>, 22 January 1965, p. 1; Francis Pavy, to Shane K. Bernard, New Iberia, La., 31 July 2019, Facebook private message. A noted Lafayette-based visual artist, Pavy is acquainted with a source who attended Little Richard's concert of 25 January 1965 at the church hall.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">(7) The local newspaper's TV listings confirm that my father's live dance program, called <i>Saturday Hop</i>, did indeed air on Saturday, 23 January 1965, on KLFY from 12 to 1 p.m. Television listings, <i>Daily Advertiser</i> (Lafayette, La.), 22 January 1965, p. 12.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier new, courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier new, courier, monospace;">(8) Caesar Glebbeek, Popiglio, Toscana, Italy, to Shane K. Bernard, New Iberia, La., 7 December 2020, e-mail correspondence.<br /></span>
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Shane K. Bernardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00454946054965548589noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660857958535448139.post-86868339622640792682019-09-20T17:04:00.005-05:002020-01-13T16:25:03.955-06:00 Electronic Cajuns and Creoles: Early Television as an Americanizing Agent<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">I
recently ran across this previously unpublished work of mine, which I wrote
around 1995 for Dr. Terry H. Anderson’s Recent U.S. History course at Texas
A&M University. I now publish it nearly a quarter century later on my blog
site — albeit with a few slight revisions (mainly of an aesthetic nature, if
only because my writing skills have, I’m glad to say, improved over the years).<o:p></o:p></span></i><br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cn_gJ0YlC0I/XYko-uZD6vI/AAAAAAAADBE/AITAQtu5WbIRdvCIXiMCBpwyvGjtcvVDACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/TV%2Bset%2BAcadian%2Bflag%2B1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="582" height="296" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cn_gJ0YlC0I/XYko-uZD6vI/AAAAAAAADBE/AITAQtu5WbIRdvCIXiMCBpwyvGjtcvVDACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/TV%2Bset%2BAcadian%2Bflag%2B1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i>Despite
the paper’s narrow focus — namely, television’s impact on Cajuns and Creoles in
the mid- to late twentieth century — the work in fact developed into my
doctoral dissertation at A&M. And that dissertation, in turn, morphed into
my 2003 book </i>The Cajuns: Americanization of a People <i>(Jackson:
University Press of Mississippi). Indeed, nearly all references to television
in that book stem from this article or the research I conducted for it.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i>A
major difference between the article and the ensuing book, however, is that I
included Creoles in the article, whereas (as the book’s title implies) I did
not include Creoles in T</i>he Cajuns: Americanization of a People<i>. A
two-fold explanation accounts for my decision to omit Creoles from the book. First,
while writing the article I found it difficult to locate sufficient information about
Creoles. Second, I thought the scope of my dissertation would be too unwieldy if I examined both Cajuns and Creoles.
(Granted, </i>Cajuns are a type of Creole <i>— see my musings about that subject
<a href="https://bayoutechedispatches.blogspot.com/2019/06/of-cajuns-and-creoles-brief-historical.html" target="_blank">here</a> — but this was not clear to me in the mid-1990s, when I tended to view Cajuns and Creoles as distinct but closely related groups.)<o:p></o:p></i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i><br /></i></span>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i>Most of the Cajun and Creole content, I should note, falls in the article's second half</i></span><i style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">. . . .</i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace; font-size: 15.4px; text-align: start;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right; white-space: nowrap;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px;">❧</span></span></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"> Electronic Cajuns and Creoles:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Early Television as an Americanizing Agent</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">In the early 1960s visionary scholar Marshall McLuhan predicted the advent of “the global village,” a unified society brought ever closer together by the new electronic media. McLuhan viewed the prospect of the global village with some trepidation, warning readers against “the tribal consequences of unity.” He feared the homogenizing effects of the electronic media on regional cultures and the individuals who comprised those cultures.</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-t79qNEQWS7U/XYVId1QnxPI/AAAAAAAAC9o/4us6fOGOW-swf1j0s6XS3XmsBI7pFdTmQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/thegutenberggalaxy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><img border="0" data-original-height="467" data-original-width="331" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-t79qNEQWS7U/XYVId1QnxPI/AAAAAAAAC9o/4us6fOGOW-swf1j0s6XS3XmsBI7pFdTmQCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/thegutenberggalaxy.jpg" width="225" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: small;">McLuhan's <i>Gutenberg Galaxy</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: small;">(1962, reprint).</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Although radio originated first, television quickly became a more powerful — arguably <i>the most powerful</i> — electronic medium of the twentieth century. Possessing a seemingly magical appeal for postwar viewers, it presented them with an often imaginary world they eagerly accepted and even emulated. Some scholars have argued that as life imitated art, regional cultures disintegrated and “American culture” became more bland and uniform. Television, they argued, imposed a homogenous vision of America, its ideals, its attitudes, and its values on a largely acquiescent viewing public.(1)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">At best, the nationalizing effects of television can be demonstrated only circumstantially. For instance, showing that consumers </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">enthusiastically</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"> </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">greeted early television even in culturally insular regions — regions inhabited by ethnic groups generally considered outside mainstream America — would seem to confirm the allure of television and its ability to cross demographic lines. It would </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">also</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"> </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">indicate that the medium occupied a prime position to effect its nationalizing spell.</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4tKlWmUPf4E/XYVJc4aSOpI/AAAAAAAAC98/J2OqRp-Jrywg6jDFvwAei2t30WslB_qcQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Family_watching_television_1958.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="651" data-original-width="868" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4tKlWmUPf4E/XYVJc4aSOpI/AAAAAAAAC98/J2OqRp-Jrywg6jDFvwAei2t30WslB_qcQCLcBGAsYHQ/s400/Family_watching_television_1958.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: small;">An American family watching TV </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: small;">in the late 1950s.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: small;">(Source: <a href="http://wikimedia.org/">Wikimedia.org</a>)</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">During that era members of these minority ethnic groups first bought into the American Dream, and among the most desirable of consumer goods available to them was television. Indeed, television arguably ranks as the most desirable of postwar goods, for between 1946 and 1950 the number of American households with television jumped from roughly 8,000 to a staggering 5,030,000. By 1965 that number climbed to about 52,700,000. Americans clearly adored the new invention, and along with the rest of the country neither Cajuns nor Creoles could withstand its magnetism.(2)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Television offered largely nonliterary ethnic groups like Cajuns and Creoles enticing benefits over the various forms of print media. For instance, print obviously required reading skills, but television required only vision and hearing. To paraphrase communications scholar Gilbert Seldes, “There’s no ‘illiteracy’ in television.” First-time viewers could watch television as adeptly as any prime-time connoisseur, providing they overcame their marvel at the invention’s novelty and ingenuity to focus on the actual programming. Another benefit of television was that viewers could experience the medium communally, in the company of family and friends, whereas reading most often occurred as a solitary act. In addition, the more intense, active, and hence taxing act of reading generally occurred in relatively short installments, whereas most American viewers could watch television in frequent, sustained sittings.(3)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Television offered other benefits over print media. Books, magazines, and newspapers appealed to a minority of Americans, but television programming aimed for the widest possible audience. The new medium also allowed for a substantially more rapid diffusion of information, despite the higher cost of producing a single television episode compared to manufacturing a book volume, newspaper edition, or magazine issue. And unlike printed works, which consumers often purchased, television during those pre-cable days remained virtually free entertainment. Participating in the television experience required only the initial investment in a television set and an exterior antenna (or at least a pair of inexpensive “rabbit ears). It also required the ability to sit through (or to otherwise ignore) several minutes of commercials each viewing hour.(4)</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Oe56eRrpymQ/XYg3v7C__TI/AAAAAAAAC_8/b2DdqkFpQEgg1h-oTKqltGPbN6enjmf-QCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/TV%2Bwith%2Brabbit%2Bears.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="895" data-original-width="624" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Oe56eRrpymQ/XYg3v7C__TI/AAAAAAAAC_8/b2DdqkFpQEgg1h-oTKqltGPbN6enjmf-QCLcBGAsYHQ/s400/TV%2Bwith%2Brabbit%2Bears.jpg" width="278" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: small;">A 1965 print ad showing a TV set</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: small;">with rabbit ears.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: small;">(Source: <a href="http://ebay.com/">eBay.com</a>)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; text-align: justify;">The price of operating a new television set increased monthly utility bills only a negligible amount — but at what other price did Cajuns, Creoles, and other minority groups buy into this communications revolution? McLuhan observed that in the “postliterate” world of the electronic global village physical distances shrank as viewers nationwide, and worldwide, shared the same experiences simultaneously. Everything now happened to everyone at once, explains McLuhan, whether the event was the birth of Little Ricky in a 1953 episode of </span><i style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace; text-align: justify;">I Love Lucy </i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; text-align: justify;">(described as “a national event” by observers of television’s “Golden Age”), the 1954 humiliation of Joe McCarthy (“Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last?”), or the 1963 assassination of JFK.(5)</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">It all happened on “free TV” before audiences of millions, and this simultaneous, sometimes instantaneous, sharing of experiences created what McLuhan called a tribal outlook that above all else exalted togetherness. This electronic summons to unity (no doubt heightened by Cold War anxieties demanding national consensus and conformity) in turn elevated mediocrity at the expense of the individual and the exceptional. Television was a medium for the masses: it aimed not at making art or even high-quality entertainment, but at attracting and holding the largest possible audience at any given moment. As a <i>New York Times</i> headline explained, “TV Shows Are Not Supposed To Be Good — They Are Supposed To Make Money.” Similarly, Pulitzer-prize winning journalist and author Harry S. Ashmore aptly noted, “Put a legitimate complaint of sloppy writing, imitative plotting, indifferent acting, sleazy production, and general vulgarity against a high Nielsen rating and there is no contest.”(6)</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: small;">Hirsch wrote in </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: small;"><i>Television: The Critical View</i> (1982)</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">The most consistent, significant, and simple theme communicated by the medium of television, observed Paul M. Hirsch, is that “<i>The ‘latest’ fashions in consumer goods are highly desirable and should be purchased</i> [</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Hirsch’s emphasis]. </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">This is the unambiguous message of the commercial advertisements which appear before, during, and after every program and, more subtly, in the stage sets, clothes and general appearance of most television actors and personalities." Just as anti-smoking groups today refer to the cigarette as a “nicotine delivery system,” so American television in the postwar period could be considered a “commercial delivery system.” Its sole purpose became not to teach, challenge, or deeply move the audience, but to entice consumers to watch commercials for detergents, soups, butter, milk, and cigarettes (until televised ads for tobacco products were banned in the early 1970s). By exposing viewers to tantalizing products and seductive sales pitches, television helped to draw traditionally less affluent, non-materialistic groups like the Cajuns and Creoles into the modern consumer age. In doing so, television altered those cultures: Cajuns and Creoles became more like mainstream Americans by embracing postwar consumerism.(7)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Because television networks wanted to deliver their commercial messages at once to as many viewers as possible, producers designed programming to appeal to the broadest possible audience. This programming had to cut across vast regional cultural differences throughout America. The desire to reach diverse cultural groups with the same programming accounts (at least in part if not in whole) for the blandness of much early national programming. The centralization of television production further amplified this “standardization of content” in national programming. Whether viewers resided in Illinois, Maine, Virginia, Wyoming, or south Louisiana — in rural, small-town, or urban settings — the available national programming hailed almost exclusively from studios in Los Angeles and New York. In those facilities a small group of producers designed national programs and determined the attitudes and values those programs would convey.(8)</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: small;">A white-bread American family watching TV, 1949.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: small;">Note the ad's caption.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: small;">Source: <a href="http://periodpaper.com/">PeriodPaper.com</a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Viewers thus observed not a cross-section of an authentic, diverse America, but a nationalized, homogenized image of America as conceived by these production companies on the East and West Coasts. Michael Novak observed that “Television . . . seems to conceive of itself as a national medium. It does not favor the varieties of accent, speech patterns, and other differences of the culture of the United States. It favors a language which might be called ‘televisionese’ — a neutral accent, pronunciation, and diction perhaps most closely approximated in California. Television functions as an instrument of the national, mobile culture. It does not reinforce the concrete ways of life of individual neighborhoods, towns, or subcultures. It shows the way things are done (or fanaticized as being done) in ‘the big world.’”(9)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Influenced by television, inhabitants of culturally insular regions, argued Hirsch, began to look far beyond their communities for models of entertainment, talent, and aesthetic enjoyment. They began to prefer television over their own live-performance talent, such as the local theater troupe, storyteller, humorist, gospel quartet, or honky-tonk pianist. They also began to compare local talent to performers on programs like the <i>Philco TV Playhouse</i>, <i>The Milton Berle Show</i>, <i>Texaco Star Theater</i>, and <i>Gunsmoke</i>. In addition, particularly gifted local performers chose increasingly to relocate to media centers like New York and Hollywood, further depriving communities of local live-performance talent. Those remaining at home, meanwhile, came to be regarded as anachronistic and second-rate. As Hirsch explained, “The cultural consequences of centrally produced, standardized, slick, and nationally televised entertainment . . . diminish the number and quality of local productions and performers, lowering the amount of pride and interest taken in local and regional cultures and narrowing their range. This further increases the prestige and influence of the more homogenous national popular culture.”(10)</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Y63GDlzj0wM/XYVOCk6_eqI/AAAAAAAAC-0/C_nPj9KYxCQt8TskipeJXU6yrjJEkpjvACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Gunsmoke%2BTitle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><img border="0" data-original-height="188" data-original-width="299" height="251" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Y63GDlzj0wM/XYVOCk6_eqI/AAAAAAAAC-0/C_nPj9KYxCQt8TskipeJXU6yrjJEkpjvACLcBGAsYHQ/s400/Gunsmoke%2BTitle.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: small;">Title sequence, <i>Gunsmoke</i>, ca. 1960.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: small;">(Source: <a href="http://tvnewfrontier.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Television's New Frontier</a>)</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">But is this what happened in Acadiana? Television’s phenomenal early acceptance in Cajun and Creole Louisiana suggests it further “Americanized” the local ethnic population, which by the postwar period still had yet to be entirely coopted into mainstream society. Certainly the medium greatly influenced Cajun and Creole culture, from elders who spoke little or no English (but who nevertheless might enjoy the peculiar black-and-white moving images on the TV screen), to younger bilingual couples buying into the American Dream, to children who commonly spoke no French at all and who would grow up, like children across America, on a diet of <i>Captain Video and His Video Rangers</i>, <i>Kukla, Fran & Ollie</i>, and <i>Lassie</i>. Television introduced Cajuns and Creoles to both real and imaginary worlds outside Acadiana, and tempted them with consumer goods they previously eschewed. In addition, because all national programming was in English, the medium further reduced the perceived value of speaking French in the ethnic groups’ own eyes.(11)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: small;">The 22-parish Acadiana region. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: small;">(Source: Author's collection)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Census data confirms that the inhabitants of Acadiana quickly embraced early television, showing a dramatic increase in the number of television sets in the twenty-two parish south Louisiana region between 1950 and 1960. In 1950 Acadiana possessed a population of about 740,000 and contained over 189,000 dwellings, less than one percent of which had a television set. By 1960 Acadiana contained roughly 923,000 residents and 239,000 dwellings, about eighty percent of which had television. In other words, for every Acadiana dwelling with television in 1950, about one hundred and twenty had television in 1960. The least populated Acadiana parish, Cameron Parish, had among its 6,200 residents in 1950 only five dwellings with television. By 1960 its population had barely increased, but it now possessed about 1,500 dwellings with television — an increase from about a third of a percent to about seventy-nine percent. On the high end of the population spectrum, Calcasieu Parish (with heavily industrialized Lake Charles as its seat) boasted about 90,000 residents in 1950, but only about 155 dwellings with television. By 1960 its population had increased by roughly a third, but claimed about 34,000 dwellings with television — an amazing increase from less than two-thirds of a percent to about eighty-seven percent. In Lake Charles itself the number of dwellings with television jumped during that ten-year period from 45 to 15,736 — a multiple of nearly three hundred and fifty.(12)</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: small;">Louisiana Creoles being interviewed<br />by French television, 1968.<br />Source: <a href="http://www.ina.fr/">www.ina.fr</a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">A community’s eagerness to accept the new medium may have hinged on its ability to receive a clear broadcast signal or, in those days, even a faint one. Regardless, the seat of Evangeline Parish, Ville Platte, possessed no televisions in 1950, nor did </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Berwick, Kaplan, Lake Arthur, Marksville, New Roads, or Vinton. </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">In the case of Ville Platte, a broadcast signal apparently was available at that time, as indicated by the</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"> presence of televisions in several nearby communities. The town of Eunice, only fifteen miles to the southwest, had fifteen dwellings with television; Bunkie, twenty miles to the north, claimed ten; and Opelousas, twenty-five miles to the southeast, reported fifteen. (Unfortunately, the 1960 US census does not provide television data for small communities.) Despite the tardiness of some Acadiana communities to embrace television, by 1960 the percentage of dwellings with television in any given parish ranged from a low of about sixty-three percent (for Evangeline Parish) to a high of about eighty-seven percent (again, in Calcasieu), the average for all Acadiana parishes being, as stated, roughly eighty percent — practically the same number for the South in general, <span style="background-color: white;">and only about seven percentage points below the national figure.</span>(13)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: small;">TV schedule for Lafayette area, October 1955.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: small;">(Source: Lafayette, La., <i>Daily Advertiser</i>)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">With so many Cajuns and Creoles owning televisions, more local television stations sprang up to meet the viewing demands of these new electronic consumers. By fall 1955 the Lafayette, Louisiana, <i>Daily Advertiser</i> was printing television schedules for five stations with signals reaching central Acadiana: WBRZ Channel 2 and WAFB Channel 28 (now Channel 9) in Baton Rouge; WDSU Channel 6 in New Orleans; KPLC Channel 7 in Lake Charles; and KALB Channel 5 in Alexandria. Although only one of these stations, KPLC, broadcasted from within Acadiana, a newcomer to the region, KLFY Channel 10 in Lafayette, was on-the-air by fall 1955. (The <i>Advertiser</i>, however, regarded the nearby station as a competitor for local advertising dollars and initially refused to print its program schedule.)(14)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">As indicated, Paul Hirsch argues that national television programming reduced the value of local performers. It also induced the public to remain at home rather than participate in more traditional communal activities. Dormon similarly observed of Cajun culture, its music, and its tradition of the <i>veillée</i> (a small evening assembly that usually included dinner, conversation, and sometimes live folk music) that by 1955, “the time-worn <i>veillée</i> fell before the onslaught of radio and television . . . [and] Cajun music in the ‘50s came also to bear the stigma of something declassé.” Cajun folklorist Barry Jean Ancelet and his coauthors echoed Dormon when noting in <i>Cajun Country</i>, “Radio and later television transformed the pattern of family hospitality, but did not entirely eliminate the <i>veillées</i>, replacing the storytelling and singers, but not the visits.” In addition to the <i>veillée</i>, television no doubt affected other traditional Cajun and Creole social functions, such as the <i>fais do-do</i> (public dance) and <i>boucherie</i> (communal butchery).(15)</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: small;">Cajuns at a fais do-do, ca. 1938.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: small;">(Source: <a href="http://loc.gov/" target="_blank">Library of Congress</a>)</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Yet a survey of early television listings for central Acadiana reveals that by 1960 local stations were producing shows that catered specifically to the region’s ethnic audiences and that aimed in part at preserving and promoting Cajun (if not yet Creole) culture. (The concept of Creole pride did not fully materialize until the mid-1980s with the founding of Creole Inc. and <i>Creole Magazine</i>.) Notably, this trend occurred several years before the founding of CODOFIL (Council for the Development of French in Louisiana) in 1968, the symbolic date assigned to the advent of the “Cajun Revival” movement — a movement that continues to the present. It is also interesting to note that these live Cajun-music TV programs appeared over a decade before the first Tribute to Cajun Music Festival, held in Lafayette in 1974. (The Tribute now forms the core of the immensely popular <i>Festivals Acadiens et Créoles</i> folk celebration, which annually draws tens of thousands of visitors from around the world to central Acadiana).(16)</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: small;">The Lafayette Playboys on their KLFY set.<br />Note the bottles and cans of Dixie 45 beer.<br />(Source: The Johnnie Allan Collection, UL Lafayette)</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">For instance, from 4:00 to 4:30 p.m. on Saturdays in 1960 the </span><i style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">Lafayette Playboys</i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"> show appeared on KLFY (Lafayette), featuring locally popular Cajun accordionist Aldus Roger and his band. Johnnie Allan’s </span><i style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">Memories: A Pictorial History of South Louisiana Music </i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">contains a photograph of the Playboys on the program’s set: Roger proudly holds his diatonic accordion under arm, while Aldus “Popeye” Broussard wields the fiddle, and Demus Comeaux, an acoustic guitar. Rodney Miller sits at his steel guitar, and Fernest “Man” Abshire stands behind a modest drumming trap set. Importantly, cartons of canned and bottled Dixie 45 brand beer adorn the stage in front of the group, indicating that local television stations knew something the networks overlooked — that televised folk music performances could hold an audience’s attention and sell commercial products. (Dixie brand beer sponsored other Cajun music programs on both radio and television, and so well did Cajun musicians market the product that francophones and non-francophones alike often unassumingly referred to the beverage as “</span><i style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">Dixie quarante-cinq</i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">.”) As music writer John Broven noted in </span><i style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">South to Louisiana: The Music of the Cajun Bayous</i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">,</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"> Roger’s program helped to sell Aldus Roger himself to local audiences who patronized Cajun dancehalls and purchased Cajun music on local small-town labels like Floyd Soileau’s Swallow records of Ville Platte. “Aldus Roger,” observed Broven, “became a firm local favorite through hosting the ‘Aldus Roger and the Lafayette Playboys’ TV show over KLFY Lafayette from 1955 until 1970.” Abshire and his band even paid tribute to the station by composing and recording a Cajun waltz titled “</span><i style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">La Valse de KLFY</i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">.”(17)</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qWaEmF12pFM/XYVQpHLDerI/AAAAAAAAC_U/vPNvpmJLVYwq8fumwpotXImVA_t8cg2dgCPcBGAYYCw/s1600/aldus-roger-and-the-lafayette-playboys-k-l-f-y-waltz-acadian-artists-s.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="215" data-original-width="215" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qWaEmF12pFM/XYVQpHLDerI/AAAAAAAAC_U/vPNvpmJLVYwq8fumwpotXImVA_t8cg2dgCPcBGAYYCw/s200/aldus-roger-and-the-lafayette-playboys-k-l-f-y-waltz-acadian-artists-s.jpg" width="200" /></span></a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: small;"><span style="text-align: justify;">"KLFY Waltz" (“<i>La Valse de KLFY</i></span><span style="text-align: justify;">”)</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: small; text-align: justify;">(Source: </span><a href="http://45cat.com/" style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: medium; text-align: justify;">45cat.com</a><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: small; text-align: justify;">)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Cajun-oriented programs also appeared on KLFY’s nearest rival. In 1965 viewers could watch <i>Acadiana Hayride</i> on KATC Channel 3 (Lafayette) from 3:00 to 3:30 p.m. on Saturdays, then catch the Cajun/country music <i>Al Terry</i> show from 3:30 to 4:00. ABC’s nationally broadcast <i>Wide World of Sports</i> followed, but afterwards appeared the Cajun/country music <i>Larry Brasseaux Show</i> (whose singer sometimes rendered his name more phonetically as “Larry Brasso”). (Incidentally, shortly after its 1962 founding, KATC — which stands for Acadian Television Corporation — coined the term <i>Acadiana</i> to define the region its signal covered. <span style="background-color: white;">It is interesting to note, however, that </span>the <i>Crowley Daily-Signal</i> newspaper had used the term in print as early as 1956 to describe “things pertaining to Acadia Parish.”) By the mid-1960s KATC's on-air talent Jo</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">hn Plauché "portrayed an avuncular Cajun fisherman named Polycarp" who hosted morning cartoons and "brought to life a world of Cajun-themed characters </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">‘</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">as familiar to the children of Acadiana as Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck.</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">’</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">”</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"> (See my blog article about Polycarp <a href="http://bayoutechedispatches.blogspot.com/2012/01/remembering-polycarp-cajun-childrens-tv.html" target="_blank">here</a>.)</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-R8JuVQKfGn8/XYhCtIGyuCI/AAAAAAAADAI/mDJv4JF8TSwZp0NQoP4vmIXmaj7IQD1qACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Polytvguide1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="331" data-original-width="301" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-R8JuVQKfGn8/XYhCtIGyuCI/AAAAAAAADAI/mDJv4JF8TSwZp0NQoP4vmIXmaj7IQD1qACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Polytvguide1.jpg" width="288" /></a></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: white;"><i>TV Guide</i> listing for <i>Polycarp and Pals</i>,</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: white;">Wednesday, 30 April 1969.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: white;">(Source: <a href="http://www.wikipedia.org/">www.Wikipedia.org</a>)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Back on KLFY, the <i>Mariné Show</i> (from the French <i>amariner </i>or<i> mariner</i>, meaning “to season or marinate”) appeared in 1965 on Sundays from 10:00 to 10:45 a.m. and featured Cajun/country musician “Happy Fats” Leblanc and his band of local musicians. A photograph of Fats and company on the <i>Mariné</i> set indicates that those musicians included favorites like Uncle Ambroise Thibodeaux on fiddle and Alex Broussard on mandolin. In that same photograph Fats wields an acoustic guitar monogrammed with the station’s call letters and channel number. As with Aldus Roger’s program, <i>Mariné</i> not only promoted a sponsor (in this case, <i>sponsors</i> — namely, a filter company, a lumber company, a car dealership, and an oil company), but helped to promote and preserve Cajun culture and music. It also helped to sell locally produced records to local audiences. In fact, the Swallow label issued a companion album to the show titled <i>Cajun and Country Songs and Music from Mariné</i>.(18)</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uz_7YkSwf0E/XYVLTEYoi9I/AAAAAAAAC-Y/I0w6Ykjrur4RSN9WKyCIU7DSPR2E9BuGACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/R-7624308-1445379415-8603.jpeg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="600" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uz_7YkSwf0E/XYVLTEYoi9I/AAAAAAAAC-Y/I0w6Ykjrur4RSN9WKyCIU7DSPR2E9BuGACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/R-7624308-1445379415-8603.jpeg.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: small;">Album cover, music played on <i>Mariné</i>, </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: small;">ca. 1965<i>.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: small;">Note the advertisers' logos on the set.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: small;">(Source: <a href="http://discogs.com/">discogs.com</a>)</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Sponsored by Louisiana Motors, a Lafayette automobile dealership, Cajun accordionist Belton Richard and his band, the Musical Aces, hosted a television program on KLFY around 1964. Even swamp pop music, a regional rhythm and blues, country and western, and Cajun and Creole hybrid, found a place on KLFY’s weekend afternoon schedule from 1964 to ‘65, when Cajun swamp pop musician Rod Bernard hosted the youth-oriented <i>Saturday Hop</i> dance program from 12:00 to 1:00 p.m. The program featured performances by young Cajun and Creole musicians who combined the rock ‘n’ roll and rhythm and blues of mainstream artists like Fats Domino, Little Richard, and Elvis Presley with folk elements borrowed from traditional Cajun and Creole musicians. Bernard also hosted his own <i>Rod Bernard</i> show on KLFY from 1967 to ‘68, and appeared on the same station with fellow swamp poppers Warren Storm and Skip Stewart on <i>The Shondells</i> music program from 1968 to ‘69. Around that time Creole swamp popper Lil’ Bob hosted his own music program on KLFY, as did Lil’ Buck Senegal, another Creole rhythm and blues musician.(19)</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8KBTUXhZb04/XYVMT0JIlRI/AAAAAAAAC-g/uNKHMup1FWU-drEfuJlJNqEe6OD4ZR6pACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/RodBernard596a%2Bsm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="516" data-original-width="373" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8KBTUXhZb04/XYVMT0JIlRI/AAAAAAAAC-g/uNKHMup1FWU-drEfuJlJNqEe6OD4ZR6pACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/RodBernard596a%2Bsm.jpg" width="231" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: small;">Poster for <i>Saturday Hop</i>, ca. 1965.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: small;">Note the sponsorship by Dr. Pepper.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: small;">(Source: Author's collection)</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">In addition to his Sunday program, Happy Fats Leblanc appeared in 1965 at 6:00 a.m. on Mondays, just prior to KLFY’s daily morning program <i>Passe Partout</i> (inexplicably named after the Louisiana French term for a large two-handled saw). This program offered news, weather, farm reports, and interviews in both English and Cajun French, interspersed with Cajun, zydeco (modern accordion-based Creole music), and swamp pop music performances. Testifying to its appeal, <i>Passe Partout</i> airs to the present, as does KLFY’s similarly long-running daily afternoon program <i>Meet Your Neighbor</i>, which, though broadcast in English, reaches out to viewers in smaller communities where Cajun culture and Creole culture particularly thrive. Around 1964 KATC even offered syndicated French-dubbed episodes of <i>Gunsmoke</i> under the title <i>Police des plaines</i> (<i>The Plains Police</i>). Although intended for French Canadian audiences who spoke a somewhat different dialect than Cajuns and Creoles, the program enjoyed a prime-time slot in the station’s weekly schedule. Unfortunately, the dubbed episodes were never meant for US distribution, and licensing problems forced KATC to withdraw the program after about a year despite its popularity with Acadiana viewers.(20)</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9MGKIui0xLw/XYVKjCG9jBI/AAAAAAAAC-M/yqsVI75ilAc5aJnzhhMII47VhdIBgG9AgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/caje6a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="241" data-original-width="322" height="236" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9MGKIui0xLw/XYVKjCG9jBI/AAAAAAAAC-M/yqsVI75ilAc5aJnzhhMII47VhdIBgG9AgCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/caje6a.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: small;"><span style="text-align: justify;">Pierre Jalbert as "Caje" the Cajun GI<br />in the WWII action series <i>Combat!</i><br />(Source: </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><a href="http://www.deimos.ca/combat/" target="_blank">Company Headquarters <i>Combat!</i></a> fansite)</span></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">While local broadcasters offered programs geared toward Cajuns and Creoles, the networks, and mainstream America in general, remained largely unaware of the existence of these two ethnic groups until the 1980s (when, thanks to yuppyism and its demand for the new and exotic, all things Cajun and Creole became extremely trendy across the U.S. and abroad — even as Creole culture was often wrongly subsumed by the term “Cajun”). One exceptional program that helped to introduce Cajuns to mainstream America was the popular World War II drama series <i>Combat!</i>, which first appeared in 1962 on ABC. <i>Combat!</i> offered a surprisingly positive portrayal of “Caje,” the Cajun foot soldier and platoon interpreter. French Canadian actor Pierre Jalbert, however, portrayed the thick-accented south Louisiana GI. A few actual Cajuns did appear on national television during the medium’s Golden Age, but viewers generally were unaware of their ethnicity. For example, swamp pop musicians like Rod Bernard, Joe Barry, and T. K. Hulin, whose Americanized music appealed to listeners outside Acadiana, performed on, or had their records played on, programs like Dick Clark’s <i>American Bandstand</i> and <i>The Dick Clark Saturday Night Beechnut Show</i>. Unlike Cajun and zydeco musicians, most swamp poppers used Anglo-American stage names, a practice that further veiled their ethnicity.(21)</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xdDzvfkCAds/XYVKEC0T9tI/AAAAAAAAC-E/cHg1S9Up2C0NRgYyGbhWY5oPfcW9PD5hwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/s-l1600.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: x-small;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1581" data-original-width="1054" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xdDzvfkCAds/XYVKEC0T9tI/AAAAAAAAC-E/cHg1S9Up2C0NRgYyGbhWY5oPfcW9PD5hwCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/s-l1600.jpg" width="212" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: small;">Book by the former Cajun child actor</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-size: small;">who played Little Ricky on <i>I Love Lucy</i></span><span style="font-size: x-small;">.</span></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Oddly enough, the child actor and drumming prodigy who played Little Ricky on <i>I Love Lucy</i> was a Cajun from Lafayette named Keith Thibodeaux. Born in 1950 amid the rapid Americanization of Cajuns, Thibodeaux exhibited no signs on television of his ethnicity, such as the tell-tale “Cajun accent.” His handlers went so far as to adopt for him the Anglo-American stage name Richard Keith, and it is this name that appears in the credits of the 1956-57 episodes of <i>I Love Lucy</i>. As with swamp pop artists, Thibodeaux’s use of a pseudonym did not diminish his fame in the eyes of most fellow Cajuns. Indeed, he made a triumphant return to Acadiana by guest hosting <i>Meet Your Neighbor</i> on KLFY, which, as the region’s sole CBS affiliate, also broadcast <i>I Love Lucy</i> to local viewers.(22)</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8vn2CmYeykU/XYkNBXQaFvI/AAAAAAAADAs/HngOimrxf68oR4uFkTpOVO3TnbCM-9XrACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Untitled-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="659" data-original-width="1186" height="221" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8vn2CmYeykU/XYkNBXQaFvI/AAAAAAAADAs/HngOimrxf68oR4uFkTpOVO3TnbCM-9XrACLcBGAsYHQ/s400/Untitled-3.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: small;">Slide advertising weather in French,<br />KLFY-TV 10, Lafayette, Louisiana, ca. 1960.<br />(Source: Author's Collection)</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Otherwise, Cajuns and Creoles appeared only in Acadiana on local programs designed to appeal to members of these ethnic groups. As shown, most of these programs featured regional music, which along with cuisine forms a cornerstone of Acadiana’s largely nonliterary culture. These shows first appeared in the late 1950s and early ‘60s, years before the “Age of Ethnicity” arose in the late 1960s and early ‘70s. In fact, in autumn 1965 KLFY and KATC together aired 8.25 hours of local, ethnic-oriented programming per week, at least 3.25 hours of which featured local Cajun/country music. Yet, as shown, some scholars condemn television for its nationalizing, homogenizing effects. They regard it as a negative medium that dissolved local ethnic cultures and absorbed their members into a new America that celebrated blandness and mediocrity in the name of togetherness. Although these scholars correctly ascertain the power of national programming to produce a homogenizing effect, they fail to consider the role of local programming. Acadiana’s example reveals that its local television stations responded early on to demands for programming that appealed to its regional ethnic groups. Local performers need not have picked up roots and moved to major media centers like Hollywood or New York to appear on television, but could have merely gone to the nearest network affiliate studio. Through local programming, television could serve as a tool for preserving and promoting local ethnic cultures. In this manner the medium could actually serve to temper “the tribal consequences of unity” predicted by McLuhan as an adverse consequence of the new electronic global village.(23)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Notes</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">(1)Marshall McLuhan, <i>The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man</i> (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1962), 31-32.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">(2)Historical Statistics of the United States: Colonial Times to 1970, Part 2, Bicentennial ed., (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Commerce/Bureau of the Census, 1975), 796.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">(3)Gilbert Seldes, “Communications Revolution,” in Edmund Carpenter and Marshall McLuhan, eds., <i>Explorations in Communication: An Anthology</i> (Boston: Beacon, 1960), 196.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">(4)Ibid.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">(5)Marshall McLuhan, “Introduction,” in Carpenter and McLuhan, <i>Explorations in Communication</i>, xi; Tim Brooks and Earle Marsh, <i>Complete Directory to Prime Time Network TV Shows, 1946-Present, 3rd. ed.</i> (New York: Ballantine, 1985), s.v. “I Love Lucy”; Elaine Tyler May, <i>Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era </i>(New York: Basic Books, 1988), 146; Richard M. Fried, <i>Nightmare in Red: The McCarthy Era in Perspective</i> (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990), 138-39.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">(6)McLuhan, “Introduction,” xi; Harry S Ashmore, “The Mournful Numbers,” in Stanley T. Donner, ed., <i>The Meaning of Commercial Television: The Texas-Stanford Seminar, 1966 </i>(Austin: The University of Texas Press, 1967), 7.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">(7)Paul Hirsch, “The Role of Television and Popular Culture in Contemporary Society,” in Horace Newcomb, ed., <i>Television: The Critical View, 3rd. ed. </i>(New York: Oxford University Press, 1982), 292, 294; Paul Goodman, “The Social Perspective,” in Donner, <i>Meaning of Commercial Television</i>, 72; Ashmore, “Mournful Numbers,” 5.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">(8)Hirsch, “Role of Television and Popular Culture,” 290-91, 294.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">(9)Hirsch, “Role of Television and Popular Culture,” 294; Michael Novak, “Television Shapes the Soul,” in Newcomb, <i>Television: The Critical View</i>, 341.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">(10)Hirsch, “Role of Television and Popular Culture,” 292, 294; Brooks and Marsh, <i>Complete Directory to Prime Time Network TV Shows</i>, s.v. “Gunsmoke,” “The Milton Berle Show,” “Philco TV Playhouse,” and “Texaco Star Theater.”</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">(11)Brooks and Marsh, <i>Complete Directory to Prime Time Network TV Shows</i>, s.v. “Captain Video and His Video Rangers,” “Kukla, Fran & Ollie,” “Lassie.”</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">(12)1950 U S. Census of Population, Vol. 2, Characteristics of the Population, Pt. 18, Louisiana, Table 42, pp. 18-78 to 18-81; 1960 U.S. Census of Population, Vol. 1, Characteristics </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">of the Population, Pt. 20, Louisiana, Table 28, pp. 20-91 to 20-95; 1950 U.S. Census, Housing, </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Vol. 1, General Characteristics, Pt. 3, Louisiana, Table 20, p. 18-24; Table 23, pp. 18-33 to 18-36; 1960 U.S. Census of Housing, Vol. 1, States and Small Areas, Pt. 4, Louisiana, Table 16, p. </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">20-27; Table 30, pp. 20-66 to 20-70.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">(13)1950 U.S. Census, Housing, Vol. 1, General Characteristics, Pt. 3, Louisiana, Table 23, pp. 18-33 to 18-36; 1960 U.S. Census of Housing, Vol. 1, States and Small Areas, Pt. 4, Louisiana, Table 16, p. 20-27 (Calcasieu Parish); Table 30, pp. 20-66 to 20-70; 1960 U.S. Census of Housing, Vol. 1, States and Small Areas, Pt. 1, United States Summary, Figure 2 (Regions and Geographic Divisions of the United States), Table 7, pp. 1-28 to 1-29. The 1960 U.S. Census defines “the South” as: Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">(14)Lafayette (La.) <i>Sunday Advertiser</i>, 9 October 1955, 23; William A. Patton, former general manager of KLFY (1954-55) and KATC (1962-83) television stations, telephone interview by author, 29 April 1996, Bryan, Tex., to Lafayette, La., interview notes.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">(15)Dormon, <i>People Called Cajuns</i>, 77; Ancelet et al., <i>Cajun Country</i>, 49.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">(16)Ancelet et al., <i>Cajun Country</i>, xxi, 40, 160; Dormon, <i>People Called Cajuns</i>, 82-88; James H. Dormon, “Louisiana’s ‘Creoles of Color’: Ethnicity, Marginality and Identity,” <i>Social Science Quarterly </i>73 (September 1992): 622-24.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">(17)Allan dates the photograph of Aldus Roger and the Lafayette Playboys at “KLFY-TV” as circa 1954; the station did not exist, however, until 1955. “<i>La Valse de KLFY</i>,” as rendered in 1990 by Cajun fiddler Michael Doucet (of acclaimed Cajun band BeauSoleil) appears on Various Artists, <i>The Best of La Louisianne Records</i>, compact disc LLCD-1001, La Louisianne, 1990; Lafayette (La.) <i>Daily Advertiser</i>, 7 October 1960, 12; Johnnie Allan, comp. and ed., <i>Memories: A Pictorial History of South Louisiana Music, Vol. One: South Louisiana and East Texas Musicians</i> (Lafayette, La.: Johnnie Allan/JADFEL, 1988), 52; Patton, interview by author; John Broven, <i>South to Louisiana: Music of the Cajun Bayous</i> (Gretna, La.: Pelican, 1983), 278-79.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">(18)<i>Daily Advertiser</i>, 1 October 1965, 14; 3 October 1965, 20; Allan, <i>Memories</i>, 109; Broven, <i>South to Louisiana</i>, 42-43, 56-60, 266; Patton, interview by author; Shane K. Bernard, <i>The Cajuns: Americanization of a People</i> (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2003) , 104.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">(19)Broven, <i>South to Louisiana</i>, 209, 238, 320; Allan,<i> Memories</i>, 59; Shane K. Bernard, <i>Swamp Pop: Cajun and Creole Rhythm and Blues </i>(Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1996), 180, 181; <i>Daily Advertiser</i>, 23 October 1964, 20; 24 September 1965, 8; 3 October 1965, 20; 22 April 1967, 6; 2 March 1968, 10; 16 November 1968, 10; 24 May 1969, 10; 20 December 1969, 8; 17 January 1970, 10.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">(20)<i>Daily Advertiser</i>, 1 October 1960, 19; Patton, interview by author.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">(21)Brooks and Marsh, <i>Complete Directory to Prime Time Network TV Shows</i>, s.v. “Combat!”; Biographical sketch of French-Canadian actor Pierre Jalbert (“Caje” on “Combat!”), Jalbert.htm1> [non-functioning link as of 23 September 2019], first distributed by the ABC television network in 1966; Jo Davidsmeyer and Loraine Wingham, “‘Combat!’ The Big War on the Small Screen,” <i>Military Trader </i>(January 1996), n.p., reprinted at g War.html> [non-functioning link as of 23 September 2019]; Bernard, <i>Swamp Pop</i>, 148, 166; Shane K. Bernard, “A Swamp Rock ‘n’ Roller Remembers: Rod Bernard and ‘American Bandstand,’” <i>Goldmine</i>, 31 March 1995, 64, 66, 129, 132, 138.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">(22)Bart Andrews, <i>The “I Love Lucy” Book</i>, rev. and exp. (Garden City, N.Y.: Dolphin/Doubleday, 1985), 182-84; Brooks and Marsh, <i>Complete Directory to Prime Time Network TV Shows</i>, s.v. “I Love Lucy."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">(23)Dormon, <i>People Called Cajuns</i>, 80; <i>Daily Advertiser</i>, 1 October 1965, 14; 3 October 1965, 20; 4 October 1965, 14; 5 October 1965, 8.</span></div>
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Shane K. Bernardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00454946054965548589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660857958535448139.post-29588042608085792492019-08-20T18:00:00.002-05:002019-08-23T08:53:42.004-05:00A Tool for Fighting Fake News & Conspiracy Theories: Teach Critical Thinking in American Classrooms<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i>One might consider the below essay off-topic for a history website, but I don't think so: as a professional historian I rely heavily on </i><i>Critical Thinking</i><i> </i><i>skills, and I do so on a daily basis. And so does, and must, the historical profession in general. (It is no coincidence that a leading proponent of </i></span><i style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">Critical Thinking</i><i style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;"> </i><i style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">education is the below-mentioned <a href="https://stacks.stanford.edu/file/druid:fv751yt5934/SHEG%20Evaluating%20Information%20Online.pdf" target="_blank">Stanford History Education Group</a>, which among other publications offers an essay titled "<a href="https://purl.stanford.edu/yy383km0067" target="_blank">Why Historical Thinking is Not about History</a>.") I learned "to think critically" in both undergraduate- and graduate-level history courses (Historiography, Research & Writing, and so on), as well as in a formal </i><i style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">Critical Thinking</i><i style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;"> course offered by a good old Department of Philosophy.*</i><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i><br /></i></span>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_jjUsKa5bvI/XVyBaiBvyOI/AAAAAAAAC8A/i1nw6rU-Kk8jrmQRxw5Jl8DDSRJ5aQkDgCLcBGAs/s1600/Hacker%2B1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="336" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_jjUsKa5bvI/XVyBaiBvyOI/AAAAAAAAC8A/i1nw6rU-Kk8jrmQRxw5Jl8DDSRJ5aQkDgCLcBGAs/s200/Hacker%2B1.jpg" width="134" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: x-small;">Ought to be required reading</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: x-small;">for all future historians.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i><br /></i>
<i>I regard that Philosophy course as the single most useful class I ever took. It has allowed me not only to gauge the merits of various historical sources (is a claim true? how do I know it's true? is the source reliable? etc.), but to navigate my way through an increasingly complex world that floods me constantly with information, much of it questionable if not downright false. (My advice: never believe any claim, particularly an extraordinary one, at first blush.)</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i>I</i></span><i style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;"> offer the below essay as a critique of how this crucial subject is taught in America. Which is to say, </i><i style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">insufficiently. </i><i style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">This is to the detriment of our nation, whose founding</i><i style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;"> </i><i style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">relied on a firm bedrock </i><i style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">strata of </i><i style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">reason and knowledge, </i><i style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">imparted </i><i style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">to the Founding Fathers </i><i style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">by the Enlightenment</i><i style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">. Critical Thinking should not be a religion, however, much less should it be a cult; it is in fact merely a tool, and one with limitations that nonetheless can, when used in good faith, help to lead its users toward the truth.</i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i>Here is my essay on the subject. . . .</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 15.4px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 18.48px; text-align: right; white-space: nowrap;"><span style="line-height: 18.48px;">❧</span></span></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Search
the Internet for the phrase "The Age of Fake News" and you will find no
shortage of sources, reliable and otherwise, claiming we live smack-dab in the
middle of that epoch. A search for "The Age of Conspiracy Theories" yields
similar results. Granted, conspiracy theories and fake news are nothing new:
think, for example, of the grand conspiracy theories of nineteenth-century
America involving eastern and southern European immigrants, Roman Catholics,
and freemasonry. As for fake news, think of the "yellow journalism" of later
that same century, when the American print media helped to spark the
Spanish-American War over the alleged sabotage of the U.S. battleship </span><i style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">Maine</i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">
— a tragedy whose cause, most historians now agree, can be blamed on an accident,
not a Spanish mine.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wq9JFMdDwQs/XVyA0CYzKxI/AAAAAAAAC74/jKBo8lTIkOAB7I59b8Tbn40308kIX7YXACLcBGAs/s1600/yellow%2Bjournalism%2Bb.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><img border="0" data-original-height="486" data-original-width="482" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wq9JFMdDwQs/XVyA0CYzKxI/AAAAAAAAC74/jKBo8lTIkOAB7I59b8Tbn40308kIX7YXACLcBGAs/s320/yellow%2Bjournalism%2Bb.jpg" width="317" /></span></a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: x-small;">An example of late-19th century "yellow journalism."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: x-small;">(I mean the paper's content, not its color!)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">What
is new, however, is the 24-hour news cycle coupled with the dynamism of the Internet
and social media. Fakes news and conspiracy theories are now harnessed to 21</span><sup>st</sup><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">-century
technology, enabling canards to proliferate not only across the nation, but around the world, in a matter of seconds.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Amid
its nonstop bombardment with facts and factoids, the American citizenry is left
to sort out for itself what is fake news and what is real news — as well as what
is sometimes legitimate, informed speculation and what is conspiratorial
nonsense. Clearly, the citizenry is not up to the task. Earlier this summer, for
example, the <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/2019/06/05/an-update-on-our-research-into-trust-facts-and-democracy/" target="_blank">Pew Research Center</a> found that "Many Americans say the creation
and spread of made-up news and information is causing significant harm to the
nation and needs to be stopped." Worse, noted Pew, "made-up news and
information greatly impact Americans’ confidence in government institutions,
and . . . [exert] a major impact on our confidence in each other.<o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Even
the nation’s most skilled Internet and social media navigators fall short when
it comes to separating truth from fiction, and facts from lies. I refer to our purportedly
skeptic-minded millennials. A 2016 study by the <a href="https://stacks.stanford.edu/file/druid:fv751yt5934/SHEG%20Evaluating%20Information%20Online.pdf" target="_blank">Stanford History Education Group</a> at Stanford University found that "young people's ability to reason
about the information . . . can be summed up in one word: bleak." Stanford
described this particular lack of Critical Thinking skills as nothing less than a "threat to
democracy."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-25qUe49ZNDs/XV1XO3qpx7I/AAAAAAAAC8Y/SteD-1kC534pInlC6YKJYfUFO8bw1lI9ACLcBGAs/s1600/Civic%2BOnline%2BReasoning%2BClassroom%2BPoster_blue_0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="600" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-25qUe49ZNDs/XV1XO3qpx7I/AAAAAAAAC8Y/SteD-1kC534pInlC6YKJYfUFO8bw1lI9ACLcBGAs/s320/Civic%2BOnline%2BReasoning%2BClassroom%2BPoster_blue_0.jpg" width="240" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: x-small;">Critical Thinking poster issued </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: x-small;">by the Stanford History Education Group.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: x-small;">Source: <a href="https://sheg.stanford.edu/civic-online-reasoning/classroom-poster" target="_blank">SHEG</a> website</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">But
what exactly can government, public institutions, and average, ordinary citizens
do to counter the dangers of fake news and conspiracy theories?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Fortunately,
there is a solution, and a rather obvious one: <i>teach </i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Critical Thinking.<o:p></o:p></i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">"We
already teach Critical Thinking!" would no doubt be the knee-jerk reaction of many educational functionaries.
Indeed, it is fashionable in education circles to affirm <i>the primacy
of Critical Thinking</i> in our nation’s education system (or <i>systems</i>, since
every state runs its own public schools, and every private school is
a system unto itself)</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-h-MQiaeo9ps/XV8cizUxQ7I/AAAAAAAAC88/6djNk2XFSnEchBBukWJe8xSUhyfSyB1PwCLcBGAs/s1600/Roberto_Shepherd.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="371" data-original-width="243" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-h-MQiaeo9ps/XV8cizUxQ7I/AAAAAAAAC88/6djNk2XFSnEchBBukWJe8xSUhyfSyB1PwCLcBGAs/s200/Roberto_Shepherd.png" width="130" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: x-small;">The educational functionary.<br />Source: familyguyfanon.fandom.com</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">But
a tremendous gap exists between the touting of Critical Thinking and the actual
teaching of it in an effective, substantive way. After all, how many American
college students ever actually enroll in a Critical Thinking course? MindEdge,
a private firm that teaches Critical Thinking skills, is often cited as stating
that <a href="https://www2.mindedge.com/page/news/article/2017.05.10" target="_blank">three in five respondents</a> [61 percent] report having studied Critical Thinking in college. I find this a highly suspect statistic. As MindEdge has
itself noted, respondents might have claimed Critical Thinking experience after only a passing, superficial exposure to the subject. A
professor of Philosophy at a state university thus comments, "I even occasionally
get students who think that they have studied Critical Thinking in high school.
The evidence suggests that they did not learn too much, based on how they
actually perform in a college-level class.<o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">What I mean by learning Critical Thinking is for college students to sign up for a good old survey of basic logic (often called "informal logic" because of its application to everyday life) — a subject for over two thousand years part of the Western core curriculum, otherwise known as the liberal education (a term having nothing to do, of course, with politics).</span><br />
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<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aFn7xF0oigM/XV1ZGfVsjnI/AAAAAAAAC8k/u9pRU9dFGqQtJo-ouTS_839_BeAsVT6lACLcBGAs/s1600/School%2Bof%2BAthens.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><img border="0" data-original-height="907" data-original-width="1600" height="226" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aFn7xF0oigM/XV1ZGfVsjnI/AAAAAAAAC8k/u9pRU9dFGqQtJo-ouTS_839_BeAsVT6lACLcBGAs/s400/School%2Bof%2BAthens.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: x-small;"><span style="text-align: justify;">"A good old survey of basic logic . . . </span><span style="text-align: justify;">for over <br />two thousand years part of the Western core curriculum."<br />Raphael's <i>The School of Athens (</i>ca. 1510).<br />Source: <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%22The_School_of_Athens%22_by_Raffaello_Sanzio_da_Urbino.jpg" target="_blank">Wikimedia Commons</a></span></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Again,
a knee-jerk reaction by education administrators is likely to be that students
already learn Critical Thinking in math, science, and other much-vaunted STEM courses.
But how much sense does it make to study Critical Thinking solely through the
lens of another subject, like algebra, calculus, or physics? Why not study Critical Thinking directly, as the subject of its own dedicated, core-curriculum course?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">That is how to fight fake news and conspiracy theories (and unreason in
general). And it sits waiting in the much-neglected Departments of Philosophy
throughout American academe: the solution that would if not <i>cure,</i> then
at least <i>curtail</i> the plague that beleaguers our nation. I say this because it is Critical Thinking that teaches us, as the hackneyed but still laudable axiom goes, "Not what to think, but how to think.<o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Almost as an afterthought I myself, as an undergraduate back in the mid-1980s, took a
100-level (Freshman) course in Critical Thinking. I went on to obtain a doctorate
in History, and I work today as a historian (and writer) for a world-renowned company.
And I can honestly say that during my twelve grueling years as a college
student I never took a class so useful as that basic survey of Logic. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7onzt1rsM9s/XV1SnU8eCmI/AAAAAAAAC8M/dbS64raoyzIljBzcS_jewZVkysbm8IRvQCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_6727.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: x-small;"><img border="0" data-original-height="824" data-original-width="570" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7onzt1rsM9s/XV1SnU8eCmI/AAAAAAAAC8M/dbS64raoyzIljBzcS_jewZVkysbm8IRvQCLcBGAs/s200/IMG_6727.jpg" width="138" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: x-small;">My trusty <span style="text-align: justify;">Critical Thinking</span> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: x-small;">textbook from college.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Frankly,
I can’t imagine how anyone navigates today’s complex world,
particularly after the explosion of fake news and conspiracy theories, without a
basic grasp of Critical Thinking — without being able to identify, for example,
when a politician, commercial pitchman, preacher, lifestyle guru, or others
with a vested interest in convincing an audience of something, resort to fallacies like
the <a href="https://www.fallacyfiles.org/adhomine.html" target="_blank">Ad Hominem</a>, the <a href="http://www.fallacyfiles.org/begquest.html" target="_blank">Vicious Circle</a>, the <a href="http://www.fallacyfiles.org/slipslop.html" target="_blank">Slippery Slope</a>, the <a href="http://www.fallacyfiles.org/eitheror.html" target="_blank">False Dilemma</a>, the
<a href="http://www.fallacyfiles.org/strawman.html" target="_blank">Straw Man</a>, and various other ruses meant (consciously or not) to deceive their
listeners.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">While Critical Thinking courses already </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">exist</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">, they are not generally </span><i style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">required </i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">courses. And
that is what I suggest we change: American universities should stop lionizing the
concept of Critical Thinking in the abstract and instead make it a mandatory
course for students of all majors. Students should not learn the skill through the filter of a math or science course where Critical Thinking lingers in
the background, subservient. (One might as well try to instill Critical Thinking skills through the prism of Music Appreciation, or German, or Readings
in American Literature: it could be attempted, but would it be effective?)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">There
are, however, skeptics, such as <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/youre-100-percent-wrong-about-critical-thinking-362334" target="_blank">the Newsweek journalist</a> who quipped, "I somehow managed to snag a desk in a newsroom
without ever flashing my critical-thinking abilities. . . ." I strongly
suspect, however, the journalist in question underrated his own reasoning
skills: he did indeed flash his critical-thinking
abilities through the very act of analyzing the <i>concept</i> of Critical Thinking, and with a healthy dose of skepticism, too.) What most critics seem to be complaining
about, even if they themselves are unaware of it, is not the value of Critical Thinking, or the value of <i>teaching</i> Critical Thinking, but rather the <i>logorrhea</i>, the nauseating, vacuous lip
service, paid to the subject that rarely if ever translates into real action. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6hsRtH1bx2Q/XV1eCEscAYI/AAAAAAAAC8w/ErO9-YCGk587i_Z8HOv31Qbe5eaYww6VQCLcBGAs/s1600/Scotus-Teaching.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="354" data-original-width="391" height="288" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6hsRtH1bx2Q/XV1eCEscAYI/AAAAAAAAC8w/ErO9-YCGk587i_Z8HOv31Qbe5eaYww6VQCLcBGAs/s320/Scotus-Teaching.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">"Just teach the class!"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">Source: <a href="https://medieval.utoronto.ca/" target="_blank">Centre for Medieval Studies</a>,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">University of Toronto</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">The
solution, however, is simple. <i>Require every college student
in every major to take at least one dedicated </i>Critical Thinking<i> course</i>. And teach those courses
in that most endangered of academic species, the Departments of Philosophy. Teach
those students how to spot the major fallacies, how to construct a sound
and valid argument, </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">how to determine if we really know what we think we know —
not only for their own betterment, but for the betterment of our country. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Just
teach the class!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">________</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">*By "critical" I mean "skeptical," which in turn means to me the quality or trait of demanding sufficient proof before believing something — even if that belief is merely provisional. I define "skeptical" here because I have noticed many people confuse it, for some reason, with the word "cynical." The latter, however, has an entirely different, and wholly negative, meaning — namely, the quality or trait of assuming the worst about human behavior (or about things in general). Granted, my definition of </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">"skeptical" depends considerably on the meaning of the vague phrase "sufficient proof." For pragmatism's sake, I'll just ignore that issue for the moment! Similarly, I purposely avoid the pitfall of discussing the (alleged) differences between "truth" and "fact," and regard them here as synonymous. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Sources:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Istvan S. N. Berkeley, Philosophy and Cognitive Science, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, to Shane K. Bernard, 10 July 2019, email communication.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Frank Connolly, Director of Communications and Research, MindEdge, to Shane K. Bernard, 10 July 2019, email communication.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Amy Mitchell et al., "Many
Americans Say Made-Up News Is a Critical Problem That Needs To Be Fixed,"
Pew Research Center, 5 June 2019,
https://www.journalism.org/2019/06/05/many-americans-say-made-up-news-is-a-critical-problem-that-needs-to-be-fixed/,
accessed 31 July 2019.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Alexander Nazaryan, "You're 100 Percent Wrong about Critical Thinking," <i>Newsweek</i>, 14 August 2015, https://www.newsweek.com/youre-100-percent-wrong-about-critical-thinking-362334, accessed 10 July 2019.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Stanford History Education Group, "Evaluating Information: The Cornerstone of Civic Online Reasoning," 22 November 2016, Stanford University, https://stacks.stanford.edu/file/druid:fv751yt5934/SHEG%20Evaluating%20Information%20Online.pdf, accessed 10 July 2019.</span></div>
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Shane K. Bernardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00454946054965548589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660857958535448139.post-45464356654370731932018-08-16T20:29:00.001-05:002018-08-21T16:18:39.288-05:00Portrait of a Cajun Woman: Andonia Thibodeaux of Bayou Tigre<div style="background-color: white; margin-bottom: 6px; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">My assistant found the below tin-type image in the archives I administer on Avery Island, Louisiana. </span><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">The tin-type had been stored in an old letter envelope, and on that envelope someone had </span><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">long ago</span><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"> </span><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">recorded the name of the woman in the image as "Mlle." [Mademoiselle] Andonia Thibodeaux of Bayou Tigre. That bayou (<i>bayou </i>is the Louisiana term for a generally smallish, slow-moving, muddy river) runs through coastal Vermilion Parish.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dt-47ZgcMjw/W3YlvXyM2xI/AAAAAAAAC0s/PesamRdl1cU8PCtCO7nw1BKuH_dHZaIGACLcBGAs/s1600/AThibodeaux.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="576" height="400" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dt-47ZgcMjw/W3YlvXyM2xI/AAAAAAAAC0s/PesamRdl1cU8PCtCO7nw1BKuH_dHZaIGACLcBGAs/s400/AThibodeaux.jpg" width="316" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: small;">Andonia Thibodeaux of Bayou Tigre, [ca. 1887].</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: small;">Source: Avery Island Archives, Avery Island, Louisiana.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: small;">(Click to enlarge)</span></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">On searching the Internet for information about Andonia I found a description of her in an 1887 issue of <i>Harper’s</i>. (Think about it: what are the odds of that!) Composed by noted nineteenth-century writer Charles Dudley Warner, the article seems to have appeared around the same time the image in question was taken. I say this because Andonia, in both the article and the photograph, is depicted as a young woman. Furthermore, the article describes Andonia as sporting "small corkscrew curls" — just as she wears in the photograph. (The article also refers to Andonia "waving her handkerchief," one of which, I note, she holds in the image.)</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Titled "The Acadian Land," Warner's article not only mentions </span><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Andonia, it </span><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">offers a glimpse into the lives of Cajuns (Acadians) in </span><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">late-nineteenth-century</span><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"> </span><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">south Louisiana. The article reads in excerpt</span><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">:</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">"[W]e came into the Bayou Tigre, and landed for breakfast. . . . Resuming our voyage, we presently entered the inhabited part of the bayou, among cultivated fields, and made our first call on the Thibodeaux [family]. They had been expecting us, and Andonia came down to the landing to welcome us, and with a formal, pretty courtesy led the way to the house.</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CxDCvPaO2XA/W3mXq3xtjGI/AAAAAAAAC1s/BsnISBncuyQA5u4FxVfjJclDYPIZdQEIQCLcBGAs/s1600/tigre%2Bdetail.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="788" data-original-width="1217" height="256" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CxDCvPaO2XA/W3mXq3xtjGI/AAAAAAAAC1s/BsnISBncuyQA5u4FxVfjJclDYPIZdQEIQCLcBGAs/s400/tigre%2Bdetail.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: small;">"[T]he inhabited part of the bayou. . . ."<br />Present-day aerial image of Bayou Tigre section.<br />Source: <a href="https://maps.google.com/" target="_blank">Google Maps</a><br />(Click to enlarge)</span></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Does the reader happen to remember, say in New England, say fifty years ago, the sweetest maiden lady in the village, prim, staid, full of kindness, the proportions of the figure never quite developed, with a row of small corkscrew curls about her serene forehead, and all the juices of life that might have overflowed into the life of others somehow withered into the sweetness of her wistful face? Yes, a little timid and appealing, and yet trustful, and in a scant, quaint gown? Well, Andonia was never married, and she had such curls, and a high-waisted gown, and a kerchief folded across her breast; and when she spoke, it was in the language of France as it is rendered in Acadia. [By "Acadia" Warner </span><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">presumably</span><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"> </span><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">meant the Cajun-populated parishes of south Louisiana — now called "Acadiana" — and not colonial "Acadia" in what is now the Maritime Provinces of Canada.]</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--8BU1BCv09c/W3dFJquRjPI/AAAAAAAAC1I/NhVBOB3kt9ABD7oAeD6-cpYuG2Grczd4gCLcBGAs/s1600/bayou%2Btigre.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="839" data-original-width="1277" height="261" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--8BU1BCv09c/W3dFJquRjPI/AAAAAAAAC1I/NhVBOB3kt9ABD7oAeD6-cpYuG2Grczd4gCLcBGAs/s400/bayou%2Btigre.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Bayou Tigre, south of Erath and Delcambre, La.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Source: <a href="https://maps.google.com/" target="_blank">Google Maps</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">(Click to enlarge)</span><br />
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">The house, like all in this region, stands upon blocks of wood [inevitably cypress blocks], is in appearance a frame house, but the walls between timbers are of concrete mixed with moss [actually a </span><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">mixture</span><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"> of </span><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">mud, straw or moss, and sometimes animal hair called </span><i style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">bousillage </i><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">in Louisiana French], and the same inside as out. It had no glass in the windows, which were closed with solid shutters. Upon the rough walls were hung sacred pictures and other crudely colored prints. The furniture was rude and apparently home-made, and the whole interior was as painfully neat as a Dutch parlor.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TGpC8BU9Ilg/W3icR4DC_WI/AAAAAAAAC1U/1FbyVPMse5UE2v9pOAazBwAnKczbDcI8ACLcBGAs/s1600/bousillage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="899" data-original-width="569" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TGpC8BU9Ilg/W3icR4DC_WI/AAAAAAAAC1U/1FbyVPMse5UE2v9pOAazBwAnKczbDcI8ACLcBGAs/s400/bousillage.jpg" width="252" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i>Bousillage</i> in wall of historical home,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Acadian Village, Lafayette, La.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Photo by Shane K. Bernard</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">(Click to enlarge)</span></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Even the beams overhead and ceiling had been scrubbed. Andonia showed us with a blush of pride her neat little sleeping-room, with its souvenirs of affection, and perhaps some of the dried flowers of a possible romance, and the ladies admired the finely woven white counterpane on the bed. Andonia's married sister was a large, handsome woman, smiling and prosperous. There were children and, I think, a baby about, besides Mr. Thibodeaux. Nothing could exceed the kindly manner of these people. Andonia showed us how they card, weave, and spin the cotton [</span><i style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">cotonnade </i><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">in Louisiana French] out of which their blankets and the jean for their clothing are made. They use the old-fashioned hand-cards, spin on a little wheel with a foot-treadle, have the most primitive warping-bars, and weave most laboriously on a rude loom. But the cloth they make will wear forever, and the colors they use are all fast.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uW4kqoVR-Dk/W3iecqrc9nI/AAAAAAAAC1g/l_LvYgBv-8kXoD9oFHdobMN11x4366DzwCLcBGAs/s1600/dronet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="671" data-original-width="942" height="281" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uW4kqoVR-Dk/W3iecqrc9nI/AAAAAAAAC1g/l_LvYgBv-8kXoD9oFHdobMN11x4366DzwCLcBGAs/s400/dronet.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Madame Dronet and daughter carding and spinning <br />
to make Acadian homespun cloth. <br />
From the 1942 film <i>Cajuns of the Teche</i>.<br />
(Click image to enlarge it; or view film <a href="http://bayoutechedispatches.blogspot.com/2013/05/cajuns-of-teche-bad-history-wartime.html" target="_blank">here</a>)</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">It is a great pleasure, we might almost say shock, to encounter such honest work in these times. The Acadians grow a yellow or nankeen sort of cotton [</span><i style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">coton jaune </i><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">in Louisiana French] which, without requiring any dye, is woven into a handsome yellow stuff. When we departed Andonia slipped into the door-yard, and returned with a rose for each of us. I fancied she was loath to have us go, and that the visit was an event in the monotony of her single life.</span></span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-pkSuLsEx2Yg/W3rcPml-NeI/AAAAAAAAC14/Kk8DRDwszZ0-CdxG4l1-aWS4UkGx7dkOwCLcBGAs/s1600/homespun.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="723" data-original-width="756" height="306" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-pkSuLsEx2Yg/W3rcPml-NeI/AAAAAAAAC14/Kk8DRDwszZ0-CdxG4l1-aWS4UkGx7dkOwCLcBGAs/s320/homespun.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: small;">Acadian homespun cloth (<i>coton jaune</i>),<br />woven ca. 1900, in the Avery Island Archives.<br />Photo by Shane K. Bernard<br />(Click to enlarge)</span></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">[Later] all the neighborhood, accompanied us to our boats, and we went away down the stream with a chorus of adieus and good wishes. We were watching for a hail from the Thibodeaux. The doors and shutters were closed, and the mansion seemed blank and forgetful. But as we came opposite the landing, there stood Andonia, faithful, waving her handkerchief. . . ."</span><br />
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i>Addendum of 21 August 2018:</i></span><br />
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Sadly, genealogist Stanley LeBlanc informs me that Andonia Thibodeaux, full name Marie Andonia Thibodeaux, died 4 May 1889 — only two years after the appearance of the <i>Harper's</i> article. The cause of death is unknown. Moreover, Stanley tells me, as does Donna Caswell Murphy, that Andonia was born in 1854 (22 June 1854 to be precise). Her age at death was 34, so she may not have been</span><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">, as I thought, a girl when she sat for her photograph. I have thus changed the title of my article from "Portrait of a Cajun Girl" to "Portrait of a Cajun Woman." </span><br />
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Stanley and Donna's sources are the 1870 U.S. Census and Father Donald Hebert's </span><i style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">Southwest Louisiana Records</i><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">, Vol. 1, p. 107, and Vol. 2, p. 162.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i>From Charles Dudley Warner, "The Acadian Land," </i>Harper's New Monthly Magazine<i>, LXXIV (February 1887). </i></span><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-style: italic;">This excerpt originally appeared, albeit without annotations, on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/SouthLouisianaHistory" target="_blank">my personal Facebook page</a> </span><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-style: italic;">in April 2018</span><span style="color: #1d2129; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-style: italic;">. I have reformatted the article slightly to accommodate the images.</span></div>
Shane K. Bernardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00454946054965548589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660857958535448139.post-15255279931414914902017-05-01T16:00:00.001-05:002021-01-21T09:13:52.334-06:00Another Civil War Gunboat on the Teche: The U.S.S. Glide, aka Federal Gunboat No. 43<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">It is well-known that during the Civil War several Union and Confederate gunboats were active on Bayou Teche. These gunboats were the USS <i>Calhoun</i>, USS <i>Estrella</i>, USS <i>Kinsman</i>, USS <i>Clifton</i>, USS <i>Diana</i> (later captured by Rebels and rechristened the CSS <i>Diana</i>), and CSS <i>Cotton</i>. Also present on the Teche was the CSS <i>Stevens</i> (formerly the <i>Hart</i>), which the Rebels scuttled on the bayou between New Iberia and Jeanerette before completion. (See the chapter titled "The Teche during Wartime" in my book <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Teche-History-Louisianas-Famous-Americas/dp/1496809416" target="_blank">Teche: A History of Louisiana's Most Famous Bayou</a></i> [2016].)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Recently, however, R. C. Sealy of Lafayette sent me a typewritten transcript of a document apparently from the St. Mary Parish Courthouse indicating the presence of yet another gunboat on Bayou Teche — the USS <i>Glide</i>, referred to in the document by its more prosaic name, <i>Federal Gunboat No. 43</i>.</span><br />
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The U.S.S. <i>Glide</i> off Brashear City </div><div style="font-size: 12.8px;">(Morgan City), La., January 1864.</div>
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Source: <a href="https://www.history.navy.mil/" target="_blank">U.S. Naval Historical Center</a></div><div style="font-size: 12.8px;">[Note below reader comment from 19 July 2018]</div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">The document in question, authorized by St. Mary Parish Justice of the Peace Barthelmy d'Aquesseau Delahoussaye and St. Mary Parish Clerk of Court Charles Kerr, contains the March 19, 1864, testimony of F. Beaullieu [pron. BOWL-LYOE], agent of George Sallinger of Jeanerette. Beaullieu described himself as “a Frenchman by birth, [who] is disinterested in the matter of the loss of said property.” </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Corroborated by local residents Jules Basille and Pierre Cerf, “both subjects of the French Empire,” Beaullieu recorded that: </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i>[O]n the night of the 17th of March instant [i.e., that very month] 1864, some person or persons concealed in or near the old warehouse of one Florenz Hamm, late of Jeanerette, . . . fired into the </i>Federal Gun Boat No. 43 <i>as she passed opposite Jeanerette; that said gunboat was on its way to New Iberia; and that when said gunboat returned from New Iberia on the 19th day of March 1864 she landed on the same bank of said bayou [that the gunfire came from], and the officers of the boat under protection of a company of soldiers from on board of said boat sat</i><i> fire </i></span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">[sic] </span><i style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">willingly and deliberately to the house of Mr. George Sallinger, which was consumed to ashes in a few hours, also [with] several other extensive buildings belonging to said Sallinger, to-wit: a large coopers shop eighty feet long by thirty feet wide with double brick chimney; a large warehouse where he kept his barrels, one hundred feet long by thirty wide; another warehouse 50 feet long by 25 feet wide where he kept his hoops and other materials for making barrels; a small house in yard 25 feet long by 15 or 16 feet wide, well finished and in good order; one small kitchen; chicken houses; hen coops; a large quantity of fencing pickets around his premises, 500 to 800 in number; a good mahogany bedstead; a large quantity of cooper's tools, enough to employ 15 to 18 workmen as he generally did; a very large quantity of hoop poles, staves, headings, etc., together with his fruit trees, etc., etc.</i></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Beaullieu added that "he intervened to prevent the Federals from setting the property on fire, but that he was told that the [gun] firing had come from the house of said Sallinger, that they had orders to set it on fire, which they did, and the property was consumed. . . ."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">The Washington, D.C., newspaper <i>The Evening</i> appears to refer to this event in a brief article of April 1, 1864, about two weeks after the above incident. Offering a slightly different version of events, <i>The Evening</i> observed, “Rebel guerrillas, at Provost['s] Landing, on the Teche river, fired into one of our gunboats, but fled after a well-directed discharge of grape [shot]. The crew landed and burnt the buildings in the place.” (Provost's Landing, named for the local landowning Provost [pron. PRO-VOE] family, sat on the bayou just upstream from Jeanerette's upper limit at the time.)</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7APIn1CVlfY/WQeor5XeKWI/AAAAAAAACtM/A0Iz1d5gCEsK6Or9yXEUsd3uyOzh-8lqACLcB/s1600/Wash%2BDC%2BEvening%2Bstar.%252C%2BApril%2B01%252C%2B1864%252C%2BImage%2B2.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="86" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7APIn1CVlfY/WQeor5XeKWI/AAAAAAAACtM/A0Iz1d5gCEsK6Or9yXEUsd3uyOzh-8lqACLcB/s320/Wash%2BDC%2BEvening%2Bstar.%252C%2BApril%2B01%252C%2B1864%252C%2BImage%2B2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Source: Washington, D.C., <i>Evening Star</i>, 1 April 1864, p. 2.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Another newspaper, the <i>New Albany Daily Ledger</i> of Indiana, contained a few more details about the incident. It observed, "</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">A few days ago a company of guerrillas fired into one of our gunboats on the Teche, mistaking the vessel for an unarmed transport steamer. . . . </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">The rebels were concealed in some underbrush, into which a broadside of grape was discharged. The rebels fled on discovering the mistake they had made, taking the killed and wounded, if there were any, along with them. . . . </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">A boat's crew was landed from the gunboat, and the building near the place burned." </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--gE1E_ovus4/WQfWT2vPm4I/AAAAAAAACts/lJL1UnNYIzwdul5QsOaswDs0lYjZrOVpgCLcB/s1600/provosts%2Blanding%2Bincident.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--gE1E_ovus4/WQfWT2vPm4I/AAAAAAAACts/lJL1UnNYIzwdul5QsOaswDs0lYjZrOVpgCLcB/s320/provosts%2Blanding%2Bincident.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A more detailed account<br />
in the <i>New Albany</i> (Indiana) <i>Daily Ledger,</i><br />
4 April 1864, p. 1.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">(The <i>Daily Ledger</i> identified Provost's Landing as sitting </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">"about twelve miles from Franklin" — which is indeed the approximate linear distance between Franklin and Jeanerette. </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">I asked Mr. Sealy, however, if he knew exactly where along Bayou Teche in Jeanerette the torched structures stood. He matter-of-factly replied “On Cooper Street” — which would make sense.)</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-o4AGQrmuAQs/WQenHXjfI7I/AAAAAAAACs8/FBEObTE-dBYsSFvdBMsWiKCUtXGAdCHyQCLcB/s1600/Cooper%2BStreet%2BAerial.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-o4AGQrmuAQs/WQenHXjfI7I/AAAAAAAACs8/FBEObTE-dBYsSFvdBMsWiKCUtXGAdCHyQCLcB/s320/Cooper%2BStreet%2BAerial.jpg" width="317" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Location of the burned cooperage and dwelling<br />
according to Mr. Sealy. Source: <a href="http://maps.google.com/" target="_blank">Google Maps</a><br />
<span style="font-size: 12.8px;">(Click to enlarge)</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">According to the online <i>Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships</i>, maintained by the U.S. Navy's Naval History and Heritage Command, the <i>Glide</i>: </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i>was a wooden sidewheeler* built at Murraysville, Va., in 1863 and purchased 30 November 1863 at Pittsburgh, Pa., by Rear Admiral Porter. She was converted to Navy use and sent to New Orleans for duty with the Western Gulf Blockading Squadron, Acting Ens. L. S. Fickett in command. . . . From March 1864 to August 1865, Glide served as a blockading ship in Berwick Bay, La. During this period she made numerous short expeditions in the bayous surrounding the bay, suppressing guerrilla activity and capturing small blockade runners. </i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Furthermore, the <i>Glide</i> is known to have carried two 32-pounder cannons and four 24-pounder howitzers. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">On August 1, 1865, she was sold in New Orleans at public auction to a buyer named J. W. Young, who used her as a merchant vessel. On January 1, 1869, an explosion destroyed the <i>Glide</i> near New Orleans. As the <i>Louisiana Democrat</i> newspaper reported at the time, “[A]bout forty-nine miles above the city [of New Orleans], she ran aground, and shortly afterwards, between 12 and 1 o'clock, exploded her laboard [port or left-side] boiler, destroying almost every part of the boat" and scalding many of the passengers and crew, some of whom died from their injuries. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-anG9I-0xZ7g/WQeoNByqcHI/AAAAAAAACtE/0eoVB8OuS04VAHqHBKHe_cA0aNi2I9GWQCLcB/s1600/The%2BNew%2BOrleans%2Bcrescent.%2B%2528New%2BOrleans%252C%2BLa.%2529%2B1866-1869%252C%2BJanuary%2B14%252C%2B1869%252C%2BMorning%252C%2BImage%2B1.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-anG9I-0xZ7g/WQeoNByqcHI/AAAAAAAACtE/0eoVB8OuS04VAHqHBKHe_cA0aNi2I9GWQCLcB/s400/The%2BNew%2BOrleans%2Bcrescent.%2B%2528New%2BOrleans%252C%2BLa.%2529%2B1866-1869%252C%2BJanuary%2B14%252C%2B1869%252C%2BMorning%252C%2BImage%2B1.jpg" width="196" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Source: <i>The New Orleans Crescent</i>,<br />
14 January 1869, p. 1.<br />
(Click to enlarge)</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i>Notes</i>: </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">I thank Mr. R. C. Sealy for sharing the document with me that inspired this article. Mr. Sealy informed me that someone gave the document to his wife because she was a descendant of </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Beaullieu. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">I have corrected and standardized spelling and punctuation in all quoted primary-source material. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">The USS <i>Glide</i> should not be confused with another USS <i>Glide </i>built </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">in 1862 </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">in Shousetown, Pennsylvania, and which also served as a Civil War gunboat.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: courier new, courier, monospace;">*As an observant reader commented, the vessel in the photograph at page top is <i>not</i> a sidewheeler, even as the </span><span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;"><i>Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships</i> describes the</span><span style="font-family: courier new, courier, monospace;"> </span><span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">USS </span><i style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">Glide</i><span style="font-family: courier new, courier, monospace;"> as "a wooden </span><span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">sidewheeler."</span><span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;"> At present it is unknown whether the photograph or the </span><i style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">Dictionary</i><span style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;"> is incorrect. See, however, the below posting by 1000voices.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i>Addendum of 11 February 2018:</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Nancy Lees found this article, which was reprinted in a <i>New York Times</i> issue of 20 July 1865 (shortly after the Civil War's conclusion). It documents the presence on Bayou Teche of yet another gunboat, the <i>USS Carrabassett</i>. The article reads:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">FROM WEST LOUISIANA.</span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">From the [New Orleans] <i>True Delta</i>, July 11 [1865].</span> </blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">The gunboat <i>Carrabasset</i>t, six guns, arrived at this port on Thursday evening, from a fifteen months' cruise in the waters of West Louisiana. During her eventful, and at times trying, voyage, she passed through nearly all the bayous, creeks and streams of that portion of our State, at times penetrating to points never before reached by a steamer.</span> </blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">The report of her operations shows that the <i>Carrabassett</i> has rendered excellent service in the way of capturing arms, ammunition, horses, &c. [etc.]; but her principal service has been in preventing and breaking up the contraband trade which was carried on previous to the removal of trade restrictions, and in this service her efforts proved very successful.</span> </blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">A month or so ago, information having been sent to the officers of the boat, she proceeded up the Teche Bayou to St. Martinsville, where a large quantity of machinery, belonging to the light-houses on the coast, was found and taken possession of. These light-houses were dismantled some time since by order of Gen. LOVELL, and the fixtures, which are of a very superior description, were taken to St. Martinsville and secreted. The recovery of them comes at a most opportune moment, and will be a saving to the government of about $30,000. The <i>Carrabassett</i> was the first Union gunboat that ever visited St. Martinsville, and was an object of great curiosity to the people. Hundreds of ladies and gentlemen visited the vessel during her stay, and many friendships sprang up between them and the officers.</span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">The last duty performed by the <i>Carrabassett</i> was convoying transports and carrying troops to Washington [the town in Louisiana] and other points on Bayou Courtableau and Teche. This gave her officers a fine opportunity to see the country and converse with the people, all of whom seemed anxious that the authorities should send a provost-guard at once. The well-known guerrilla, BAILEY VINCENT, has a gang of about a dozen men, who commit the most outrageous acts. The citizens of Franklin have joined with the Federal soldiers in several attempts to capture them, but have failed thus far. This band has several times entered the town of Franklin, robbed the stores, shot into houses, and committed other dastardly acts. When the <i>Carrabassett</i> left Brashear City [now Morgan City] on the morning of the 4th inst., a guard had not occupied Franklin; but, at the earnest solicitation of the citizens, a guard of the Third Rhode Island Cavalry was ordered to leave Brashear for that point on the same day.</span> </blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">The wrecks of the gunboats <i>Cotton</i>, <i>Diana</i>, <i>Hart</i> and several others, destroyed some two years ago, are still in the Teche, and greatly impede the navigation of that stream. The bridges across this bayou are also destroyed, and the wrecks float about in the water.</span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Many of the plantations are in excellent order, with crops in good condition and plenty of laborers. Others are deserted by both proprietors and hands, and are all in ruins. The gunboats in this section are invariably welcomed with demonstrations of joy, as bringing protection from the acts of lawless persons.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"></span>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">SOURCES </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">"Another Steamboat Disaster," <i>The Louisiana Democrat</i>, 20 January 1869, p. 3. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">"Battle at Natchitoches, Louisiana — Another Success of the Red River Expedition," <i>New Albany </i>(Indiana)<i> Daily Ledger</i>, 4 April 1864, p. 1.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">"From West Louisiana," <i>New York Times</i>, 20 July 1865, p. 2, http://www.nytimes.com/1865/07/20/archives/from-west-louisiana.html, accessed 11 February 2018.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">"<i>Glide II</i> (StwStr)," </span><i style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace;">Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships</i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">, 13 July 2015, https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/g/glide-ii.html, accessed 1 May 2017.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i>Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion, Series II, Volume 1: Statistical Data of Union and Confederate Ships; Muster Roles of Confederate Government Vessels </i>(Washington, D.C. : U.S. Government Printing Office, 1921), p. 96.
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Routh Trowbridge </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Wilby, <i>Clearing Bayou Teche after the Civil War: The Kingsbury Project, 1870–1871</i> (Lafayette: </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Center for Louisiana Studies, University of Southwestern Louisiana, 1991), 28, 30.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Testimony of F. Beaullieu, State of Louisiana, Parish of St. Mary, 19 March 1864, typewritten transcript, 2 pp., photocopy in possession of R. C. Sealy, Lafayette, La.</span></div>
<i></i>Shane K. Bernardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00454946054965548589noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660857958535448139.post-17374287701571068402016-06-05T11:44:00.000-05:002016-12-01T21:35:02.632-06:00Now Available: My New Book about Bayou Teche<center>
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="225" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/a3fe9_d8MZ8" width="400"></iframe><br />
<i>Teche: A History of Louisiana's Most Famous Bayou</i></center>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">My newest book, <i>Teche: A History of Louisiana's Most Famous Bayou</i>, has been released by my publisher, University Press of Mississippi. <span style="color: red;">(<b>To order the book from Amazon.com, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Teche-History-Louisianas-Famous-Americas/dp/1496809416/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8" target="_blank">click here</a>.</b></span> It's also available from all other booksellers, including local independent booksellers.)</span></div>
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<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5QAE0hjqc7Q/WEDrOrpyGMI/AAAAAAAACqs/mJKITwU_xikVW9WZgNTylmQWEb4KpJQ0ACLcB/s1600/9781496809414%2Bsm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" height="200" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5QAE0hjqc7Q/WEDrOrpyGMI/AAAAAAAACqs/mJKITwU_xikVW9WZgNTylmQWEb4KpJQ0ACLcB/s200/9781496809414%2Bsm.jpg" title="" width="128" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cover art for my new book.<br />
The painting is by noted south Louisiana<br />
artist Melissa Bonin.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; text-align: justify;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; text-align: justify;">As the book's description reads: </span><br />
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<span style="color: #666666;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; line-height: 22.4px;">Shane K. Bernard’s </span><i style="font-family: 'courier new', courier, monospace; line-height: 22.4px;">Teche</i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; line-height: 22.4px;"> examines this legendary waterway of the American Deep South. Bernard delves into the bayou’s geologic formation as a vestige of the Mississippi and Red Rivers, its prehistoric Native American occupation, and its colonial settlement by French, Spanish, and, eventually, Anglo-American pioneers. He surveys the coming of indigo, cotton, and sugar; steam-powered sugar mills and riverboats; and the brutal institution of slavery. He also examines the impact of the Civil War on the Teche, depicting the running battles up and down the bayou and the sporadic gunboat duels, when ironclads clashed in the narrow confines of the dark, sluggish river.</span></span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kxo7JNc284o/V1Ras38karI/AAAAAAAACp0/mIM9CZba9wICH1Xw9o48LmTsfpVYWh9PQCLcB/s1600/The%2B%2528New%2BYork%2529%2BWeekly%2BGraphic%2B18%2BApril%2B1874%2Bb%2Bsm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="217" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kxo7JNc284o/V1Ras38karI/AAAAAAAACp0/mIM9CZba9wICH1Xw9o48LmTsfpVYWh9PQCLcB/s320/The%2B%2528New%2BYork%2529%2BWeekly%2BGraphic%2B18%2BApril%2B1874%2Bb%2Bsm.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image from the (New York) <i>Weekly Graphic</i> (18 April 1874).<br />
Author's Collection.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Describing the misery of the postbellum era, Bernard reveals how epic floods, yellow fever, racial violence, and widespread poverty disrupted the lives of those who resided under the sprawling, moss-draped live oaks lining the Teche’s banks. Further, he chronicles the slow decline of the bayou, as the coming of the railroad, automobiles, and highways reduced its value as a means of travel. Finally, he considers modern efforts to redesign the Teche using dams, locks, levees, and other water-control measures. He examines the recent push to clean and revitalize the bayou after years of desecration by litter, pollutants, and invasive species. Illustrated with historic images and numerous maps, this book will be required reading for anyone seeking the colorful history of Louisiana and the Gulf Coast.</span><br />
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</span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aeN1Z_QFh4Q/V1RY_5O5S4I/AAAAAAAACpo/A9WhTvVKZQMMMeAicQKhqLZhffzZIGrJQCLcB/s1600/P2.2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="color: #666666;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aeN1Z_QFh4Q/V1RY_5O5S4I/AAAAAAAACpo/A9WhTvVKZQMMMeAicQKhqLZhffzZIGrJQCLcB/s320/P2.2.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #666666;">The author (right) canoeing on Bayou Teche.</span><br />
<span style="color: #666666;">(Click to enlarge.)</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">As a bonus, the second part of the book describes Bernard’s own canoe journey down the Teche’s 125-mile course. This modern personal account from the field reveals the current state of the bayou and the remarkable people who still live along its banks.</span></div>
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Shane K. Bernardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00454946054965548589noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660857958535448139.post-75731214081889237022016-02-11T21:11:00.001-06:002016-02-13T23:01:46.585-06:00A Railroad History of Avery Island<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><i>This is an article I wrote for someone else's blog back in 2010. I reprint it for the first time here:</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">My name is Shane K. Bernard and I'm the historian and curator for McIlhenny Company and Avery Island Inc., located on Avery Island, Louisiana.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-q-i1hwfHSfg/Vr94TSiwU6I/AAAAAAAACpI/p_-1hZemEuE/s1600/50.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-q-i1hwfHSfg/Vr94TSiwU6I/AAAAAAAACpI/p_-1hZemEuE/s320/50.jpg" width="311" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Map of Avery Island, Louisiana,<br />
with railroad routes highlighted in yellow.<br />
Source: Avery Island Inc. Archives</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Avery Island is a salt dome in lower Iberia Parish, Louisiana. It's not an island in the traditional sense; that is, it's not surrounded by a body of </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">open</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"> </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">water. In fact, it's located about 3 miles inland from the nearest body of </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">open</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"> </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">water. But it is surrounded on all sides by wetlands — either grassy salt marsh, wooded cypress swamp, or slow-moving, muddy bayous.</span></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">The railroad came to Avery Island in 1883, primarily to serve the Island's salt mine. The railroad also served the factory that produced the world-famous TABASCO® brand Pepper Sauce. It, too, was (and still is) located on Avery Island.</span></div>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QW_LZluY_p4/Vr1JYEBukyI/AAAAAAAACoQ/1Bx661dsBLI/s1600/5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QW_LZluY_p4/Vr1JYEBukyI/AAAAAAAACoQ/1Bx661dsBLI/s320/5.jpg" width="224" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo by author</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">I took most of the photographs in this series on restricted private property with the permission of the landowners, McIlhenny Company & Avery Island Inc. (my employers).</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jexRvAFy9g4/Vr1JYKHYD9I/AAAAAAAACok/V4jwgDFd4kE/s1600/6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="236" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jexRvAFy9g4/Vr1JYKHYD9I/AAAAAAAACok/V4jwgDFd4kE/s320/6.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Photo by author</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">The railroad reached Avery Island by crossing this trestle bridge over Bayou Petite Anse (actually the confluence of Bayou Leleu and Stumpy Bayou, which in turn flows into the nearby Petite Anse). I took this photo around 2000.</span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Ptbp7DpMsWo/Vr1JYWtEGjI/AAAAAAAACoY/6Rxa-hEJgt4/s1600/7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Ptbp7DpMsWo/Vr1JYWtEGjI/AAAAAAAACoY/6Rxa-hEJgt4/s320/7.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Photo by author</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">This is what the trestle bridge looks like today (May 2010). Hurricane Rita washed away the top part of the trestle in 2005. Because the railroad no longer serviced the Island by that time (the rails on the Island having been ripped up in 2002), no effort was made to repair the bridge. (By 2000 the salt mine used eighteen-wheelers and barges to transport salt; McIlhenny Company likewise used eighteen-wheelers to distribute TABASCO® Sauce.)</span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0hGCQ2cWWAE/Vr1JYm5XXwI/AAAAAAAACoc/yOIfnybjxW4/s1600/8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0hGCQ2cWWAE/Vr1JYm5XXwI/AAAAAAAACoc/yOIfnybjxW4/s320/8.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Photo by author</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HzAuliwmkFk/Vr1JYpzS6BI/AAAAAAAACog/pWvzAp2NNT4/s1600/9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="190" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HzAuliwmkFk/Vr1JYpzS6BI/AAAAAAAACog/pWvzAp2NNT4/s320/9.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Photo by author</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-csKdgV0eunk/Vr1JPGiY9_I/AAAAAAAACls/EeTGbwFeI_U/s1600/10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="194" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-csKdgV0eunk/Vr1JPGiY9_I/AAAAAAAACls/EeTGbwFeI_U/s320/10.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Photo by author</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Here is Engine 455 crossing the same trestle bridge. This photo was taken in the early to mid-1950s; a diesel engine replaced Engine 455 around 1955.</span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-BtMSD2glKfs/Vr1JPXZhXMI/AAAAAAAAClw/Pnxnx2_rQRw/s1600/12.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="218" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-BtMSD2glKfs/Vr1JPXZhXMI/AAAAAAAAClw/Pnxnx2_rQRw/s320/12.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Source: Avery Island Inc. Archives</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vV64o0k8lBY/Vr1JP_s3awI/AAAAAAAACl0/LfOBxviwaLg/s1600/13.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="234" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vV64o0k8lBY/Vr1JP_s3awI/AAAAAAAACl0/LfOBxviwaLg/s320/13.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Source: Avery Island Inc. Archives</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-oMQgE3EZvCk/Vr1JP4y9BxI/AAAAAAAACl4/AiW9LeaaeOI/s1600/15.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-oMQgE3EZvCk/Vr1JP4y9BxI/AAAAAAAACl4/AiW9LeaaeOI/s320/15.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Source: Avery Island Inc. Archives</span></td></tr>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Although Engine 455 ended up in a Houston scrapyard, someone at Avery Island salvaged its headlamp, which now sits in the McIlhenny Company & Avery Island Inc. Archives.</span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-F1KVcMFz27c/Vr1JQZKXEAI/AAAAAAAACmA/iAGbac-ek60/s1600/17.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="259" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-F1KVcMFz27c/Vr1JQZKXEAI/AAAAAAAACmA/iAGbac-ek60/s320/17.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Photo by author</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Here is a circa 1955 photo of the diesel engine that replaced Engine 455. As you can see, the diesel engine is crossing the trestle bridge that leads onto the Island. (The boy in the photo is reminding the railroad workers that they are entering private property; I have been told this ceremony occurred annually for legal reasons.)</span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-SQLVZSTFsXg/Vr1JQs-rlCI/AAAAAAAACmE/TzdUvfoWaf4/s1600/18.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-SQLVZSTFsXg/Vr1JQs-rlCI/AAAAAAAACmE/TzdUvfoWaf4/s1600/18.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Source: Avery Island Inc. Archives</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">A few hundred yards down Stumpy Bayou are the trestle bridge parts washed away by Hurricane Rita.</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-E5xEGauLUWY/Vr1JQ0bUgII/AAAAAAAACmI/zGtYf2IS1OU/s1600/19.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-E5xEGauLUWY/Vr1JQ0bUgII/AAAAAAAACmI/zGtYf2IS1OU/s320/19.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Photo by author</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Note the marine life that had grown on the trestle. (My foot is in the image for scale.)</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pPxzmhjP47g/Vr1JREe9pgI/AAAAAAAACmU/osQrxnTU78o/s1600/20.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pPxzmhjP47g/Vr1JREe9pgI/AAAAAAAACmU/osQrxnTU78o/s320/20.jpg" width="280" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Photo by author</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Here is the rail bed — the elevated whitish hump running between and parallel to the grass and bamboo — as it looks today, heading south on Avery Island toward the salt mine.</span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-51Fp7y0Vy4k/Vr1JRc3ojAI/AAAAAAAACmc/2h-j-ov1tPA/s1600/21.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="294" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-51Fp7y0Vy4k/Vr1JRc3ojAI/AAAAAAAACmc/2h-j-ov1tPA/s320/21.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Photo by author</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">I took this photograph looking south on the same section of rail bed.</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bJseqLHksak/Vr1JRhgrM3I/AAAAAAAACmY/8v0986mM604/s1600/22.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bJseqLHksak/Vr1JRhgrM3I/AAAAAAAACmY/8v0986mM604/s320/22.jpg" width="187" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Photo by author</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Moving south, I found a small section of track still in place at the entrance to the McIlhenny Company corporate office.</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Tpb7VfKb8uI/Vr1JRj6-WsI/AAAAAAAACmo/nNoxKunwC7A/s1600/23.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="215" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Tpb7VfKb8uI/Vr1JRj6-WsI/AAAAAAAACmo/nNoxKunwC7A/s320/23.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Photo by author</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Right past the corporate office stands the McIlhenny station sign. There was never an actual station here, however, because the TABASCO® factory itself was the "station." (The older part of our corporate office served as the TABASCO® Sauce factory from 1905 until around 1980.) Incidentally, the station sign that appears in this photo is a new replica. The original sign shows up in the next image below; it is now preserved in the Archives. [Actually, as of February 2016 the sign is on display in the Barrel Warehouse section of the new Tabasco Museum tour.]</span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FFNXbic5ut8/Vr1JR_Hz6fI/AAAAAAAACmg/rEDggxZIvkA/s1600/24.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="307" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FFNXbic5ut8/Vr1JR_Hz6fI/AAAAAAAACmg/rEDggxZIvkA/s320/24.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Photo by author</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">In this circa 2000 image of the same spot, you can make out the spur (see arrow) leading from the main line toward the TABASCO® factory.</span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rCnjuvcEKJI/Vr1JSADYj3I/AAAAAAAACmk/YLXVlt46-wU/s1600/25.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rCnjuvcEKJI/Vr1JSADYj3I/AAAAAAAACmk/YLXVlt46-wU/s320/25.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Photo by author</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">This is looking at the station sign from the opposite direction. The yellow lines on this present-day photo show where the main line and spur (at right) would have been located.</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-sN3DyC6S_Ws/Vr1JSSx5ijI/AAAAAAAACng/gaiIn3JMQzI/s1600/26.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="271" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-sN3DyC6S_Ws/Vr1JSSx5ijI/AAAAAAAACng/gaiIn3JMQzI/s320/26.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Photo by author</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Following the spur toward the old TABASCO® factory leads to some kind of device on the ground (which I assume is related to the railroad). [I have since learned that the device permitted TABASCO® factory workers to manually move boxcars back and forth along the spur.] The yellow line shows where the side track would have continued. As you can see, it would have gone right between the two buildings (where an enclosed walkway now stands). There the spur ended.</span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZiE_AKf65HQ/Vr1JSXU9O7I/AAAAAAAACms/HBTWJys6cgE/s1600/27.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZiE_AKf65HQ/Vr1JSXU9O7I/AAAAAAAACms/HBTWJys6cgE/s320/27.jpg" width="199" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Photo by author</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">This photo, taken around 1980, shows a diesel engine on the track between the two buildings. TABASCO®-related material would have been loaded/unloaded from the train at this location.</span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZQb4eCh3_s8/Vr1JSvT_ssI/AAAAAAAACmw/xRNB7EMfHfc/s1600/28.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="232" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZQb4eCh3_s8/Vr1JSvT_ssI/AAAAAAAACmw/xRNB7EMfHfc/s320/28.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Source: McIlhenny Company Archives</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">A close-up image of the device that I assume to be railroad-related [See above bracketed note about the purpose of this device.]</span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HUYKAwrzZnk/Vr1JTFjm7gI/AAAAAAAACm0/KTFlJDMyXOk/s1600/29.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="302" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HUYKAwrzZnk/Vr1JTFjm7gI/AAAAAAAACm0/KTFlJDMyXOk/s320/29.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Photo by author</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Heading south again on the Island, the rail bed passes this old sign with the number "9."</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZZUn5jArWKk/Vr1JTh_qQhI/AAAAAAAACm8/nH8tNxPeSz0/s1600/30.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="220" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZZUn5jArWKk/Vr1JTh_qQhI/AAAAAAAACm8/nH8tNxPeSz0/s320/30.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Photo by author</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Moving farther south the two rails became six rails. (Note the third set of rails below the arrow.) I was told that the extra set was a siding. This picture was taken in 2000.</span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3CRZkInWOzk/Vr1JT-_APrI/AAAAAAAACos/ZEfCLhGnMYQ/s1600/31.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3CRZkInWOzk/Vr1JT-_APrI/AAAAAAAACos/ZEfCLhGnMYQ/s320/31.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Photo by author</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Here is the same spot during the railroad’s demolition in 2002.</span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_2yA2bVF5b4/Vr1JUNTer_I/AAAAAAAACos/1Dtz6j_r3jU/s1600/32.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_2yA2bVF5b4/Vr1JUNTer_I/AAAAAAAACos/1Dtz6j_r3jU/s320/32.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Photo by author</span></td></tr>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Here's another photo from the same area, showing the excavator and bulldozer that tore up the track; note the scrap in the dumpster.</span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1yNRenof-Hc/Vr1JUeQComI/AAAAAAAACos/AFKIcc_WIys/s1600/33.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="306" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1yNRenof-Hc/Vr1JUeQComI/AAAAAAAACos/AFKIcc_WIys/s320/33.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Photo by author</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">This is the same section of track, but looking in the opposite direction (north).</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RoEBOYC3fec/Vr1JUh98oxI/AAAAAAAACos/KVaY0IYQf8w/s1600/34.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RoEBOYC3fec/Vr1JUh98oxI/AAAAAAAACos/KVaY0IYQf8w/s320/34.jpg" width="306" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Photo by author</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">This is what that same area looks like today.</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RfM10Y_PLPg/Vr1JVPsByhI/AAAAAAAACos/u017N1cMaig/s1600/35.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="236" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RfM10Y_PLPg/Vr1JVPsByhI/AAAAAAAACos/u017N1cMaig/s320/35.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Photo by author</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">A close inspection of that spot reveals signs of its previous purpose — in this case, a railroad spike stuck in a rail plate.</span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aKaClGxRSRM/Vr1JVTeFEbI/AAAAAAAACoo/TT4eqnhuz5k/s1600/36.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aKaClGxRSRM/Vr1JVTeFEbI/AAAAAAAACoo/TT4eqnhuz5k/s320/36.jpg" width="316" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Photo by author</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">A few feet away is a rotting railroad tie that the demolition crew evidently forgot to pick up.</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-SjC7Q5aEP78/Vr1JVneNlSI/AAAAAAAACoo/ZVFlizZOjqY/s1600/37.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-SjC7Q5aEP78/Vr1JVneNlSI/AAAAAAAACoo/ZVFlizZOjqY/s320/37.jpg" width="196" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Photo by author</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">This switch, photographed in 2002 on the same stretch of railroad, is no longer to be found. [I have since been told that someone on the Island made this switch into a mailbox.]</span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-SifGU0M_JsA/Vr1JV5ZB9hI/AAAAAAAACoo/Ly6ZI2OlIlY/s1600/38.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-SifGU0M_JsA/Vr1JV5ZB9hI/AAAAAAAACoo/Ly6ZI2OlIlY/s1600/38.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Photo by author</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">We're now getting close to the Avery Island salt mine, which I'm unsure was ever so crowded with trains as depicted in this circa 1940 advertisement. But perhaps it was, during the heyday of railroad transportation.</span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YZymVn5fisY/Vr1JWAxkKMI/AAAAAAAACoo/ItLEFwDdU3Q/s1600/39.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="224" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YZymVn5fisY/Vr1JWAxkKMI/AAAAAAAACoo/ItLEFwDdU3Q/s320/39.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Source: Avery Island Inc. Archives</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">The rail bed reaches the salt mine and runs into this fence; note the salt mine structure in the background.</span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Uqt89V0u9Ow/Vr1JWd_9SGI/AAAAAAAACoo/KPeHRe2sz2c/s1600/40.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Uqt89V0u9Ow/Vr1JWd_9SGI/AAAAAAAACoo/KPeHRe2sz2c/s320/40.jpg" width="193" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Photo by author</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Looking back northward from the same spot reveals this presumably railroad-related sign reading "D."</span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-K9j_fKupJXQ/Vr1JWhuSyLI/AAAAAAAACoo/W6FHaNYaZ2w/s1600/41.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-K9j_fKupJXQ/Vr1JWhuSyLI/AAAAAAAACoo/W6FHaNYaZ2w/s320/41.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Photo by author</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Here is an 1899 photo of the salt mine with box cars present.</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZnZZKEo538E/Vr1JWyTiqLI/AAAAAAAACoo/Cn68FANkrwY/s1600/42.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="297" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZnZZKEo538E/Vr1JWyTiqLI/AAAAAAAACoo/Cn68FANkrwY/s320/42.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Source: Avery Island Inc. Archives</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">This circa 1930 aerial photo shows the salt mine; I've added yellow lines next to the railroad tracks. Note a spur leading off the main line.</span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tQTxemrSuaM/Vr1JXPU-pUI/AAAAAAAACoo/ZGv9xgcT2Xc/s1600/43.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tQTxemrSuaM/Vr1JXPU-pUI/AAAAAAAACoo/ZGv9xgcT2Xc/s320/43.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Source: Avery Island Inc. Archives</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">This circa 2000 photo shows the railroad as it continued onto the salt mine property. I don't know if these rails still exist today because I did not return to the salt mine lease. (Perhaps another day and, of course, only with permission of the salt mine lessee.)</span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-H-Cp218TnOs/Vr1JXHtrmuI/AAAAAAAACoo/fo7xOHjbuXg/s1600/44.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-H-Cp218TnOs/Vr1JXHtrmuI/AAAAAAAACoo/fo7xOHjbuXg/s320/44.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Photo by author</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">A close-up circa 2000 image of the rails on the salt mine lease. These could be rails from the 19th century or early 20th century, given their decrepit condition. Most of the rails ripped up in 2002 appeared in good condition — nothing at all like these rails.</span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GHZC5uGw1rw/Vr1JXRscb_I/AAAAAAAACoo/TXByx7r4XcA/s1600/45.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GHZC5uGw1rw/Vr1JXRscb_I/AAAAAAAACoo/TXByx7r4XcA/s320/45.jpg" width="311" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Photo by author</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Backing up a little, I found the rails that made </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">up the spur shown in the above circa 1930 aerial photo.</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9C6J62YYBso/Vr1JXjgvU0I/AAAAAAAACoo/uTaJTwd_P0Y/s1600/46.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9C6J62YYBso/Vr1JXjgvU0I/AAAAAAAACoo/uTaJTwd_P0Y/s320/46.jpg" width="214" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Photo by author</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">A close-up image of the spur rail as it appears today — almost buried beneath the topsoil.</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xzdkR0yCysI/Vr1JXn3pz3I/AAAAAAAACoo/PxIKNfEiGbI/s1600/47.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xzdkR0yCysI/Vr1JXn3pz3I/AAAAAAAACoo/PxIKNfEiGbI/s320/47.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Photo by author</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">The spur rails lead into thick woods.</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xnCmWwvBIIk/Vr1JX4WWF8I/AAAAAAAACoo/1ckL2XEfhck/s1600/48.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xnCmWwvBIIk/Vr1JX4WWF8I/AAAAAAAACoo/1ckL2XEfhck/s320/48.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Photo by author</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">This is where the spur rails once led: A gravel and sand pit on Avery Island. It shut down in 1917.</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vYuiiRfeL2E/Vr1JXzhMraI/AAAAAAAACoo/0sibOohTelc/s1600/49.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="220" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vYuiiRfeL2E/Vr1JXzhMraI/AAAAAAAACoo/0sibOohTelc/s320/49.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Source: Avery Island Inc. Archives</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Shane K. Bernard, Ph.D.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">May 13, 2010</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Avery Island, Louisiana</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span>
<i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Addendum </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">of 19 May 2010</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">:</span></i><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-KMmpNGWThQ0/Vr1L1ADN6xI/AAAAAAAACo4/6Q9WDv_HtF4/s1600/50.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="244" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-KMmpNGWThQ0/Vr1L1ADN6xI/AAAAAAAACo4/6Q9WDv_HtF4/s320/50.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Source: Avery Island Inc. Archives</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">With help from others it's been determined for sure that spur #1 on this aerial photo is the spur that led to the old salt mine (dismantled after the mine caved-in at that location in the 1890s) and spur #2 is the spur that led to the sand/gravel pit that closed in 1917. This photo is interesting because it shows both spurs in the same image. Again, the rails that make up spur #1 remain in good condition as of last week; while the rails that make up spur #2 were in terrible shape when I last saw them several years ago.</span></div>
<br />Shane K. Bernardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00454946054965548589noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660857958535448139.post-87947474754051733642016-01-01T21:00:00.003-06:002022-05-29T19:48:19.698-05:00<div style="text-align: center;">
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-family: courier;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Cajuns-Americanization-People/dp/B075MN4KP9/ref=tmm_aud_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=" target="_blank">Audiobook</a> edition</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-family: courier;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Cajuns-Americanization-Shane-K-Bernard-ebook/dp/B0044KLW7W/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=" target="_blank">Kindle</a> edition</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-family: courier;">"The strength of this study rests in the way Bernard follows the effects of postwar changes as they ripple through Cajun culture. . . . Bernard, as both scholar and participant, has written a thorough and interesting study of that transformation." ~ <i>Journal of Southern History</i></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-family: courier;">"Bernard has done an excellent job in treating this neglected aspect of Cajun history. . . . This reviewer highly recommends this immensely readable and informative volume to anyone interested in learning more about one of America’s most fascinating peoples." ~<i> The Journal of American History</i></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-family: courier;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Teche-History-Louisianas-Famous-Bayou/dp/B074XHNC3D/ref=tmm_aud_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1525902808&sr=8-1" target="_blank">Audiobook</a> edition</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-family: courier;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Teche-History-Louisianas-Famous-Bayou/dp/B074XHNC3D/ref=tmm_aud_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1525902808&sr=8-1" target="_blank">Kindle</a> edition</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-family: courier;">Recipient of 2017 Book of the Year award presented by the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities.</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-family: courier;">"Aided by the vividness of the history he describes, Bernard tells a gripping story, centered on the narrative of the people who live along the Teche." ~ <i>Country Roads Magazine</i></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-family: courier;">"Bernard has invited his readers to know the Teche better,
and in that he very much succeeds. . . . [A]n enjoyable and well-written book
that introduces readers to a waterway whose history is 'much more significant
than its size would at first suggest.' The maps and images are well chosen and well
placed, and the text is well written, well researched, and peppered with
interesting anecdotes. Readers with an interest in local history or Louisiana
history will certainly welcome this book, but there is a place for it as well
on the shelves of readers with a broader interest in southern history or
riparian history." ~ <i>Louisiana History</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-family: courier;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Cajuns-Their-Acadian-Ancestors-Readers-ebook/dp/B0030I1XUA/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=" target="_blank">English Kindle</a> edition</span></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-family: courier;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Cadiens-leurs-anc%C3%AAtres-acadiens-lhistoire/dp/1617037796/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8" target="_blank">French hardcover</a> edition</span></i></div>
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<i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-family: courier;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Cadiens-leurs-anc%C3%AAtres-acadiens-lhistoire-ebook/dp/B00BMMLNTC/ref=mt_kindle?_encoding=UTF8&me=" target="_blank">French Kindle</a> edition</span></i></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-family: courier;">"[C]lear, accurate, and engaging. . . . [T]he book will be a welcome contribution to school libraries and will serve as an excellent reference for reports and early research papers within secondary curricula." ~ <i>Journal of Folklore Research Reviews</i></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-family: courier;">"[A] brief but delightfully engaging account of who the Cajuns are and how they got that way, a narrative as informative as it is easy to navigate. . . . [It] fills an important gap on the Louisiana history bookshelf, and its value can be appreciated by the not-so-young as well." ~ New Orleans <i>Times-Picayune</i></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-family: courier;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/TABASCO-Illustrated-Shane-K-Bernard/dp/0979780802/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="645" data-original-width="557" height="200" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dSoa2NsGASk/WvNv-wT8N9I/AAAAAAAACvY/SXLZzo89liMrj_Y8NmqBDMr4hoeMqAI4gCLcBGAs/s200/tabasco%2Billustrated%2Bhistory%2Bbook%2Bcover%2Bsmall.jpg" width="172" /></a></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-family: courier;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/TABASCO-Illustrated-Shane-K-Bernard/dp/0979780802/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8" target="_blank">Hardcover</a> edition</span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-family: courier;">"Serious Tabasco fans are no doubt salivating over this hardcover story of Louisiana's McIlhenny family and their iconic hot stuff. Bernard. . . peppers the volume with rarely seen photos, documents and lush illustrations right out of the company archives. . . ." ~ <i>Atlanta Journal-Constitution</i></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-family: courier;">"It's easy to say this is a hot holiday book. The coffee-table tome includes history, ads and trivia — a "Tabasco in Hollywood" section tells us the sauce appeared on film with Laurel & Hardy, Bugs Bunny, the Little Rascals and James Bond and even in 'Apocalypse Now.' Our fave picture is a 1954 poster in English and Hebrew boasting 'The Only Pepper Sauce Under Rabbinical Supervision.'" ~ <i>New York Post</i></span></div>
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<span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif" style="font-family: courier;">[A] lavish, entrancing book . . . tracing the fabled condiment's history, the family, marketing and more." ~ New Orleans <i>Times-Picayune</i></span></div>
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Shane K. Bernardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00454946054965548589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660857958535448139.post-43964383118031148422014-04-09T11:06:00.002-05:002014-04-10T18:10:19.739-05:00Rough Rider Redux: A Photo of Theodore Roosevelt in Downtown New Iberia?<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Two days ago an acquaintance sent me the below image from a cache of family photographs owned by his mother, a Broussard from Iberia Parish. (Incidentally, his mother turned ninety only yesterday.) No background information accompanied the photograph, except that it showed a parade in downtown New Iberia.</span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PEOIdVfXnwk/U0VrkYyJcCI/AAAAAAAACY0/nEFFzoKax7g/s1600/Main+St.+New+Iberia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PEOIdVfXnwk/U0VrkYyJcCI/AAAAAAAACY0/nEFFzoKax7g/s1600/Main+St.+New+Iberia.jpg" height="307" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The photograph, showing downtown New Iberia, early twentieth century.<br />
(Click to enlarge)</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">I confirmed for myself that the photograph was indeed taken in downtown New Iberia. The two surnames appearing on buildings in the photograph, Siebeck and Renoudet, are historical New Iberia surnames. "O. Renoudet" was a well-known merchant in the town, selling carriages, wagons, and hardware. </span><span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Moreover, in the photograph's distant background I could discern the rounded cupola of the old U.S. Post Office. This building exists today, perfectly restored, as the Schwing Insurance Building.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ntH10tgmivM/U0VsDWTeAOI/AAAAAAAACY8/BJkkiFerLxo/s1600/old+post+office+New+Iberia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ntH10tgmivM/U0VsDWTeAOI/AAAAAAAACY8/BJkkiFerLxo/s1600/old+post+office+New+Iberia.jpg" height="400" width="353" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Close up of the old post office, New Iberia,<br />
now the Schwing Insurance Building.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">I then noticed something peculiar about the parade: it included a sizable number of men on horseback wearing cowboy hats and neckerchiefs. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9OrDyXrnLBo/U0VwnuHMJeI/AAAAAAAACZw/c-w-35HZGwA/s1600/Old+Post+Office+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9OrDyXrnLBo/U0VwnuHMJeI/AAAAAAAACZw/c-w-35HZGwA/s1600/Old+Post+Office+2.jpg" height="296" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The same building today.<br />
(Source: <a href="http://chspanthers.com/phonehome/?page_id=9" target="_blank">Phone Home Project</a>,<br />
Catholic High, New Iberia)</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">They reminded me vaguely of the Rough Riders, the cavalry regiment raised by Theodore Roosevelt during the Spanish American War (1898). I am familiar with Rough Rider uniforms because as historian and curator to McIlhenny Company on Avery Island, Louisiana, I maintain the Rough Riders uniform of </span><span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Tabasco sauce heir </span><span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">John Avery McIlhenny.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">I then remembered reading somewhere that Roosevelt had visited New Iberia and that he had been greeted at the edge of town by mounted locals dressed like Rough Riders. It was a 2011 <a href="http://www.iberianet.com/opinion/columnists/rough-rider-mcilhenny-s-event-for-teddy/article_57686218-8f22-11e0-b969-001cc4c03286.html" target="_blank">article</a> by the late New Iberia journalist Morris Raphael, who, citing 1971 research by LSU history professor Richard H. Collin, wrote "In the year 1914, while Roosevelt was making a barnstorming political drive through South Louisiana, running for President* on the Progressive 'Bull Moose' ticket, he had New Iberia in mind as his destination."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">But could the photograph my acquaintance sent me actually show Roosevelt on his visit to New Iberia?</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-t85XqRYcpHE/U0VsiRmWs4I/AAAAAAAACZE/Om9a4TqMJ3w/s1600/TR1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-t85XqRYcpHE/U0VsiRmWs4I/AAAAAAAACZE/Om9a4TqMJ3w/s1600/TR1.jpg" height="400" width="308" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I believe this person to be Roosevelt.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; text-align: justify;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; text-align: justify;">I now believe this to be the case, for a few reasons.</span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">First, there is the presence of the ersatz Rough Riders. A contemporary newspaper article about Roosevelt's visit observed, "Two miles from New Iberia he left his automobile, mounted a horse, and led a large procession of horsemen into the town [New Iberia]." (Collin echoed this primary-source document, noting in his article, "The highlight of the trip [to the Teche country] . . . occurred at New Iberia where four hundred mounted 'Rough Riders,' each with a bandana around his neck, welcomed the Roosevelt entourage at the outskirts of the city. Mayor Alphe Fontelieu, leader of the group, greeted Roosevelt: 'Colonel, we have a horse for you and wish you to take command of our troop.' The colonel was of course delighted . . . [and] he led the happy troupe into town.")**</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-tZb8wiAaonk/U0Vs8RTuR8I/AAAAAAAACZM/HEIMJgteYK8/s1600/TR2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-tZb8wiAaonk/U0Vs8RTuR8I/AAAAAAAACZM/HEIMJgteYK8/s1600/TR2.jpg" height="167" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Newspaper article from September 1914<br />
about Roosevelt's visit to New Iberia.<br />
(Source: <a href="http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/" target="_blank">Chronicling America</a>)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Second, Collin observed in his 1971 article, "To add even more tone to the ceremony three little girls in patriotic dress were put at the head of the line. . . ." One can actually see those three little girls in the photograph in question.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-LeOZ58bMXDA/U0Vtoof3jAI/AAAAAAAACZU/RJZa8JVoiQU/s1600/TR3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-LeOZ58bMXDA/U0Vtoof3jAI/AAAAAAAACZU/RJZa8JVoiQU/s1600/TR3.jpg" height="345" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The "three little girls in patriotic dresses . . .<br />
at the head of the line."<br />
The person I believe to be Roosevelt is directly behind them.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Third, another acquaintance, Laura Hanchey Hall</span><span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">, viewed the above image (I had posted it to my south Louisiana history page on </span><span id="goog_1978496768" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"></span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/SouthLouisianaHistory" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;" target="_blank">Facebook</a><span id="goog_1978496769" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"></span><span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">) and recalled that her grandmother took a photograph with Roosevelt during his New Iberia visit. I examined that photograph, and in it Roosevelt appears to be dressed much like the person in the parade that I think is Roosevelt.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9ZiHZn3XTY0/U0Vu5hG78EI/AAAAAAAACZk/ZOTD7yuxSiI/s1600/TR5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9ZiHZn3XTY0/U0Vu5hG78EI/AAAAAAAACZk/ZOTD7yuxSiI/s1600/TR5.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Roosevelt posing with children in New Iberia, 1914.<br />
Note he seems to have been given a neckerchief.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">For these reasons, I am convinced that the photograph in question shows former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt riding horseback down Main Street in New Iberia, Tuesday, September 8, 1914. As such, this may be a long forgotten image of the 26th President of the United States.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0XmBhXBtTTU/U0WbKNgbcmI/AAAAAAAACaA/ytwA6pQRH_w/s1600/The+Rice+Belt+Journal+(Welsh,+Calcasieu+Parish,+La.)+4+September+1914.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0XmBhXBtTTU/U0WbKNgbcmI/AAAAAAAACaA/ytwA6pQRH_w/s1600/The+Rice+Belt+Journal+(Welsh,+Calcasieu+Parish,+La.)+4+September+1914.jpg" height="320" width="288" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />
Article mentioning date of Roosevelt's visit to New Iberia.<br />
But the day fell on a Tuesday, not a Monday.<br />
<i>Rice Belt Journal</i> (Welsh, La.), 4 September 1914.<br />
(Source: <a href="http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/" target="_blank">Chronicling America</a>)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">____________________</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">*Roosevelt was not running for President in 1914. He had run for President in 1912 and lost to Woodrow Wilson. He did not seek office during the next presidential election, in 1916.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">**Richard H. Collin, "Theodore Roosevelt's Visit to New Orleans and the Progressive Campaign of 1914," <i>Louisiana History</i> XII (Winter 1971): 5-19.</span></div>
Shane K. Bernardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00454946054965548589noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660857958535448139.post-40062727277826734722013-10-27T16:13:00.002-05:002021-10-21T15:35:18.971-05:00A Fiction Interlude: My Short Story "The Phrenologist"<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">Although I am a historian, and thus write non-fiction, I'm pleased to announce that one of my works of fiction, a short story titled "The Phrenologist," appears in the new anthology <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Southern-Gothic-New-Tales-South-ebook/dp/B00FVYE5QK" target="_blank">Southern Gothic: New Tales of the South</a></i> (New Salon Press, available for Kindle and other digital formats from <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Southern-Gothic-New-Tales-South-ebook/dp/B00FVYE5QK">Amazon.com</a>).</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-fqcM4iMpqz8/Um1-rwrYLgI/AAAAAAAACXE/a-M4UQbSfO4/s1600/phren+sm.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-fqcM4iMpqz8/Um1-rwrYLgI/AAAAAAAACXE/a-M4UQbSfO4/s1600/phren+sm.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nathan Mark Phillips provided<br />
artwork for my story and<br />
others in the anthology.<br />
(Courtesy <a href="http://nathanmarkphillips.smugmug.com/Southern-Gothic-Works" target="_blank">Mark Nathan Phillips</a>)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; text-align: justify;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">I wrote this short story in 1987, when I was twenty, and I recently took it out, revised it, and submitted it for publication. I know the story may </span></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;">offhand</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"> </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;">sound racially offensive, but it is actually a condemnation of racism, as well as of anti-intellectualism in general (even more so when it parades as scholarship).</span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; line-height: 18px;">In the late 1980s this story won me a spot in the creative writing class of African-American author <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_J._Gaines" target="_blank">Ernest J. Gaines</a> (</span><i style="color: #333333; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; line-height: 18px;">The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman</i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; line-height: 18px;">, </span><i style="color: #333333; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; line-height: 18px;">A Gathering of Old Men</i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; line-height: 18px;">, and other works.)</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">I excerpt the story here:</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><i>The Phrenologist</i></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><i>by Shane K. Bernard </i></span></span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">I have noticed for a long time that those who deny the intellectual importance of the volume of the brain have, in general, small heads.”</span></span> </i></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><i>— M. de Jouvencel, “Discussion on the Brain,” </i>Bulletin of the Paris Anthropological Society<i>, 1861</i></span></span></blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><i><br /></i></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><i>Doctor Pierre Maturin, a son of France, hailed from a family that for generations had produced noted physicians. He earned his degrees from the Sorbonne and the fashionable university at Edinburgh. He subsequently returned to Paris to practice as a surgeon, but, finding the competition discouraging, sailed to New Orleans in the summer of 1850, where he established himself as a general practitioner. He set up his office on the corner of Chartres and Conti, in a small stucco building adjacent to the Slave Exchange. This proved a fortunate site for the young physician, for prospective buyers often sought his services as a medical examiner of slaves. One soon found the following advertisement in the local newspapers:</i></span></span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><i>SLAVEHOLDERS! PROTECT YOUR INVESTMENTS! Owners or buyers wishing to ensure the health of laborers will do well by contacting me at 444 Rue Chartres. — Dr. P. Maturin</i></span></span></blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><i><span style="line-height: 18px;">Maturin shortly distinguished himself as a specialist in the examination and treatment of slaves, and his new-found affluence gave him much leisure time to occupy as he pleased. This he employed in furthering his knowledge of medicine and physiology, and through his reading and correspondence he developed an interest in the budding field of craniometry, especially in regard to its function in determining mental capacity. “I have begun to accrue a collection of skulls,” he informed a colleague in France, “and will soon commence research on the current question of brain size and its relation to intelligence . . . what has become the new science of ‘phrenology.’”</span></i></span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; line-height: 18px;"><i><br /></i></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-95xprrmWZkk/Um2F541rzvI/AAAAAAAACXQ/a44OiEVMXhY/s1600/cranio.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-95xprrmWZkk/Um2F541rzvI/AAAAAAAACXQ/a44OiEVMXhY/s1600/cranio.png" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Phrenology was a pseudoscience popular<br />
in the 19th and early 20th centuries.<br />
(Source: <a href="http://www.lexicolatry.com/">Lexicolatry.com</a>)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; line-height: 18px;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i style="color: #333333; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; line-height: 18px;">Maturin’s prime phrenological interests were of a racial nature, formulated through observations made during his months as a medical examiner of the black race. As he wrote to his colleague, “I have found it to be a peculiar characteristic of the craniofacial structure of the Negro, that the jaw is much larger than that of the average white man, and that the back of the cranium — that part we call the occiput — is much more extensive in the darker race. It is my supposition that such anatomical distinctions, especially that of the skull, have a direct correlation to the obviously inferior intelligence of the Negro.”</i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><i><br /></i></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><i>He started his phrenological inquiry by devising and calibrating a special pair of calipers, which he wielded to measure, record, and tabulate the sizes of the twenty-two skulls in his collection. He realized that so sparse a number of crania would hardly provide enough data for his research, so he began to include such measurements as part of every medical examination. This system worked well, because heads of the living were easier to borrow than those of the dead, and nearly as accurate to evaluate.</i></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><i><br /></i></span></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oWsSbeCwimg/Um2KVnXNqTI/AAAAAAAACXc/YtrAfYJjqBc/s1600/gould.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oWsSbeCwimg/Um2KVnXNqTI/AAAAAAAACXc/YtrAfYJjqBc/s320/gould.jpg" width="209" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The science book that inspired<br />
my short story.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><i>Maturin soon possessed a voluminous index of the cranial measurements of all his recent patients. Unfortunately, he had neglected to gather similar measurements for whites, whom he intended to use as his criteria. Maturin now subjugated every white client and acquaintance to his silver calipers, that he might, as he told them, “record for posterity the size of their splendid crania” and simultaneously advance his vital scientific inquiry. After six months, he had indexed three hundred fifty white crania, nearly equal to the number of crania he had previously measured of the black race.</i></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><i><br /></i></span></span>
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><i>When all the recorded sizes had been averaged, Maturin discovered to his disbelief no apparent difference between the sizes of black and white crania. He informed an acquaintance, “My method of measurement must be at fault, else the figures should have reflected what is plainly the truth. I have decided to abandon the caliper method and, instead, to employ a more direct means of determining the size of the brain once held — I write ‘once held,’ mind you, because my new method of direct measurement demands that I return to the use of skulls.”</i></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><i><br /></i></span></span>
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><i>To the same acquaintance he described this “new method of direct measurement”: “I have found a more accurate and simpler method, which I call ‘internal evaluation,’ the only fault of which lies in the need for a multitude of skulls. This method consists of filling each individual cranium through the hole at the base of the </i>occiput<i> — this hole we call the </i>foramen magnum<i> — with a medium, which is then emptied into a calibrated vessel. This reveals the volume of the cranium and, therefore, the exact size of the brain it once contained.</i></span></span><i style="color: #333333; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; line-height: 18px;">”</i><br />
<i style="color: #333333; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; line-height: 18px;"><br /></i>
<i style="color: #333333; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; line-height: 18px;">He added, “I have experimented of late with a variety of media, these ranging from water to molasses to mustard seed. But I have found the most reliable medium to be lead shot, particularly of the size called ‘BB,’ which is one-eighth-inch in diameter. Using this medium during trial measurements, the results never varied greater than one-one hundredths of a cubic inch no matter how many times I repeated the experiment. I might add that lead shot does not leak through small fractures as water is apt to do, is not so thick as to remain inside the cranium as molasses, and does not flatten like mustard seed. It is in my opinion the ideal medium.” . . . </i><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><span style="line-height: 18px;"><i><br /></i></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><span style="line-height: 18px;">Again, you can purchase the entire short story, and those of other contributors, at <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Southern-Gothic-New-Tales-South-ebook/dp/B00FVYE5QK" target="_blank">Amazon.com</a>. </span></span></div>
Shane K. Bernardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00454946054965548589noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660857958535448139.post-23257094662293170552013-09-21T18:17:00.001-05:002019-03-06T12:03:19.849-06:00A Floating Dancehall on the Teche: The Club Sho Boat<div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">While researching Bayou
Teche I learned about a riverboat on the bayou that had been converted into a
floating nightclub, dancehall, and restaurant. Christened <i>the Club Sho Boat</i>, it sat on the Teche at New Iberia from the
late 1930s to the mid-1950s. (I hesitate to call the vessel a “steamboat,” even though it
looked like one, because diesel engines often powered later riverboats. Thus they were not true steamboats.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9q3_o75pYWc/Uj4lAfrLgfI/AAAAAAAACVA/wAKHJX6ZpD8/s1600/Sho+Boat+small.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><img border="0" height="166" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9q3_o75pYWc/Uj4lAfrLgfI/AAAAAAAACVA/wAKHJX6ZpD8/s400/Sho+Boat+small.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">The Club Sho Boat on Bayou Teche (ca. 1940).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">(Courtesy Angelle-Leigh Breaux)</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">I did not know,
however, exactly where along the Teche the riverboat had been moored.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">While driving in New Iberia
about a month ago I saw a battered old sign along Main Street. It obviously had been there for decades,
even generations, and yet I never before noticed it. The sign stood over the entrance to a grassy lot
along the Teche, and its faded letters on a white field read “Showboat
Apartments.”</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">“Showboat?” I thought —
might not that be an oblique reference to the Club Sho Boat?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-lpAmGP7voww/Uj4lczFjbrI/AAAAAAAACVI/vF0JGcKJ7wI/s1600/Sho+Boat+sign.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-lpAmGP7voww/Uj4lczFjbrI/AAAAAAAACVI/vF0JGcKJ7wI/s320/Sho+Boat+sign.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">"Showboat Apartments" sign,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">1915 E. Main Street, New Iberia, La.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">(Photo by author, September 2013)</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">A short time later I examined
a photograph of the Club Sho Boat in the book <i>Looking Back: Historic Images of Iberia Parish</i>. The book credited ownership of the photo to a present-day local
photographer. Tracking her down through
the Internet, I learned that the Club Sho Boat <i>had belonged to her great-grandfather,</i> a New Iberia
entrepreneur named George Angelle. Despite his illiteracy, Angelle had excelled as a businessman,
operating not only the Club Sho Boat, but an establishment on Lake Dauterive
called George’s Place and another in Hot Wells, Louisiana, named Angelle’s Cafe. He also let rooms there to tourists who came
to bathe in the hot springs.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Moreover, I learned
that the Club Sho Boat<i> had indeed sat on
the Teche at the site of the Showboat Apartments</i>. (Originally used as barracks at Fort Polk, the
apartments opened after the Club Show Boat began operation; they are not the same apartments that stand on the property today.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-463-U5Vt0rs/Uj4lvFMPRqI/AAAAAAAACVQ/T-diphCpMpw/s1600/DSC_0073.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-463-U5Vt0rs/Uj4lvFMPRqI/AAAAAAAACVQ/T-diphCpMpw/s400/DSC_0073.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Former site of the Club Sho Boat.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">The gravel at center marks the spot of the boat's slip.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">(Photo by author)</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Angelle’s great-granddaughter
referred me to her mother, who shared with me much of the Club Sho Boat's history. She informed me, for example, that prior to
its purchase by her grandfather the vessel had served as a crew boat on
Lake Dauterive, perhaps for workers building levees in the Atchafalaya
swamp. I also learned that Angelle first moored the vessel in the bayou (as seen in the above image) behind the present-day site of Darby Motors in New Iberia (1305 E. Main Street),
then moved it a little downstream into a slip running perpendicular to the bayou (1915 E. Main Street). In addition, Angelle owned a taxi, its door bearing an image of the vessel, that conveyed club goers to and from his establishment.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-r-Y0EYPxfjg/XIAJWqRZT6I/AAAAAAAAC5Y/zdOfFcJv2VYNHDgVAQb2lUOdEoHS-B56wCLcBGAs/s1600/Club%2BSho%2BBoat%2B1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="673" height="285" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-r-Y0EYPxfjg/XIAJWqRZT6I/AAAAAAAAC5Y/zdOfFcJv2VYNHDgVAQb2lUOdEoHS-B56wCLcBGAs/s400/Club%2BSho%2BBoat%2B1.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Interior of the Club Sho Boat, ca. 1940.<br />(Courtesy Angelle-Leigh Breaux)</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Among the musicians who
performed at the Club Sho Boat (the vessel’s original name is unknown) were “Cajun
swing” artists Happy Fats LeBlanc, Doc Guidry, and their band — known commonly
as Happy, Doc, and the Boys, a playful reference to the Seven Dwarfs in the 1937
Disney movie </span><i style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">Snow White</i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DVgPviGQCP0/Uj4oFANyPCI/AAAAAAAACVs/l1vOn142wA4/s1600/DSC_0068.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DVgPviGQCP0/Uj4oFANyPCI/AAAAAAAACVs/l1vOn142wA4/s400/DSC_0068.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">The small building at right served</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">as the Club Sho Boat's "fish house," </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">where fish were stored and prepared for dining.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">(Photo by author)</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Sadly, Angelle was
murdered in 1953 by a Hot Wells landowner with whom he quarreled about cattle trespassing on his property.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-KUJTyyWbMjg/Uj9N6icVxOI/AAAAAAAACWw/BDTSUc9bfQo/s1600/lubbock-morning-avalanche1953-05-23.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><img border="0" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-KUJTyyWbMjg/Uj9N6icVxOI/AAAAAAAACWw/BDTSUc9bfQo/s1600/lubbock-morning-avalanche1953-05-23.jpg" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Article about Angelle's murder.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">(Source: <i>Lubbock [Tex.] Morning Avalanche</i>, 23 May 1953)</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">After his death Angelle’s family tore down
the vessel, razing it to the waterline before filling up the slip with pieces
of concrete, dirt, and other debris. According to the family, the hull remains buried in the slip — perhaps
awaiting excavation by a future archaeology crew.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2cfsZpvsgw0/Uj6J-tcg6DI/AAAAAAAACWM/V89GuHUUa3Q/s1600/fonville+winans+small.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><img border="0" height="256" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2cfsZpvsgw0/Uj6J-tcg6DI/AAAAAAAACWM/V89GuHUUa3Q/s320/fonville+winans+small.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">The Club Sho Boat from the east bank of Bayou Teche,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">by noted Louisiana photographer Fonville Winans.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Winans is the fisherman at left.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">(Courtesy <a href="http://www.fonvillewinans.com/">www.fonvillewinans.com</a>)</span></td></tr>
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<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Coincidentally, a
friend of mine, eighty-nine-year-old Clarence Barrilleaux (pronounced
BEAR-REE-OH in the Cajun French manner) of Avery Island, alerted me to a
surviving artifact from the Club Sho Boat. Barrilleaux told me that around 1955 his former employer, Walter S.
McIlhenny — president of McIlhenny Company, maker of Tabasco brand products
since 1868 — sent him to the Club Sho Boat to pick up its ship’s bell. The riverboat was being torn down at the
time, recalled Barrilleaux, and McIlhenny had purchased the salvaged bell as a
decoration.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9OXZ2rYILOc/Uj4v2uiM3KI/AAAAAAAACV8/5BGdJ2DK4fk/s1600/bell+tower+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9OXZ2rYILOc/Uj4v2uiM3KI/AAAAAAAACV8/5BGdJ2DK4fk/s320/bell+tower+2.jpg" width="243" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Ship's bell from the Club Sho Boat</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">as it appears today.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">(Photo by author)</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Barrilleaux directed me
to the bell’s current location on the Island: atop a small wooden tower in a
private yard. With permission from the lease
holder, I hauled an extension ladder to the bell tower, climbed to the top, and
photographed the artifact. The bell is
stamped:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">CAST.BY.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">A.FULTON.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">PITTSBURGH<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-u7rAE3IEqvU/Uj4mowCRwhI/AAAAAAAACVg/lL-VeobaEuE/s1600/bell+cast+stamp+image+small.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><img border="0" height="186" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-u7rAE3IEqvU/Uj4mowCRwhI/AAAAAAAACVg/lL-VeobaEuE/s400/bell+cast+stamp+image+small.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Casting imprint on the ship's bell.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">(Photo by author)</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">According to
aficionados of vintage cast bells (there are indeed such persons), bells with this
imprint date to 1865 or earlier, subsequent imprints reading “A. Fulton's Son & Co.”* If this is correct, the bell evidently
predated the riverboat by many decades, for such vessels had extremely short
lifespans because of snags, collisions, boiler explosions, and the like. It seems probable, therefore, that the bell
had been recycled any number of times before winding up on the riverboat that
ended its life as the Club Sho Boat.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-LGllX7Fox4c/Uj6PBpRY2HI/AAAAAAAACWg/pRWUsHwELjY/s1600/FonvilleRiverboat2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><img border="0" height="163" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-LGllX7Fox4c/Uj6PBpRY2HI/AAAAAAAACWg/pRWUsHwELjY/s320/FonvilleRiverboat2.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Could one of these features be the ship's bell</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">as captured by photographer Fonville?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">(Courtesy <a href="http://www.fonvillewinans.com/">www.fonvillewinans.com</a>)</span></td></tr>
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<i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Addendum of 21 February 2019</span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></i>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Thanks to newly found photographic evidence (see below), we now know the ship's bell sat right in front of the vessel's wheelhouse. (For new information about that vessel's original identity, see the next addendum below.) We can at best, however, only assume this is the same bell now located on Avery Island.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-B-2NiBtXY9A/XG9mNNMTF9I/AAAAAAAAC5E/p5QpQ38NK1cxN8hdc_9YSZWGj8sYZQ3XwCLcBGAs/s1600/4a22861a%2B%25281%2529.tif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="229" data-original-width="474" height="154" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-B-2NiBtXY9A/XG9mNNMTF9I/AAAAAAAAC5E/p5QpQ38NK1cxN8hdc_9YSZWGj8sYZQ3XwCLcBGAs/s320/4a22861a%2B%25281%2529.tif" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">The ship's bell aboard the vessel</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">that became the Club Sho Boat</span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">, ca. 1908</span><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br />Click image to enlarge.<br style="font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">(Source: Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.)</span></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Moreover, another artifact of the Club Sho Boat recently came to my attention: the ship's wheel. A friend informed me that the wheel sat in a warehouse along the banks of Bayou Teche just south of New Iberia. With permission of the property owner, we visited the warehouse to photograph and measure the artifact.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-zXr3diXH19o/XG9cN6op-oI/AAAAAAAAC4M/Foo49HqGQGoY-Gv23Riwoh0tAEgn6eoVACLcBGAs/s1600/51800931_1661417107337300_2877797941391654912_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="960" height="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-zXr3diXH19o/XG9cN6op-oI/AAAAAAAAC4M/Foo49HqGQGoY-Gv23Riwoh0tAEgn6eoVACLcBGAs/s400/51800931_1661417107337300_2877797941391654912_n.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">The ship's wheel, New Iberia, La.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">(Photo by author, February 2019)</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Amazingly, the wheel <i>measures 8 feet in diameter</i>. The sheen has long since worn off the wood, but the artifact is in decent shape considering its assumed age of 113 years. We hope to display it in a local museum, thanks to the kindness of the property owner, who has kept the salvaged wheel in storage for many decades.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-t3wzoYBdKfY/XG9gmEzabiI/AAAAAAAAC4s/B3DAmxiJiUUcVyiIoW5JPTW0AkaYfzZWQCLcBGAs/s1600/4a22861a.tif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="251" data-original-width="397" height="252" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-t3wzoYBdKfY/XG9gmEzabiI/AAAAAAAAC4s/B3DAmxiJiUUcVyiIoW5JPTW0AkaYfzZWQCLcBGAs/s400/4a22861a.tif" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Presumably the same ship's wheel, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: 12.8px;">aboard the vessel </span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: 12.8px;">that became the Club Sho Boat</span><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace; font-size: 12.8px;">, ca. 1908.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br />Click image to enlarge.<br style="font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">(Source: Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.)</span></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br />
<i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Addendum of 20 February 2019<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">I've found that the original name of
the Club Sho Boat was the <i>Wanderer II</i>,
a steamboat built in 1906 at Clinton, Iowa, and later converted to diesel. It
weighed 140 gross tons (115 net tons), measured 115 feet in length and 24 feet
in width, and had a draft of 4.5 feet. Its crew numbered 15. It appears in a U.S. government list of merchant vessels as a “steam yacht.” This
designation could stem from the vessel’s noncommercial use by
owner Lafayette Lamb “to tow the family houseboat, the <i>Idler</i>” (to cite the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse's Historic
Steamboat Photographs Collection, hereafter the HSPC).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/--D26bM9pMI4/XG37qUIe49I/AAAAAAAAC4A/gkOhVn2iwNgsr6Qo7dTPu8DlCeD3MSpHwCLcBGAs/s1600/Wanderer%2BII%2Bsm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="511" data-original-width="933" height="217" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/--D26bM9pMI4/XG37qUIe49I/AAAAAAAAC4A/gkOhVn2iwNgsr6Qo7dTPu8DlCeD3MSpHwCLcBGAs/s400/Wanderer%2BII%2Bsm.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">The <i>Wanderer II</i> (right, venting steam) <br />astern the houseboat <i>Idler </i>(left),<br />St. Paul, Minnesota, ca. 1908.<br /><br />Click image to enlarge.<br />(Source: Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.)</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">The vessel's known crew members
were, according to the HSPC: "Tom Garrison (pilot, 1915); Pete Quinn
(engineer, 1915); Captain D. W. Gourner (1926); Oscar T. Aucoin (pilot, 1926 [</span><i style="font-family: "courier new", courier, monospace;">possibly an Acadian or Cajun? — SKB</i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">]); William
Geisler (chief engineer, 1926); C. M. Bondurant (2nd engineer, 1926)."</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">The HSPC lists the <i>Wanderer II</i> as “Sold to Standard Oil in
1915 and officially abandoned in November 1933.” At that time or some time
afterward George Angelle of New Iberia obtained the vessel for use
as the Club Sho Boat. In fact, the HSPC includes a photograph of the <i>Wanderer II </i>moored on Bayou Teche (see below image): although
its original name had been stripped from the wheelhouse, a careful examination of
the vessel’s landward side reveals a barely perceptible sign — sandwiched
between two Coca-Cola advertisements — reading "Angelle's". This
suggests the vessel had already become, or was on its way to becoming, the Club
Sho Boat.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ta-SSKSOQ7U/XG9eY1RiXdI/AAAAAAAAC4g/2PM-FoZLKhwHpT5bxPvzDQs-cyk3XybWQCLcBGAs/s1600/download.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="799" data-original-width="1339" height="236" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ta-SSKSOQ7U/XG9eY1RiXdI/AAAAAAAAC4g/2PM-FoZLKhwHpT5bxPvzDQs-cyk3XybWQCLcBGAs/s400/download.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">The <i>Wanderer II</i> becomes the Club Sho Boat on Bayou Teche.<br /><br />Click image to enlarge.<br />(Source: Courtesy Murphy Library Special Collections, <br />University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.<br />Used with permission.)</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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</div>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6-WlpbDRHdw/XG9jUvKOCLI/AAAAAAAAC44/75q3TomleRQ9A0Og3exag7GpDi-VyLhWQCLcBGAs/s1600/download%2B%25281%2529.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="314" data-original-width="578" height="215" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6-WlpbDRHdw/XG9jUvKOCLI/AAAAAAAAC44/75q3TomleRQ9A0Og3exag7GpDi-VyLhWQCLcBGAs/s400/download%2B%25281%2529.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Detail of the previous image<br />showing the "Angelle's" sign.<br /><br />Click image to enlarge.<br style="font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">(Source: Courtesy Murphy Library Special Collections, </span><br style="font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.</span><br style="font-size: 12.8px;" /><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Used with permission.)</span></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mKzSE4XjwUg/XIAK78waTMI/AAAAAAAAC5k/4xuU3_kAkxQfM_hkiPE2PxzHI5zmEC3VACLcBGAs/s1600/Club%2BSho%2BBoat%2B2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="652" height="291" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mKzSE4XjwUg/XIAK78waTMI/AAAAAAAAC5k/4xuU3_kAkxQfM_hkiPE2PxzHI5zmEC3VACLcBGAs/s400/Club%2BSho%2BBoat%2B2.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Another interior photo of the Club Sho Boat, ca. 1940.<br />(Courtesy Angelle-Leigh Breaux)</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Addendum sources:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Bureau of Navigation (Department
of Commerce), <i>Forty-Sixth Annual List of
Merchant Vessels of the United States . . . for the Year Ended June 30[,] 1914</i>
(Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1914), s.v., "<i>Wanderer II</i>" (p. 323).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Image of the <i>Wanderer II </i>and<i> Idler</i> (detail of image titled "Steamboat landing and Union Station, St. Paul, Minn."), ca. 1908, call No. LC-D4-70671 [P&P] (repro. no. LC-DIG-det-4a22861), Detroit Publishing Company Collection, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2016814555/, accessed 20 February 2019.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Image of the <i>Wanderer II</i> (with associated historical data), negative no. 36760, Historic Steamboat Photographs Collection, Special Collections, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, n.d., https://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/ZFVIOS7TNYU4V8N, accessed 19 February 2019.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">____________________</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">*“The foundry went under the name Andrew Fulton from 1827 to 1865. . . . At this time they put 'A. Fulton' on their smaller, undated bells. From 1866 to 1889 they went first under the name 'A. Fulton's Son & Co.,' then under 'A. Fulton's Sons & Co.' . . ..” Source: Neil Goeppinger, posting on Americanbell.org, 1 March 2007, <a href="http://www.americanbell.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=408">http://www.americanbell.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=408</a>, accessed 22 September 2013. While I do not know the source of Goeppinger's information, his claims do correspond to data provided by other bell enthusiasts. (I have corrected Goeppinger's punctuation slightly.)</span></div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
Shane K. Bernardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00454946054965548589noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660857958535448139.post-84478223907007471442013-05-09T13:59:00.000-05:002013-06-03T22:41:44.192-05:00"Cajuns of the Teche": Bad History, Wartime Propaganda, or Both?<div style="text-align: justify;">
I first learned about
the short film <i>Cajuns of the Teche</i>, directed by André de LaVarre and released in August 1942 by Columbia Pictures, while researching my book <i style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1578065232/104-6955154-6035157?ie=UTF8&tag=encyclopeofcajun&linkCode=xm2&camp=1789&creativeASIN=1578065232" target="_blank">The Cajuns: Americanization of a People</a></i><span style="text-align: justify;">. </span><span style="text-align: justify;">This find occurred by accident </span>in the late 1990s, while looking for something else in the National Archives and Records Administration. (Serendipity often happens when I’m conducting
historical research. I think it’s a perfectly
valid form of discovery.)<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3F5ZTuVojho/UYvn91rvkwI/AAAAAAAACBE/j1mf2jjvK1A/s1600/COT+title+cards.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3F5ZTuVojho/UYvn91rvkwI/AAAAAAAACBE/j1mf2jjvK1A/s400/COT+title+cards.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Title cards from <i>Cajuns of the Teche</i>.<br />
(Screen grabs by author)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
In short, a reel of
film labeled <i>Cajuns of the Teche</i> sat
in the National Archives and had not yet been dubbed to videotape (much less
had it been digitized; that technology was not yet at hand for most people). A student at the time, I didn’t have the $250
or so that the National Archives wanted to transfer the film to video, so I
contacted my friend, Lafayette attorney Warren A. Perrin. Back then Warren served as president of the
Council for the Development of French in Louisiana and owned, as he still does,
the Acadian Museum in his hometown of Erath.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
Warren agreed to fund
the film’s transfer to video through his museum, so I filled out the pertinent paperwork,
mailed it off, waited, and a few weeks later a VHS dub arrived from Washington, D.C. I watched the film, found it delightful, but ultimately
did not use it as research material for my book. Moving on to other projects, I forgot about
the dub for about fifteen years, but recently pulled it out of my files and digitized
it so that I can present it here:<o:p></o:p><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="youtube-player" frameborder="0" height="300" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/BgdCu3xYkTo" title="YouTube video player" type="text/html" width="400"></iframe>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
(Click to play video)</div>
<br />
Two thoughts come to
mind when I watch <i>Cajuns of the Teche</i>:
First, after seventy years the images are crisp, clear, well-composed, and in
my opinion extremely valuable as a record of the Teche region around World War
II; second, the narration is often extremely misleading and in some instances
downright wrong. </div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
I’ll catalog these
misleading and incorrect claims. The narrator
repeatedly refers to the Cajuns’ ancestors as “Arcadians,” when the proper term
is “Acadian.” Moreover, the Acadians did
not arrive in Louisiana when it was “a colony of the kingdom of France,” as the
narrator asserts, but a colony of Spain (albeit one administered for a time by French
caretakers — Spain only slowly assumed full control of the formerly French
colony).<o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
The scenes of grandiose
“Cajun homes” (see timestamps <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=BgdCu3xYkTo#t=199s" target="_blank">3:19</a>, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=BgdCu3xYkTo#t=285s" target="_blank">4:45</a> and <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=BgdCu3xYkTo#t=313s" target="_blank">5:13 to 5:21</a> on the video) never fail to elicit
snickers from other Cajuns to whom I’ve shown the film privately. The narration is entirely misleading when it
states, “In the past we built many grand and spacious mansions, for our
families were large and our attendants were many.” The dwellings in the film were far too
luxurious for average, ordinary Cajuns, most of whom lived as subsistence
farmers — and who certainly did not have many “attendants” (apparently a
euphemism for “slaves”). Granted, a very
few “genteel Acadians” managed to rise to positions of wealth in antebellum south Louisiana — mainly sugar planters with enslaved workforces —
but they were the exception, not the rule.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zblLEIFNKGs/UYvusZzrMjI/AAAAAAAACCU/6V93HnlnIm8/s1600/COT+shadows.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="296" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zblLEIFNKGs/UYvusZzrMjI/AAAAAAAACCU/6V93HnlnIm8/s400/COT+shadows.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Not a Cajun house.<br />
(Screen grab by author)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
In addition, the
narration refers to the Louisiana colony as “a land with freedom of religion.” While it is true that the Acadians freely
practiced their Catholic faith in Spanish-held Louisiana — the Spanish, after
all, were Catholics, too — the colony was hardly a bastion of religious
toleration. The Spanish, for example, forbid Protestants from holding public
worship and they expelled all Jews from the colony.</div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
The “Cajun garden”
shown in the film at <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=BgdCu3xYkTo#t=327s" target="_blank">5:27</a> — featuring a centuries-old Buddha statue, if one
looks closely enough — is actually Jungle Gardens, owned and operated by
Scots-Irish Tabasco sauce manufacturer E. A. McIlhenny (hardly a Cajun).<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
Some of the narration
is drivel. I do not believe, as claimed
at <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=BgdCu3xYkTo#t=587s" target="_blank">9:47</a> in the film, that an appreciation of “fine silks and soft satins”
represented “one of the strongest traits of French heritage” among Cajun
girls. Equally nonsensical is the
narrator’s reference at <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=BgdCu3xYkTo#t=355s" target="_blank">5:55</a> — made over the image of fancifully dressed Cajun men
and girls enjoying an elegant ring dance — to “slippered
steps of old Acadia.” Acadian men and
woman alike generally wore moccasins, living as they did on the rugged North
American frontier. <o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QAOy59-rQKQ/UYvn6G7qqII/AAAAAAAACA8/JiDwUvErB1Y/s1600/COT+milkmaid.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="297" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QAOy59-rQKQ/UYvn6G7qqII/AAAAAAAACA8/JiDwUvErB1Y/s400/COT+milkmaid.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Historically inaccurate Norman milkmaid costume.<br />
(Screen grab by author)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
Fortunately, the images themselves are infinitely more valuable than the narration. This is not to say that some of the images
are not misleading. For example, the
Norman milkmaid costumes worn in the film by some Cajun girls and women (<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=BgdCu3xYkTo#t=45s" target="_blank">0:45</a>
and <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=BgdCu3xYkTo#t=485s" target="_blank">8:05</a>) were unknown to their Acadian ancestors. An example of what anthropologists and other
scholars call “fakelore,” these costumes were probably introduced to more
upwardly mobile Cajuns through mass-produced, illustrated volumes of Longfellow’s
epic poem <i>Evangeline</i> (which follows
the fate of an Acadian maiden exiled to south Louisiana). I say “upwardly mobile” because the mass of
ordinary Cajuns never read <i>Evangeline</i>.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3-6ySXjUPoc/UY0YbmBNR9I/AAAAAAAACEM/J7JeED1-C-k/s1600/2-5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3-6ySXjUPoc/UY0YbmBNR9I/AAAAAAAACEM/J7JeED1-C-k/s1600/2-5.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Circa 1890 depiction of Evangeline.<br />
(Colorized by author)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
Criticism aside (at
last, you say), I made these other observations while watching <i>Cajuns of the Teche</i>:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
The shot of boats moored along a bayou (<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=BgdCu3xYkTo#t=103s" target="_blank">1:43</a>) seems to show some other waterway besides the Teche, perhaps Bayou Lafourche. I could be wrong — perhaps it is the Teche.<br />
<br />
The stern-wheeler shown
early in the film (<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=BgdCu3xYkTo#t=110s" target="_blank">1:50</a>), the <i>V. J.
Kurzweg</i>, is despite its appearance <i>not</i>
a steamboat. As Carl A. Brasseaux writes
in <i>Steamboats on Louisiana’s Bayous</i>, the
<i>Kurzweg</i> “is widely — albeit
inaccurately — remembered along Bayou Teche as one of the stream’s last
steamboats,” but it “was not technically a steamboat” because “it was propelled
by diesel motors.” Note the <i>Kurzweg</i> has no towering twin smokestacks
as found on most steamboats: as a diesel-powered vessel it did not require
them.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8dsQWgpqN7k/UYvn6RGi9LI/AAAAAAAACBA/uBiWwzvkik8/s1600/COT+kurzweg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="297" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8dsQWgpqN7k/UYvn6RGi9LI/AAAAAAAACBA/uBiWwzvkik8/s400/COT+kurzweg.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The <i>V. J. Kurzweg </i>on Bayou Teche, ca. 1942.<br />
(Screen grab by author)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
The fishermen at <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=BgdCu3xYkTo#t=155s" target="_blank">2:35</a>
do not seem to be on Bayou Teche, but rather in a cypress swamp. (A bayou is a slow-moving, muddy, usually
smallish river, while a swamp is a wooded wetland.) If I had to guess, I would say the swamp in
question is the Atchafalaya, if only because of its proximity to the
Teche. But there are many patches of
swamp in the region that are not in the Atchafalaya. In any event, the swamp in the film was
clearly experiencing a flood, as indicated by the swift current.<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yWo3TEj98JI/UYvoA_z73LI/AAAAAAAACBg/s73zzZEJEtk/s1600/COT+workers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yWo3TEj98JI/UYvoA_z73LI/AAAAAAAACBg/s73zzZEJEtk/s400/COT+workers.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">Sugar cane field workers in <i>Cajuns of the Teche</i>.<br />
(Screen grab by author)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
Another scene depicts a mounted white overseer (<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=BgdCu3xYkTo#t=235s" target="_blank">3:55</a>) supervising a work crew as it weeds young sugarcane shoots. I cannot tell if the work crew is black or white or both. A shot of three male field workers reveals one with black hands (also <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=BgdCu3xYkTo#t=235s" target="_blank">3:55</a>), but work gloves mask the race of the other two workers. A wide shot appears to show two white female field workers at far left (<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=BgdCu3xYkTo#t=253s" target="_blank">4:13</a>). The other field workers in the shot, however, cannot be seen clearly enough to establish their races.<br />
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
It is tempting to draw a lesson about race or race relations from this scene. But it is impossible to do so without really knowing the workers’ racial makeup. Regardless, the shot does illustrate the region’s dependence on manual field labor in 1942. It would take the ongoing war and resulting labor shortages to spur south Louisiana agriculture to mechanize. What I observed about rural Lafayette Parish in <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1578065232/104-6955154-6035157?ie=UTF8&tag=encyclopeofcajun&linkCode=xm2&camp=1789&creativeASIN=1578065232" target="_blank">The Cajuns</a></i> no doubt held true for much of Cajun Louisiana: Despite the findings of a 1942 survey “that ‘tractors are not thought to be necessary or even desirable,’” Lafayette parish farmers “had almost universally adopted mechanization within a decade. ‘The old days of the plow and the horse are gone,’ observed a 1951 survey.”<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TArpG3BoOZc/UYvoENGjf4I/AAAAAAAACBw/IphrpikJsB4/s1600/CoT+ring+dance.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="295" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TArpG3BoOZc/UYvoENGjf4I/AAAAAAAACBw/IphrpikJsB4/s400/CoT+ring+dance.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A ring dance on the banks of the Teche.<br />
(Screen grab by author)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
The reference to “giant
spiders” (<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=BgdCu3xYkTo#t=249s" target="_blank">4:09</a>) alludes to the legend of the Durand wedding, which allegedly occurred
at Oak and Pine Alley on the outskirts of St. Martinville. As journalist Jim Bradshaw <a href="http://www.blogger.com/Jim%20Bradshaw,%20%E2%80%9CDurand%20Girls%E2%80%99%20Double%20Wedding%20One%20of%20the%20Fanciest%20Ever,%E2%80%9D%20TecheToday.com,%202010,%20http://www.techetoday.com/view/full_story/8439330/article-Durand-girls%E2%80%94double-wedding-one-of-the-fanciest-ever,%20accessed%207%20May%202013" target="_blank">records</a>:</div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
It was only to be
expected that [Durand] would throw the finest wedding ever when two of his
daughters decided to get married on the same day. . . . [A]s the romantic
legend is told, he ordered a million spiders sent from China and sent couriers
to California to fetch hundreds of pounds of silver and gold dust. (A less
romantic version of the story says the spiders came from nearby Catahoula Lake,
but I like the China version better.) . . . Shortly before the wedding day, the
spiders were set loose to spin millions of yards of delicate webs among the
limbs of the oak and pine alley. On the morning of the wedding, servants armed
with bellows filled with the silver and gold dust sprayed the cobweb canopy to
set it glittering in the sunlight like something from a fairy tale.</blockquote>
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
Of this legend Brasseaux states, “Most
southern Louisianians are familiar with the
stories of the spiders imported from China for the Oak and Pine Alley wedding.” Yet it along with similar local legends, he notes, have been “proven unfounded by recent historical research.” (To Bradshaw’s credit, he concurs with
Brasseaux that the story is a legend.)<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
Elsewhere, the narrator
observes (<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=BgdCu3xYkTo#t=368s" target="_blank">6:08</a>) “We Cajuns speak French among ourselves, and some of our
children do not learn English until they reach the classroom.” <i>Where
they will have the French whipped out of them</i>, I thought. I was being only slightly facetious, for
south Louisiana educators often punished Cajun children for speaking French at
school. More than any other factor, this
practice accounted for the rapid decline of Cajun French during the early to
mid-twentieth century. (See my <a href="http://bayoutechedispatches.blogspot.com/2011/03/tracking-decline-of-cajun-french.html" target="_blank">previous blog article</a> about tracking this decline.)<o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Y5fKFFibdOc/UYvn5goMKII/AAAAAAAACAw/r8lEtpU6dKA/s1600/COT+quiltmakers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="296" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Y5fKFFibdOc/UYvn5goMKII/AAAAAAAACAw/r8lEtpU6dKA/s400/COT+quiltmakers.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Quilters with <i>garde-soleils.</i><br />
(Screen grab by author)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
Finally, although the
Cajuns’ dress is not “authentic” (that is, historically accurate) in the spinning
wheel scene at the beginning or in the ring dance scene, the clothing shown in
other scenes does strike me as authentic.
See, for example, the field workers (Cajun or otherwise) shown from <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=BgdCu3xYkTo#t=235s" target="_blank">3:55 to 4:29</a>; and the school children from <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=BgdCu3xYkTo#t=365s" target="_blank">6:05 to 6:24</a>. (Note the students in question attended an
all-white school: segregation did not end in much of Louisiana until 1969 —
about fifteen years after the U.S. Supreme Court case <i>Brown v. Board of Education</i> struck down separate-but-equal schooling
nationwide.) See also the churchgoers at
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=BgdCu3xYkTo#t=398s" target="_blank">6:38</a> and <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=BgdCu3xYkTo#t=405s" target="_blank">6:45</a>; the corn husk weavers at <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=BgdCu3xYkTo#t=425s" target="_blank">7:05</a>; and the quilters at <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=BgdCu3xYkTo#t=462s" target="_blank">7:42</a>
(complete with their <i>garde-soleils</i>,
or sunbonnets). In addition, see the
weaver at right, but not at left, at <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=BgdCu3xYkTo#t=484s" target="_blank">8:04</a>, and, conversely, the same weaver at
left, but not at right, at <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=BgdCu3xYkTo#t=490s" target="_blank">8:10</a>; and the wedding goers at the end of the film
(<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=BgdCu3xYkTo#t=577s" target="_blank">9:40</a> onwards). The apparel in these
scenes looks very authentic to me. Perhaps
the subjects had no time or compulsion to dress for the camera?<o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dEWR7Ug3Gks/UYvn-BlyAZI/AAAAAAAACBU/I1GLDfESr0c/s1600/COT+wedding.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="296" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-dEWR7Ug3Gks/UYvn-BlyAZI/AAAAAAAACBU/I1GLDfESr0c/s400/COT+wedding.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Horse and buggies leaving Cajun wedding.<br />
(Screen grab by author)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
Now to address an issue
other than the film’s accuracy: <i>Was the film wartime propaganda?</i><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
I found <i>Cajuns of the Teche </i>in the National Archives collection of the U.S.
Information Agency (USIA). Founded in
1953 during the Cold War and still active today, the USIA, as its website notes,
“explains and supports American foreign policy and promotes U.S. national
interests through a wide range of overseas information programs . . . [and]
promotes mutual understanding between the United States and other nations by
conducting educational and cultural activities.” Created prior to the advent of the USIA, <i>Cajuns of the Teche </i>sat in a section of the USIA collection regarding an earlier organization, the
U.S. Office of War Information (OWI). Established
in 1942, the OWI, as the Library of Congress <a href="http://www.blogger.com/(http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/fsahtml/owiinfo.html)" target="_blank">explains</a>, “served as an important
U.S. government propaganda agency during World War II.” <o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KHwYCvooCgY/UYv-7LUcxnI/AAAAAAAACDQ/sORWl8SH0hQ/s1600/USIO+OWI+logos.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="195" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KHwYCvooCgY/UYv-7LUcxnI/AAAAAAAACDQ/sORWl8SH0hQ/s400/USIO+OWI+logos.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Logos of the USIA and the OWI.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
Why would a travelogue
film issued by Columbia Pictures be found in a collection pertaining to the
OWI?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
The answer might be
found in a pictorial “feature” (pre-packaged photo essay for overseas consumption)
issued by the OWI in 1944 and titled “The Bayou French of Louisiana.” This feature consisted of a four-page
typewritten essay about the Cajuns along with many captioned black-and-white
still images. These photos depicted “everyday”
Cajun culture, activities, and places. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
Intriguingly, <i>at least four of these black-and-white still
images depict events also shown in </i>Cajuns of the Teche. Moreover, <i>these
black-and-white images were clearly shot at the exact same moment as the corresponding
images in the film </i>— albeit from slightly different angles<i>.</i> See the below image
comparisons: Those at left are “screen
grabs” from Columbia Pictures’ <i>Cajuns
of the Teche</i>, while those at right are still images from the OWI's “The
Bayou French of Louisiana.” As you can
see, the paired images are almost identical (click to enlarge):<o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rGIwxPBkk-Q/UYvoI1Aw3CI/AAAAAAAACCA/TI4bNEN6goA/s1600/CoT1+film+cap.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="146" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rGIwxPBkk-Q/UYvoI1Aw3CI/AAAAAAAACCA/TI4bNEN6goA/s400/CoT1+film+cap.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-LiFYZEqdaQ8/UYvoJ0jyDWI/AAAAAAAACCI/RwP5LK9fPzI/s1600/CoT2+film+cap.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="146" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-LiFYZEqdaQ8/UYvoJ0jyDWI/AAAAAAAACCI/RwP5LK9fPzI/s400/CoT2+film+cap.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yOOWhXBmvdE/UYvoIEjBvGI/AAAAAAAACB4/D88ii86dDIM/s1600/CoT4+film+cap.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="146" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yOOWhXBmvdE/UYvoIEjBvGI/AAAAAAAACB4/D88ii86dDIM/s400/CoT4+film+cap.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
The OWI’s “The Bayou
French of Louisiana” was clearly wartime propaganda. Its purpose was to show overseas audiences how
American society could support an ethnically heterogeneous population, yet
still be undeniably “American.” As the
OWI essay accompanying the images put it, “The persistence of Cajun French
traditions in the United States, as those of other national groups, is
encouraged in the belief that such diversity enriches and strengthens
democratic institutions. The various
population groups of the United States are encouraged to perpetuate their folkways
so that each may contribute to the homogenous but broadly variegated culture of
the United States.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
But was the earlier <i>Cajuns of the Teche</i> also wartime
propaganda? <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
The federal government
created the U.S. Office of War Information in June 1942; Columbia Pictures
issued <i>Cajuns of the Teche </i>the
next month. This would hardly seem enough time for the fledgling OWI to produce an eleven-minute film shot on
location in south Louisiana and to arrange for a major Hollywood studio to distribute it. And while
there <i>are</i> examples of the OWI and Columbia Pictures teaming up later to release wartime propaganda films (such as the 1943 film <i>Troop
Train</i> and the 1945 film <i>The True
Glory)</i>, there is no known evidence of OWI involvement with <i>Cajuns of the Teche.</i><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-M30lcQp0QK0/UYvwH31pYBI/AAAAAAAACCo/66qB3c6ZAXg/s1600/COTT+036.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="318" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-M30lcQp0QK0/UYvwH31pYBI/AAAAAAAACCo/66qB3c6ZAXg/s400/COTT+036.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Back of OWI print indicating when and <br />
from whom it had been purchased.<br />
(National Archives and Records Administration,<br />
Washington, D.C.)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
A key to understanding the actual, tenuous relationship between the OWI’s propagandistic “The Bayou French of Louisiana”
and Columbia Pictures’ <i>Cajuns of the Teche</i> may
be found on the back of the original B&W prints used with “The
Bayou French of Louisiana.” Data there indicates that <i>the OWI licensed the
images from a commercial entity </i>named “Screen
Traveler, from Gendreau.” Presumably a stock photo vendor, Screen Traveler may have sent a photographer to Louisiana in 1942
alongside Columbia Pictures’ film crew. This would explain why some of the images in <i>Cajuns of the Teche</i> and some of those in
“The Bayou French of Louisiana” correspond so closely.<br />
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
Ultimately, I do not
believe — given the current evidence — that <i>Cajuns of the Teche </i>was a product of OWI wartime propaganda; but I
do believe that still photographs taken during the filming of <i>Cajuns of the Teche</i> ended up in
the wartime propaganda project “The Bayou French of Louisiana.” I make this assertion because we know
for certain that the OWI, a government entity charged with producing wartime
propaganda, issued “The Bayou French of Louisiana<o:p></o:p>”; and we know that some of the images used in “The Bayou French of Louisiana<o:p></o:p>” closely match scenes in <i>Cajuns of the Teche</i>.</div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
Still, the question
remains: why is there a reel of <i>Cajuns of
the Teche </i>in the OWI section of the USIA's archival collection?<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-s-DQ_4jXMtI/UYvxwFVV5kI/AAAAAAAACDA/zEhmlRXRXjA/s1600/CoT+the+end+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="303" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-s-DQ_4jXMtI/UYvxwFVV5kI/AAAAAAAACDA/zEhmlRXRXjA/s400/CoT+the+end+2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
Shane K. Bernardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00454946054965548589noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660857958535448139.post-80752929493939967402013-04-10T12:50:00.000-05:002013-04-11T13:59:13.919-05:00Now Available: My Children's History of the Cajuns in English and French Editions<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="color: red; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Now available online from Amazon.com (click here to purchase in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Cajuns-Their-Acadian-Ancestors-Readers/dp/1934110787" target="_blank">English</a> or <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Les-Cadiens-leurs-anc%C3%AAtres-acadiens/dp/1617037796" target="_blank">French</a>)!</span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="color: red; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></i>
<i><span style="color: red; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Maintenant disponible en ligne à Amazon.com (cliquez ici pour vendre en <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Cajuns-Their-Acadian-Ancestors-Readers/dp/1934110787" target="_blank">anglais</a> ou <span style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Les-Cadiens-leurs-anc%C3%AAtres-acadiens/dp/1617037796" target="_blank">française</a></span>)!</span></i></div>
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">I'm pleased to announce that my 2008 book, </span><i style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Cajuns and Their Acadian Ancestors: A Young Reader's History</i><span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">, has now (as of April 1, 2013) been released in a French translation by Faustine Hillard.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">J’ai le plaisir d’annoncer que mon livre intitulé <i style="text-align: justify;">Les Cadiens et leurs ancêtres acadiens: l'histoire racontée aux jeunes </i><span style="text-align: justify;">est maintenant disponible (1 avril 2013) en version française, traduite par Faustine Hillard.</span></span></div>
<span style="color: #548dd4; text-align: justify;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-albcbV40gKs/UHRIE1lAckI/AAAAAAAABik/9th5ixahkXI/s1600/CATAA3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="260" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-albcbV40gKs/UHRIE1lAckI/AAAAAAAABik/9th5ixahkXI/s400/CATAA3.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">Cover of the English version and the French translation.<br />
<span style="color: #3d85c6;">Couverture du livre en anglais et la traduction en français.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Published by the University Press of Mississippi and funded in part through a translation grant from the </span><span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Quebec Ministère des Relations Internationales, the book, retitled </span><i style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Les Cadiens et leurs </i><i style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">ancêtres acadiens: l'histoire racontée aux jeunes</i><span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">, is aimed at middle-school and high-school readers — though it is useful as an adult primer — particularly students in French Immersion and other French education courses.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Publié par la Presse Universitaire du Mississippi et financé en partie par une subvention du Ministère des Relations Internationales du Québec, le livre, intitulé <i style="text-align: justify;">Les Cadiens et leurs ancêtres acadiens: l'histoire racontée aux jeunes, </i><span style="text-align: justify;">cible le jeune lecteur collégien ou lycéen, surtout celui des classes d’immersion en français ou ceux qui apprennent le français langue seconde.</span><span style="text-align: justify;"> </span><span style="background-color: white;">Il s'avère toutefois une introduction enrichissante au lecteur adulte voulant s’initier à la question. </span></span>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-V2NVqy06-tk/UGDd-sajzvI/AAAAAAAABfM/PmCL0bKA7TI/s1600/frenchpage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-V2NVqy06-tk/UGDd-sajzvI/AAAAAAAABfM/PmCL0bKA7TI/s320/frenchpage.jpg" width="252" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">Inside the French version. (click to enlarge)<br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">L'intérieur de la version en français.</span></span><span style="color: #3d85c6;"> (Cliquez pour agrandir.)</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Folklorist and linguist Barry Jean Ancelet writes:</span></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">"Shane Bernard's book . . . is an excellent addition to the database that is being developed on the history and culture of Louisiana. And this accessible French edition offers a perspective essential for any student (child or adult) who seeks to understand the Cajuns."</span></div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Le folkloriste et linguiste Barry Jean Ancelet écrivit:
</span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">"Ce livre de Shane Bernard . . . est une excellente addition à la banque d'information qui est en train de se développer sur l'histoire et la culture de la Louisiane. Et cette édition en français facilement abordable offre une perspective indispensable pour tout étudiant (petit ou grand) qui cherche à comprendre les Cadiens."</span></span></div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">And historian Carl A. Brasseaux states:</span></div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">"</span><i style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Cajuns and Their Acadian Ancestors</i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">by Shane Bernard provides students — and young adults generally — with a perfect introduction to the history of one of North America's most distinctive, and most misunderstood, ethnic groups. Concise and highly readable, this book is an essential resource for every Louisiana classroom."</span></div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><span style="background-color: white;">Et l'historien Carl A. Brasseaux </span><span style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;">déclara:</span></span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="background-color: white;">"</span><i>Les Cadiens et leurs ancêtres acadiens</i><span style="background-color: white;"> </span><span style="background-color: white;">par Shane Bernard fournit aux étudiants--et aux jeunes adultes en général--une parfaite introduction à l'histoire de l'un des plus distinctifs et des plus incompris groupes ethniques en Amérique du Nord. Concis et facile à lire, ce livre est une ressource essentielle pour chaque salle de classe en Louisiane." </span></span></span></div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Of the English version, the <i>Times-Picayune</i> noted:</span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Bernard takes just 85 pages to provide a concise history of one of the unique peoples that make Louisiana special. It is a brief but delightfully engaging account of who the Cajuns are and how they got that way, a narrative as informative as it is easy to navigate. . . . [The book] fills an important gap on the Louisiana history bookshelf, and its value can be appreciated by the not-so-young as well. </span></blockquote>
<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><span style="text-align: justify;">Au sujet de la version en anglais, le quotidien de la Nouvelle Orléans, </span><i style="text-align: justify;">The Times-Picayune, </i><span style="text-align: justify;">remarqua:</span></span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Bernard nous raconte l'histoire abrégée d’un des peuples qui contribue à l'extraordinaire mosaïque démographique de la Louisiane en un récit de moins de 85 pages. Ce bref mais charmant compte rendu entraîne le lecteur à découvrir le peuple cadien et suivre son évolution dans un récit qui informe tout en restant facile à naviguer. . . . [Ce livre] comble une lacune importante en ce qui est de l'histoire de la Louisiane. C'est un livre qui s'apprécie à tout âge. </span><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; text-align: justify;"> </span><span style="color: #0070c0; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; text-align: justify;"> </span></div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">In 2008 the Louisiana Center for the Book, located in the state library, selected the English version of <i>Cajuns and Their Acadian Ancestors </i>to represent Louisiana at the National Book Festival's Pavilion of the States in Washington, D.C.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">En 2008, <i>Les</i> <i style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="FR">Cadiens et leurs ancêtres acadiens: l'histoire racontée aux jeunes</span></i><span lang="FR" style="text-align: justify;"> (version langue anglaise) fut sélectionné par le Centre du Livre en Louisiane, qui se trouve à la bibliothèque de l’état, pour représenter la Louisiane au Pavillon des Etats du Festival National du Livre à Washington, D.C.</span></span></div>
</div>
<span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span lang="FR" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></span></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vRO8ghx9_oQ/UGDfbAwq1BI/AAAAAAAABfU/rxC_jynwtV0/s1600/frenchpage2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vRO8ghx9_oQ/UGDfbAwq1BI/AAAAAAAABfU/rxC_jynwtV0/s400/frenchpage2.jpg" width="311" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">Inside the French version. (click to enlarge)<br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">L'intérieur de la version en français.</span></span><span style="color: #3d85c6;"> (Cliquez pour agrandir.)</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Click here to purchase in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Cajuns-Their-Acadian-Ancestors-Readers/dp/1934110787" target="_blank">English</a> or <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Les-Cadiens-leurs-anc%C3%AAtres-acadiens/dp/1617037796" target="_blank">French</a>)!</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Cliquez ici pour vendre en <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Cajuns-Their-Acadian-Ancestors-Readers/dp/1934110787" target="_blank">anglais</a> ou </span><span style="color: #548dd4; text-align: justify;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Les-Cadiens-leurs-anc%C3%AAtres-acadiens/dp/1617037796" target="_blank">française</a></span><span style="color: #3d85c6;">)!</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6;"><br /></span></div>
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Shane K. Bernardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00454946054965548589noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660857958535448139.post-35618995008975331002013-02-16T15:00:00.000-06:002013-02-16T22:18:33.700-06:00A Meteor over Cajun Louisiana: Window on Atomic-Age Anxieties <div style="text-align: justify;">
The recent explosion of a meteor (or "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolide" target="_blank">bolide</a>") near Chelyabinsk, Russia, reminded me of a similar incident that took place over south Louisiana in the late 1950s.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VYlCg9eYpmg/UR_0UhEek9I/AAAAAAAAB7k/Cto_jXnyLAo/s1600/Bolide.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VYlCg9eYpmg/UR_0UhEek9I/AAAAAAAAB7k/Cto_jXnyLAo/s1600/Bolide.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A meteor streaking through the atmosphere.<br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, FreeMono, monospace; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px;">(Source: </span><a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/" style="background-color: white; color: #888888; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, FreeMono, monospace; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: initial;" target="_blank">Wikimedia Commons</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, FreeMono, monospace; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px;">)</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
In my book <i>The Cajuns: Americanization of a People </i>I used this incident to illustrate how atomic-age anxieties had infiltrated Louisiana's traditionally French-speaking parishes — a region that at one time had been fairly isolated from the currents of mainstream American history. Some fellow historians bristle at the suggestion that south Louisiana was ever particularly isolated: but "isolated" is a relative term, and compared to, say, contemporary downtown Peoria, suburban Cincinnati, or midtown Manhattan, or any number of other mainstream American places, it was without doubt relatively isolated during the pre-World War II era.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
This changed on a rapid, widespread basis with the coming of World War II, an event that finally immersed south Louisiana in mainstream American culture. As such, I demonstrated in <i>The Cajuns</i> that when a meteor lit up the region's night sky in the late 1950s, many Cajuns suspected they had just been attacked by the Soviet Union. As I concluded about their terrified response to the meteor, "Obviously, Cajuns were as susceptible to Cold War anxieties as other segments of American society."<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JZbnY2DKAyw/URG2Ap53CCI/AAAAAAAAB5U/zBgboMZ7pJM/s1600/americanization.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JZbnY2DKAyw/URG2Ap53CCI/AAAAAAAAB5U/zBgboMZ7pJM/s200/americanization.jpg" width="133" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">Cover of my book<br />
<i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1578065232/104-6955154-6035157?ie=UTF8&tag=encyclopeofcajun&linkCode=xm2&camp=1789&creativeASIN=1578065232" target="_blank">The Cajuns: Americanization of a People</a> </i>(2003)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Given the present interest in meteors, I excerpt here the section of my book dealing with that astronomical event over south Louisiana:</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>Around 10 p.m. on March 15, 1957, a fiery meteor emitting a shower of red sparks hurtled over south Louisiana, turning darkness to broad daylight before slamming into West Côte Blanche Bay. Windows rattled, some shattered, and police throughout central Acadiana [the Cajuns parishes of south-central Louisiana] fielded calls from hundreds of frantic citizens. No, they replied, it wasn't a mid-air collision, an oil-rig blowout, a "space ship from Mars," or "</i>la fin du monde<i>," the end of the world. It was only a chunk of rock from outer space. </i></div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>Significantly, some Acadiana residents assumed that what they had witnessed was an incoming missile and the flash of an atomic blast. They believed that the Soviets had launched a nuclear attack on Baton Rouge or New Orleans. According to the </i>Abbeville Meridional<i>, for example, a local resident "who prefers not being identified" said he thought the meteor was a guided missile . . . sent to this area by the Russians for some destructive purposes." The same article cited Vermilion Parish resident Preston Broussard as describing the meteor's impact as "like the explosion of weapons used in warfare." Lafayette's </i>Daily Advertiser<i> stated "Some thought it was . . . 'an atomic bomb dropped over New Orleans.'" In the rural community of Kaplan, school teacher Earl Comeaux was putting his daughter to sleep when he observed "the yard light up as in daytime." At first the event puzzled him, but as he recalled, "It dawned on me that that was the flash of an A-bomb exploding. Since it was in the east, I immediately thought of Baton Rouge, a prime target of the Russians. They would be after the petroleum plants there."</i></div>
</blockquote>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hJ6s4AWtoOk/USAHvGR-egI/AAAAAAAAB8U/6zt-ERs4WCo/s1600/meteor+article+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hJ6s4AWtoOk/USAHvGR-egI/AAAAAAAAB8U/6zt-ERs4WCo/s320/meteor+article+2.jpg" width="214" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Newspaper article from March 1957<br />
about the meteor.<br />
(Source: Altus [Okla.] <i>Times-Democrat</i>/<a href="https://news.google.com/" target="_blank">Google News</a>)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>Comeaux knew more than most locals about atomic warfare: a few years earlier he had served with Strategic Air Command, flying on B-50 bombers that carried nuclear warheads targeted for Moscow rail yards. Waking his wife anxiously, Comeaux told her about the mysterious flash, and explained that if the capital had indeed been bombed, the resulting shockwave ought to reach Kaplan at any moment. "Well, no sooner was that said than a great boom shook the house," he recalled. "I was convinced that we had been attacked by the Russians." Gathering their children, the Comeauxs huddled around their television, awaiting official word of doomsday. After a long night they learned about the meteor that had crashed nearby. "How terrified I had been for my family and myself!" he recalled. "How ridiculous my reaction to a natural occurrence." . . .</i></div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
A follow-up note: I have tried unsuccessfully on occasion to coax both scientists and treasure hunters into searching for the meteorite in question. A large chunk of the object reportedly fell to Earth just off an easily identifiable spot on the Louisiana coast — the amusingly named Point No Point, which sits directly between East and West Côte Blanche bays. As I told a journalist <a href="http://www.theadvertiser.com/article/20070322/BLOGS09/703220309/Meteor-rock-becomes-one-man-s-keepsake" target="_blank">in 2007</a>:</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>I once spent a good deal of time researching this meteor, and three fishermen from Baldwin [in St. Mary Parish] reported that the meteor (or at least an automobile-sized part of it) crashed between their boat and the shoreline, which was located only a short distance away (a hundred yards or so, I recall). . . . They had been fishing near the division between East and West Côte Blanche Bay[s] at a place called Point No Point. The impact of the meteor hitting the water was so loud that their ears were still ringing days later, and they felt fortunate to be alive. Another, smaller chunk of the meteor landed on an inland oil rig near Houma, and the oil-field worker who saw it fall out of the sky and roll up against some equipment took the rock home as a keepsake. Who knows where it is now?</i></div>
</blockquote>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-yY06yz7dFNc/UR_9lJ7EIZI/AAAAAAAAB8M/OSmX9R6PBVM/s1600/Point+No+Point+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="253" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-yY06yz7dFNc/UR_9lJ7EIZI/AAAAAAAAB8M/OSmX9R6PBVM/s400/Point+No+Point+2.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Approximate reported impact site<br />
of meteor off Point No Point.<br />
(Source: <a href="https://maps.google.com/" target="_blank">Google Maps</a>)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The three fishermen in question drew a map showing precisely where this large chunk of space rock crashed into the water near Point No Point. This map still exists, and it seems to me that someone with an underwater magnetometer might use it to find the meteorite — assuming the meteorite is made of iron or some other easily detectable metal — and raise it to the surface.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nQUKE5lGnyY/UR_7FJ25_MI/AAAAAAAAB8E/bRZp9G-vivU/s1600/Point+No+Point.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nQUKE5lGnyY/UR_7FJ25_MI/AAAAAAAAB8E/bRZp9G-vivU/s400/Point+No+Point.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Location of Point No Point (aka Marone Point).<br />
(Source: <a href="https://maps.google.com/" target="_blank">Google Maps</a>)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
But what do I know about such things, really? I'm not a geophysicist, but a historian. And for all I know the rock, or what is left of it after possibly rusting beneath the waves for over a half-century, is buried under fifty feet of sludge.</div>
Shane K. Bernardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00454946054965548589noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660857958535448139.post-85774318220570176172013-02-12T16:17:00.001-06:002013-02-12T16:57:28.162-06:00A Film Documents South Louisiana's Logging Industry, ca. 1925: Responsible Stewardship or Environmental Disaster?<div style="text-align: justify;">
Earlier today I learned of a two-part, roughly thirty-minute
black-and-white silent film from circa 1925 documenting the daily operations of
a south Louisiana cypress company. (I
later realized that, purely by coincidence, an old high-school classmate of
mine put the digitized film online.)</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/HF3-0NISvs4" width="420"></iframe>
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The movie shows lumberjacks in <i>pirogues</i> (small flat-bottomed
boats) cutting down ancient cypress trees in or around the Atchafalaya Basin; a
pull boat drawing the logs onto a canal using a chain and windlass; a dredge boat
armed with a steam shovel extending the logging canals into a cypress swamp; a locomotive
pulling flatcars of logs to the mill; a "towboat" (actually the full-fledged steamboat <i>Sewanee</i>) pulling a "boom" of logs to the mill;
"overhead electric cars" —
presumably state-of-the-art technology at the time — carrying logs around the
lumberyard; "mechanical electric stackers" piling lumber; and early
gas-powered trucks pulling wagons of lumber.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/FxSP08zJ5tE" width="420"></iframe>
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The film in question was shot by L. K. Williams, a member of
the Williams family of Patterson who operated the massive F. B. Williams
Cypress Company, located in that same town on or near the banks of Bayou
Teche. The waterway from which L. K.
Williams filmed the cypress mill (seen on reel two) is quite possibly the Teche
itself, but it's difficult to say because there are many man-made canals around
Patterson. The scene in question just as easily could have been shot from one of those canals.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YScDdMFVSus/URrBxb62AEI/AAAAAAAAB6U/VSgH6pdeWAo/s1600/Williams+Ad+(The+Lumber+Trade+Journal+66+15+Sept+1914).png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="160" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YScDdMFVSus/URrBxb62AEI/AAAAAAAAB6U/VSgH6pdeWAo/s400/Williams+Ad+(The+Lumber+Trade+Journal+66+15+Sept+1914).png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Advertisement for F. B. Williams Cypress Company, Patterson, La.<br />
(Source: <i>The Lumber Trade Journal</i>, 15 Sept 1914)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Note the industry-specific terms* that appear in the film’s
captions:</div>
</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>Boom</i>, n. Logs or
timbers fastened together end to end and used to hold floating logs. The term
sometimes includes the logs enclosed, as a boom of logs. </div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>Crib</i>, n.
Specifically, a raft of logs; loosely applied to a boom of logs. </div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<i>Float road</i>[, n.].
A channel cleared in a swamp and used to float cypress logs from the woods to
the boom at the river or mill.</div>
</blockquote>
<o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CWCSOqFf1Tw/URrE1Eg7SaI/AAAAAAAAB60/FKtSpB3pjIk/s1600/Williams+Mill.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="235" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CWCSOqFf1Tw/URrE1Eg7SaI/AAAAAAAAB60/FKtSpB3pjIk/s320/Williams+Mill.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">F. B. Williams Cypress Company, Patterson, La.,<br />
as shown in the ca. 1925 film.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
I cannot find a definition for a <i>run</i>, another term used in the captions, but
it is presumably the same as that for <i>gutter road</i>, which is "The path
followed in skidding logs" — <i>skid</i> meaning "To draw logs
from the stump to the skidway, landing, or mill." In turn, a <i>skidway</i> is "Two skids laid parallel at right angles to a road, usually raised above
the ground at the end nearest the road.” The same source adds, "Logs are
usually piled upon a skidway as they are brought from the stump for loading
upon sleds, wagons, or cars."</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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This film provides a valuable insight into a now dormant Teche country industry: once lumber mills dotted the lower bayou, drawing on the nearby massive
cypress swamp that is the Atchafalaya Basin, as well as on other, smaller
cypress swamps in the region. Whether or
not this turn-of-the-twentieth-century industry represented responsible
stewardship of Louisiana’s natural resources or an environmental disaster (or
something in between), I leave to viewers to decide. I myself do not weigh in on the issue because I have not researched the matter, and while it would be easy to deem it an "environmental disaster" I do not know this as a matter of fact.<o:p></o:p><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Q9fsnBf7CAc/URrFJ9pNAHI/AAAAAAAAB7E/NIyYk4-_bdw/s1600/Swanee.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="242" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Q9fsnBf7CAc/URrFJ9pNAHI/AAAAAAAAB7E/NIyYk4-_bdw/s320/Swanee.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The steamboat <i>Sewanee</i>, as shown in the ca. 1925 film.<br />
It tows a "boom" of logs behind it.</td></tr>
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*Definitions are quoted from: Bureau of Forestry, U.S.
Department of Agriculture, <i>Terms Used in
Forestry and Logging </i>(Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office,
1905).<o:p></o:p></div>
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Shane K. Bernardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00454946054965548589noreply@blogger.com4