History of the Cajuns

In the study of the history of the United States, it has generally been understood that this history started in the former 13 British Colonies, and the Louisiana Territory, Texas and the Southwest were added to the territory of the United States later. Some, many, go so far as claiming that Texas and the Southwest were stolen from a weaker nation. However, the truth is that, as Alfred B. Thomas so eloquently put it in his article in the Louisiana Quarterly, vol. 22, number 4, "The beginnings of United States History are in the South, not in New England or along the Virginia Coast"...

This book is one of two books I have written in which, through historical research, I dispel the myth that Texas and the Southwest of the United States were stolen from a weaker nation, and I assert the fact that that vast territory was always legitimately meant to be a part of the United States, and was indeed a part of her foundation before any of the nations in the Americas were born. I do this by examining the roots, views and history of the colonial population of Texas and Louisiana. These two books, and two others, are the result of my splitting the contents of my original book entitled "The Continuous Presence of Italians and Spaniards in Texas as Early as 1520 (Including the Participation and Consequence of Texas and Louisiana in the American Revolution)", which I personally feel I published prematurely, for which I apologize, since further research revealed many things, important things, I was not aware of which I am including in this present book particularly. The original book was also getting too big, well over one thousand pages. For these reasons, I decided to stop printing the original book and to split it and the new research into several, more focused, more thoroughly researched and thus more reliable books.

In my book "The Legitimacy of Texas: Why the "Reconquista" Movement is Mistaken" which will come out after this present work, I examine the origin, roots, ethnic identity, views, ideas and history of the Spaniards who pioneered Texas and the United States and I give a voice to her Founding Fathers of Spaniard and other hispanicized European origin whose voice thus far has remained unheard. In this present book I examine the essential role that a particular segment of the colonial population of both Louisiana and Texas played in the birth and development of the United States as one nation, under God, indivisible, from sea to shining sea.

The French colonials of the former French colony of Acadia, present day Nova Scotia, are not generally known, let alone understood, as having had any major consequence or influence in the formation of the United States, and they are certainly not known to have anything to do with the history of Texas. In this book, I present the evidence that the French Acadians of Nova Scotia played an essential role in the birth and formation of not only Louisiana, where they became known as "Cajuns" and where they gave Louisiana her character, but also of Texas and the United States, and that this particular segment of the population served as a glue, as the string in the stitches that tied Texas and Louisiana to the 13 original States making this nation legitimately one nation, under God, indivisible, from sea to shining sea.

For this purpose, I have divided this work into four sections. These sections may be read independently of each other, but it is best to read them all together.

Section I is entitled "The French Acadians: From the Beginning to Texas". In this section I examine the history of the French Acadians from their ancient and fascinating origin which itself shines a bright light on one of the most important mysteries of history that has baffled historians for centuries, and by following the life of the family of the man who, records show, was most responsible for financing and supporting the establishment of the French colony of Acadia during its re-colonization period after the Treaty of St. Germain en Laye of 1632 . I follow his family group as representatives of the French Acadians from the founding of Acadia, through the terrible time of their exile, through their scattering abroad to the 13 British Colonies, England and Louisiana.

From Louisiana I examine the evidence that reveals that a number of French Acadians (and others like French Creoles, that is, the offspring of the French pioneers of Louisiana who came directly from France to Louisiana as opposed to those who came from Quebec and Acadia, and French Canadians or Quebecois and Spaniards) from Louisiana, who came to be known as Cajuns, moved on to Texas, where they became part of its pioneering colonial population. Thus, they were in the unique position of being among the pioneers of both Louisiana and Texas.

The reader should also keep in mind and remember that the term "Cajun" is simply a word for "Acadian". Thus, the history of the French Acadians is the history of the Cajuns, as is reflected by the title of this book. As the title goes on to express with the statement "From Ancient France through Nova Scotia and Louisiana to Colonial Texas", a central theme of this History of the Cajuns is the little known fact of history that I just mentioned, that a number of the Cajuns of Louisiana moved on to Texas in colonial days. There they become an important segment of the population of colonial Texas which had a tremendous effect in all the history that followed which culminated in the annexation of Texas, and the Southwest, into the United States.

Section II is entitled as the subtitle of this book "The Participation of Louisiana and Texas in the American Revolution". The purpose of this section is to shed some light on the participation of Louisiana and Texas as colonies of the Kingdom of Spain in the American Revolution, focusing on the role of the French Acadians and the Spaniards. Today, the vast majority of Americans have no earthly idea of the vital role the colonial Louisianans and Texans played in the Independence of the United States. It is my hope that by the time a descendant of colonial Louisianans and Texans finishes reading this book, he or she will understand his or her true identity clearly, and every American who reads this book will know just how much a part of the United States the original settlers of Louisiana and Texas have been from the very start. With this understanding it is my hope that every American, in turn, will fully understand just how legitimately American our country is from the East Coast to the West Coast.

Because this section is so essential to the history of the United States and to the understanding of her legitimacy, I strongly recommend that, should the reading of the first section become tedious, the reader would just skip on over to this second section and read it. Lieutenat Colonel Samuel Russell, the Battalion Commander of the 94^th Brigade Support Battalion, 4^th Brigade, 10^th Mountain Division stationed at Fort Polk, Louisiana, a man with deep roots and an equally deep interest in American history, told me one morning while training for deployment to Iraq,

"Chaplain, I couldn’t sleep last night, you know why? Because I couldn’t stop reading your book!", referring specifically to this section pertaining to the participation of Louisiana and Texas in the American Revolution. I recommend that, should all else fail, the reader should just skip on over to this second part and read at least it. This particular section contains history that is essential for every American to know.

An interlude follows in which I examine the experience of the French Acadians in light of the Sovereignty of God.

Section III is entitled "The French Acadians, the Civil War and the Indian Wars of West Texas". This section focuses on the events of the Civil War in West Texas and the period after the Civil War known as the Indian Wars. Again, as the rest of this book, this section focuses on the role of the descendants of the French Acadians, the Cajuns, and it is not intended to be politically correct, but to give the often-neglected perspective of the soldiers who fought in West Texas during the Civil War, and of the soldiers who fought the Indians during the Indian Wars.

By focusing on the role of the French Acadians through these three sections and the periods of history they represent, it will become clear how this particular segment of the population, one, has been a part of the United States from the start, and, two, provided the human element in the unification of the United States, from Texas and the Southwest it led, through Louisiana to the 13 original States.

In the novel entitled "Timeline" by Michael Crichton, one of the characters refers to people who have no interest at all in history, and no knowledge of history, as "temporal provincials". Temporal provincials, the character says, are like the leaf of a tree that does not know it is part of a tree. Unfortunately, when it comes to the history of Louisiana and Texas, of Spain and the Spaniards and the French Acadians in the history of the United States, the vast majority of Americans are temporal provincials. It is my hope this book, and my book "The Legitimacy of Texas", will help rescue the American people from being temporal provincials regarding this issue, and many will come to understand that Louisiana and especially Texas, since many erroneously believe it was stolen from a weaker nation, are natural branches of the historical and heritage tree of the United States and that Texas was not an alien branch that was stolen from a different tree and grafted in.

Section IV is entitled "End Notes’ and it is an extra section. In it I ponder upon the significance of the presence and role of the French Acadians and Spaniards in the history of the United States, since, it should be understood, from the moment the French Acadians sailed to Louisiana they became, in colonial days, "Spaniards" from the colonial point of view, and subjects of His Majesty the King of Spain. Every aspect of the history of the French Acadians in colonial days since their arrival in Louisiana is indissolubly linked to that of the Spaniards, as is the history of any of the other groups that settled in Louisiana in colonial days, from the Germans to the British. Thus, in this section I expound on what the role of the French Acadians and Spaniards in American history means.

In this section I also share how I determined my great grandfather whom I knew by oral tradition was the man I found in historical records, which is truly a fascinating story. I go on to examine the fascinating evidence of the discovery of the Yosemite Valley by Frenchmen before its recorded discovery by Bunnel and the Mariposa Battalion in 1851 and of the discovery of the Pacific Ocean by the French Canadian explorer Pierre Gaultier de Varennes de la Verendrye and his French Acadian volunteers circa 1736, seventy years before Lewis and Clark! This is so fascinating, and possibly a missing chapter in the history of the French Acadians, that I just had to include it here! Finally, in this section I share a few experiences I had through my research that made me realize, as a Christian, that I was being helped.

For the reading to flow, I have limited myself to the use of sidenotes after quotations and key points. There is an extensive bibliography provided at the end of the book which includes pertinent source notations for the characters involved in this fascinating historical account.