
The commonly accepted definition of Louisiana French Creole today is a person descended from the Old World ancestors in Louisiana before the Louisiana Purchase the United States in 1500's. It was spoken by the ethnos Religious French and Spanish and their French and Romantic of Creole descent. The French Creoles, speak the Ancient French language of their ancestors. The language formulated differently than that of France. The French Creoles spoke what became known as The French Creole Dialect. Later the regional French evolved to contain local phrases and slang terms. Parisian French was the predominant language among colonists in early New Orleans. Through both the French and Spanish (late 18th century) regimes, parochial and colonial governments used the term Creole for ethnic French and Spanish people born in the New World as opposed to Europe. Possessions of Britain (pink), France (blue), and Spain (orange). Main article: Louisiana (New France) Map of North America in 1750, before the French and Indian War (part of the international Seven Years' War (1756 to 1763)). Today, most Creoles are found in the Greater New Orleans region or in Acadiana. While the sophisticated Creole society of New Orleans has historically received much attention, the Cane River area in northwest Louisiana-populated chiefly by Creoles of color-also developed its own strong Creole culture. (See Creoles of color for a detailed analysis of this event.) Concurrently, the number of white-identified Creoles has dwindled, with many adopting the Cajun label instead.

One historian has described this period as the "Americanization of Creoles," including an acceptance of the American binary racial system that divided Creoles between white and black. In the twentieth century, the gens de couleur libres in Louisiana became increasingly associated with the term Creole, in part because Anglo-Americans struggled with the idea of an ethno-cultural identity not founded in race. Today, many Creoles of color have assimilated into African-American culture, while others remain a distinct yet inclusive subsection of the African-American ethnic group. Victor Séjour, Rodolphe Desdunes and Homère Plessy) were Louisiana Creoles. As Creoles of color had received superior rights and education with Spain & France than their Black American counterparts, many of the United States' earliest writers, poets and civil activists (e.g.
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New Orleans in particular has retained a significant historical population of Creoles of color, a group mostly consisting of free persons of multiracial European, African, and Native American descent. Later 19th-century immigrants to Louisiana, such as Irish, Germans and Italians, also married into the Creole group. Presently, some Louisianians may identify exclusively as either Cajun or Creole, while others embrace both identities.Ĭreoles of French descent, including those of Québécois or Acadian lineage, have historically comprised the majority of white-identified Creoles in Louisiana. Īlthough the terms Cajun and Creole today are often portrayed as separate identities, Cajuns have historically been known as Creoles.

The Catholic Latin-Creole culture in Louisiana contrasted greatly to the Anglo-Protestant culture of Yankee Americans. After the Sale of Louisiana, the term "Creole" took on a more political meaning and identity, especially for those people of Latinate culture. The word is not a racial label and does not imply mixed racial origins-people of any race can and have identified as Louisiana Creoles.Ĭréole was used as an identity in Louisiana from the 18th century onward. The term Créole was originally used by French Creoles to distinguish people born in Louisiana from those born elsewhere, thus drawing a distinction between Old-World Europeans and Africans from their Creole descendants born in the New World. Louisiana Creoles share cultural ties such as the traditional use of the French, Spanish, and Creole languages and predominant practice of Catholicism.

As an ethnic group, their ancestry is mainly of Louisiana French, West African, Spanish and Native American origin. Louisiana Creoles ( French: Créoles de la Louisiane, Louisiana Creole: Moun Kréyòl la Lwizyàn, Spanish: Criollos de Luisiana) are people descended from the inhabitants of colonial Louisiana before it became a part of the United States during the period of both French and Spanish rule. English, French, Spanish and Louisiana Creoleįrench, Cajuns, Creoles of color, Isleños, Québécois, Haitians, Dominican Creoles, Alabama Creoles
