The Creole people of Louisiana descended from European colonial settlers who intermarried with non-European peoples. Immigration from France began in the late 17th century as France claimed Louisiana and settlers arrived. In the mid-18th century, thousands of Acadians expelled from Canada also settled in Louisiana. Spain acquired Louisiana from France in the late 18th century, and Spanish settlers like the Canary Islanders arrived. African slaves were also brought to the region beginning in the early 18th century. The diverse cultures of European, African, and Native American peoples in Louisiana contributed to the unique Creole culture.

1. The Creoles
A Diverse Culture Found in Louisiana
Presented by Francene Kennedy
TESOL/507
2-9-2015

2. Who Are The Creole People?
• Creole people are typically descended from
white European colonial settlers who
intermarried with non-European people. Their
language, culture, and race represents the
creolization (the unique culture resulting from
the interaction and adaptation of the two
cultures).

3. Where did they come from?

4. Immigration From France
• 1682 Rene- Robert Cavalier claims Louisiana for
France’s King Louis XIV.
• 1699 Pierre le Moyne founds a settlement near Biloxi
and European settlers take permanent residence in
Mississippi and Louisiana.
• 1718 Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, sieur de Bienville,
founds New Orleans which gives him a strategic
position for control of the Mississippi River. French
immigrants establish trading.
• 1722 Ursuline Nuns arrived from France and built their
first covenant with monies from the French Crown.

5. Immigration From Canada
• 1755 Six thousand Acadians (descendants of First
Nations or Aboriginal peoples of Canada and
Europeans) are expelled from Nova Scotia to
prevent them supporting the French in that area.
French and Indian Wars 1754 – 1763. Many settle
in Louisiana.
• 1763 The Seven Years’ War in Europe, along with
the French and Indian Wars in North America
end. France turns over Canada and eastern
Louisiana to England. Western Louisiana,
including New Orleans, is turned over to Spain.

6. Present day
residents of
Louisiana, who are
descended from
the French
Acadians of
Canada are
referred to as
“Cajuns” versus
Creoles. Cajun is a
derivation of the
word Acadian.
Cajun French
dialect and culture
is different from
French Creole and
extends westward
along the southern
coast of Louisiana
as indicated in the
map.

7. The Osage Nation Connection
• 1803 (April 30) France sells the United States the
Louisiana Territory, doubling the size of the
United States.
• 1804 (May 14) Lewis and Clark set off to explore
the Louisiana Territory, sailing up the Missouri
River.
• 1808 (Sept. 8) The Osage Nation (Native
American Siouan-speaking tribe) give up most of
their lands in the Louisiana Territory and are
moved to a reservation.

8. • 1860 (Jan. 9 – Feb. 1) Mississippi, Florida,
Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas
secede from the Union.
• 1872 (Dec. 11) Pinckney Benton Stewart
Pinchbeck is elected the governor of
Louisiana. He is the first African-American
state governor.

9. Immigration From Spain
• 1541 Hernando de Soto claims the Mississippi
and all of its tributaries for the Spanish Crown.
• 1762 Louis XV of France secretly proposed to his
cousin Charles III of Spain that France give
Louisiana to Spain in the Treaty of Fontainbleau.
Negotiations were in effect to end the Seven
Years’ War.
• 1764 Spain’s acquisition of Louisiana from France
was formally announced.
• 1765 Joseph Broussard led the first group of
nearly 200 Acadians to settle on Bayou Teche
below present-day St. Martinville, Louisiana.

10. • 1768 Antonio de Ulloa became the first Spanish
governor of Louisiana. He did not fly the Spanish
flag and was forced to leave by a pro-French mob
in the Rebellion of 1768.
• 1769 Alejandro O'Reilly suppressed the rebellion,
executed its leaders and sent some plotters to
prison in Morro Castle in Havana.
• 1770 Luis de Unzaga started the era of benign
Spanish rule and freed the imprisoned plotters.
• 1770 Spain began an administrative of process of
governing Upper Louisiana with lieutenant
governors.

11. • 1779 Spain declared war on Great Britain in the
American Revolutionary War and began the West
Indies and Gulf Coast campaigns.
• 1779 Spanish settlers lead by Francisco Bouligny
found Nueva Iberia along Bayou Teche.
• 1780 The Battle of Saint Louis was the only battle
west of the Mississippi in the war.
• 1788 The Great New Orleans Fire destroyed
virtually all of New Orleans. Governor Esteban
Rodríguez Miró was a hero for his relief efforts.
• 1789 Work on rebuilding New Orleans began,
including what is referred to today as the French
Quarter.

12. Immigration From Africa
• 1607-1766 Almost all slaves introduced into
colonial Louisiana come directly from Africa.
Most slave traders meet the ships directly in the
Caribbean Islands.
• 1717-1722 Two thousand slaves are brought
directly from Africa by the French, though many
perish from European diseases.
• 1719 Two hundred slaves are brought to New
Orleans from the Senegambian region to cultivate
rice because their own Senegal Valley was similar
to the Mississippi Valley.

13. Immigrants From Haiti
• 1809 Approximately 10,00 refugees arrive in
New Orleans from Saint-Dominigue (present-
day Haiti). Approximately one third were free
persons of color and one-third were slaves.

14. Additional European
Immigrants
• 1717 Irish and Scottish immigrants arrive, felling bad
times and persecution.
• 1722 German immigrants begin to arrive in Louisiana,
and continue to arrive each year. A small portion are
Jewish.
• 1820’s Large numbers of Irish arrive to escape the
famine.
• 1840’s Large numbers of German and Irish immigrants
arrive, working as laborers in the busy port.
• 1871 Portuguese immigrants arrive as laborers, and
continue to do so each year.

15. The United States of America was built, and
continues to be built, by the blood, sweat,
and tears of it’s immigrants and their
subsequent heirs.