MEAN MUDDY RIVER!

MEAN MUDDY RIVER!
 © KENNETH. E. HALL OCTOBER 24, 2018 HOUSTON


♫"Oh, LAWD! Oh, LAWD!
You a MEAN, muddy river -
A mean, muddy river!
How much-a sorrow does a po' man need?
Lawd, Lawd! How much-a sorrow does a po' man need?
You a MEAN, muddy river -
A mean, muddy river!
...Mean ol' river drowned my little child!" ♫--- old blues song


Mark Twain once wrote: “This creature's career could produce but one result, and it speedily followed. Boy after boy managed to get on the river. The minister's son became an engineer. The doctor's and the post-master's sons became 'mud clerks;' the wholesale liquor dealer's son became a barkeeper on a boat; four sons of the chief merchant, and two sons of the county judge, became pilots. Pilot was the grandest position of all. The pilot, even in those days of trivial wages, had a princely salary—from a hundred and fifty to two hundred and fifty dollars a month, and no board to pay. Two months of his wages would pay a preacher's salary for a year. Now some of us were left disconsolate. We could not get on the river  ——    at least our parents would not let us.” 
― Mark Twain, Life on the Mississippi




Who knew the rivers and steamboats better than Sam Clemmons? He wrote many books about life on the river and would take his very pen-name from shouts he heard on that mean, muddy river ---

Like Mark Twain and the young boys he wrote about, thirteen-year-old Billy would often see steamboats. Why wouldn't he? He had lived his short life in the bustling city of New Orleans, and steamboats, Schooners, flatboats - vessels of all sizes, shapes, and descriptions could be seen in great numbers. But Billy was not free like Mark Twain and his alter-ego Tom Sawyer. Billy was a slave.

His master was a German Immigrant with the almost whimsical name of ¹John Goldenbow. John lived in the French sector of the multi-national city of New Orleans. It was 1835 - The great and famous "Battle of New Orleans" was only two decades ago, and Billy's master still delighted in talking about his adventures as a soldier in the New Orleans Militia.

"That was a good time to be alive," John would reminisce, "We were all different, but we all fought on the same side!" There were Choctaw Indians, Kentuck riflemen, regular city businessmen - even PIRATES took part in the fray, and helped us win the battle, too!

That was then. John was now in his early 50's, and enjoying the fruits of his business ventures, as well as the nearly-free labor of indentured servants and a couple of slaves whom he paid nothing. It is easy to get rich when others work for you for free.

Little Billy did not seem to mind, though. He had heard of those poor unfortunates who toiled in the cotton fields and in the sugar plantations, through the blazing-hot summer days and chilly winters - all day long, every day. He had it good, he might have thought - it's no fun to be a slave - to belong to someone else - but if that was your lot in life, working in a tailor shop or cleaning up a house was preferable to the backbreaking hard labor others still performed not too far from the city.

His Master, John, was, among other things, a ship agent, and so he knew what ships sailed to where and made good money managing their affairs while in port. He knew many ship captains by name, and was even able to book passage to his native Germany for a song, returning with his young bride, the former Augusta Ehrich.

It was this very connection to the maritime industry that lead to Billy's sister asking if she could go visit her family in ²Natchitoches, La., a far piece from New Orleans. She had worked for John for as long as she could remember, and he knew that after the visit, the young girl would return and resume her domestic duties, so he booked her passage on a paddlewheel steamboat for the long journey up the mighty Mississippi to the Red River, and from there to the well-established city the locals called "na-ka-tish" but what the Native Americans probably called: "Na-chee TOSH".

                                   Illustrations by Currier & Ives ( Lithograph Prints courtesy Library of Congress)

Billy's sister showed up at the port where the ³Lady Washington was beginning to board. All around her was a bustling place - barrels of sugar, bales of cotton, nutria pelts, and goods of all sorts were being loaded and unloaded from several dozens of ships and steamboats that plied the muddy river. Stevedores and slaves toted barges and lifted bales of cotton like they weighed nothing. It was a mighty sight to see.

As she walked up the gangplank, nobody took any notice of her. There were free persons of color, and even slaves who were trusted who took occasional trips on their masters business. Nobody questioned the young slave boy who calmly walked aboard as it he was supposed to be there ... but he wasn't.

Seems as though his sister was given leave to go to Natchitoches ALONE, and Billy was to remain in the city. Thirteen-year-old boys don't always do what they're told, and the possibility of getting just an hour's ride on a real steamboat was worth the certain flogging either by the captain or his master - or maybe by BOTH! All Billy had on his mind was adventure - the kind only Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer dreamt about.

The whistle blew long and loud - white steam shooting high into the air, and the sound throbbed deeply in everyone's chests. The ramps were pulled back and the stevedores removed the ropes tying the vessel up to the dock and the huge paddle wheel began to turn. Slowly the great boat began to move and separate itself from the dock - and soon it was in the middle of one of the world's greatest - and also the most unforgiving rivers. The adventure had begun!

Billy's sister went to an area of the boat where colored people were allowed. She, too, was excited. Suddenly, she felt a hand on her shoulder and turned around to see her younger brother standing there!

"Dis-donc! She exclaimed in French, "Qu'es-ce que tu fais là?" My goodness - what are you doing here??

I got away - Massa John don't know it yet!

"Massa gon' flog you GOOD!" she warned the lad, but he was not listening. Been known to happen.

Big sister was worried, and well she should have been. A slave running off without permission was a serious offense. The first thing she thought was how to hide her kid brother until they got to Natchitoches.

As fate would have it, help was close at hand! The black cook in the kitchen just happened to be related to the peripatetic pair, and offered to help. Her idea was nothing short of a stroke of genius: Billy could hide in plain sight!

Having the run of the galley and being well-acquainted with the other cooks, she quickly put the 13-year-old stowaway to work in the kitchen! She realized that the rich folks on the Promenade were more interested in having Mint Juleps and smoking Havana cigars than worrying about a little colored boy. It was such a good idea that they even fooled the crew - and for the same reasons.

It got even more brazen as little Billy was pressed into service making deliveries to rich folks in their cabins! As the day wore on, Billy looked and acted as part of the crew, fooling all that didn't know differently.

                                                            Illustrations by Currier & Ives ( Lithograph Prints courtesy Library of Congress)


The day wore on and the Washington Lady plied arduously against the mighty current, winding her way past small farms and large plantations. Back then there were no high levees to keep back the spring flood waters, so passengers and crew got a good look at fields of sugarcane and occasionally tobacco fields, as well as dozens of huge, majestic plantation homes with their lovely columns. Hidden from their view were the slave shacks out back.

Every once in awhile, another vessel heading downstream would be saluted by the blowing of a loud steam whistle, and the other craft would reply in turn. Among the flotilla of craft were rafts - homebuilt things which drifters used as free transportation to New Orleans, where they made a quick buck and many met a quick death.

                                                        Illustrations by Currier & Ives ( Lithograph Prints courtesy Library of Congress)


Some bombastic old gentleman with a white goatee was overheard to exclaim, as he saw several rafts full of Cajuns, blacks, and others⁴"Those in authority in this neck of the woods have only the interest of friends and political henchmen at heart. The transients, negroes and the Boogalees all flock here for this Crescent City is the haven for all idle and lazy drifters." 

The passengers, all dressed up in formal attire, gazed upon the estates of some of Louisiana's richest people, all of whom amassed vast sums of money because of the cost-free labor of the hundreds of the enslaved human beings who toiled on their behalf.

A stop was made at Baton Rouge to let off some passengers and take on new ones. Supplies were also brought on board and Billy even helped bring up a canister of fresh milk. He walked up the gangplank, and passed right under the noses of Captain Wright and his first mate, who were greeting a new river pilot who has just come aboard. The men gave the young man no heed whatsoever. Billy had no idea how close he had come to getting caught - every ship's captain meets and interviews his crew, and a strange face would immediately be questioned.

The cool, refreshing breeze blew across the deck of the sidewheeler, while below deck, in the colored section, sat Billy's sister - still a bit worried that the cook's little scheme might at any minute be discovered.

That was not to happen.


Some time after departing Baton Rouge the boat tied up once more at the bustling port of⁵ Bayou Sara. Again more passengers embarked and disembarked, and a few more supplies, mail and even some cargo were on-loaded and offloaded. Again young Billie was pressed into service and all thoughts of discovery had fled from his mind. A few men cheered as Billie brought aboard a wooden cask of rum!

Slowly the wooden vessel plied upstream. The work had subsided and the daylight had turned now to dusk. Billy, who had been sent on yet another errand, was indeed earning his keep. However, he had taken more time than expected to return to the kitchen. At first the cook took little note of this - she had pots, pans, dishes and all to wash and put away, and if she gave any thought at all to Billy, it was to believe he had gone below decks to visit his sister.

She inquired of her coworkers, and they hadn't seen Billie since just after pulling out from Bayou Sara. A quick trip down below led her to inquire of Billie's sister - but she had not seen Billie since they left Baton Rouge. Then, more of the crew and even a few passengers were discreetly questioned. Soon enough, word got to the Captain that a negro stowaway - possibly a runaway slave - had been discovered aboard the boat - but that that discovery had not been reported to any of the officers until the young man went missing.

In cases such as this, there was a law on the books that all vessels plying the waters of Louisiana must complete a search for stowaways PRIOR to shoving off from the vessel's home port. Special emphasis was placed on locating runaway slaves. Were any discovered they would immediately be turned over to the ship's agent who would see to it that the slave/slaves were returned to their masters as quickly as possible. Were any runaways discovered while the vessel was on the river between ports, it was the duty of the Captain to make speedily for the nearest port, where the local constabulary or authorities would be charged with returning said runaways.

Upon learning of the disappearance of the lad, the Captain immediately pulled the boat toward the riverbank and anchored there for several hours. A few crewmen were dispatched downstream in a launch to search for Billy, but no sign of him was ever found. He just disappeared!

Billie was presumed drowned - all who knew the Mississippi well knew that those who fall overboard in midstream are highly unlikely to be able to survive those murky, turbulent waters. His sister sat just outside of the Captain's quarters, and she wept bitterly. She visited her family in Natchitoches, and returned to New Orleans and bondage under Massa Goldenbow - and she had to tell the tale of her brother's misadventures, and of his disappearance.

Nothing was mentioned about the incident in the local papers, and no funeral was held - there was no body to bury. His survivors grieved in quiet solitude, and then went on with their work.

One person who was most upset by the boy's drowning was John Goldenbow. It seems he had paid some $600.00 for Billy, and that was a sizeable sum back in the 1830's. Eager to recoup some - if not all - of the monies invested, a lawsuit was filed in the Municipal Court.
⁶ ⚖ January 19, 1835 - The suit: “John Goldenbow vs Captain Isaac Wright” began, and it was one of the more unusual cases. John Goldenbow sued the steamboat's CAPTAIN - Isaac Wright, for the sum of $600.00 plus court fees and interest, for the loss of his young slave.

Of course Captain Wright was furious over the whole incident and the lawsuit added insult to injury. Naturally he protested vigorously and got himself a good lawyer. But the law was clear that the crew of the Lady Washington had not conducted a pre-departure stowaway check. Moreover, the cook had failed to notify the Captain of the presence of the stowaway, as per the Maritime Law. Furthermore, in accordance with Maritime Law, the Captain bears ultimate responsibility for the actions (or inactions) of his crew while at sea or on the river.

The court ruled, after two long years of trial and deliberation, in favor of the plaintiff. It ruled that the Captain must pay the sum of $600.00 to John Goldenbow forthwith.

This was more than the Captain could stand, and immediately after the decision was read, a motion of Appeal was filed and the matter was brought before the Louisiana State Supreme Court. The Supreme Court upheld the lower court's decision - reaffirming the Captain's responsibility for the actions of his crew. The court ordered Captain Isaac Wright to pay the initial $600.00 demanded by the Plaintiff, but not the interest. I guess there's limits to everything.

What of young Billie? What happened to him? Was he playing around and slipped and fell overboard? Did he get into a fight and was tossed into the river? Did he try to escape by diving into the turbulent waters only to be sucked under like so many before him? Or did he succeed in swimming to the riverbank and make it to safety... perhaps trekking his way North - to freedom?

Only the Mississippi River knows what happened to the boy I called Billy. Nobody really knows his name - it was never recorded - and he died nameless somewhere, with no one to mourn and to grieve. Did he drown, or did he make it to freedom? Don't bother to ask Ol' Man River... he knows, yeah he knows, but he ain't sayin'.
A song about steamboats and hard work tells of that Ol' Man River:
⁷ "Let me go 'way from the Mississippi,

     Let me go 'way from de white man boss;
     Show me dat stream called de river Jordan,
     Dat's de ol' stream dat I long to cross.

     O' man river,
     Dat ol' man river,
     He mus' know sumpin'
     But don't say nuthin'
     He jes' keeps rollin'
     He keeps on rollin' along!"

_____________________________________________________________________


SONGS CITED:


Ol'Man River - from SHOWBOAT - 1936 * 100 years after this story took place
Sung by Paul Robeson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eh9WayN7R-s

Mean. Muddy River - by Tip & Tinker:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkK04t0NQgU



NOTES & SOURCES:

¹JOHN GOLDENBOW was a real person. He was my 4th Great-Grandfather.
He was born in Mecklenburg, Germany and fought in the Battle Of New Orleans. This story is based on real persons and a real event on the Mississippi River, which brought about a lawsuit that wound up in the Louisiana Supreme Court.


²The town of Natchitoches, LA was first settled in 1714, and was incorporated February 5, 1819. According to Wikipedia: It is the oldest permanent European settlement within the borders of the 1803 Louisiana Purchase," predating the settlement of New Orleans by some 7 years.

³The LADY WASHINGTON was a side-wheeled steamboat completed at Wheeling, VA (now West Virginia) in 1832. Displacement: 96 tons. First home port: Cincinnati, Ohio. Engaged in the Bayou Lafourche trade under the command of Captain Reed, January 1835. Snagged at Natchez. MS, January 9, 1836. Sources: Lytle List, 109, 216; New Orleans Bee, January 3, 1835."

Steamboats on Louisiana's Bayous: A History and Directory

By Carl A. Brasseaux, Keith P. Fontenot"

⁴Dictionary of American Regional English is the source of this quote, dated 1834, around the time this story took place. The word Boogalie, origin unknown, was a pejorative for "Cajun" or Acadian.

⁵"Bayou Sara had been established by French colonists in the early 1790s. It was at one time the largest antebellum Mississippi River port between New Orleans and Memphis, but was superseded by Natchez. The settlement was gradually destroyed by repeated flooding and fires, and nothing exists of Bayou Sara today."- Wikipedia


⁶Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Louisiana Supreme Court - https://books.google.com/books?id=06tLAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA236&lpg=PA236&dq=Goldenbow+wright+%22Lady+Washington%22&source=bl&ots=AgGSXoATdW&sig=JdulSrRv4YMgAVn49656eQB1dMI&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjBi9G77qHeAhVNuFMKHeRhAyYQ6AEwAXoECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=Goldenbow%20wright%20%22Lady%20Washington%22&f=false

⁷ "Ol' Man River" (music by Jerome Kern, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II) is a show tune from the 1927 musical Show Boat that contrasts the struggles and hardships of African Americans with the endless, uncaring flow of the Mississippi River. It is sung from the point of view of a black stevedore on a showboat..." - Wikipedia


Illustrations by Currier & Ives ( Lithograph Prints courtesy Library of Congress)
_____________________________________________________________________________

If you enjoyed this story, you might find these interesting also: 

http://kennyduke.blogspot.com/2018/09/black-like-me.html

http://kennyduke.blogspot.com/2016/07/no-return.html 

http://kennyduke.blogspot.com/2018/08/genealogy-is-fun.html

http://kennyduke.blogspot.com/2014/04/the-old-rocking-chair.html

https://kennyduke.blogspot.com/2018/10/i-must-not-speak-french.html

...And please check out my WELCOME PAGE which lays out the overall theme, aims, and purposes of my Blog and directs you to many other stories that come from the heart!
http://kennyduke.blogspot.com/p/welcome.html   

 

Je ne dois plus parler français dans l'enceinte de l'école

 ! Je ne dois plus parler français dans l'enceinte de l'école

                                                                                       KENNETH E. HALL  17 OCTOBRE. 2018       HOUSTON

 🕮

Écrivez 200 fois: "I must not speak French on the school grounds any more." (Je ne dois plus parler français dans l'enceinte de l'école), a déclaré le professeur au petit garçon, car il parlait sa langue maternelle en classe. Ce petit garçon a grandi pour devenir un violoniste de la musique folklorique Acadienne - et un auteur-compositeur bien connu.

Comment voudriez-vous grandir et être réprimandé à l'école simplement pour être qui vous êtes?
«Soyez à la mode - Parlez Français!» J'ai lu un petit panneau dans le coin inférieur gauche d'un magasin à Lafayette, en la Louisiane. J'ai souri en le voyant et je suis entré prêt à mettre un peu de la langue gauloise sur les gens qui y travaillaient. Quand j'ai commencé à parler mon français parisien, les gens là-bas m'ont jeté un regard un peu bizarre et offensé, comme si j'avais dit quelque chose d'inconvenant, et on m'a dit qu'ils ne parlaient pas français - que je devrais "speak English" (parler anglais).

Et voilà - c’était mon introduction à ce que certains appellent «la Louisiane francophone».
J'avais eu un nouvel emploi - un travail qui m'obligeait à beaucoup voyager dans l'État de Louisiane - entre autres. Une partie importante du sud de la Louisiane est habitée par des Acadiens - des personnes dont les ancêtres étaient originaires de l'Acadie - aujourd'hui connue sous le nom de Nouvelle-Écosse dans le Canada d'aujourd'hui.

Les Acadiens, également appelés «'Cajins» et «Cajuns», ont depuis longtemps été désignés comme «le plus grand groupe ethnique non assimilé» des États-Unis. Vous auriez pu me tromper, avec les salutations douteuses «en anglais seulement» que j'ai eues dans ce petit magasin où je me suis promené. Au cours des cinq années, j'ai donc cherché à trouver des Acadiens dans leur pays d'origine, (la Louisiana) à leur poser des questions et à les écouter. Ce que j'ai appris m'a rendu triste.

En Bref: La langue et la culture acadienne se dirigent rapidement vers l'EXTINCTION.

Avec un nombre aussi important et très dispersé de personnes qui s’identifient comme Acadiens, comment une telle chose soit-elle possible? Voici ce que j’ai appris après avoir traversé des villes et des villages en Acadiana pendant plus de cinq ans et vécu à Lafayette pendant un an et demi.
L'AMÉRIQUE DE LANGUE ANGLAISE GAGNE UNE NOUVELLE LANGUE
Alors que des millions de non-anglophones envahissaient les États-Unis d'Amérique pratiquement sans contrôle au cours des années 1800, de nombreuses dizaines de langues pouvaient être entendues et même lues dans les rues et dans les journaux des villes américaines. Avec l'acquisition du territoire français de la Louisiane en 1803, le français devint une langue américaine majeure. Aux États-Unis au début du XIVe siècle, avec l’achat de la Louisiane en 1803, le français devint en fait la deuxième langue la plus utilisée dans ce pays relativement nouveau. Leurs ancêtres sont arrivés dans les années 1700 et, dès lors que la Louisiane est devenue un territoire américain, il y avait déjà des Cajuns nés dans le pays. Ils n'ont pas franchi la frontière - cette fois, au moins, la frontière les a traversés!
Pendant environ un demi-siècle, les Acadiens se sont surtout cantonnés à eux-mêmes. Leur zone était vaste et géographiquement diversifiée, divisée en trois zones principales: les prairies, les rivières et les marécages. Après leur arrivée dans la colonie espagnole de Luisiana à la fin des années 1700, ces gens se sont dispersés, cultivant du riz et de la canne à sucre, et survivant dans les rivières «bayous» et les marais des Everglades en Louisiane en pêchant et en piégeant
Ils parlaient la langue de leurs ancêtres - un dialecte du français qui avait peu changé au cours des quelques générations passées par leurs ancêtres dans les terres dures et froides de ce qui est maintenant le Canada.

Les Cajuns ont effectivement interagi avec d'autres peuples - ils ont échangé avec des Amérindiens. Ils vivaient parmi les espagnols immigrés venus pour s’installer sur ce vaste territoire et même se marier avec eux. Les Cajuns ont également (et malheureusement!) commencé à acquérir des esclaves, à l'instar d'autres colons européens, mais leurs contacts avec les "Américains" anglophones ont été réduits au minimum et limités aux contacts commerciaux les plus nécessaires.

De même, le gouvernement américain a laissé les Cajuns seuls, du moins pour un certain temps. Il faut souligner que le pays était encore nouveau et que l'édification de la nation, y compris la formation d'un consensus des peuples, était une tâche qui leur incombait. Il est relativement facile de parvenir à un consensus si toute la population d’un pays donné partage la même histoire, la même ethnie, la même religion et la même langue. L'Islande, par exemple, est composée de personnes qui partagent la même race, religion, ascendance et langue. Mais, en ce qui concerne les États-Unis d’Amérique, il fallait travailler pour que "e pluribus unum" réussisse réellement sur cette terre «sauvage», pour la plupart instable.

Afin de se développer en tant que république, les États-Unis ont permis aux gens de venir de nombreux endroits. Beaucoup de ces immigrants n'étaient pas anglophones. Contrairement aux immigrants d’aujourd’hui, au XIXe siècle, on s’attendait à ce que les immigrants s’adaptent au nouveau pays de leur choix, et la très grande majorité des immigrants de cette période aspiraient réellement à devenir Américains. Ils ont travaillé dur, ont appris l'anglais et ont appris à aimer cet endroit qu'ils appelaient maintenant leur pays d'origine.

Quand les Acadiens sont arrivés en Louisiane, ils ont continué à parler français, car rien ne les incitait à le faire. Les Amérindiens de Louisiane avaient depuis longtemps adopté le français comme lingua franca et la plus grande ville du territoire était peuplée principalement de francophones. Les esclaves africains n'avaient pas le choix que parler français.

Mais à mesure que le pays grandissait, des changements dans les schémas linguistiques et ethniques étaient également évidents. Des Allemands et des Tchèques se sont installés au Texas ainsi en la Louisiane, les Mexicains étaient déjà originaires de ce qui est devenu le Texas, les Suédois ont habité le Minnesota, et cetera.

Puis vint le président Théodore Roosevelt. Il a incité les immigrants à faire davantage pour s'adapter et s'assimiler à leur nouvelle terre. Son discours de 1907 énonce très clairement sa philosophie:

«En premier lieu, nous devrions insister sur le fait que si un immigrant qui vient ici de bonne foi devient un Américain et s’assimile à nous, il sera traité sur un pied d’égalité avec tous les autres, car il est scandaleux de discriminer un tel individu en raison de sa religion, de son lieu de naissance ou de son origine. Mais cela suppose que la personne devienne, dans tous les domaines, un Américain, et rien qu’un Américain… Il ne peut y avoir d’allégeance divisée ici. Tout homme qui se dit Américain, mais autre chose aussi, n’est pas du tout américain. Nous n’avons de la place que pour un drapeau, le drapeau américain… Nous n’avons de la place que pour une langue, c’est l’anglais… et pour une seule loyauté, c’est une loyauté envers le peuple américain. »

Cela me semble raisonnable - faire partie de notre pays.

C'est à peu près à cette époque que beaucoup d'Américains ont cherché à mettre en œuvre le slogan "E Pluribus Unum" (de plusieurs- un seul), littéralement, et ont commencé à le faire au niveau le plus fondamental: les écoles.

On ne peut pas s’attendre à ce que les immigrants de la trentaine ou plus âgés changent leurs convictions fondamentales, leurs coutumes, leur culture ou autre chose - peu importe les efforts qu’ils ont déployés. En tant qu'étrangers, ils sont venus et en tant qu'étrangers, ils sont morts - dans un pays étranger. La grande différence était qu'ils avaient un amour pour leur pays d'adoption et qu'ils avaient les mêmes droits que tous les autres citoyens américains.

Leurs enfants, cependant, étaient une autre affaire. Ils pourraient - et dans tous les droits devraient être obligés de parler la langue nationale, tout en étant enseignés (certains disent endoctrinés) aux idéaux américains. La politique "anglais seulement" a été mise en place dans chaque école et, comme il existait des endroits dans lesquels de nombreuses langues étaient parlées, cette action était rapide mais NÉCESSAIRE dans ces cas-là.

Dans le cas des Amérindiens, devenir "américain" signifiait perdre leur identité tribale - la chose la plus importante pour eux. Assimilation - "L’américanisation" a fait le travail que les maladies, la réinstallation et les armes à feu n’ont pas fait - elle n’a pas tué la race, elle a détruit les liens qui unissent le peuple. Cela a tué l’essence même de ces peuples. Ils ont gagné!

Les Mexicains et les Américains d'origine mexicaine devaient vivre une expérience similaire: il leur était interdit de parler espagnol dans l'enceinte de l'école et, dans de nombreux cas, les familles hispaniques ont également commencé à parler anglais à la maison. Le résultat fut une génération hispanique qui ne parlait pas espagnol! Ils ont conservé bon nombre de leurs caractéristiques culturelles, mais la majorité des hispaniques des villes ont presque totalement perdu leur langue.

J'ai parlé à un jeune homme qui avait des traits mexicains - son prénom et son nom de famille étaient hispaniques - mais lui-même ne parlait pas espagnol - - - pas un mot!  Il m’a informé que, dans son enfance, tout le monde lui avait dit de ne pas parler espagnol et que ses parents et ses grands-parents parlaient espagnol quand ils ne voulaient pas que les enfants les comprennent. Pourtant, lorsqu'il a postulé pour un emploi, on lui a demandé s'il était "bilingue"! Ils lui ont dit que ce serait un avantage s'il le faisait. Il était vraiment choqué.

Je me rappelle moi-même que mes grands-parents parlaient français quand ils ne voulaient pas que je comprenne ce qu'ils disaient pour que je puisse comprendre. J'allais entendre cela plus tard parmi les Acadiens comme un mantra - ce que je pensais être une expérience familiale unique s'est avéré être si courant qu'il en est devenu la norme.

Dans l’ensemble d’Acadiana, les enfants étaient obligés d’aller à l’école. Autrefois, ils travaillaient sur la ferme familiale, chassaient et étaient piégés. Les écoles étaient destinées aux "Américains" * "les Goddam". Cela devait changer à mesure que les lois sur l'absentéisme étaient adoptées - 

les enfants devaient aller à l'école.

Un monsieur cajun m'a dit que lorsqu'il a commencé à aller à l'école, tout ce qu'il a entendu est un «marmonnement» - un charabia. Le premier mot anglais qu'il a appris était: "beescyusd" = be excused (être excusé d'aller aux toilettes). Il ne savait pas ce que le mot signifiait - seulement que s'il levait la main et le disait, il serait autorisé à se lever et à se dégager temporairement de sa triste situation d'être dans un endroit qu'il ne voulait pas être.

Certains de ces vieux Cajuns m'ont dit qu'ils seraient punis pour avoir parlé français en classe, en écrivant des lignes, en se tenant dans un coin ou parfois même en pagayant. Tout cela pour avoir parlé leur langue maternelle dans leur ville natale.

Ma grand-mère maternelle parlait français comme langue NATIVE. Elle est décédée à 94 ans, n'ayant saisi que les rudiments de l'anglais. Ses enfants ont été élevés dans le même village de pêcheurs d'huîtres - parlant également le français. Le croate, pas l'anglais, était une deuxième langue.

La Nouvelle-Orléans était en train de devenir une ville bilingue, même en 1800, et elle aurait perdu sa langue française peu de temps après sans l'afflux de dizaines de milliers de réfugiés de la révolte des esclaves à Saint Domingue (Haïti). Quelque 30 000 personnes - noires et blanches - libres et esclaves - ont quitté la ville de Santiago de Cuba pour se rendre à la Nouvelle-Orléans, repoussant ainsi la quasi-extinction du français dans cette ville pendant encore deux ou trois générations.

Après cela, seules quelques petites poches de la Nouvelle-Orléans conservaient encore la langue. Dans les années 1920, les personnes qui parlaient avec un fort accent français étaient principalement des Cajuns qui venaient de la grande ville pour y vivre ou y travailler. À cette époque, l'ethnie cajun était ridiculisée - l'homme cajun était perçu comme une caricature - un homme comique semblable à une colline, mal habillé de traits risibles, en arrière, stupide, crédule, etc. Le péjoratif utilisé dans la rue était: "Bougalie":

"Les passants, les nègres et les Boogalees affluent tous ici, car ce Crescent City est le refuge idéal pour tous les vagabonds oisifs et paresseux." - 1934 - Dictionnaire américain de l'anglais régional

Un chant de comptine était même utilisé par les enfants de la ville: "Bougalee Kiskadee". (Kiskadee vient de "Qu'est-ce que tu dis?" - Qu'avez-vous dit? Cela se moquait des Cajuns qui ne comprenaient pas l'anglais. Ma mère m'a parlé de cette comptine quand j'étais enfant.

À peu près à la même époque, une bande dessinée intitulée "Le maire de Bayou PonPon" est sortie - elle se moquait et ridiculisait les Cajuns de la même manière que "Lil 'Abner" émoussait et stéréotypait Hillbillies - des habitants pauvres des montagnes Appalaches.

PARLANT FRANÇAIS ÉTAIT UNE FOIS CONSIDÉRÉ ARRIÈRE, IGNORANT ET NON INSTRUIT!

Lorsque ma grand-mère maternelle est arrivée à la Nouvelle-Orléans en provenance de Buras, La. en 1920, elle parlait anglais mal et avec un fort accent. Elle a été horriblement moquée et ridiculisée par les "sophistiqués" de la Nouvelle-Orléans à tel point qu'elle a appris à parler anglais MIEUX que le brogue "yat" que tant de gens utilisaient dans cette ville. Ce faisant, elle occulta sa capacité à parler français de tous - sauf les membres de la famille proche. Heureusement, son frère, Léon, qui parlait anglais avec un accent très fort, transformait sa connaissance de la langue française en un travail d’interprète auprès des généraux américains, passant ainsi sa mission à la Première Guerre mondiale à Paris!

Mon grand-père maternel, né en 1905, a appris le français avec sa mère et beaucoup de ses copains qui grandissaient parlaient également le français. Sa génération était le dernier des francophones de la Nouvelle-Orléans. Ainsi, une ville autrefois uniquement francophone fondée en 1718 est devenue uniquement anglophone en 200 ans!

Cette tendance s'est également poursuivie dans le pays cajun, mais à un rythme beaucoup plus lent. Le français, qui était autrefois une partie dynamique de cette région, a commencé à diminuer en nombre de locuteurs natifs. En fin de compte, les journaux de langue française ont cessé de paraître dans cette langue et, à cause de la politique "anglais seulement" dans les écoles, on n'a jamais appris aux enfants à lire ou à écrire leur langue.

[[[Voir mon article sur le blog: "Pointe d'Église Stopover"]]]

 https://kennyduke.blogspot.com/2014/10/pointe-deglise-stopover.html

Au cours de mes voyages et de mon séjour dans cette partie de la Louisiane, j'ai rencontré de nombreuses personnes portant des noms de famille français et cajuns. Très peu d'entre eux parlaient beaucoup le français. Ils m'ont répété maintes fois la même chose: il leur était interdit de parler français à l'école et les membres de leur famille plus âgés parlaient français quand ils ne voulaient pas que les enfants comprennent. C’était une RUPTURE générationnelle dans l’utilisation de la langue, qui s’est poursuivie jusqu’à nos jours.

Un jour, à la fin des années 1970, j'étais assis dans un restaurant lorsque j'ai entendu deux jeunes boursiers parler couramment le français cajun! J'avais entendu des hommes âgés parler trop souvent pour le dire, mais ces hommes étaient dans la jeune vingtaine !! Bientôt, la curiosité a eu raison de moi et j'ai alors demandé d'où ils venaient, et comment se fait-il que de tels jeunes hommes parlent français! Ils ont répondu qu'ils étaient "de Cécilia là-bas ..." de là-bas à Cecilia. C'est la seule fois où j'ai entendu des jeunes parler français.

Un jour de 1984, je participais à une activité sociale dans un grand camp de pêche au bord du lac Pontchartrain, en provenance de la Nouvelle-Orléans. Il y avait un groupe de jazz Dixieland en direct et je me suis assis juste à côté. Pendant les intermissions, j'ai découvert que l'un des musiciens était français. Nous avons commencé à parler français et une dame noire responsable de la nourriture et des tables s’est arrêtée pour nous écouter. Elle a sourit largement et a sauté dans notre conversation comme si elle avait été une conversation en anglais.

Sa jeune fille y travaillait aussi et elle ne parlait qu'en français à sa mère! C'était encore quelque chose que je n'avais jamais expérimenté - avant ou depuis. Elle et sa famille vivaient sur les bayous et elle m'a dit où elle habitait, presque tout le monde parlait français. C'était en 1984.  Je me demande si c'est toujours vrai aujourd'hui.

En plus des écoles, l'augmentation de la population non francophone de la Louisiane française a ajouté de plus en plus de non-francophones n'ayant même pas l'héritage français.

L'anglais est la langue dominante sans aucun doute.

Ensuite, il y a la modernisation! Peut-être que les choses peuvent rester dans les années 1700 si vous êtes Amish, mais d’autres groupes ethniques finissent par progresser. La musique a eu des influences à la fois positives et négatives dans la culture cajun. Les Acadiens avaient de la musique de violon qu'ils apportaient de France en Acadie, puis en Louisiane. L'accordéon a été introduit beaucoup, beaucoup plus tard, et finalement des instruments électriques sont entrés dans l'image. Ces instruments produisaient de nombreux types de musique acadienne, cajun et zydeco, ainsi que des fusions de rock cajun, rock and roll cajun, "Swamp Pop" et de musique country chantée en français cajun. Ces types de musique ont aidé à moderniser et à diversifier la culture cajun, mais la domination du rock a relégué la musique cajun dans de minuscules enclaves - de brèves périodes de jeu sur les stations de radio AM. Au fur et à mesure que le nombre de francophones diminue, le nombre de chanteurs cajuns a également diminué - et au même degré.

En 1962, une chanson prophétique intitulée Fais Do-Do est publiée. C'est une diatribe comique sur la façon dont une jeune fille cajun - de la famille Thibodaux de la 10ème génération - ne veut rien avoir à faire avec la culture acadienne:

Elle n'aime pas monter dans ma pirogue,

Elle ne connaite-pas camment filé gombo;

Elle fait-faché son cajun papa

Quand elle fait le Twist a la Fai-do-do

Cette chanson, enregistrée en anglais et en français, en dit long sur la façon dont la culture acadienne commence à disparaître et sur la façon dont les Acadiens s’assimilent rapidement à la culture nord-américaine.

ACADIANA LUTTE DE RETOUR!!!

Le Conseil pour le développement du français en Louisiane a fait de grands progrès pour sensibiliser le public à la disparition de la culture acadienne. Ils ont réclamé des études de français dans les écoles (qui ont provoqué son élimination). Le seul problème est la disponibilité de locuteurs natifs parlés couramment. Des professeurs venus du Québec, de la France et de la Belgique ont été amenés, mais le français parlé même au Québec et n'est pas identique au français acadien (cajun). Il y a beaucoup de différence entre les français de la métropole et le Québec.

Le problème avec les professeurs de langues importés est le suivant: une langue maternelle est la langue dans laquelle une personne est surélevée !!! Tout le reste est une langue apprise - une langue étrangère. Les enfants pourraient tout aussi bien apprendre le swahili ou l’arménien… le lien avec leur chaîne linguistique a été rompu.

La cuisine cajun a également été populaire au cours des dernières décennies, mettant en valeur cet aspect de la culture française de la Louisiane. Le chef cajun K. Paul Prudhomme était autrefois l'un des chefs les plus célèbres aux États-Unis. On trouve également l'épice Cajun de Tony Chachère sur pratiquement tous les magasins du pays, ainsi que dans le monde entier.

La musique cajun et zydeco a également connu une résurgence au cours des dernières décennies. De plus en plus de gens ont commencé à jouer des variantes de cette musique plus que jamais - et celle-ci n'est plus autant rejetée par ceux d'Acadiana.

Il est juste possible que toutes ces choses soient trop peu et trop tard.

Les personnes qui seraient en désaccord avec moi fortement sont Marc et Ann Savoy. J'irais même jusqu'à dire que Marc est un trésor culturel de la culture cajun. Il n'est pas le seul, loin de là.

UN COUP DE PIED

Un jour, probablement lors de ma dernière incursion dans le pays cajun, je me suis arrêté dans un petit magasin de disques. J'ai demandé à la fille qui travaillait là-bas si elles vendaient des disques cajun. Elle s'est moquée de moi !!

En colère, je lui ai dit que ce n'était pas MA culture - c'était d'elle, et qu'elle devrait être heureuse que quelqu'un s'y intéresse. Je lui ai dit que SA culture mourait - et tant que les gens auront ce genre d'attitude apathique, ce sera mort dans deux générations maximum. Je ne sais pas quel effet mon discours a eu, mais j’ai senti que je devais dire quelque chose - comme un départ décisif - ne serait-ce que pour exprimer ma frustration et mon indignation du fait qu’une culture qui existe depuis des centaines d’années s’engloutisse et remplacés par les chaînes de restauration rapide, la musique rock et le triomphe de la langue dominante devenant la SEULE langue.

LES LANGUES PARTOUT DANS LE MONDE SONT DANS LE MÊME RISQUE D'EXTINCTION

Diverses langues telles que l'irlandais, l'écossais, le breton, l'hawaïen, le romanche, le hokkaido ainu et une multitude de langues et de dialectes contemporains risquent de disparaître, beaucoup pour la même raison que le français acadien. Ils sont soumis à une pression externe exercée par une ou plusieurs langues / cultures dominantes. Le plus triste, c’est que beaucoup de dommages sont auto-infligés: les locuteurs natifs meurent sans communiquer la langue à leurs enfants, et le pire arrive lorsque des locuteurs natifs ou leurs enfants choisissent d’utiliser la langue qui les empiète et abandonnent la leur.

Le chanteur cajun Zachary Richard présente un récit puissant et dramatique du Grand Dérangement, dans lequel les familles de l’Acadie étaient choyées par "Réveille!" * Réveillez-vous! Les Goddams sont arrivés. C'était leur péjoratif pour les Anglais. "Réveille-toi pour sauver tes récoltes, tes maisons, ta vie même. Ça finit par crier Réveille! Réveille-toi! Sauve ton Héritage !!!"

______________________________________________________

🕮

COMMENTAIRES:

J'ai rencontré M. Hadley J. Castille une fois dans le sud de la Louisiane. Il m'a raconté qu'il avait grandi et qu'il était difficile de s'adapter à une langue étrangère qui venait de l'extérieur de la région dans laquelle il vivait. "200 lignes: je ne dois pas parler français" basé sur son expérience de punition pour avoir parlé français alors qu'il fréquentait l'école publique à Léonville. La.

Ceci est un lien vers la chanson Cajun de Hadley Castille: "200 Lines: I Must Not Speak French"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ky2wwhnOaA

Here Hadley Castille plays Cajun fiddle with his granddaughter!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91vBzCaNTQ0

C'est un compte rendu PUISSANT du pogrom qui s'est produit en Acadie il y a longtemps. Il est chanté en français cajun et est très émouvant - d'autant plus si vous comprenez les mots:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qODyaCOyvOM

Lien au Swamp Pop hit - "Fais Do-Do": 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StZDIeLt2Hk

Lien a l'art  Guy Fanguy:
http://www.guyfanguy.com/webpages/cartoons_1.asp

L'histoire de Marc et Ann Savoy 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcPtPvGn2kU

ET ...... SUR MON BLOG:

C’est l’histoire d’un appel de vente que j’ai fait au cœur de l’Acadiana - et d’un homme très intéressant que j’ai rencontré là-bas. https://kennyduke.blogspot.com/2014/10/pointe-deglise-stopover.html

Ma PAGE DE BIENVENUE est accessible ici:

http://kennyduke.blogspot.com/p/welcome.html  

I Must Not Speak French

I Must Not Speak French

KENNETH E. HALL      OCTOBER 16, 2018     HOUSTON

"Write 200 lines: 'I must not speak French on the school grounds any more,'" the teacher told the little boy, because he spoke his native language in class. This little boy, who grew up to be a well-known Cajun fiddle player and songwriter. 

How would you like to grow up and be scolded for being who you are?


"Soyez à la mode - Parlez Français!" read a small sign in the lower left corner of a store showwindow in Lafayette, Louisiana. It means: "Be in style - Speak French!" I smiled when I saw it, and walked in - ready to lay a little of the Gallic tongue on the folks who worked there. When I began to speak my Parisian French, the people there gave me a strange, offended  look, almost as if I had intruded on something, and I was told that they did not speak French - that I should "talk English." 

This was my introduction to what some call "Francophone Louisiana."

I had gotten a new job - one which required me to travel extensively throughout the state of Louisiana - among other places. A sizeable portion of south Louisiana is inhabited by Acadians - people whose ancestors came from Acadie (Acadia) - now known as Nova Scotia (New Scotland) in present-day Canada. 

Acadians, also called "Cajuns", had for long been designated as the "largest unassimilated ethnic group" in the USA. You could have fooled me, with the "English-only" dubious greeting I got at that small shop I wandered into. So over the course of nearly five years, I made a point of seeking out Acadians in their hometowns, asking them questions, and listening to their stories. What I learned made me sad. 

The Acadian language and culture is rapidly heading for EXTINCTION.

With such a large and widely-scattered number of people who identify themselves as Acadiens, how is such a thing possible? Here is what I learned after travelling through towns and villages in Acadiana for over half a decade, as well as actually living in Lafayette for another year and a half.


ENGLISH-SPEAKING AMERICA GAINS A NEW LANGUAGE

As millions of non-English-speaking people flooded virtually unchecked into the United States of America during the 1800's, many dozens of languages could be heard and even read on the streets and in newspapers in the cities and towns of the United States. With the acquisition of the French territory of Louisiana in 1803, FRENCH became a major American language . There were relatively few Spanish speakers in what made up the United States at the beginning of the XVIIIth Century, s with the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, French actually became the second most-widely used language in the relatively new country, and its speakers were not immigrants! Their ancestors arrived in the 1700's, so by the time Louisiana became a U.S. territory, there were already native-born Cajuns there. They did not cross the border - this time, at least, the border crossed THEM! 

For the first half-century or so, Acadians kept mostly to themselves. Their area was large and geographically diverse, being divided roughly into three major areas: prairie, river, and swamp. After their arrival in the Spanish colony of Luisiana in the late 1700's, these people spread out, cultivating rice and sugarcane, and surviving in the backwater bayous and swamps of Louisiana's Everglades by fishing and trapping

They spoke the language of their forefathers - a country dialect of French that had changed little in the few generations their ancestors spent in the harsh, chilly grounds of what is now Canada. 

Cajuns did interact with other peoples - they traded with Native Americans. They lived among and even intermarried with immigrant Spaniards who also came to settle this vast territory. Cajuns also began to acquire slaves, just as other European settlers had, but their contact with English-speaking "Americans" was kept to a minimum and was limited to the most necessary trade contacts.

The U.S. Government likewise left the Cajuns alone - at least for awhile. It must be pointed out that the country was new and nation-building, including the formation of a consensus of the people, was a task that lay before them. It is relatively easy to gain a consensus if all of the population of a given land shares the same history, ethnicity, religion, and language. Iceland, for example, is composed of people who are share the same race, religion, ancestry, and language. But where the United States of America was concerned,  work had to be done if "e pluribus unum" was to actually succeed in this wild, mostly unsettled land. 

In order to grow as a republic, the United States allowed people to come from many places. Many of these immigrants were not English-speaking. Unlike the immigrants of today, back in the Nineteenth Century, immigrants were expected to adapt themselves to the new land of their choice, and the overwhelming majority of immigrants during this period actually aspired to become Americans. They worked hard, learned the English language, and grew to love the place they now called home. 

When the Acadians arrived in Louisiana, they continued to speak French, since there was no incentive for them to do otherwise. The Native Americans of Louisiana had long ago adopted the French language as a lingua franca and the largest city of the territory was populated mostly by French-speaking people. African slaves had no choice in the matter. 

But as the country grew, changes in linguistic and ethnic patterns likewise were apparent. Germans and Czechs settled in Texas, Mexicans were natives already in what became Texas, Swedes inhabited Minnesota, etc. That added diversity to a once white Anglo-Saxon nation, and at first nobody saw multiculturalism as a bad thing.

Then came President Theodore Roosevelt. He made a push for immigrants to do more to adapt and assimilate to their new land. His speech in 1907 states his philosophy very clearly: 
“In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person’s becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American … There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn’t an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag … We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language … and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.” 

This seems reasonable - be a part of our nation. 

It is around this time that many Americans sought to implement the slogan "E Pluribus Unum" (from many, one) literally, and began to do so at the most basic level: the schools. 
Immigrants in their thirties or older cannot be expected to change their core beliefs, their customs, their culture, or much of anything else - no matter how hard they tried. As foreigners they came, and as foreigners they died - in a foreign land. The big difference was that they had a love for their adopted country and were given the same rights as every other American citizen. 

Their children, however, were another matter entirely. They could - and in all rights should be made to speak the national language, as well as be taught (some say indoctrinated)  American ideals. In every schoolhouse, the "English Only" policy was put in place, and since there were places in which numerous languages were spoken, this action was expedient but in these cases NECESSARY. 

In the case of Native Americans, becoming "American" meant losing their tribal identity - the most important thing to them. Assimilation - "Americanization" did the work that diseases, resettlement, and guns did not do - it did not kill the race, it killed the bonds that held the people together. It killed the very ESSENCE of these peoples.

Mexicans and Mexican-Americans were to have a similar experience: they were prohibited from speaking Spanish on the school grounds, and in many cases, Hispanic families also began speaking English at home. The result was a generation of Hispanics who did not speak Spanish! They retained many of their cultural characteristics, but the majority of urban hispanics lost their language nearly completely.

I spoke to a young man who had Mexican features - his first and last name were Hispanic - but he himself spoke not a work of Spanish. He informed me that, as a child, he was told by everyone that he should not speak Spanish, and that his parents and grandparents spoke Spanish when they didn't want the children to understand them. Yet when he applied for a job, he was asked if he was "bilingual"! They told him it would be a plus if he were. He was shocked.

I myself recall my Grandparents speaking French when they did not want me to understand what they were saying, so I could relate. I would hear this later on among Acadians as a mantra - what I thought was a unique family experience turned out to be so common as to make it the norm.

Throughout Acadiana, children were made to go to school. Formerly, they worked on the family farm, hunted, and trapped. Schools were for the "Americans" *"les Goddam". This was to change as truancy laws were passed - children HAD to go to school.

One Cajun gentleman told me that when he started school, everything he heard was a "mumble" - a gibberish. The first English word he learned was: "beescyusd" (be excused). He didn't know what the word meant - only that if he raised his hand and said it, he was allowed to get up and temporarily extricate himself from his unhappy predicament of being in a place he did not want to be.

Some of these old Cajuns told me that they would be punished for speaking French in class - writing lines, standing in the corner, or sometimes even getting paddled. All this for speaking their native language in their hometown.

My maternal grandmother spoke French as her NATIVE language. She passed away at 94, having only grasped the rudiments of English. Her children were raised in the same oyster fishing village - likewise speaking French. Croatian, not English, was a second language there.

New Orleans was becoming a bilingual city even in 1800, and it would have lost its French language soon thereafter had it not been for the influx of tens of thousands of refugees from the slave revolt in Saint Domingue (Haiti). Some thirty thousand people - both black and white - free and slave - left the city of Santiago de Cuba for New Orleans, thus pushing back the virtual extinction of French in that city for another two or three generations.

After that, only small pockets of New Orleans still held on to the language. In the 1920's, people who spoke with a thick french accent were mostly Cajuns coming to "la grande ville" the Big City  to live or to work. By this time, the Cajun ethnicity was ridiculed - the Cajun man was seen as a caricature - a comical hillbilly-like man, poorly dressed with laughable features, backward, stupid, gullible, and on and on. The pejorative used on the street was: "Bougalie":

"The transients, negroes and the Boogalees all flock here for this Crescent City is the haven for all idle and lazy drifters." - 1934 - American Dictionary of Regional English

A rhyme chant was even used by the children of the city: "Bougalee Kiskadee". (Kiskadee comes from "Qu'est-ce que tu dis?" - What did you say? This was mocking the Cajuns not understanding English. My mother told me about this rhyme when I was a child.

About this time, a comic work called "The Mayor of Bayou PonPon" came out - mocking and ridiculing Cajuns in much the same way that "Lil' Abner" lampooned and stereotyped Hillbillies - poor residents of Appalachia. 

SPEAKING FRENCH WAS ONCE CONSIDERED BACKWARD, IGNORANT, AND UNEDUCATED!

When my maternal grandmother arrived in New Orleans from Buras, La. in 1920, she spoke broken English - and that with a very thick accent. She was horribly mocked and ridiculed by the "sophisticated" New Orleanians so much so that she learned to speak English BETTER than the "yat" brogue that so many  used in that city. In the process, she occulted her ability to speak French from all but immediate family. Happily, her brother, Léon, who spoke English with an accent not unlike Cajun entertainer Justin Wilson, parlayed his knowledge of the French language into a job as interpreter to American Generals, thus spending his tour of duty in World War I in Paris!

My maternal grandfather who was born in 1905, learned French from his mother, and many of his buddies growing up also spoke French. His generation was the last of the native speakers of French in New Orleans. Thus a once-French-only city founded in 1718 became English-only in a period of 200 years. 

This trend also continued in Cajun Country, but at a much slower pace. French, which was once a vibrant part of this area began to dwindle in terms of native speakers. Eventually, French-language newspapers ceased publishing in that language, and because of the "English Only" policy in schools, the children were never taught how to read or write their own language.
[[[See my blog story: "Pointe d'Église Stopover"]]]   https://kennyduke.blogspot.com/2014/10/pointe-deglise-stopover.html

In my travels and time in this part of Louisiana, I met many people who had French and Cajun last names. Very few of them spoke much French, They told me the same thing over and over - that they were prohibited from speaking French in school, and that their older family members spoke French when they did not want the children to understand. This was a generational break in language use, which continued until the present day.

One day in the late 1970's, I was sitting at a hamburger restaurant just off of I-10 when I heard two YOUNG fellows speaking fluent Cajun French! I had heard old men speaking it too often to say, but these men were in their low twenties!! Soon enough, curiosity got the better of me and I asked then where they were from, and how is it that such young men were speaking French! They answered that they were "from Cécilia là-bas..." from down there in Cecilia. This was the only time I ever heard youths speaking French. 

One day in 1984 I was at a social function at a large fishing camp across Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans. There was a live Dixieland Jazz band there and I sat right by it.  During intermissions, I discovered that one of the musicians was from France. We began speaking French, and a black lady who was in charge of the food and the tables stopped and listened to us. She smiled broadly, and jumped into our conversation as if it had been English.

Her young daughter was also working there, and she spoke to her mother only in French! This was again something I had never experienced - before or since. She and her family lived on the bayous, and she told me where she lived nearly everyone spoke French. That was in 1984. I wonder if that is still true today.

In addition to the schools, the increase of the non-Francophone population of French Louisiana has added more non-French speakers who do not even have French heritage.
English is the dominant language without a doubt.


Then there is MODERNIZATION! Perhaps things can stay in the 1700's if you are Amish, but other ethnic groups eventually progress. Music has had both positive and negative influences in Cajun culture. Acadiens had fiddle music which they brought with them from France to Acadie and then to Louisiana. The accordion was introduced much, much later, and finally electric instruments came into the picture. These instruments produced many types of Acadian, Cajun, and Zydeco music, as well as fusions of Cajun rock, Cajun rock and Roll, "Swamp Pop", and Country Music sung in Cajun French. These types of music have helped modernize and diversify Cajun culture, but the dominance of Rock has relegated Cajun music to tiny enclaves - brief periods of play on AM radio stations. As French speakers diminish in number, the amount of Cajun singers has likewise diminished - and by the same degree. 

In 1962 a prophetic song was released entitled Fais Do-Do. It is a comical diatribe about how a Cajun girl - 10th generation Thibodaux - wants nothing to do with Acadian culture:

She don't like to ride in my pirogue,
She don't like to cook gumbo;
She upsets her Cajun papa
When she does the Twist at the Fais-do-do!"

This song, recorded both in English and in French, says so much about how the Acadian culture is beginning to disappear, and how Acadians are rapidly assimilating into North American culture.

ACADIANA FIGHTS BACK

The Counsel for the Development of French in Louisiana has made great strides to build awareness of the disappearance of the Acadian culture. They have pushed for French language studies in the very schools that caused its elimination. The only problem is the availability of fluent native speakers of the language. Teachers have been brought in from Québec, France and Belgium, but even the country dialect spoken in the Québec countryside is not the same as Acadian (Cajun) French. 

A mother tongue is just that: it is the language a person is RAISED SPEAKING!!! Anything else is a learned language - a foreign language. The children might just as well learn Swahili or Armenian.... the connection to their linguistic chain has been severed.

Cajun cuisine has also been popular in the last few decades, showcasing this aspect of Louisiana French culture. Cajun Chef K. Paul Prudhomme was at one time one of the US' most famous chefs, and Tony Chachère's Cajun Spice can be found on virtually every store shelf in the country - as well as around the world.

There has also been a resurgence in Cajun and Zydeco music in the last few decades. More and more people have begun to play variants of this music more so than at any time - and it is no longer being rejected as much by those in Acadiana. 

It is just possible that all these things are too little too late. 

People who would disagree with me strongly are Marc and Ann Savoy. I would go so far as to say that Marc is a Cultural Treasure of Cajun culture. He is not the only one, by any means.

A PARTING SHOT

One day, during probably my last foray into Cajun country, I stopped at a small record shop. I asked the girl working there if they sold Cajun records. She LAUGHED at me!!

Angry, I told her that this was not MY culture - it was HERS, and that she should be happy someone is taking an interest in it. I told her that HER culture was DYING - and as long as people had that kind of apathetic attitude, it will be dead within two generations.  I do not know what effect - if any - my rant had, but I felt I had to say something - as a parting shot - if only to express my frustration and outrage that a culture that has existed for hundreds of years will be asphalted over and replaced by fast-food chains, rock music, and the triumph of the dominant language becoming the ONLY language.

LANGUAGES THROUGHOUT THE WORLD ARE IN SIMILAR DANGER OF EXTINCTION

Various languages such as Irish, Scottish, Breton, Hawaiian, Romansh, Hokkaido Ainu, and a host of contemporary languages and dialects are in danger of becoming extinct, many for the very same reason as Acadian French. They are under external pressure by one or more dominant languages / cultures.  The saddest part is that much damage is self-inflicted: native speakers die out without imparting the language to their children, and the worst happens when native speakers or their children opt to use the encroaching language and abandon their own.


Cajun singer Zachary Richard sand a powerful and dramatic account of the Grand Derangement, in which families of Acadie were dole to "Réveille!" * wake up! The Goddams have arrived. This was their pejorative for the English. "Wake up- to save your crops, your homes, your very lives. It ends by shouting Réveille! Wake up! Save your Héritage!!!"
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COMMENTS: 
I met Hadley J. Castille once in south Louisiana. He told me about his time growing up - and how it was difficult adapting to a foreign language that came from outside of the area in which he lived.   "200 Lines: I Must Not Speak French" based on his experience of punishment for speaking French while he was attending public school in Léonville. La. 
This is a link to Hadley Castille's Cajun song: "200 Lines: I Must Not Speak French"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ky2wwhnOaA

Here Hadley Castille plays Cajun fiddle with his granddaughter!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91vBzCaNTQ0

This is a POWERFUL account of the pogrom which occurred in Acadie long ago. It is sung in Cajun French and is very emotional - more so if you understand the words:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qODyaCOyvOM

Link to the Swamp Pop hit - "Fais Do-Do": 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StZDIeLt2Hk

Link to caricature art buy Guy Fanguy:
http://www.guyfanguy.com/webpages/cartoons_1.asp

Marc and Ann Savoy - Cultural Treasures! 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcPtPvGn2kU


AND...... ON MY BLOG: 
This is a story about a sales call I made in the heart of Acadiana - and of a very interesting man I met there. 
https://kennyduke.blogspot.com/2014/10/pointe-deglise-stopover.html


My WELCOME PAGE can be accessed here: http://kennyduke.blogspot.com/p/welcome.html