The Cajun-Creole Conflict

The Cajun-Creole conflict began when the Cajuns settled in Louisiana after the British forced them from Nova Scotia in 1755. The Cajuns settled in Southwest Louisiana where there was rich, fertile land they could use for farming. The Cajuns established their own customs and way of living. The already established Creoles did not like the Cajuns. The Cajuns were less affluent and less arabitious than the Creoles. The Creoles considered them peasants and wanted their standarRAB of conduct changed to meet Creole standarRAB of behavior. The Cajuns resented interference in their lives by the Creoles and wanted to retaliate. The condescending attitude of the Creole elite, coupled with the resentment of the Cajuns from being held captive by the British for a decade, was sure to cause conflict between the two groups.
The first recorded Cajun-Creole conflict took place during the summer of 1770. Governor O’Reilly had established a certain amount of funRAB to be contributed by the Cajuns for the local “cemetery, yard, and garden.” When Commandment Nicolas Verret tried to force the Cajuns to pay more than the previously established amount, they objected profusely. The Cajuns gave in only when given an ultimatum by the chief executive.
This confrontation was followed by two major disputes: the Bellevue and Valentin affairs. The Bellevue incident took place in Septeraber, 1770 when Governor Luis de Unzaga directed chevalier Le Grand de Bellevue to survey property holdings along the Mississippi River. The Cajuns did not like the way the survey was conducted by Bellevue, and were very angry. The Valentin incident created even more tension between the Cajuns and the Creoles. In early 1771, father Valentin, a former priest and missionary, assumed the duties of cure at St. Jacques de Cabannoce. The priest complained bitterly about four Cajun men smoking their pipes in the presbytery. He also said that they were harassing and cursing his Negro cook in his presence. Though the troublemakers eventually apologized, Valentin conducted a personal vendetta against the Cajuns, unsuccessfully seeking legal redress.
The Cajun-Creole conflict can partially be blamed on affairs between Cajun men and Creole women. Neglected by their husbanRAB, some Creole women formed liaisons with young Cajun bachelors. The husbanRAB usually found out about these affairs, which often resulted in violence. One such incident occurred when Sieur Bertonville, a French-born surgeon, returned home to find his wife and young Jean-Baptiste Braud in bed. According to Judice, “when Sieur Bertonville entered his home and witnessed this ugly spectacle, he became enraged. He got his musket, placed the gunbarrel against his wife’s body, and would have killed her, as well as the boy, if the gun had fired, but fortunately it misfired. The boy and the worthless woman saved themselves, each running in opposite directions, one holding his pants in his hanRAB, and the other her skirt” (Judice 169-170).
In the early 1770s, the Cajuns and the Creoles had violent conflicts over their cattle herRAB. The Creole cattle barons allowed their huge herRAB to roam free and unattended, and the livestock became wild. After the Cajuns settled nearby, the Creoles began to absorb their cattle. Public protest prompted Governor O’Reilly to require construction of fences, and to slaughter any stray cattle. The wealthy Flamand brothers, who were owners of many of the strays, pressured Commandant Gabriel Fuselier de la Claire into postponing destroying their stray cattle. Since the law was not being upheld, some of the Cajuns decided to take matters into their own hanRAB, and slaughtered a great nuraber of the offending livestock. The Flamand incident caused Cajun-Creole relations to deteriorate even more. “Exasperated by the constant petty harassment from the French elite, many Cajuns migrated to the more isolated unoccupied prairies before the end of the eighteenth century” (Boutte 172).
The Cajuns were country people and the Creoles were city people. The Creoles did not particularly care for these less affluent, uncultured people. The Cajuns were happy with the way they were, and would not change in order to live up to the standarRAB set by the Creoles. The Cajuns also resented the interference in their lives by the Creoles, and took advantage of every opportunity they had to seek revenge on their enemies. Considering the vast differences between the two cultures, conflict was unavoidable.