The Cajuns: A People's Story Of Exile And Triumph - Hardcover

Jobb, Dean W.

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9780470836095: The Cajuns: A People's Story Of Exile And Triumph

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0470836091 ISBN 13: 9780470836095

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, 2006

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The little–known story of how Canada’s Acadians became the Louisiana Cajuns The forced expulsion of some 10,000 Acadians from their home in the Maritimes beginning in 1755 signaled a human disaster unequalled in North American history. The Acadians (forerunners of today’s Cajuns) were forced onto ships and dropped along the eastern seaboard. Many children and the elderly died of disease along the way; many became indentured servants. Marking the 250th anniversary of their deportation, The Cajuns: A People’s Story of Exile and Triumph describes the harrowing ordeal that a people endured to set down new roots in the southern U.S. and create a culture that has thrived and is today renowned around the world.

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From the Back Cover:

From the Author′s Introduction This is the story of one of the great crimes of history, a brutal act of genocide committed two and a half centuries ago.More than 10,000 men, women and children were removed from their homeland at gunpoint and sent into exile. They were stripped of the farms that ad nurtured and sustained their families for four generations. Their homes and most of their possessions were destroyed. Five thousand of these unfortunate people, maybe more, died of disease and deprivation or perished in shipwrecks... The deportation was a deliberate attempt to destroy a people and wipe out a distinct culture. It failed. The Acadians were too tough and too resilient. Today, there are an estimated 3 million Acadian descendants worldwide... Thousands of deportees made their way to Louisiana, where "Acadian" was transmuted to "Cajun," and the new surroundings forged a distinct culture although true to its northern roots. More than half–a–million Americans, most of them in Louisiana and eastern Texas, are descendants of those refugees... The people survived against incredible odds. They preserved a vibrant culture, a zest for life, and a deep respect for their heritage. This is a story of the triumph of the human spirit in the face of cruelty and unimaginable hardship.

About the Author:

Dean Jobb is the author of four books, including Calculated Risk: Greed, Politics and the Westray Tragedy (Halifax: Nimbus Publishing, 1994), which won the City of Dartmouth book award and was runner–up for the National Business Book Award in Canada. Dean was a veteran staff reporter for the Halifax Chronicle–Herald for 20 years. In 2004 he was appointed as a sessional lecturer at the School of Journalism, University of King′s College in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

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