Cajun

Cajuns are a group of French-speakers who live in the US state of Louisiana. They are the descendants of French colonists who initially settled in the Acadia region of Canada (modern-day Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island, as well as parts of the northeastern United States).

During the French and Indian War, in what Cajuns refer to as the Great Upheaval of 1755, several thousand of these settlers were deported by Great Britain, to whom the Acadians refused to swear loyalty. The Acadians were forced to move southward, with a great many finding a home in the Atchafalaya Basin. It was here that "Acadian" became "Cajun", and generations of racial intermixing with non-French creoles created the distinctive Cajun culture.