| Within the theoretical framework of Meinig's gradational and evolutionary paradigms, this study attempted to trace the nineteenth-century morphological development of the Louisiana French culture region. Employing the 1820, 1860, and 1900 manuscript census schedules as the prime data sources, the Louisiana French region was delimited for each of the three years. Also identified were independent variables that discriminated between French and Anglo areas as well as among three internal French zones--core, domain, and sphere. The 1820, 1860, and 1900 synchronic cross sections were then diachronically linked to provide more specific spatio-temporal explanation. A postdictive linear model was constructed to suggest points of further inquiry, and a seven-stage Louisiana French regional model refined Meinig's evolutionary paradigm to include the nuances of the Louisiana French experience during three centuries of change.;Moreover, the findings of this research exploded several time-honored myths about the Louisiana French: (1) The Louisiana French were not geographically isolated in the nineteenth century. (2) Few French called themselves full-time hunters, trappers, or fishermen. (3) Louisiana French farmers were no more backward than the Anglo Saxon yeomen of North Louisiana. (4) Cajuns were not just poor petits habitants; it fact, a significant number of Cajuns were wealthy, large slaveholders. (5) In an agrarian age Roman Catholic French families were no larger than those of the Protestant Anglos. (6) The greatest erosion to the French language occurred not in the twentieth century but in the nineteenth. (7) And during the nineteenth century the Louisiana French did not remain unchanged because they had been drawn into an increasingly-dominant Anglo culture. |
