Former Accession # TI1-017

1:09 Brasseaux begins by telling the history of the populations of South Louisiana as a whole and says it's regarded by anthropologists and cultural geographers as the most complex rural society in rural U.S. Most outsiders believe that the French speaking culture is monolithic but it is anything but. The French speaking population arrived from a multitude of regions. The second largest free black community was in this region of south central Louisiana, the first being in New Orleans. He talks about the manumission of the mistresses of white planters and their children. Many of the free black were prosperous and some even owned their own slaves. During the Civil War, their sympathies would often lie with the Confederacy.
8:20 Land among the Mississippi was a premium during the 18th century and the free blacks migrated to New Orleans or this region where there was more available land. Transportation was waterborn. A long-lot system was adopted from Normandy and Canada. This gave the land owner access to the stream, which was their means of communication, and the more fertile land. In the 19th century, a large black community emerged from the surplus slaves from the Carolinas, Virginia and Tennessee being brought in from slave merchants. The French speaking black population was tied to the French speaking white population by culture and religion.
13:00 Students did a research paper on Allons Danser Colinda. The Calinda dance originated in Africa and brought in by slaves from the West Indies.
15:00 There are differences in areas where there were nodules of settlements along Bayou Teche and Bayou Vermillion. The geographical area where Zydeco originated forms a triangle from Ville Platte to Crowley to Cankton. That's the region where three cultures came together--the free black community, white creoles and prairie Cajuns. The crossing of the cultures is represented in the music and in the cuisine.
20:00 The musical distinctions came in the 40s and 50s when Cajun became more country and Zydeco became more Rhythm & Blues, and with the introduction of Swamp Pop.
22:00 Going back to the 19th century, it wasn't usual for black musicians to play white parties. Amede Ardoin and Clifton Chenier were successful at melding styles. The country dances early on were a form of entertainment and a way to renew community ties. They were mostly free from violence prior to the Civil War, but became increasingly violent post-Civil War. Dance Halls also faced issues of violence--especially when people from other communities would gather. The people in the area were self-isolated socially and culturally due to negative stereotypes.
25:15 There was a multitiered society in the beginning of the 19th century with white Creoles being the top aristocratic tier, followed by the Acadians, the free people of color, and then the slaves. After the Civil War, the region was seemingly third world with small elite and middle-classes and a large number of dispossessed. There was a large migration to E. Texas by economic refugees at the beginning of the 20th century. under the tenantry system, people of all backgrounds worked side-by-side in the fields which was a source for cross-cultural exchanges.
38:57 There were staggering acts of violence in the Cajun prairie areas in the early part of the 20th century. There was an attempt to establish a chapter of the Ku Klux Klan in Lafayette until the newspaper published a member list which led the group to disband.
43:00 Cookie and the Cupcakes played at the Southern Club in Opelousas but were not allowed in the club itself, only the bandstand. This was common up through the 1950s. Mrs. Hebert, a war widow in New Iberia, transformed her house into a dancehall in the wake of the Civil War. He says Tisserand should contact Shane Bernard about stories at the Southern Club when black musicians crossed the line.
47:30 They talk about violence in the black community at the turn of the century in the region.
53:20 There are some myths dispelled such as one that Mallet refers to mulatto. The talk about influx of migration from Santo Domingo.
57:00 Only in the last Census is there a category for Cajun. But there is none for Creole. Brasseaux grew up in southern St. Landry Parish. There was little Creole and Cajun music performed when he was growing up because it was a time when those communities were under extreme stress. Cajun culture was publicly denigrated in the Opelousas newspaper as late as 1964. Most of Clifton's shows were on the road, particularly East Texas. It wasn't until the first Cajun Music Festival in 1974 that young Cajun activists insisted that Creole musicians be included. The members of the Cajun elite (including Barry Ancelet and Jimmy Dimaggio) who were part of the CODOFIL establishment were adamantly opposed to their inclusion. The festival provides a forum for these people who had been shoved aside during the 40s and 50s. Had it gone another decade. Brasseaux believes both musical forms may well have disappeared. It attracted a new following of younger generations.
1:05:55 They talk about efforts to stamp out the local cultures in the mid 20th century by educators. This trend was reversed in the 70s for the Cajun clulture, followed by the Creoles in the 1980s.
1:09:40 Tisserand asks about social functions and institutions in the late 19 and early 20th centuries. The Cajuns had a social function that enforced a sense of community called la ramasserie, which was a communal harvest of people gathering to help out those who were shorthanded. They was another institution called a boucherie, which was a weekly butchery for people in the community. The dances were for community ties as well but also included courting rituals. It was discovered only recently that many Jewish families of German and Eastern European consciously changed their identities and converted to Catholicism to integrate into the community. There were instances of a need to look for outer marriages in some Creole communities like Natchitoches due to the small population. There were high instances of genetic problems in areas where there was horizontal marriage. This was more common in bayou areas than in the prairie areas where people could move around more freely.
1:15:57 The talk about the genetic presence of Native American blood in the Cajun and Creole cultures. Brasseaux believes it is exaggerated. He said the natives in the region were sparce to begin with and that the Attakapas Indians were cannibalistic. The last full-blood Attakapas died before 1910. There was a western influx of Coushatta Indians in the 1790s but their co-mingling was limited. The Chitimacha intermarried but is was largely confined to the Charenton area. Within a decade of their arrival, the Acadians formed commercial ties with the Attakapas with a smuggling ring that extended into central Texas.
1:22:60 The term 'bright' is often used by the darker-skinned black community to describe the lighter-skinned community. The tension between the two communities and lingering hostility is discussed.