Editing Cameron Parish, Louisiana (section)

===18th century===
In the late 1700s, after France had ceded New France (Canada) and other holdings east of the Mississippi River to [[Great Britain]] following its defeat in 1763 in the [[Seven Years' War]], a number of French-speaking refugee families from [[Acadia]] settled in this part of coastal Louisiana. Some had fought against the British with Indian allies during the war in Acadia. Among them were Joseph "Beausoleil" Broussard, his brothers Alexander and Pierre, and their wives and families, who first went to [[Saint-Domingue]] (now Haiti) before settling in Louisiana. The British expelled many Acadians for their resistance, particularly their refusal to make loyalty oaths to Great Britain.<ref name="broussard">[http://www.familyatlouisiana.com/broussard-family.html Nola Mae Ross, "Broussard family traced back to roots in France"], ''Cameron Parish Pilot'' (Cameron, LA), May 24, 2012; retrieved January 4, 2017</ref> Numerous other French-speaking families settled here and their descendants populate the smaller towns.

In the 18th century, France ceded its holdings in Louisiana and other areas west of the Mississippi River to Spain, and the Spanish colonial government made grants of land to the Acadians. France took control of this territory again at the turn of the nineteenth century for a short period under [[Napoleon Bonaparte]].