Editing Cajuns (section)

===Cajuns as Creoles===
[[File:Alexandre Mouton jeune.jpg|thumb|200px|The [[Acadian people|Acadian Creole]] governor of Louisiana, [[Alexandre Mouton]]]]

In the modern era it is common to see Cajuns and [[Louisiana Creole people|Creoles]] discussed as separate and distinct groups; historically speaking, this was not necessarily the case. Many historical accounts exist wherein persons with Acadian surnames (and of various races) either self-identify or are described by others as Creoles.

In Louisiana, the French word ''Créole'' (itself borrowed from Spanish and Portuguese) meant "born in the New World" (compare with Spanish ''[[Criollo people|Criollo]]''). This label was meant to distinguish the native-born population from newly arrived European immigrants and from slaves imported from Africa. Likewise, after the [[Louisiana Purchase|Sale of Louisiana]], the term "Creole" distinguished people of Catholic, Latin backgrounds from newly arrived Americans and other Protestant anglophones.

In general, ''Créolité'' in Louisiana was largely defined by whether that person was born in Louisiana, spoke a Latin-based language (often French, Spanish or [[Louisiana Creole|Creole]]) and practiced Catholicism. Having been born on Louisianian soil and maintaining a Catholic francophone identity, the Acadian descendants were indeed and often considered to be Creoles.

Documents from the late eighteenth century, such as militia rolls, make a distinction between "Acadians" (those born before or during ''[[Expulsion of the Acadians|Le Grand Dérangement]]'') and "Creoles" (those born after ''Le Grand Dérangement''), often the children of the former group, with identical surnames and belonging to the same families.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.mylhcv.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/1792-Militia.pdf|title=1792 Spanish Militia, Attakapas Post|last=Landry|first=Christophe}}</ref> Today, members of these families—including, among many others, those with surnames such as Broussard, Hébert, and Thibodeaux—usually consider these names Cajun rather than Creole.{{citation needed|reason=This claim needs a reliable source|date=September 2021}}

Sources from the 19th century sometimes make specific references to "Acadian Creoles" in particular—a term entirely absent from contemporary Louisiana. One article in vol. 56 of ''The Youth's Companion'' notes that, "The Acadian Creoles of Louisiana are a humane and charitable race—simple-minded and full of queer, superstitious notions, but an orphan thrown upon their care never suffers."<ref>{{cite journal |date=Summer 2019 |title=The Youth's Companion |journal=The Youth's Companion |volume=56 |orig-year=1883}}</ref> The Mouton family, an influential Acadian family of the period, provides an excellent case study in this regard, with secessionist [[Alexandre Mouton]] retaining the famous nickname of "the Creole Hotspur."<ref>{{Cite book|title=Acadian General Alfred Mouton and the Civil War |last=Arceneaux |first=William |year=1981 }}</ref> His son, the Confederate General [[Alfred Mouton]], is also noted in contemporary sources as "a brave and intrepid Creole".<ref>{{cite book|title=The Story of Louisiana |last=Thompson |first=Maurice |year=1888 }}</ref> Today, by contrast, members of the Mouton family are referred to as "Acadians" or "Cajuns" more often than as "Creoles".

In 1885, the ''New Iberia Enterprise'' (taken from a section of advice for American editors) wrote: "Although all men born here, of whatever color and using whatever language, are Americans, it is the custom to designate the descendants of the old French, Spanish, and Acadian settlers of the country and using as a rule the French language, Creoles, and all using the English tongue, Americans."

In his ''Refutation des érreurs de M. George W. Cable sur le sujet des Créoles'', published in L'[[Athénée Louisianais]], the francophone Creole John L. Peytavin accused the writer [[George Washington Cable]] of fundamentally misrepresenting Creoles to the American public. (Cable, who was not a Creole and did not speak French, had written that Cajuns of Acadian descent were not themselves Creoles.) Peytavin declared: "The Acadian Creoles have the same right to be called Creoles as others of foreign descent."