Quote:
Originally Posted by Acajack
Parts of Acadia closest to Quebec like northern NB did have a revanche des berceaux. One of my parents is descended from that. You also had this in eastern Ontario to some degree.
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Interesting. I have only heard about it in the Quebecois context, probably because Quebec provided the largest population for this revanche idea. Are the parts of Acadia closest to Quebec in NB descended mainly from the surviving Acadians (that managed to avoid the Acadian deportation/exile) or from relocations of Quebecois themselves from nearby?
According to Wikipedia "
In all, of the 14,100 Acadians in the region, approximately 11,500 Acadians were deported.[5][d] A census of 1764 indicates that 2,600 Acadians remained in the colony, presumably having eluded capture.[7]"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expulsion_of_the_Acadians
Also interesting that "revanche des berceaux" worked in other parts of Canada. Within a Canadian context, at least, it seemed like even long before official bilingualism, it seems like Francophones seemed to know and recognize they had a "fighting chance" much more (e.g. Acadians, Franco-Ontarians), even if they were outside Quebec, than if they lived south of the border (Louisiana, Missouri, the US Midwest etc.). Was there something about being part of the same country as Quebec (long before official recognition of a distinct identity would arise in the 60s) that made a Franco-Ontarian more resolute about not giving up to English than an exiled Cajun surrounded by American southerners?
I suppose I've never heard about "revanche des berceaux" in Louisiana, even among the Cajun descendants. I don't know enough about it, but being exiled, did they have big families French-Canadian style (did the French Canadian diaspora stateside ever achieve high birthrates and keep the tradition of big families alive or assimilate quicker stateside? Or even similar to stereotypes about Catholics elsewhere back in the day, like Irish, Italians etc.).
I've never heard about Cajuns vs. Anglo-American southerners compared like Anglo-Ontarians and Francophone Ontarians, for instance. Did Cajuns think of themselves as French among Anglos when it came to the other US Southerners like the way German-speaking Amish called other midwesterners "English" or even older Hispanic communities (like the New Mexican Spanish speakers or Tejanos and Californios) saw themselves as surrounded by Anglos (Americans)?
Rural linguistic minorities like Mennonites, Amish, etc. managed to hold on in the US and Canada through big families and cultural isolation, so I wonder why Cajuns didn't, or did they?