William Faulkner Rushton

Originally published in 1979.
The author intertwines historical facts with his own rendezvous with a few Cajuns in their own hometown, which makes for more interesting history, but, it's still just a little dry reading. Although, he does give an extensive bibliography at the back of the book, he doesn't point to those sources as he is presenting the facts in the body of the book.

I actually learned a few new things on my Acadian ancestors and would like to look more into the history...but what source did he find this info in? 1) The 2nd Expulsion of the Acadians from the sugar plantations on the Acadian Coast; 2) Ribbon farming; and 3) the fact that when Mexico became a Republic and immediately abolished slavery, Texas was pissed and Sam Houston, at Texas City, saw to it that it was restored. I don't remember ever reading about any of these 3 things.

The book brings you from the Cajun's Acadian roots in the first couple of chapters, to the Expulsion period, and then onto their assimilation in Louisiana with some personal experiences. He gets into the construction of their housing, weaving, music, and cooking, even including a few Cajun recipes. I did try one of them out...and....YUCK! His recipe for "Court Bouillon" (p. 218) was New Orleans' style, heavy on the tomatoes, and I went ahead and opted to go ahead and include the "Optional Ingredients" of wine, seasonings, which included allspice, and load of Worcestershire sauce. Way too fussy for Cajuns! I almost had to feed it to the chickens. Tony Chachere seasoning kind of saved the day! Still yuck, but made it edible. I was going to try a few more, but I decided it wasn't worth it.

Chapter 3 talks about the disappearing marshlands in Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana, and this was back in 1979 or earlier when the book was published. I just read an awesome book called "Bayou Farewell", by Mike Tidwell, originally published in 2003, that talked about the marshland below and around New Orleans disappearing at the rate of thousands of acres a year due to the dams being built and the rerouting of the Mississippi River and the pipeline canals that are causing more erosion even faster. Here we are, it's now 2018, and I wonder if the State of Louisiana has taken any action yet to solve this problem? There were solutions presented in "Bayou Farewell", but that was back in 2003.… (mere)