A 'French American' or 'Franco-American' is a citizen of the
United States of America or a permanent resident of the
United States of America of
French descent and heritage. About 13 million U.S. residents are of
French descent, and about 1.6 million of them speak the
French language at home. An additional 400,000 speak a
French Creole language, according to the 2000 U.S. Census
The first French Americans to arrive were
Huguenots (French
Calvinist Protestants) fleeing religious persecution, who settled throughout the
Thirteen Colonies. The majority of present day Franco-Americans are not descended from direct immigrants from France, but rather from those who settled French territories in the New World (primarily in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries) before moving to the United States or being incorporated into American territories later on.
While Americans of French descent make up a substantial percentage of the American population, French-Americans arguably are less visible than other similarly-sized ethnic groups. This is due in part to the high degree of assimilation among Huguenot Protestant settlers, as well as the tendency of French-American groups to identify more strongly with "New World" identities such as
Québécois,
French Canadian,
Acadian,
Cajun, or
Louisiana Creole. This has inhibited the development of a wider French-American identity in the United States.
French-American Population
While found throughout the country, they are most numerous in
New England, Northern
New York,
Louisiana (where more than 15% of the population of the
Cajun Country reported in the last census that French was spoken at home) and
Michigan.
French Louisiana, when it was sold by
Napoleon in
1803, covered all or part of than fifteen current
U.S. states and contained French colonists dispersed across it, though they were most numerous in its southernmost portion.
Often, Franco-Americans are identified more specifically as being of
French Canadian,
Cajun, or
Louisiana Creole descent. An important part of Franco-American history is the
Quebec diaspora of the 1840s-1930s, in which one million French Canadians moved to the United States, principally to the New England states and Michigan. Historically, the French in Canada had very high birth rates, which is why their population was large even though immigration from France was relatively low. They also moved to different regions within Canada, namely Ontario and Manitoba. Many of the early male migrants worked in the lumber industry in both regions, and, to lesser degree, in the burgeoning mining industry in the upper
Great Lakes.
Another significant source of immigrants was
Saint Domingue, which gained its independence as the
Republic of Haiti in
1804 following a bloody revolution; much of its white population (along with some
mulattoes) fled during this time, often to Louisiana, where they largely assimilated into the Creole culture.
The Cajuns of Louisiana have a unique heritage. Their ancestors settled
Acadia, in what is now the Canadian provinces of
New Brunswick,
Nova Scotia, and
Prince Edward Island, in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. In 1755, after capturing
Fort Beauséjour in the region, the British army forced the Acadians to either swear an oath of loyalty to the British crown or face expulsion. Thousands refused to take the oath, causing them to be sent, penniless, to the
13 colonies to the south in what has become known as the
Great Upheaval. Over the next generation, some four thousand managed to make the long trek to Lousiana, where they began a new life. The name ''Cajun'' is a corruption of the word ''Acadian''. Many still live in what is known as the
Cajun Country, where much of their colonial culture survives.
Because the ancestors of most French Americans had for the most part left France before the
French Revolution, they usually identify more with the
Fleur-de-lis of monarchical France than with the modern
French tricolor.
French American communities
According to the
U.S. Census Bureau of 2000, French-Americans (of French and French-Canadian ancestry) made up close to, or more than, 10% of the population of:
In states that once made up part of
New France (excluding Louisiana):
French-Americans also made up more than 4% of the population in
National percentage of Americans of French & French-Canadian ancestry: 5.3%
; States with the largest French communities include (according to the 2000 U.S. Census)
French and French-Canadian
Religion
French Americans are divided between those of
Roman Catholic heritage (which includes most French Canadians and Cajuns) and those of
Huguenot (
Protestant) background, most of whom came during the colonial period. For most of its existence,
New France was open only to Catholic settlement. In response, many Huguenots – who sought to emigrate as they faced religious discrimination in France – moved instead to other countries (mainly
England, the
Netherlands and
Prussia) and their overseas territories, including the
13 colonies of Great Britain and the Dutch
Cape Colony. Huguenots tended to assimilate more quickly into English-speaking society than their Catholic counterparts. One-third of all
American Presidents have some proven Huguenot ancestry, along with other famous politicians such as
Alexander Hamilton and
U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Jay.
French language in the United States
According to the National Education Bureau, French is the second most commonly taught foreign language in U.S. high schools, colleges and universities behind Spanish. French was the most commonly taught foreign language until the 1980s, when the influx of
Hispanic immigrants aided the growth of Spanish. According to the U.S. 2000 Census, French is the fourth most spoken language in the United States after English, Spanish and Chinese with over 1.6 million speakers. In addition to parts of
Louisiana, the language is also commonly spoken in
Miami, northern
Maine,
Vermont and
New York City, home to large French-speaking communities from France, Canada, and Haiti.
As a result of French immigration to what is now the United States in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the French language was once widely spoken in much of the country, especially in the former
Louisiana Territory, as well as in the
Northeast. French-language newspapers existed in many American cities, especially New Orleans. Americans of French descent often lived in French-dominated neighborhoods, where they attended schools and churches that used their language. In New England, Upstate New York and the Midwest, French-Canadian neighborhoods were known as "Little Canadas".
Trivia
★ Founded by the French and the Indians,
Chicago is prounounced with the French pronouncation of the sound ''ch'' as opposed to the English ''ch'' (''Ch''ina, ''Ch''air, etc...)
★
Detroit was founded by
Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, a French army captain and was originally called ''Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit'', after the minister of marine under
Louis XIV and the French word for "
strait."
★ The
limousine, invented as a co-project between
Ford and
Cadillac, is named for the French province of
Limousin, and is associated with the long cloaks once worn by the shepherds there
[1]
★ The
Louisiana Territory, sold to the United States in
1803, comprised 15 of today's modern states (from North to South: Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana and parts of Texas and New Mexico).
See also
★
★
List of French Americans
★
The Huguenot Society of America
External links
★
Franco American Center
★
Franco American Women's Institute
★
Institut français
★ Dave Martucci,
''Franco-American flags'', in Flags of the World
★
References
1. "The Random House College Dictionary" p. 777 Random House, Inc., 1975 ISBN 0-394-43600-8
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