Louisiana Creole people in the context of "French Louisianians"

Louisiana was a dominant population center in the southwest of the Confederate States of America, controlling the wealthy trade center of New Orleans, and contributing the French Creole and Cajun populations to the demographic composition of a predominantly Anglo-American country. In the antebellum period, Louisiana was a slave state, where enslaved African Americans had comprised the majority of the population during the eighteenth-century French and Spanish dominations. By the time the United States acquired the territory (1803) and Louisiana became a state (1812), the institution of slavery was entrenched. By 1860, 47% of the state's population were enslaved, though the state also had one of the largest free black populations in the United States. Much of the white population, particularly in the cities, supported slavery, while pockets of support for the U.S. and its government existed in the more rural areas.

Louisiana declared that it had seceded from the Union on January 26, 1861. Civil-War era New Orleans, the largest city in the South, was strategically important as a port city due to its southernmost location on the Mississippi River and its access to the Gulf of Mexico. The U.S. War Department early on planned for its capture. The city was taken by U.S. Army forces on April 25, 1862. Because a large part of the population had Union sympathies (or compatible commercial interests), the U.S. government took the unusual step of designating the areas of Louisiana then under U.S. control as a state within the Union, with its own elected representatives to the U.S. Congress. For the latter part of the war, both the U.S. and the Confederacy recognized their own distinct Louisiana governors. Similarly, New Orleans and 13 named parishes of the state were exempted from the Emancipation Proclamation, which applied exclusively to states in rebellion against the Union.

Free people of color (French: gens de couleur libres [ʒɑ̃ də kulœʁ libʁ]; Spanish: gente de color libre) were primarily people of mixed African, European, and Native American descent in the Americas who were not enslaved. However, the term also applied to people born free who were primarily of black African descent with little mixture.

There were distinct groups of free people of color in the French colonies, including Louisiana and in settlements on Caribbean islands, such as Saint-Domingue (Haiti), St. Lucia, Dominica, Guadeloupe, and Martinique. In these territories and major cities, particularly New Orleans, and those cities held by the Spanish, a substantial third class of primarily mixed-race, free people developed.

The Cajuns (/ˈkeɪdʒənz/; French: les Cadjins [le kadʒɛ̃] or les Cadiens [le kadjɛ̃]), also known as Louisiana Acadians (French: les Acadiens), are an American ethnic group mainly found in the US state of Louisiana and the surrounding Gulf Coast states.

While Cajuns are usually described as the descendants of the Acadian exiles who went to Louisiana over the course of Le Grand Dérangement, Louisianians frequently use Cajun as a broad cultural term (particularly when referencing Acadiana) without necessitating race or descent from the deported Acadians. Although the terms Cajun and Creole today are often portrayed as separate identities, Louisianians of Acadian descent have historically been known as, and are, a subset of Creoles (synonymous for "Louisianais", which is a demonym for French Louisianians). Cajuns make up a significant portion of south Louisiana's population and have had an enormous impact on the state's culture.

The Rebellion of 1768, also known as the Revolt of 1768 or the Creole Revolt, was an unsuccessful attempt by the Louisiana French Creole elite of New Orleans, along with nearby German settlers, to reverse the transfer of the French Louisiana to Spain, as had been stipulated in the 1762 Treaty of Fontainebleau.

The rebellion forced the Spanish Governor, Antonio de Ulloa, to leave New Orleans and return to Spain, but his replacement, General Alejandro O'Reilly, was able to crush the rebellion, execute five of its ringleaders, and firmly establish Spanish control over the territory.

Louisiana Creole, also known by the endonym Kouri-Vini (Louisiana Creole: kouri-vini), among other names, is a French-based creole language spoken by fewer than 10,000 people, mostly in the U.S. state of Louisiana. Today it is spoken by people who may racially identify as white, black, mixed, and Native American, as well as Cajun and Creole. It should not be confused with its sister language, Louisiana French, a dialect of the French language. Many Louisiana Creoles do not speak the Louisiana Creole language and may instead use French or English as everyday languages.

Due to its rapidly shrinking number of speakers, Louisiana Creole is considered an endangered language.

Acadiana (/əˌkeɪdiˈænə/; French and Louisiana French: L'Acadiane or Acadiane), also known as Cajun Country (Louisiana French: Pays des Cadiens), is the official name given to the French Louisiana region that has historically contained much of the state's Francophone population.

Many inhabitants of Cajun Country have Acadian ancestry and identify as Cajuns or Creoles. Of the 64 parishes that make up the U.S. state of Louisiana, 22 named parishes and other parishes of similar cultural environment make up this intrastate region. Lafayette Parish and the seven surrounding parishes are identified as the "Cajun Heartland, USA" district.