Information about French American

French American
Total population
13,000,000 4% of the US population
Regions with significant populations
Throughout the entire Northeastern United States, much of the Northwestern United States, the West Coast, Louisiana and the Chicago area
Languages
American English, French language
Religions
Predominantly Roman Catholicism Protestantism
Related ethnic groups
French people, Quebecer

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 Louisiana, 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:

New Hampshire	25.2%
Vermont	23.3%
Maine	22.8%
Rhode Island	17.2%
Louisiana	16.2%
Massachusetts	12.9%
Connecticut	9.9%

In states that once made up part of New France (excluding Louisiana):

Michigan	6.8%
Montana	5.3%
Minnesota	5.3%
Wisconsin	5.0%
North Dakota	4.7%
Wyoming	4.2%
Missouri	3.8%
Kansas	3.6%

French-Americans also made up more than 4% of the population in

Washington	4.6%
Oregon	4.6%
Alaska	4.2%

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

1.	California	927,453
2.	Massachusetts	818,388
3.	Michigan	680,939
4.	Louisiana	680,208
5.	New York	628,810

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

For more details on this topic, see French 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 (China, Chair, 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
• "French Catholics in the United States". Catholic Encyclopedia. (1913). New York: Robert Appleton Company. 

References

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