Most Cajuns never had two nickles to rub together. If they did, they lost it after the Civil War, or maybe gambling. Cajuns love to gamble.
The land the Cajuns settled on was not farm land, it was what they call "Prairie tremblant," quaking prairie, it was flat, but basically just a hummock surrounded by water. You can't farm cajun land, you can fish it and trap on it. A little further north, say up in Point Coupee Parish, around False River, some cajuns grew cotton, but not enough to get really rich on.
You'd think cajuns got rich on the oil, but you'd be wrong. Before oil really got big, the Yankees sent people door-to-door, buying up the mineral rights for almost nothing. That's one reason Huey Long had such an easy time convincing people in Louisiana to stick it to the oil companies, it was pay-back. |
