Alabama Cajans
"Our People" | |
|---|---|
Cajan Weaver School, Mobile County, Alabama | |
| Total population | |
| 1930 (est.) | 1800-2000 |
| 1950 (est.) | 1928 |
| 1974 (est.) | 2000-4500 |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Mobile, Washington, and Clarke Counties, Alabama, eastern United States | |
| Languages | |
| English, Patois | |
| Religion | |
| Baptist, Methodist, Holiness movement, Hoodoo | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Dominickers, Redbones, Melungeons, Lumbee, Wesorts, Carmelites, Chestnut Ridge people, Free Black people | |
The Alabama Cajans were an ethnic group of free Black, white, Creole, and possible Native American ancestry in colonial Alabama. They resided mostly in the counties of Mobile, Washington, and Clarke. They socially assorted apart from local whites and Black people, as a population isolate in the racial hierarchy of Alabama. "Cajan" was an exonym which members of these communities often considered pejorative. They instead referred to themselves as "Our People".
The Cajans were given their label by a local politician, but were unrelated to the Louisiana Cajuns. The MOWA Band of Choctaw Indians consists of a portion of their descendants, while others integrated into white communities, both local and distant.