French Influence on Southern Culture

Come walk with me a minute while I tell you a story that happened to me just this weekend. An interaction I had highlights the glaring misconceptions people have of the South. We’ll talk a little Southern history too.

I was in a social situation recently where a European assumed I didn’t know what crepes are. Or perhaps she may have been trying to explain how crepes are like blinis, a similar Slavic dish. As I’ve sat thinking about this event this week, I’ve thought about the strong presence of French culture in the South, and how it’s awful that the media has convinced the world we are uncultured backwoods hicks.

The Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Mobile Alabama is said to be modeled after the 13th century Amiens Cathedral in France. It was dedicated on October 27, 1912 by Cardinal John Murphy.

French culture influenced the southern United States in many ways, including language, food, music, and architecture.  The most obvious examples are the Cajun French language, food like po-boys and pastries, the French Quarter, Mardi Gras celebrations. Even the legal system in Louisiana is based on the Napoleonic Code, which is rooted in French civil law.

The French Quarter, New Orleans LA

But even outside of that, French culture is everywhere here and has been for hundreds of years.  A wave of French pioneers came to America, mainly between 1790 and 1793.  Besides Louisiana many settled in Savannah and Augusta, Georgia, and in Wilkes County.  Some also settled on the barrier islands of Sapelo, Jekyll, and Cumberland.


French immigrants, although not as numerous as other groups, helped settle Appalachia. In 1540, the first Immigrants to arrive in Western North Carolina were Europeans. From 1759-1771 the white population of Western North Carolina doubled. Joining the Cherokee were the English, Scots-Irish, Highland Scots, Welsh, Irish, Dutch, German, and French immigrants.

​The French tradition was present in many Antebellum schools.

“The Virginia Military Institute (VMI) adapted an elite French tradition of engineering training in order to (1) provide a practical career for lower class boys and (2) to legitimize the school itself within a field of higher education dominated by the liberal colleges. This French tradition, which first manifested in America through West Point, made its way to the VMI through multiple pathways. First, West Point graduates provided much of VMI's faculty. They employed West Point textbooks for many of their courses. Second, the VMI drew directly on French sources. Claudius Crozet, a French engineer who had immigrated to America, drafted the initial curriculum of the school. Also, many of the textbooks used at the VMI were either French books, translated from the French, or were American books based on French texts. The VMI used French pedagogical methods of quantitative ranking of student performance and public examination to demonstrate the competence of their students and their school to the public, thus gaining legitimacy. The officers also emphasized the usefulness of the training, in contrast to what they saw as an abstract education in the colleges, in order to establish their legitimacy.”  

Miller, J. (2013). Pathways and purposes of the ‘French tradition’ of engineering in antebellum America: the case of the Virginia Military Institute. Engineering Studies, 5(2), 117–136.
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French was also part of the standard education in the Old South Dame schools. In the 18th and 19th centuries, dame schools offered French to wealthy boys and girls.  Female academies provided a broad curriculum that included French, writing, arithmetic, and penmanship. Finishing schools for upper-class girls taught French and other subjects to prepare them for polite society.  French was considered an important language for polite society and for attracting a good husband.  Learning French helped girls develop their conversation skills and quote poetry.  Learning French helped girls become well-read and cultivated, which prepared them for their roles as mothers and wives in aristocratic society.

The French Quarter in New Orleans receives over 15 million visitors each year. Many of those being their neighboring Southerners. Because of media stereotypes that Southerners are dumb and uncultured, it’s easy for someone to assume we would be unfamiliar with French foods. Movies such as Talladega Nights specifically portray Southerners as not knowing what crepes are so how can you blame folks for assuming that’s true?

Now, obviously, a certain population of the South is unaware of what crepes are and would assume anything French is “g4y.” I’m not claiming those people don’t exist, however it’s unfair to stereotype an entire population based on one small segment especially when high educational standards and refined cultural attitudes have long been part of Southern culture for many of us.