History of the French in Baltimore

The history of the French in Baltimore dates to the 18th century. The earliest wave of French immigration began in the mid-18th century, as many Acadian refugees from Canada's Maritime Provinces. The Acadians were expelled from Canada by the British, who were victorious in the French and Indian War, and in the Seven Years War in Europe. They took over French territory in North America east of the Mississippi River.

Later waves of French settlement in Baltimore from the 1790s to the early 19th century brought Roman Catholic refugees of the French Revolution and others fleeing the Haitian Revolution in the French colony of Saint-Domingue.

In the late 20th and 21st centuries, additional Creole and French speakers have immigrated to Baltimore and other US cities as refugees from Haiti. Their nation has struggled with violent political upheaval and severe natural disasters.

In 1920, 626 foreign-born White people in Baltimore spoke the French language as their mother tongue.^[1]

As of the 2000 United States census the French American community in the Baltimore metropolitan area numbered 47,234 (1.9% of the area's population); an additional 10,494 (0.4%) identified as French Canadian American. The Baltimore area's total population of French descent numbered 57,728, or 2.3% of the area's population.^[2] According to Census responses, some 5,705 people in Baltimore speak the French language (including French Creole) at home.^[3]

In the same year Baltimore city's French population (excluding Basques) was 4,721, 0.7% of the city's population. There were also 824 French-Canadians, 0.1% of the population.^[4]

As of 2011, immigrants from France were the forty-fifth largest foreign-born population in Baltimore. French (including patois and Cajun) was the fourth most common language of people who spoke English "less than very well". French Creole was the thirtieth most spoken language of people who spoke English "less than very well".^[5]

In 2013, an estimated 5,383 French-Americans resided in Baltimore city, 0.9% of the population. An additional 1,007 people, 0.2% of the population, identified as being of French-Canadian descent.^[6]

In the 1750s, the French Acadian refugees from Nova Scotia established a community along South Charles Street near Lombard Street that was known as "French Town".^[15] By the 1830s the Acadian presence in Baltimore had appeared to decline with assimilation or relocation; French Town also disappeared as an ethnic community.^[7]

The area that was formerly known as Frenchtown is now designated as the Seton Hill Historic District.^[10]

An annual French Fair is held in Seton Hill.^[10] In 2014 it was on 11 October, from 12 to 5 in Saint Mary's Park. The Seton Hill Association hosts the fair to celebrate the neighborhood as Baltimore's former French Quarter. The Fair highlights city living and vendors of French themed food, and also presents several music performers. Other activities have included hula hooping on the central green, petanque in the park, a flea and craft market, Art on the Fence, and a kids' corner for building and entertainments.

ボルチモア・フレンチ・スクールは、ジョンズ・ホプキンス大学とピーボディ音楽院でフランス語を教えているフランス移民によって1990年に設立された。^{[ 16 ]}

• ボルチモアの民族グループ
• ボルチモアの歴史

• Wood, Gregory A. "The French Presence in Maryland, 1524-1800", Gateway Press, 1978.
• Sullivan, Kathryn. Maryland and France, 1774-1789, 1936.

• Acadians in Baltimore
• Acadians in Exile
• Alliance Française de Baltimore
• Baltimore French School
• Maryland - 913 Acadians
• Patterson-Bonaparte Collection - PP70
• Percentage of French Canadians in Baltimore, MD by Zip Code
• Percentage of French in Baltimore, MD by Zip Code
• Seton Hill Neighborhood Association
• The French in Maryland: A Talk Given to the Baltimore County Genealogical Society February 1996 by Robert Barnes