Marie Laveau was a Louisiana Creole practitioner of Voodoo. She is known as the ‘Voodoo Queen of New Orleans’.
The history of Laveau is not certain, she is thought to have been born to a rich Creole plantation owner, Charles Laveau and his mistress Marguerite on a plantation on the outskirts of New Orleans. She was a free person of colour, but as the illegitimate daughter of a slave girl, it was unlikely that she would lead a happy life in rural Louisiana. In her early twenties she moved to New Orleans and at 25 she married a carpenter named Jacques Paris who went missing soon after the wedding. She then began a lifelong affair with a freeman of colour named Christophe de Glapion.
Laveau worked at a range of jobs including a maid, cook and eventually a hairdresser. She became interested in the Voodoo culture that had been introduced by slaves from Saint Domingue (now Haiti). She studied Voodoo under the guidance of Dr. John, a Voodoo practitioner. She learnt to prepare charms and perform services for the rich Creole women she worked for. She also learnt to prepare gris-gris which she sold at the open air market on Congo Square and from her own home. She would appeal to Voodoo spirits to give the gris-gris bag special powers and the purchaser would wear it around their neck or around a door to give them protection. When she began there were several Queens in New Orleans but through threats and intimidation she usurped them all, by 1830 she was the reigning Voodoo Queen of New Orleans.
Like many others at the time, Laveau attended Catholic mass on a Sunday. She won over local clerics by insisting that her devotees do the same before gathering in Congo Square for their Voodoo ceremony in the afternoon. Laveau became a close personal friend of the rector of Saint Louis Cathedral, Père Antoine and he allowed her to do something before thought of as impossible – to use the grounds of the Cathedral for their Voodoo ceremonies. His spirit, along with Laveau has been spotted walking together along the aisles of the Saint Louis Cathedral.
Laveau had a reputation for having mysterious powers, although it has been suggested that they are a result of her time spent with the wives of court magistrates, businessmen and local politicians she was able to build political and economic connections which allowed her to learn their secrets and earn favours from those in power. She also built a network of spies comprised of friends and followers who were mostly slaves and servant girls. She was able to grow rich from by fees she charged rich women for her services and in gifts from wealthy patrons. She was once offered a house on St. Ann’s street as payment if she could free a wealthy man’s son. She underwent torture, keeping hot peppers in her mouth for hours on end which showed her ability to suffer which would appeal to the Voodoo spirits. At the trial, she put the peppers that she had kept in her mouth near the judge in the courtroom. The judge let the man go free, seeming to prove her power although it has been suggested that it was actually the result of her political influence.
Laveau was devoted to helping those in need, she made generous donations to local charities, especially those that catered to the needs of abused women and orphans. She was an outspoken opponent of capital punishment and in July 1850 she was able to put an end to public hanging. Laveau had spent the night in the prison with Jean Adams and Anthony Delille praying to Voodoo spirits. She promised that they would be spared the humiliation of a public execution. The two had been sentenced to death for the gruesome murder of Mary, a black slave girl. On the day of the execution thousands of people were in attendance and the sky was blue and clear. Laveau appeared and the sky turned to black, unleashing a torrent of rain. As lightning struck the trapdoor was released but to everyone’s surprised they landed on the ground free from their ropes. The men were later successfully hanged, but the botched hanging led to public outrage and Louisiana becoming the first U.S. state to ban public executions.
Laveau retreated from the public eye towards the end of her life and died in 1881, although it is believed that she still has Voodoo power and the ability to help those who make offerings to her. Her tomb, in the Saint Louis Cemetery is a focal point for commercial voodoo tours. Visitors leave small gifts including coins, Mardi Gras beads and candles in the tradition of Voodoo offerings. There are numerous sitings of her ghost.
The Myth of Laveau an evil priestess was created by Robert Tallant in his book Voodoo in New Orleans, published in 1946. In it he claimed that she indulged in orgies and routinely slaughtered babies creating the idea that she was a manipulative, satanic nymphomaniac. Tallant died of mysterious circumstances not long after the publication of his book. Many attribute his death to the wrath of the spirits angered by his blatant show of disrespect towards Laveau.