A New Orleans Voudou Priestess: The Legend and Reality of Marie Laveau

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"Thanks to this writer's exhaustive, scrupulous, honest research debunking the false or questionable myths passed down through the generations, we can now be confident of what we know and do not know about Marie Laveau and her life and times in nineteenth-century New Orleans."--Gwendolyn Midlo Hall "The legend of Marie Laveau, New Orleans' Voudou Queen, has a compelling hold on the popular imagination. Carolyn Morrow Long uncovers the fascinating story of the flesh-and-blood woman behind the legend and in so doing enriches our understanding of life in New Orleans in the nineteenth century."--Vaughan B. Baker, University of Louisiana, Lafayette Against the backdrop of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century New Orleans, A New Orleans Voudou Priestess: The Legend and Reality of Marie Laveau disentangles the complex threads of the legend surrounding the famous Voudou priestess. According to mysterious, oft-told tales, Laveau was an extraordinary celebrity whose sorcery-fueled influence extended widely from slaves to upper-class whites. Some accounts claim that she led the "orgiastic" Voudou dances in Congo Square and on the shores of Lake Pontchartrain, kept a gigantic snake named Zombi, and was the proprietress of an infamous house of assignation. Though legendary for an unusual combination of spiritual power, beauty, charisma, showmanship, intimidation, and shrewd business sense, she also was known for her kindness and charity, nursing yellow fever victims and ministering to condemned prisoners, and her devotion to the Roman Catholic Church. The true story of Marie Laveau, though considerably less flamboyant than the legend, is equally compelling. In separating verifiable fact from semi-truths and complete fabrication, Long explores the unique social, political, and legal setting in which the lives of Marie Laveau's African and European ancestors became intertwined. Changes in New Orleans engendered by French and Spanish rule, the Louisiana Purchase, the Civil War, Reconstruction, and Jim Crow segregation affected seven generations of Laveau's family, from enslaved great-grandparents of pure African blood to great-grandchildren who were legally classified as white. Simultaneously, Long examines the evolution of New Orleans Voudou, which until recently has been ignored by scholars. Carolyn Morrow Long is research associate at the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution.