Marie Laveau by Mara Avalos
Marie Catherine Laveau is the legendary Voodoo Queen of New Orleans and was a Louisiana Creole practitioner of Voodoo, herbalist, and midwife.
Overview[]
Her daughter, Marie Laveau II, (1827–c. 1862) also practiced rootwork, conjure, Native American and African spiritualism as well as Louisiana Voodoo.
Despite being dead for over 200 years now, many people still speak highly of her influence and power over the city and is widely hailed as among the most powerful witches on Earth. Due to the legends and myths surrounding her it is rather difficult to discern fact from fiction.
History[]
Background[]
Marie Laveau was born a free woman of color in colonial New Orleans (today's French Quarter), Louisiana (New France), Thursday, September 10, 1801. She was the biological daughter of Charles Trudeau, a mulatto grocery store owner and illegitimate son of Charles Laveau Trudeau, a surveyor and politician, and her mother was Marguerite Henry (also known as Marguerite D'Arcantel), a free woman of color who was of Choctaw Native American, African and French descent. Both of Marie's parents were free people of color.
Marriage[]
On August 4, 1819, she married Jacques Paris (also known as Jacques Santiago in Spanish records), a Quadroon free man of color who had fled as a refugee from the Haitian Revolution in the former French colony Saint-Domingue. They had two daughters, Felicite in 1817 and Angele in 1820. Despite Paris' supposed disappearance, he has been classified as deceased due to Laveau herself claiming to be a widow, though it is equally believable that Paris simply deserted Laveau and she was too prideful to admit this, especially since she was described as a beautiful woman with dark curly hair and golden skin.
After Paris' death, Marie would begin to work at a beauty parlor as a hairdresser and it is here that she would service the wealthy white and Creole women of New Orleans whereby they would confide in her their most intimate secrets, desires, information about their husbands, lovers, their estates, and family affairs. Many believe that this wealth of information that Laveau would receive on a daily basis is what gave her political leverage and is the reason why she was able to rise through the social ranks.
Voodoo Queen[]
Marie Laveau was a dedicated practitioner of Voodoo, as well as a healer and herbalist. "Laveau was said to have traveled the streets like she owned them" said one New Orleans boy who attended an event at St. John's. Her daughter, Marie Laveau II displayed more theatrical rubrics by holding public events (including inviting attendees to St. John's Eve rituals on Bayou St. John). It is not known which (if either) had done more to establish the voodoo queen reputation.
Marie Laveau I started a beauty parlor where she was a hairdresser for the wealthier families of New Orleans. Of Laveau's magical career, there is little that can be substantiated, including whether or not she had a snake she named Zombi after an African god, whether the occult part of her magic mixed Roman Catholic saints with African spirits and Native American Spiritualism, or whether her divinations were supported by a network of informants she developed while working as a hairdresser in prominent white households. She excelled at obtaining inside information on her wealthy patrons by instilling fear in their servants whom she either paid or cured of mysterious ailments.
Legacy[]
After her death, tourists would continue to visit and some draw X marks in accordance with a decades-old tradition that if people wanted Laveau to grant them a wish, they had to draw an X on the tomb, turn around three times, knock on the tomb, yell out their wish, and if it was granted, come back, circle their X, and leave Laveau an offering.