Laveau, Marie, 1801-1881

The Vodou queen
<biogHist><p xmlns="urn:isbn:1-931666-33-4">Said by some to be the granddaughter of a powerful priestess in Sainte-Domingue, Laveau reportedly had a familial background in African spirituality. She was drawn to religion after the death of her mother. Laveau underwent the tutelage of Dr. John Bayou, a well-known Senegalese conjurer (root worker).</p>
<biogHist><p xmlns="urn:isbn:1-931666-33-4">She did not take long to dominate the culture and society of Vodou in New Orleans. As a queen for several decades, Laveau was mother to many. People sought her advice for marital affairs, domestic disputes, judicial issues, childbearing, finances, health, and good luck. Laveau would in turn counsel her practitioners by supplying them with advice or with protective spiritual objects such as candles, powder, and an assortment of other items mixed together to create a gris-gris.</p>

<biogHist><p xmlns="urn:isbn:1-931666-33-4">As queen, Laveau predominately orchestrated rituals at three main sites: her home on St. Ann Street, Congo Square, and Lake Pontchartrain.</p>

<biogHist><p xmlns="urn:isbn:1-931666-33-4">At her home on St. Ann Street, Laveau would converse with clients who would meet with her regarding any issues they were having. In her backyard, she would also have ceremonies that conjured the spirit of the Great Zombi, the deity Damballah Wedo who would manifest through a snake.</p>

<biogHist><p xmlns="urn:isbn:1-931666-33-4">The second major ritualistic space, Congo Square, was a public square that was set aside by city officials as a gathering space for both enslaved and free African people. Laveau would gather her followers here on Sundays to dance and worship. No major ceremonies would take place here, but it was a place of spiritual gathering and rejuvenation for Africans who experienced major oppression and hardships both on the plantation and as free citizens.</p>

<biogHist><p xmlns="urn:isbn:1-931666-33-4">The last place of significance that was presided over by Laveau was Bayou St. John’s, which was located on the shore of Lake Pontchartrain. It was here that major ceremonies took place among the initiated in the religion. Laveau would often be accompanied by her “king” or a second-ranking male officiate. Singing, dancing, drumming, and spirit possession would occur in these gatherings. Curious white people would often sneak into the woods to witness these ceremonies. For sensationalism, they would often report extreme tales of what they witnessed.</p>

<biogHist><p xmlns="urn:isbn:1-931666-33-4">According to the tales about her ("what the old folks say") Marie Laveaux (1801-1881), New Orleans' famous Voodoo queen, must have been extremely powerful.</p>

<biogHist><p xmlns="urn:isbn:1-931666-33-4">Marie Laveaux's baptismal and birth record from September 16, 1801 in Spanish by Pere Antmne (Fr. Antonio de Sedella) Marie Laveaux, the famous Voodoo Queen, was born on September 10, 1801, during the late Spanish period in Louisiana's capital, New Orleans, during a time when rebellious former slaves were fighting their liberation war from the French colonial yoke in nearby St. Domingue, when large groups of enslaved Africans were arriving in the city, when free black entrepreneurship was blossoming, and an up-and-coming newly forming free African American self-consciousness fostered expectations of equal citizenship and the right to vote in a democratic society.</p>

<biogHist><p xmlns="urn:isbn:1-931666-33-4"> She was the ''natural" daughter of the free man of color Charles Laveaux (mttlato libre) and the free woman of color Marguerite Darcantel (mulata libre).
Only six days old, on September 16, 1801, little Marie was baptized by Capuchin friar Antonio de Sedella from Spain, who was known as Pere Antoine in New Orleans, and was then the parish priest at the cathedral. This record proves that Laveaux was almost from birth a member of the Roman Catholic Church, an affiliation she proudly cherished throughout her life.</p>

<biogHist><p xmlns="urn:isbn:1-931666-33-4">Marie Laveaux has long been a popular Louisiana folk character and was somewhat known throughout the United States. For instance, her tomb in the old St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 has become a major tourist attraction drawing daily thousands of visitors, and presently there are well over 20,000 websites on the internet mentioning her name (spelled either with or without the x at the end). There are also numerous popular songs and a full-length opera about her.</p>

<biogHist><p xmlns="urn:isbn:1-931666-33-4">Marie Laveaux's father, Charles Laveaux (1775-1835) is supposed to have been a famous rich planter of "finest noble French blood".</p>

<biogHist><p xmlns="urn:isbn:1-931666-33-4">After Paris had been gone for more than a year, he was officially declared as dead, and his young wife began to call herself Marie Laveaux, the widow Paris.</p>

<biogHist><p xmlns="urn:isbn:1-931666-33-4">It is said that Marie Laveaux's power was so great that she could appear at several places simultaneously. People claimed to have seen her involved in rituals at the lake while others swear having met her at the Cathedral and others are convinced that they have observed her shopping on the French market. The answer to this confusion is that probably these various witnesses did not see the same person.</p>

<biogHist><p xmlns="urn:isbn:1-931666-33-4">Laveaux had not only three daughters with the name Marie who looked somewhat like her; she also had a younger half-sister with the same name who could have resembled her a great deal.</p>

<biogHist><p xmlns="urn:isbn:1-931666-33-4">Marie Laveau; Marie Catherine Laveau; September 10, 1801, French Quarter, New Orleans, Louisiana – June 15, 1881, New Orleans, Louisiana; biological daughter of Marguerite Henry (also known as Marguerite D'Arcantel), a free woman of colour who was of Native American, African and French descent, and Charles Laveau Trudeau, surveyor and politician; August 4, 1819, she married Jacques Paris (also known as Jacques Santiago, in other records), a French immigrant who had fled as a white refugee from the black Haitian Revolution in the former French territory Saint-Domingue.</p>

<biogHist><p xmlns="urn:isbn:1-931666-33-4">Wedding mass was performed by Father Antonio de Sedella, the Capuchin priest known as Pere Antoine, death of Jacques Paris was recorded in 1820, Not long afterward, Marie began referring to herself as "Widow Paris". And soon afterward took up employment as a hair dresser to the New Orleans wealthy elite and soon after met Christopher Dominick de Glapion; had two daughters, Felicite in 1817 and Angele in 1820.</p>

<biogHist><p xmlns="urn:isbn:1-931666-33-4">Both disappear from the records in the 1820s; While it is difficult to determine the histories of the two Maries in tradition, it is believed that the elder Marie was a dedicated practitioner of Voodoo; Marie Laveau I started a beauty parlor where she was a hair-dresser for the wealthier families of New Orleans. </p>

<biogHist><p xmlns="urn:isbn:1-931666-33-4">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, or whether her divinations were supported by a network of informants she developed while working as a hairdresser in prominent white households. </p>

<biogHist><p xmlns="urn:isbn:1-931666-33-4">She appeared to excel at obtaining inside information on her wealthy patrons by instilling fear in their servants whom she either paid or cured of mysterious ailments. </p>

<biogHist><p xmlns="urn:isbn:1-931666-33-4">On June 17, 1881, it was announced in the Daily Picayune that Marie Laveau had died peacefully in her home. However, oral tradition states that she was seen by some people in town after her supposed demise.</p>

<biogHist><p xmlns="urn:isbn:1-931666-33-4">One of her daughters, also named Marie (a French Catholic tradition to have the first names of daughters be Marie, and boys Joseph, then each use middle name as common name) possibly assumed her position, with her name, and carried on her magical practice, taking over as the queen soon before or after the first Marie's death.</p>

<biogHist><p xmlns="urn:isbn:1-931666-33-4">Laveau's name and her history have been surrounded by legend and lore; Marie Laveau is generally believed to have been buried in plot 347, the Glapion family crypt in Saint Louis Cemetery No. 1, New Orleans.</p>

<biogHist><p xmlns="urn:isbn:1-931666-33-4">Although some references to Marie Laveau in popular culture refer to her as a "witch," she is properly described as a 'Voodoo queen'. Because of her prominence within the history of Voodoo in New Orleans, Laveau has inspired a number of artistic renditions; Laveau has offered inspiration for a number of fictional characters as well.</p>