Imagine this.
You have just walked into a house in the wee hours of the night. You wanted shelter from the raging thunderstorm outside, so you ran in here to dry off and ask for some help getting home. The house is dark but lit with candles all around. The wooden floors creak with age as you step further and deeper into the home. Your hair stands on end as you get deeper into the house. Goosebumps rise on your arm, and it isn’t from the cold rain. You are getting creepy vibes from this place. Still, you just want to get home. So, you keep walking until you reach the back of the house. There is a room there lit with more candles. Stepping in, you notice the cluttered collection of books, jars, herbs, talismans, and other things that you cannot even fathom the purpose of. The smell of incense and age is in the air. Sitting at a table before you is a woman shuffling cards. She smiles at you, offering you a fortune or a hex.
The woman’s name is Marie Laveau, the Voodoo Queen of New Orleans.
Now, the story may or may not have truly happened (most likely not since I made it up to give you the heebie-jeebies), but the vibe from the woman is definitely real. Marie Laveau was in fact the Voodoo Queen of New Orleans. She practiced voodoo as well as hair styling and other jobs. However, like the reality of the story, her life is a mystery with few facts and truths.
Marie Laveau was born around the end of the 17th century or the beginning of the 18th century as a free woman of color. She was born in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana to two free biracial parents, one of which was Creole.
She married twice. Her first husband disappeared or died a few years into their marriage under unexplained circumstances. She never legally married her next husband because he was white. Instead, Marie Laveau and her second husband had a placage, the equivalent of a common-law marriage for mixed race couples.
Marie Laveau had at least five children, but some historians claim she had at most fifteen. Nevertheless, she only had two children survive. One was her daughter also called Marie Laveau or Marie Laveau II who followed in her mother’s footsteps as another powerful voodoo priestess.
Marie Laveau was rumored to be a very popular hair stylist, a fantastic healer, and powerful Voodoo Queen. Her work for society women in their homes as a hair stylist allowed for gossip and information, which was likely used for her “fortune-telling.” By 1830, however, Laveau was prominent in New Orleans as the voodoo queen. Supposedly, she held ceremonies, danced naked around bonfires, and sold gris-gris bags which were believed to bring the wearer luck and protection from evil. Her powers were thought to have extended to healing as she was claimed to have saved men from the gallows, healed the sick, and remained youthful.
Other folklore made her even more powerful. They tell us Marie Laveau was extraordinarily beautiful and manipulative, using her power to control the police and those in seats of power. According to the more salacious myths, she was said to have presided over blood-drenched rituals, blackmail leaders, run a house of prostitution, “fixed” court cases, kill at least one Governor, and have made herself into an immortal being who still lives today.
In more recent times, Marie Laveau’s life and history has changed her into something more positive than the past myths and rumors. Now, she is viewed as an abolitionist, a feminist, a spiritualist, a revolutionary, an activist, and an icon of many causes. Marie Laveau was actually Catholic and had been so since she was a child. She utilized her religion in her voodoo practices. She also wanted to help and nurture people. A social and political liberal and humanist, Marie Laveau wanted the best for her people. Through her practice, Laveau desired to be a blessing rather than a curse in the lives of others.
Having died peacefully in her home on June 16, 1881, Marie Laveau was buried in a family crypt in Saint Louis Cemetery Number 1 in New Orleans. Tourists visit her burial ground to this day out of reverence, respect, and curiosity. A decades-old rumor persists that Laveau’s powers live on beyond her death. If one were to draw an “X” on the tomb, turn around three times, knock on the tomb, and yell out a wish, their wish would be granted only if they promised to return, circle their “X” and leave Laveau an offering as a thank you.
Today, Marie Laveau’s legacy is as a character of fear and magic. She thrives as a character on the popular horror-drama television show, American Horror Story. The show stays close to the truth as Angela Bassett portrays her as the powerful and strong Voodoo Queen of New Orleans.
Little is known about the life of Marie Laveau, but she remains a mysterious, enchanting, influential, and powerful woman.