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Her daughter Marie Laveau&nbsp;II (1827 — c. 1895) also practiced Voudoun, and historical accounts often confuse the two. She and her mother had great influence over their multiracial following. "In 1874 as many as twelve thousand spectators, both black and white, swarmed to the shores of [[Lake Pontchartrain]] to catch a glimpse of Marie Laveau&nbsp;II performing her legendary rites on [[St. John's Eve]] (June 23–24)."<ref name = "In Motion">{{citation | url = http://www.inmotionaame.org/migrations/topic.cfm?migration=5&topic=3 | contribution = Haitian Immigration: 18th & 19th Centuries | title = In Motion: African American Migration Experience | publisher = New York Public Library | accessdate = 7 May 2008}}.</ref>
Her daughter Marie Laveau&nbsp;II (1827 — c. 1895) also practiced Voudoun, and historical accounts often confuse the two. She and her mother had great influence over their multiracial following. "In 1874 as many as twelve thousand spectators, both black and white, swarmed to the shores of [[Lake Pontchartrain]] to catch a glimpse of Marie Laveau&nbsp;II performing her legendary rites on [[St. John's Eve]] (June 23–24)."<ref name = "In Motion">{{citation | url = http://www.inmotionaame.org/migrations/topic.cfm?migration=5&topic=3 | contribution = Haitian Immigration: 18th & 19th Centuries | title = In Motion: African American Migration Experience | publisher = New York Public Library | accessdate = 7 May 2008}}.</ref>


Spiderman is amazing
==Early life==
Marie was believed{{weasel-inline|date=January 2014}} to have been born free in the [[French Quarter]] of [[New Orleans, Louisiana]], about 1794, the daughter of a white planter and a free [[Creoles of color|Creole woman of color]].{{Citation needed|date=December 2013}} On August 4, 1819, she married Jacques (or Santiago, in other records) Paris, a free person of color who had emigrated from [[Haiti]].<ref name="In Motion" /> Their marriage certificate is preserved in [[St. Louis Cathedral, New Orleans|St. Louis Cathedral]] in New Orleans. The wedding [[mass (liturgy)|Mass]] was performed by Father [[Antonio de Sedella]], the [[Order of Friars Minor Capuchin|Capuchin]] priest known as Pere Antoine.<ref name="Tallant, Robert 1946"/>
Marie was believed{{weasel-inline|date=January 2014}} to have been born free in the [[French Quarter]] of [[New Orleans, Louisiana]], about 1794, the daughter of a white planter and a free [[Creoles of color|Creole woman of color]].{{Citation needed|date=December 2013}} On August 4, 1819, she married Jacques (or Santiago, in other records) Paris, a free person of color who had emigrated from [[Haiti]].<ref name="In Motion" /> Their marriage certificate is preserved in [[St. Louis Cathedral, New Orleans|St. Louis Cathedral]] in New Orleans. The wedding [[mass (liturgy)|Mass]] was performed by Father [[Antonio de Sedella]], the [[Order of Friars Minor Capuchin|Capuchin]] priest known as Pere Antoine.<ref name="Tallant, Robert 1946"/>


Revision as of 13:59, 17 January 2014

For the song, see Marie Laveau (song).
Marie Laveau
Portrait by Frank Schneider, based on a painting by George Catlin (Louisiana State Museum)
Born(1794-09-10)September 10, 1794
French Quarter, New Orleans, Louisiana
DiedJune 16, 1881(1881-06-16) (aged 86)
New Orleans, Louisiana
NationalityAmerican
OccupationVoodoo Queen of New Orleans
Known forLouisiana Voodoo practitioner

Marie Laveau (September 10, 1794 – June 16, 1881[1]) was a Louisiana Creole practitioner of Voodoo renowned in New Orleans. She was born free in New Orleans.[citation needed]

Her daughter Marie Laveau II (1827 — c. 1895) also practiced Voudoun, and historical accounts often confuse the two. She and her mother had great influence over their multiracial following. "In 1874 as many as twelve thousand spectators, both black and white, swarmed to the shores of Lake Pontchartrain to catch a glimpse of Marie Laveau II performing her legendary rites on St. John's Eve (June 23–24)."[2]

Spiderman is amazing Marie was believed[weasel words] to have been born free in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana, about 1794, the daughter of a white planter and a free Creole woman of color.[citation needed] On August 4, 1819, she married Jacques (or Santiago, in other records) Paris, a free person of color who had emigrated from Haiti.[2] Their marriage certificate is preserved in St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans. The wedding Mass was performed by Father Antonio de Sedella, the Capuchin priest known as Pere Antoine.[3]

Jacques Paris died in 1820 under unexplained circumstances.[citation needed] He was part of a large Haitian immigration to New Orleans in 1809 after the Haitian Revolution of 1804. New immigrants consisted of French-speaking white planters and thousands of slaves as well as free people of color. Those with African ancestry helped revive Voodoo and other African-based cultural practices in the New Orleans community, and the Creole of color community increased markedly.

Career

After Paris's death Marie Laveau became a hairdresser who catered to wealthy white families.[citation needed] She took a lover, Christophe (Louis Christophe Dumesnil de Glapion), with whom she lived until his death in 1835. They were reported to have had 15 children including Marie Laveau II, born c. 1827, who sometimes used the surname "Paris" after her mother's first husband.[2]

Very little is known with any certainty about the life of Marie Laveau. Her surviving daughter had the same name and is called Marie Laveau II by some historians.[citation needed] Scholars[who?] believe that the mother was more powerful while the daughter arranged more elaborate public events (including inviting attendees to St. John's Eve rituals on Bayou St. John).[citation needed] They received varying amounts of financial support.[citation needed] It is not known which (if not both) had done more to establish the voodoo queen reputation.[3]

Of Laveau's magical career there is little that can be substantiated. She was said[weasel words] to have had a snake she named Zombi after an African god.[citation needed] Oral traditions[specify] suggested that the occult part of her magic mixed Roman Catholic beliefs, including saints, with African spirits and religious concepts. Some scholars[who?] believe that her feared magical powers of divination were actually based on her network of informants which she developed while working as a hairdresser in households of the prominent. As she visited her clients (mostly white) she listened closely to their gossip. Some assert[who?] that she ran her own brothel and cultivated informants in that way as well. 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.[3]

Death

On June 16, 1881, the New Orleans newspapers[specify] announced that Marie Laveau had died peacefully in her home. This is noteworthy if only because people claimed[clarification needed] to have seen her in town after her supposed demise. Again, some claimed[clarification needed] that one of her daughters also named Marie (many of the daughters had Marie within their names due to Catholic naming practices) assumed her name and carried on her magical practice, taking over as the queen soon before or after the first Marie's death.[citation needed]

According to official New Orleans vital records, a certain Marie Glapion Lavau died on June 15, 1881, aged 98.[4] The different spelling of the last name as well as the age at death may result from the casual 19th-century approach to spelling as well as conflicting accounts of Laveau's birth.

Legacy

Marie Laveau is generally believed to have been buried in plot 347, the Glapion family crypt, in Saint Louis Cemetery No. 1 in New Orleans, but this has been disputed[5] by at least Robert Tallant, a journalist who used her as a character in historical novels.[3] Tourists continue to visit and some draw "X" marks in accordance with a decades-old rumor 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.[5] The tomb in Saint Louis Cemetery No. 1 was vandalized on December 17, 2013, by being painted over with pink latex paint, likely in an attempt by a "homeless, mentally unstable kid" to cover up the "X" mark graffiti.[5] The paint must be removed because the structure is made of old plaster and the latex paint would seal in moisture that would destroy the plaster, but some historical preservation experts have criticized the decision by the Archdiocese of New Orleans, who maintain the cemetery, for their decision to use pressure washing rather than paint stripper to remove it.[6]

Although some references to Marie Laveau in popular culture refer to her as a "witch", she is properly described as a 'Voodoo priestess'.

The mausoleum where Marie Laveau is buried, in Saint Louis Cemetery No. 1

Numerous songs about Marie Laveau have been recorded, including "Marie La Veau" by Papa Celestin, "Marie Laveau" by Shel Silverstein, "Witch Queen of New Orleans" (1971) by Redbone, "Dixie Drug Store" by Grant Lee Buffalo, "X Marks the Spot (Marie Laveau)" by Joe Sample, and "Marie Laveau" by Dr. John.

A character named Marie Laveau, based loosely on the real Marie Laveau, appears in Marvel Comics. She first appears in Dracula Lives #2 in 1973.[7] She is depicted as a powerful sorceress and Voodoo priestess with great magical powers and knowledge of arcane lore, including the creation of a potion made from vampire's blood that keeps her eternally youthful and beautiful.[8]

A character named Marie Laveau, based loosely on the real Marie Laveau, appears in the Italian comic book Zagor.

Marie Laveau appears in Neil Gaiman's novel "American Gods", under her married name, Marie Paris.

Marie Laveau's tomb is the site of a secret, underground voodoo workshop in The Caster Chronicles novel Beautiful Chaos by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl.

Laveau's grave site, in Saint Louis Cemetery No. 1, is the setting of a pivotal scene in Robert J. Randisi's short story, "Cold As The Gun", from Foreshadows: The Ghosts of Zero.

Marie Laveau (portrayed by Angela Bassett) appears as a character in American Horror Story: Coven.[9]

She is the protagonist of Jewell Parker Rhodes' novel Voodoo Dreams: A Novel of Marie Laveau (1993).

Laveau appears as a supporting character in the Night Huntress novels by Jeaniene Frost, as a powerful ghoul still living in New Orleans in the 21st century.

Marie Laveau is a minor character in several books of the "Benjamin January"-series by Barbara Hambly.

Biographies

  • Long, Carolyn Morrow. A New Orleans Voudou Priestess: The Legend and Reality of Marie Laveau, Gainesville: University Press of Florida (2006), (ISBN 9780813029740).
  • Ward, Martha. Voodoo Queen: The Spirited Lives of Marie Laveau, Oxford: University of Mississippi Press (2004) (ISBN 1578066298).

See also

Citations

  1. ^ "The Dead Voudou Queen; Marie Laveau's Place In The History Of New-Orleans". The New York Times. June 23, 1881.
  2. ^ a b c "Haitian Immigration: 18th & 19th Centuries", In Motion: African American Migration Experience, New York Public Library, retrieved 7 May 2008.
  3. ^ a b c d Tallant, Robert (1946 - reprint 1984). Vodoo in New Orleans. New York: Macmillan Company - reprint Pelican Publishing. ISBN 978-0-88289-336-5. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |year= (help)CS1 maint: year (link)
  4. ^ New Orleans Vital Records Death Index, RootsWeb.
  5. ^ a b c Webster, Richard A. (December 30, 2013). "Repair of Marie Laveau's tomb to take months, potential suspect attempted to paint another tomb one month ago". The New Orleans Times-Picayune. Retrieved 2014-01-05. Angie Green, executive director of Save Our Cemeteries, a nonprofit that works to preserve historic cemeteries throughout the city, said she doesn't know "for sure" who is responsible for painting the vault but has a prime suspect in mind. Two weeks earlier, Green said she caught a young, clean-cut man in his early 20s painting a tomb in the back of the cemetery a "creamish, yellowish, beige." The tomb, like Laveau's, was covered in hundreds of Xs drawn on its surface by tourists. Decades ago, someone started a rumor 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, said tour guide Renee Dodge. Over the years the practice spread to several other tombs in the cemetery including the one the young man was attempting to paint over two weeks before Laveau's tomb was vandalized. Green said she called the police but declined to press charges. "I didn't think he was a threat. I spoke with him and it seemed he thought he was trying to do the right thing (by covering up the Xs)," Green said. "The police said he was someone they knew, a homeless, mentally unstable kid. So we are pretty sure it was him (who painted Laveau's tomb) but no one knows for sure." .... There are even questions whether the now pink tomb in St. Louis No. 1 is actually the burial site of Laveau. The Voodoo queen married into the Glapion family that owns the tomb but there is no hard evidence that is where she was buried, Green said. "I've heard strong arguments for the tomb in (St. Louis) No. 1 or multiple tombs in (St. Louis) No 2," she said. {{cite news}}: line feed character in |quote= at position 240 (help)
  6. ^ Webster, Richard A. (January 2, 2014). "Marie Laveau's tomb suffering significant damage during restoration process, nonprofit says". The New Orleans Times-Picayune. Retrieved 2014-01-05. But when Angie Green, executive director of Save Our Cemeteries, a nonprofit group that works to preserve historic cemeteries throughout the city, saw someone blasting Laveau's tomb with a high-pressure water gun she said she immediately called the Archdiocese. "Pressure washing is terrible for any old building," Green said. "When I first saw them doing it they had two sides done and there were chips of brick and plaster from the tomb all over the ground. I asked them to stop and everyone (at the Archdiocese) said they would stop but they are still doing it." [Sarah McDonald, director of communications for the Archdiocese,] said Green's allegation that the pressure washing is inflicting significant damage is "inaccurate." {{cite news}}: line feed character in |quote= at position 262 (help)
  7. ^ Laveau, Marie – Marvel Universe Wiki: The definitive online source for Marvel super hero bios
  8. ^ "Marvel Universe Appendix - Marie Laveau".
  9. ^ http://www.nola.com/tv/index.ssf/2013/08/fxs_john_landgraf_on_american.html
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