Marie Laveau

Marie Laveau was a 19th-century spiritual figure of immense power and prestige in New Orleans, [Page 322]Louisiana. She appeared to transcend restrictions based on class, gender, race, and status under enslavement conditions via an African spiritual system called Vodu (which is also spelled Vodou and Voodoo).

Marie Laveau was born in 1801 in New Orleans. Her mother, Marguerite Darcantel, was a healer of African and Native American heritage. Her father, Charles Laveau, was a plantation owner who served in the state legislature. Her grandmother, Marguerite Semard, was from the Congo. In 1819, she married Jacques Paris, a freedman, who disappeared shortly after their marriage. She later enjoyed a common law marriage to Louis Christophe Duminy de Glapion, also a freedman. In 1826, she became a hairdresser whose clients included the wives and mistresses of New Orleans's wealthiest men. In 1830, Laveau had become an established Vodu spiritual leader. Using knowledge passed down to her within Vodu, she was a healer, herbalist, diviner, and doctor until her death on June 15, 1881.

Vodu is a powerful form of ancient African spirituality that a significant population of enslaved Africans brought with them when they came to New Orleans. Legislative attempts to suppress Vodu appear in the historical records from before the Louisiana Purchase until after Reconstruction. Vodu was feared and thus vilified by officials in New Orleans, and people of African descent suspected of practicing it were closely monitored. Vodu adherents were imprisoned, tortured, whipped, and murdered. Laws such as the black codes were passed to regulate the behavior of Africans and prevent them from building altars, congregating for spiritual purposes, making ritual drums, and speaking any African languages. Enslaved Africans were encouraged to report one another to authorities. Many Africans feigned a superficial Christian conversion and continued to practice Vodu in secret.

The spiritual system takes its name from the African word vodu, which translates as “god,” “spirit,” “serving or following the spirits,” or “the snake under whose auspices gather all who share the faith.” The snake represents balance, clairvoyance, life force, and wisdom. According to Vodu, events are causal, linked to one another through an intricate network of cosmological interdependence. An omnipresent creator is manifested through myriad intermediary ancestral and nature spirits. These spirits can bring good or harm, and they must be honored in rituals that recognize these sacred interrelationships in order for the Vodu practitioner to maintain her or his spiritual balance. Power in Vodu is marked by spirituality and knowledge, and not by controlling people or the elements. Vodu operates in all aspects of people's lives, such as economics, ethics, health, interpersonal relationships, and safety.

Africans who were brought to New Orleans originally came from a number of African ethnic groups, and so Vodu developed in a unique way as it mixed practices from many African ethnic groups from all parts of Africa. Ironically, enslavers who were threatened by Vodu actually encouraged its globalization. African spirituality was transplanted with Africans in America, and the cruel treatment they received under chattel enslavement encouraged even stronger spiritual faith. In New Orleans, Vodu was spiritual resistance to enslavement in its promotion of African identity.

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