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Marie Laveau (1791-1881) was born a free person in the French Quarter in New Orleans, the daughter of a white planter and a free Creole woman of color. In 1819, she married Jacques Paris, a free person of color from Haiti. After his mysterious death in 1820, Marie Laveau worked as a hairdresser to wealthy white women in New Orleans. She also had an affair that produced 15 children, including Marie Laveau II, who practiced Voudoun (Voodoo) with her mother, then known as the Voodoo Queen of New Orleans. The women had a multiracial following. As many as 12,000 people would gather on the shores of Lake Pontchartrain for their St. John’s Eve (June 23-24) voodoo rites.
The first Marie Laveau’s house, now a tourist attraction for most, is on St. Ann Street in the French Quarter. Her marriage certificate is in St. Louis Cathedral, also in the French Quarter.
Da Lingua Franca
Rings of Trust Page 10
