A New Orleans Voudou Priestess: The Legend and Reality of Marie Laveau / Edition 1

by Carolyn Morrow Long

Overview

Legendary for an unusual combination of spiritual power, beauty, charisma, showmanship, intimidation, and shrewd business sense, Marie Leveau also was known for her kindness and charity, nursing yellow fever victims and ministering to condemned prisoners, and her devotion to the Roman Catholic Church.
 
In separating verifiable fact from semi-truths and complete fabrication, Carolyn Morrow Long explores the unique social, political, and legal setting in which the lives of Laveau’s African and European ancestors became intertwined in nineteenth-century New Orleans.
 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813032146
Publisher:	University Press of Florida
Publication date:	10/07/2007
Edition description:	First
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	1,093,080
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Legendary for an unusual combination of spiritual power, beauty, charisma, showmanship, intimidation, and shrewd business sense, Marie Leveau also was known for her kindness and charity, nursing yellow fever victims and ministering to condemned prisoners, and her devotion to the Roman Catholic Church.
 
In separating verifiable fact from semi-truths and complete fabrication, Carolyn Morrow Long explores the unique social, political, and legal setting in which the lives of Laveau’s African and European ancestors became intertwined in nineteenth-century New Orleans.
 

Table of Contents

List of Figures     ix
List of Tables     xi
Acknowledgments     xiii
Introduction     xv
Definitions     xxi
Prologue: The "Laveau Legend" in Print and Performance     xxiii
Part I
The Colonial Past     3
The Antebellum City     26
Domestic Life     47
Slaves     69
Hard Times     79
Part II
Voudou     93
St. John's Eve     119
Doctor John     137
Part III
Prison Ministry     151
Final Years     165
Descendants     182
The Second Marie Laveau     190
Conclusion     207
Louisiana Writers' Project Informants     213
Notes     223
Bibliography     269
Index     289

Editorial Reviews

"Thanks to this writer's exhaustive, scrupulous, honest research debunking the false or questionable myths passed down through the generations, we can now be confident of what we know and do not know about Marie Laveau and her life and times in nineteenth-century New Orleans."—Gwendolyn Midlo Hall

From the Publisher