Marie Laveau, also known as the Voodoo Queen of New Orleans, is one of the most well known and most renowned figures from the city. She was born a free woman of mixed color, in the late 1700s, and raised a devout Catholic. Much has been written on the life of Marie Laveau, although the challenge over the years has been separating the facts from the fiction.
The Life of Marie Laveau
Marie Laveau, the Voodoo Queen of New Orleans, is said to have been born in 1794. She was the illegitimate daughter of Charles Laveau, a white planter, and Marguerite Darcantrel, a black woman. Marie Laveau grew up in a home where religion played a major role. Her mother was a devout Catholic, and she attended mass regularly.
At 25 in 1819, Marie married Jacques Paris from Saint Domingue, Haiti at the St. Louis Cathedral. Around one year after the marriage, Jacques Paris disappeared and is presumed to have died. Although some think he might have moved back to Haiti, according to an article on The Mysticia. Marie became known as “The Widow Paris” after Jacques assumed death.
Not long after the death of her husband, Marie met and became the lover of Christopher Glapion. They never married officially, but were considered married under common law. Together they had 15 children, including a daughter also named Marie who had a striking resemblance to her mother. Besides looking like her mother, Marie II also practiced voodoo and helped feed the mythology of her mother’s life.
