Marie Laveau is known as the Queen of Voodoo, a religion that originates in West Africa and is quite common in Haiti.
Marie was born in New Orleans, USA, into a community of immigrants from Haiti. Among them were white French plantation owners, black slaves, and some free black people.
She is believed to be the daughter of a freed slave woman and a politician named Charles Laveau.
The lack of precision in historical documents leaves gaps in parts of her story, yet what survived places this woman healer at a highly prominent social level.
After becoming a widow in 1820, after just one year of marriage, she opened a salon with her husband's inheritance and became a hairdresser.
Some sources say that it was precisely because of the atmosphere in the beauty salon, which was conducive to gossip, that she gathered information to improve her image as a clairvoyant.
The truth is that she became very respected by the city's elite. She provided care at home that included working with herbs, reading cards and also spells.
She combined the belief system of voodoo, her religion, with Catholic iconography in the ceremonies she performed. They took place on Sundays in a public space and involved the sacrifice of roosters and goats so that the blood could be shed on people who needed purification. The rituals also involved music, dance and trance in which the loas (gods) were incorporated.
In Bahia, Candomblé Jeje has a voodoo influence, as does the drum de mina in Maranhão and Amazonas.
It was commonly requested by families of possible death row inmates so that the judgment would be favorable to the defendant. It is said that one of her spells included putting three peppers in her mouth and then leaving them under the judge's chair.
It is also said that his own house was given as payment to save the son of a rich farmer.
But… What would she have received from the farmer? Or was her generosity unusual? Did she really do everything so that her gifts wouldn't be questioned? Once again, the gaps leave us without complete information.
Regardless of whether her power was derived from something supernatural or simply from her keen perception, everything indicates that she had the power to give good advice and her services were in great demand.
Furthermore, she was known for being generous, regularly caring for sick people and making space in her home for anyone in need of shelter or food.
Marie's story and image are nebulous. Which perhaps comes from the intrinsic need to present herself as mysterious in order to carry out her feats, but also due to the lack of precision in historical records.
In any case, a woman's feat, in the 19th century, as a successful businesswoman, practitioner of an African religion, black woman and someone who exerted influence on several people around her is, to say the least, impressive given the historical context.
Even in an unlikely time, Marie Laveau's story speaks about her position of political and social power, which means a new narrative record about black women that we need to know existed.
Her influence on society at the time was portrayed by newspapers, after her death, as follows: “a woman of great beauty, intellect and charisma, who was also pious, charitable and a skilled herbal healer.”