In The Flow of Time – August 4, 2024
There is a hole in my primary research. I need to get my head around Voudou, the amalgam of African and Catholic beliefs widespread in New Orleans in the 1800s. After all, Marie Laveau was “queen” of the voudouiennes. In that light, I’m finding various resources. A book is on the way. What I’ve already learned, it’s a fascinating religious belief. It has nothing to do with black magic or witchcraft.
In the meantime, I find an event on June 6, 1844. One paper reported “a bona fide witch of the Congo school” and rumors of the “Broomstick Equestrian of Old Salem, black as the double distilled essence of soot.” Racist much?
I found access to archives of The New Orleans Bee, and this story on June 7. This is what passes for journalism. The reported did have fun with the gullibility of the mob. Text below. The photo of the page is a bit hard to read.
Witchcraft and Superstition
Yesterday morning, about daylight, some of the butchers in the meat market of the First Municipality, out of a frolic started a report that a “witch, in the shape and form of a negro woman, had been arrested the previous night, a short distance below the city and was then confined in the lock-up house under the Mayor’s office, and would be publicly burned in the Place D’Armes at 4 o’clock in the afternoon.” They moreover averred “that she had the power of slipping out of her skin at pleasure and could change her complexion every five minutes if she chose—and, furthermore, that at the time of her arrest, having just slipped out of her skin, some person who had been watching her, had filled it with salt, she was unable to enter it again and was at that time as raw as a piece of beef.
The report spread like wild fire amongst the superstitious portion of the lower classes, and before ten(?) o’clock, a large crowd had assembled in front of the High Constable’s office, anxious to get a sight of the witch, and making enquiries as to the precise time at which the execution would take place. The crowd continued to increase until about one o’clock, when Captain Yourneu(?), finding it impossible to disperse them caused a person who had been sentenced to the workhouse to be wrapped up in a blanket and ordering a carriage to the door of his office, three of the officers of the police placed the prisoner into it, and drove off to the work-house. The crowd, believing the witch to be in the carriage, immediately made chase after it to the work-house, but having arrived too late to get a glimpse of the witch, they stationed themselves upon the pavement, anxiously awaiting the hour of execution. Some of the more wise, however, still believing the witch to be still confined in the “lock-up house,” returned and took their position in front of the doors, determined not to miss the sight at any hazzard(sic). As the hour of four approached, a large crown assembled in Congo Square near the Calaboose and in the Place d’Armes; some for the purpose of witnessing the execution, and others with all due solemnity describing the manner in which the sentence was to be carried out.
The hour of six having arrived, and the crow beginning to grow impatient at the tardiness of the officers of justice for keeping them so long in waiting to witness the autodefée, a negress dressed in white satin and having on her head a white satin bonnet with an ostrich feather, was seen standing near the Church. Her peculiar appearance attracted the attention of the juvenile portion of the crowd, who raised the cry that she was the “evil one” whom they were waiting to behold. In an instant she was beset, and before the police officers who were standing close by at the time, could rescue her, her clothes were almost torn from her body, and it was with the utmost difficulty that they succeeded in getting her inside of the High Constable’s office to save her from falling a victim to superstition in this, heretofore supposed, enlightened age. Our worthy High Constable now finding himself in a worse predicament than before, ordered a carriage to one of the back doors of the City Hall, and placing the negresse in it, told the driver not to spare the whip until he reached the house of her master on Poydras street. The moment the carriage started the cry was again raised that it contained the “evil one,” and it was with difficulty that the John(?) could prevent the carriage from being headed off, before he could get on headway enough to distance his enlightened pursuers.
We are credibly informed that “old horse shoes” an(sic) ”black bees wax” were in considerable demand during the whole of yesterday afternoon amongst a certain portion of our population.”
There was no witch burning, probably to the dismay of the crowd. I don’t know the import of the reference to old horse shoes but I suspect “black bees wax” would be for black candles.
I have no idea whether this little bit of local color will make it into the story, but I DO have fun going down rabbit holes.
