Marie Laveau Portrait by Frank Schneider, based on a painting by George Catlin
(Louisiana State Museum).
Marie Laveau (September 10, 1794 – June 16, 1881) was a Louisiana Creole
practitioner of Voodoo renowned in New Orleans. She was born free in New
Orleans.
Her daughter Marie Laveau II (1827 — c. 1895) also practiced Voudoun, and historical accounts often confuse the two. She and her mother had great influence over their multiracial following. "In 1874 as many as twelve thousand spectators, both black and white, swarmed to the shores of Lake Pontchartrain to catch a glimpse of Marie Laveau II performing her legendary rites on St. John's Eve (June 23–24)."
Her daughter Marie Laveau II (1827 — c. 1895) also practiced Voudoun, and historical accounts often confuse the two. She and her mother had great influence over their multiracial following. "In 1874 as many as twelve thousand spectators, both black and white, swarmed to the shores of Lake Pontchartrain to catch a glimpse of Marie Laveau II performing her legendary rites on St. John's Eve (June 23–24)."
Marie Laveau Portrait by Frank Schneider, based on a painting by George Catlin
(Louisiana State Museum).
Marie Laveau (September 10, 1794 – June 16, 1881) was a Louisiana Creole
practitioner of Voodoo renowned in New Orleans. She was born free in New
Orleans.
Her daughter Marie Laveau II (1827 — c. 1895) also practiced Voudoun, and historical accounts often confuse the two. She and her mother had great influence over their multiracial following. "In 1874 as many as twelve thousand spectators, both black and white, swarmed to the shores of Lake Pontchartrain to catch a glimpse of Marie Laveau II performing her legendary rites on St. John's Eve (June 23–24)."
Her daughter Marie Laveau II (1827 — c. 1895) also practiced Voudoun, and historical accounts often confuse the two. She and her mother had great influence over their multiracial following. "In 1874 as many as twelve thousand spectators, both black and white, swarmed to the shores of Lake Pontchartrain to catch a glimpse of Marie Laveau II performing her legendary rites on St. John's Eve (June 23–24)."
Marie Laveau Portrait by Frank Schneider, based on a painting by George Catlin
(Louisiana State Museum).
Jenny Lind, the "Swedish Nightingale"
From Cuba the Jenny Lind's party sailed to New Orleans, where Lind was
greeted with rapturous enthusiasm. The historian Keith Hambrick has published a
study of Lind's time in the city, which includes details of the commercial
marketing of her image, unauthorised and of no monetary reward to her, such as
Jenny Lind shirts, Jenny Lind cravats, Jenny Lind gloves, Jenny Lind pocket
handkerchiefs, Jenny Lind coats, Jenny Lind hats, and even Jenny Lind sausages.
Tickets for all of her 13 concerts in New Orleans were so much in demand that a
charge was made for admission to the auction for tickets. Hambrick quotes
details of the programming of some of the concerts:
The concert began at eight o'clock with selections by the orchestra. The
thirty-five musicians, conducted by Julius Benedict and including the
distinguished violinist Joseph Burke, played two grand overtures from Auber's
opera, Masaniello, and then later in the concert, the famous "Wedding March"
from Mendelssohn's celebrated incidental music to A Midsummer Night's Dream. One
resident, in complimenting the orchestra, said that he had never heard a group
with better balance and that the proportion of instruments was admirable.
Belletti came on before Lind, and after his own numbers he went offstage
and escorted her to the platform. She would sing five or so numbers during the
course of the concert: on one occasion in New Orleans these were "Come per me
sereno", from Bellini's La sonnambula; a buffo duet with Belletti ("Per piacer
alla Signora") from Rossini's Il Turco in Italia; her trademark trio for voice
and two flutes composed for her by Meyerbeer; and to finish the concert, a
Swedish song, the "Herdsman's Song", sung in her native language. At other
concerts, Belletti sang "Largo al factotum" from The Barber of Seville and Lind
sang "Casta diva" from Norma and "I know that my Redeemer liveth" from Messiah.
From New Orleans, the party sailed up river to Natchez, Mississippi
Pierre Joseph Landry
American, 1770 - 1843
Landry was born on the coast of Brittany on January, 5, 1770, at
Saint-Servan-sur-Mer. His father, a military officer, died in 1772. He came with
his mother to what was the old Pointe Coupee Parish in 1785. Landry entered the
military at a young age, and rose to the rank of captain during the War of 1812.
He claimed a special friendship with General Andrew Jackson. Landry operated a
plantation in Iberville Parish and married Marie Scholastique Breaux (c.
1770-1804) in 1790. The couple had seven children. After her death, Landry
married Marguerite Capevielle (1776 - 1848) - they had an additional nine
children.
Landry learned to draw maps and topographical views as a military officer.
He prepared a manuscript entitled Les Tactiques Militaires about 1820. He
appears to have been debilitated by tuberculosis about 1833. Although he may
have embellished powder horns earlier, Landry began carving wooden sculptures in
the early 1830s. He died in 1843 with $20,000 in property, including several
slaves. There is no mention of his sculptures in the will or inventory. His
relatives, notably L. Valcour Landry, preserved his artistic legacy.
Wheel of Life
Pierre Joseph Landry
1834
Wood, 48 x 43 ½ x 7
inches
Louisiana State Museum, Gift of the Heirs of Pierre Landry, 02685.5
Like Thomas Cole's Voyage of Life (1829; National Gallery of Art,
Washington, D.C.), Wheel of Life traces an individual's progress from cradle to
grave. The strange figure near the swaddled infant at the lower right is a
puzzling inclusion. The figure representing middle age (top right) may be a
self-portrait.
Wheel of Life
Pierre Joseph Landry
1834
Wood, 48 x 43 ½ x 7
inches
Louisiana State Museum, Gift of the Heirs of Pierre Landry, 02685.5
Like Thomas Cole's Voyage of Life (1829; National Gallery of Art,
Washington, D.C.), Wheel of Life traces an individual's progress from cradle to
grave. The strange figure near the swaddled infant at the lower right is a
puzzling inclusion. The figure representing middle age (top right) may be a
self-portrait.
Pierre Joseph Landry
American, 1770 - 1843
Landry was born on the coast of Brittany on January, 5, 1770, at
Saint-Servan-sur-Mer. His father, a military officer, died in 1772. He came with
his mother to what was the old Pointe Coupee Parish in 1785. Landry entered the
military at a young age, and rose to the rank of captain during the War of 1812.
He claimed a special friendship with General Andrew Jackson. Landry operated a
plantation in Iberville Parish and married Marie Scholastique Breaux (c.
1770-1804) in 1790. The couple had seven children. After her death, Landry
married Marguerite Capevielle (1776 - 1848) - they had an additional nine
children.
Landry learned to draw maps and topographical views as a military officer.
He prepared a manuscript entitled Les Tactiques Militaires about 1820. He
appears to have been debilitated by tuberculosis about 1833. Although he may
have embellished powder horns earlier, Landry began carving wooden sculptures in
the early 1830s. He died in 1843 with $20,000 in property, including several
slaves. There is no mention of his sculptures in the will or inventory. His
relatives, notably L. Valcour Landry, preserved his artistic legacy.
Wheel of Life
Pierre Joseph Landry
1834
Wood, 48 x 43 ½ x 7
inches
Louisiana State Museum, Gift of the Heirs of Pierre Landry, 02685.5
Wheel of Life
Pierre Joseph Landry
1834
Wood, 48 x 43 ½ x 7
inches
Louisiana State Museum, Gift of the Heirs of Pierre Landry, 02685.5
Wheel of Life
Pierre Joseph Landry
1834
Wood, 48 x 43 ½ x 7
inches
Louisiana State Museum, Gift of the Heirs of Pierre Landry, 02685.5
Wheel of Life
Pierre Joseph Landry
1834
Wood, 48 x 43 ½ x 7
inches
Louisiana State Museum, Gift of the Heirs of Pierre Landry, 02685.5
Wheel of Life
Pierre Joseph Landry
1834
Wood, 48 x 43 ½ x 7
inches
Louisiana State Museum, Gift of the Heirs of Pierre Landry, 02685.5
Wheel of Life
Pierre Joseph Landry
1834
Wood, 48 x 43 ½ x 7
inches
Louisiana State Museum, Gift of the Heirs of Pierre Landry, 02685.5
Wheel of Life
Pierre Joseph Landry
1834
Wood, 48 x 43 ½ x 7
inches
Louisiana State Museum, Gift of the Heirs of Pierre Landry, 02685.5
Wheel of Life
Pierre Joseph Landry
1834
Wood, 48 x 43 ½ x 7
inches
Louisiana State Museum, Gift of the Heirs of Pierre Landry, 02685.5
Wheel of Life
Pierre Joseph Landry
1834
Wood, 48 x 43 ½ x 7
inches
Louisiana State Museum, Gift of the Heirs of Pierre Landry, 02685.5
The most deadly diseases to strike Louisiana during the antebellum period
were cholera, smallpox, malaria, and yellow fever. In an epidemic year the
mortality rate could reach as high as sixty percent of those who contracted a
disease. The death rate in New Orleans ranged from a low of 36 per 1,000 in the
late 1820s to a high of 1 in 15 during the summer of 1853. Over 12,000 people
died of yellow fever in New Orleans that year, with still more deaths in rural
areas in south Louisiana, marking the single highest annual death rate of any
state during the entire nineteenth century. Because people died faster than
graves could be dug, the popular saying was that pretty soon people would have
to dig their own graves.
Death rates were highest in urban areas like New Orleans, where large
numbers of people packed into small areas spread disease quickly. The filth that
accumulated in New Orleans and the swampy areas that surrounded it attracted
disease-carrying insects and polluted the water supply. Thousands of sailors and
steamboat workers also introduced diseases as they passed through the port.
Yellow fever continued to plague Louisiana until 1905, the year of the last
major epidemic. Before scientists at the turn of the century discovered that
mosquitoes carried yellow fever, other serious epidemics affected Shreveport in
1873 and New Orleans in 1878.
Primary victims of disease were immigrants, children, laborers, and the
poor. Wealthy residents could escape the plague by leaving the city during the
most dangerous months, June to November, or afford good health care and clean
surroundings.
Many native Louisianians who had been exposed to mild attacks during
childhood were immune to yellow fever, malaria, and cholera and were accustomed
to their frequent visitations. One such native even praised yellow fever for
checking "the tide of immigration which, otherwise, would have speedily rolled
its waves over the old population, and swept away all those landmarks in
legislation, customs, language and social habits to which they were fondly
attached."
Attempts to Control Death
Businessmen and politicians who wanted goods and people to keep coming to Louisiana ignored or purposefully covered up the problem of disease and death. To maintain a wide-open port free of quarantines, business interests tried to convince newspapers and directories not to publish negative news or publicize the astounding number of deaths in New Orleans.
Whig and Know-Nothing politicians who controlled New Orleans during much of
the period were reluctant to spend money on preventing or stopping the spread of
pestilence. After all, they reasoned, most of the people dying from yellow fever
and cholera were Irish, German, and French immigrants who usually voted
Democrat.
Because people in the nineteenth century were not aware of what caused many
diseases, their cures ranged from the ridiculous to the accidentally logical.
Halfhearted efforts, such as poisoning stray dogs and discharging smoke bombs to
supposedly kill harmful disease-causing vapors, were tried occasionally. All
efforts were unsuccessful until the 1860s, when there was a push to provide the
city with more efficient garbage disposal and cleaner markets and
slaugherhouses.
Antebellum Louisianians mourned the dead by staging elaborate funerals and
processions, decorating graves at the time of death and on All Saints' Day and
All Souls' Day, placing black wreaths on doors and black ribbons on door pulls,
and wearing clothes and jewelry that symbolized stages of mourning. Many customs
incorporated Latin and African elements, a cultural heritage from Louisiana's
colonial era.
William Charles Cole Claiborne
E. B. Savary19th century
William Charles Cole Claiborne acted as first territorial governor of lower Louisiana from 1803 to 1812. A native of Virginia and friend of President Thomas Jefferson, Claiborne had previously served in Congress and as governor of the Mississippi Territory.
Loaned by the Louisiana Historical Society
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