Few people in Southern history have become as inseparable from a city as Marie Laveau is from New Orleans.

She was real—a free woman of color born in New Orleans in 1801 who became one of the most famous figures associated with New Orleans Voudou. She was also a practicing Catholic, a mother, a healer, a woman known for helping the sick and ministering to prisoners.

But somewhere along the way, Marie Laveau became something more.

She became the Voodoo Queen of New Orleans.

Stories began surrounding her during her lifetime and only became stranger after her death. There were tales of gris-gris, courtroom magic, secret ceremonies along Lake Pontchartrain, a massive serpent known as Grand Zombi, and an uncanny ability to know things about people that she seemingly had no way of knowing.

Then there is the mystery surrounding her first husband, Jacques Paris, who simply disappears from the surviving record. There is the strange story of Marie Laveau II and the confusion over whether another woman continued appearing as the Voodoo Queen long after Marie had grown old. And after Marie died in 1881, people continued coming to her tomb in St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 asking for favors.

In this episode of The Southern Blueprint Podcast, we dig into both fact and lore.

We follow Marie from her early life in New Orleans through her rise as the city’s most famous Voudou leader, the world of nineteenth-century New Orleans Voudou, St. John’s Eve, Grand Zombi, the courtroom legend, Marie Laveau II, the rituals surrounding her tomb, and the ghost stories that suggest the Voodoo Queen may never have completely left New Orleans.

And we ask the question sitting underneath the entire story:

What if some of the things people believed about Marie Laveau weren’t exaggerations at all?

The new episode is available now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and wherever you listen to podcasts.

Go Deeper: The Marie Laveau Podcast Companion

The Southern Blueprint Podcast Companion is where we’ll continue the story after the episode ends with additional research, photos, rabbit holes, books, travel information and other material that didn’t make it into the show.

The Podcast Companion is available to paid members of The Hidden Pine Lodge for $4/month, along with our private Discord, Book Club, Bird Club and the rest of the extra Southern Blueprint content we’re building.