My Weekend in New Orleans

Hi all,

This weekend I went to New Orleans with my boyfriend for his formal and traces of our discussions of the stranger side of life followed me ! As we were taking a carriage ride through the streets surrounding the French Quarter our driver pointed out what he said was New Orleans' most haunted site, the LaLaurie Mansion.

Dr. Louis LaLaurie and Delphine LaLaurie, who is now infamous in New Orleans for the sinister torture of her slaves, purchased the house on Royal St. in 1831. Madame LaLaurie allegedly chained her cook to the stove in the kitchen. Desperate to be discovered, the cook is said to have started a fire to attract attention. When officials arrived to contain the fire they also discovered a secret room which housed twelve slaves, who were bound and mutilated. In the room were operating tables where strange medical experiments were preformed on the unwilling slaves. Madame LaLaurie was also claimed to have been seen chasing her personal servant with a whip when the young girl flung herself from the roof of the mansion.

Mobs of suspicious neighbors rioted outside the mansion forcing the once prominent socialites to flee New Orleans and never be heard from again. The house has since then been on the market numerous times, never being owned by the same person for long. The beautiful mansion where New Orleans' most esteemed residents enjoyed fabulous parties has now been everything from a haunted saloon or dance conservatory to the home of the actor Nicholas Cage. Owners have claimed to see a black man wrapped in chains haunting the building and to have herd strange voices.

Whether or not the tales of the LaLaurie Mansion or true or not, our carriage driver sure did seem scared to drive past the erie three-story building. The tale of Madame LaLaurie definitely made our trip more interesting, and I like to believe that the myth is true !