In April 1834, a massive fire broke out at the mansion of Delphine LaLaurie on Royal Street in New Orleans French Quarter. LaLaurie was known to have kept several slaves as servants in the home, but when bystanders attempted to enter the house to rescue those trapped inside, they found the doors barred. After forcing the doors open and making their way inside the house, the rescuers were horrified to find the “horribly mutilated” bodies of at least seven of LaLaurie’s slaves. Delphine LaLaurie was known to treat her servants very badly, including physically abusing them, but no one in New Orleans had imagined she was a sadistic murderer.

After the discovery of the horrors in the LaLaurie mansion, Delphine LaLaurie fled New Orleans, fearing mob violence, and lived the rest of her life as an exile in Paris—but that is not the end of the story. Just a few decades after LaLaurie abandoned her home and fled the country, her story and those of the men, women, and children who suffered in her home worked their way into New Orleans folklore. Today, nearly two hundred years later, the LaLaurie mansion has become known as the most haunted house in New Orleans, and the legend of Delphine LaLaurie has lived on through television, film, and books about Mad Madame LaLaurie. 

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References

Crawford, Iain. 2020. "Harriet Matineau, White Women, and Slavery in the bAntebellum South." Nineteenth-Century Prose 89-116.

Long, Carolyn Morrow. 2015. Madame Lalaurie, Mistress of the Haunted House. Gainsville, FL: University Press of Florida.

Martineau, Harriet. 1838. Retrospect of Western Travel, volume 2. London, UK: Saunders and Otley.

Masia, Ines Vila. 1947. "New Orleans puts its ghosts to work." The Times (Shreveport, LA), July 20: 21.

New Orleans Bee. 1834. "Baton Rouge news." Baton-Rouge Gazette, April 19: 2.

Pitts, Stella. 1974. "New paint, old stories stir interest in 'haunted house'." Times-Picayune, August 11: 68.

Schneider, Frank. 1969. "Sale typidies French Quarter values." Times-Picayune, February 9: 47.

Wolfe, Poet. 2024. "LaLaurie Mansion in New Orleans has a sinister history dating back to the 1830s." Times Picayune, July 11.

Cowritten by Alaina Urquhart, Ash Kelley & Dave White (Since 10/2022)

Produced & Edited by Mikie Sirois (Since 2023)

Research by Dave White (Since 10/2022), Alaina Urquhart & Ash Kelley

Listener Correspondence & Collaboration by Debra Lally

Listener Tale Video Edited by Aidan McElman (Since 6/2025)

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