The New Orleans Woman Who Killed And Tortured Her Slaves
1140 Royal Street is called “the most haunted house in the city”
Last week, I published an article about H.H. Holmes and dubbed him the “first serial killer in America,” a title bestowed to him by multiple books. Multiple readers would inform me that Holmes was not America’s first serial killers and provide examples of ones that preceded him — one reader told me about a woman named Madame LaLaurie who preceded Holmes. LaLaurie’s mansion in New Orleans is called “the most haunted house in the city.” She had 12 of her slaves die in a four-year span, with no cause of death mentioned for any of them.
I did some more digging into Madame LaLaurie, who lived from 1787 to 1849. The editors of History would note that LaLaurie had a mansion in the French Quarters of New Orleans, where she had a torture chamber for her slaves. One of the slaves found was a 70-year-old Black woman trapped in the kitchen during a fire — LaLaurie herself was busy saving her furniture.
That woman would tell authorities that she set the fire herself to bring attention to LaLaurie’s mistreatment of her slaves. She then led them to the attic, where they found seven slaves tied with iron chains.
