History's Greatest Crimes

Episode 8: Madame LaLaurie: New Orleans' Most Notorious Slave Owner

• Michael and Alana • Season 1 • Episode 8

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The elegant Royal Street mansion stood as a monument to wealth and sophistication in 1830s New Orleans, its mistress celebrated for lavish parties that drew the city's elite. Behind this veneer of high society refinement lurked unspeakable cruelty that would shock even a community built on human bondage.

Delving into the notorious case of Madame Delphine LaLaurie, we explore how a woman from one of New Orleans' most prestigious Creole families transformed from celebrated socialite to legendary monster. Through careful historical analysis, we trace LaLaurie's rise through three strategic marriages, her acquisition of substantial wealth, and the rumors of cruelty that circulated years before the catastrophic fire of April 10, 1834, that would expose her darkest secrets.

The discovery made that day – seven enslaved people subjected to torture so extreme that newspapers struggled to describe it – provoked a level of public outrage rarely seen in antebellum America. Four thousand citizens converged on the mansion, eventually reducing it to ruins when they discovered the LaLaurie family had escaped justice. Yet this very extremity allowed the broader institution of slavery to continue unchallenged, with LaLaurie's sadism treated as an aberration rather than the logical extension of a system granting absolute power over human beings.

This episode examines not just the horrors discovered in the LaLaurie mansion, but also the complex social context surrounding them – from the unique characteristics of urban slavery in New Orleans to the elaborate justifications used to defend human bondage. Join us as we peel back layers of historical romanticism to confront an uncomfortable truth: the charming French Quarter we celebrate today was built upon foundations of unacknowledged suffering, with the LaLaurie mansion standing as its most haunting reminder.

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Speaker 1:

Welcome back to History's Greatest Crimes. I'm Michael.

Speaker 2:

And I'm Elena. Today we're delving into a particularly dark chapter of American history, set against the vibrant yet brutal backdrop of antebellum New Orleans, the horrifying case of Madame Delphine LaLaurie.

Speaker 1:

New Orleans in the 1830s. It conjures images of a unique cultural melting pot French, Spanish, American, African Caribbean influences all swirling together, A city alive with commerce and music. But that captivating facade, Elena, concealed the brutal reality that fueled its prosperity, and that was human enslavement.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely. And New Orleans wasn't just incidentally involved. It was a critical hub, arguably the largest slave market in the nation. It was the engine driving the domestic slave trade, tearing families apart to power the Southern economy.

Speaker 1:

It's in this environment of extreme contrasts opulence beside oppression that we find Madame Marie Delphine McCarty LaLaurie. She was a prominent figure in Creole society, known for the lavish gatherings at her Royal Street mansion.

Speaker 2:

Yet in April of 1834, a fire at that very mansion led to a discovery so gruesome, so sadistic. It horrified even a society desensitized to the violence inherited in slavery. The events at the Lawlery Mansion ripped away the veneer of civility. This isn't merely the tale of one monstrous individual. It's a stark illumination of the system that enabled such atrocities.

Speaker 1:

Hey history students, michael here, I just wanted to let you know that we now have a subscription service, and if you subscribe to the history's greatest crimes class, then you will get access to episodes days before they are made public. You will also have the ability to join a soon to be created discord server where you can ask us questions, vote on topics and talk to Elena and myself. So if you have a chance, definitely try to sign up and subscribe. Thanks so much, and a big shout out to Smokey Brown, our first subscriber. Appreciate you so much. Now back to the story. So let's start by understanding Delphine LaLaurie herself. Her origins placed her right at the top of New Orleans society right at the top of New Orleans society.

Speaker 2:

Indeed, Marie Delphine McCarty was born around 1787, during the Spanish colonial era. The city of New Orleans was originally established in 1718 by the French calling it La Nouvelle Orleans. In 1763, following Britain's victory in the Seven Years' War, the French colony west of the Mississippi River, including New Orleans, was ceded to the Spanish Empire. This transition of New Orleans and the surrounding area to Spanish control was intended to compensate Spain for the loss of Florida to the British, and it remained under Spanish control from 1763 until 1800, when Spain and France signed the Treaty of San Ildefonso stipulating that Spain give Louisiana back to France. However, this shift from Spanish to French control was very brief. Three years later, in 1803, Napoleon sold the territory to the United States through the Louisiana Purchase.

Speaker 1:

So, having been born in 1787, delphine McCarty had experienced three shifts in government, from Spanish to French, to American by the time she was 15 years old. But the McCarty family maneuvered the social politics to become one of the city's most influential Creole families.

Speaker 2:

The McCartys were deeply embedded in the power structures. Creole families. The McCartys were deeply embedded in the power structures military, planting, commerce, government. Delphine's uncle even served as governor and a cousin later became mayor. She was raised in wealth and still with an expectation of command especially over the enslaved people.

Speaker 1:

Her status was further solidified through three marriages. Her first marriage took place at the very early age of 13, when she was wed to a high-ranking Spanish official, don Ramon de López y Angulo. When the United States acquired Louisiana and New Orleans in 1803, don Ramon was appointed to the position of Consul General for Spain and was called to appear at the royal court in Madrid. Don Ramon and Delphine, who was then pregnant, traveled to Havana, cuba, from where they intended to begin their journey across the Atlantic. However, while in Havana, don Ramon fell ill and died. A few days later, delphine gave birth to a daughter and, returned to New Orleans, gave birth to a daughter and returned to New Orleans.

Speaker 2:

Then, in 1808, around the age of 21, she married Jean Blanc. He was considerably older but a major player in the city, a banker a merchant, lawyer, legislator and, significantly, a slave trader.

Speaker 1:

That connection to the slave trade itself is telling, placing her right at the heart of the city's economic engine.

Speaker 2:

It certainly does. Delphine and Jean Blanc went on to have four children, three daughters and a son, but Blanc died in 1815, leaving Delphine with substantial debts, but also her own inherited wealth and property, including enslaved individuals, and over the next 10 years she proved adept at managing her finances, emerging as a very wealthy woman.

Speaker 1:

And that brings us to her third marriage, then, in 1825, which was to the doctor Leonard Louis-Nicolas Lalaurie, a physician and dentist much younger than her. Because there were no schools of medicine in New Orleans prior to the 1830s, Dr LaLaurie's knowledge was most likely considered top-notch. He was 23 years old to Delphine, who was then 38. Perhaps not surprisingly, their marriage soon shown signs of strain. In 1832, Delphine petitioned the district court for a separation from her husband. She claimed that he, quote, treated her in such a manner as to render their living together unsupportable. End quote and claimed, which her son and her two daughters by Jean Bloch confirmed. However, the separation does not seem to have been permanent, as Dr LaLaurie was present at the house in 1834 when the fire broke out.

Speaker 2:

It was also around the time of those marriage troubles that Delphine acquired the property on 1140 Royal Street. The previous owner had started building a house before selling the property and Delphine finished it to her taste. Contemporary records suggested that the house was solely Delphine's endeavor and Dr Lollery's only role to play was to just live in the house.

Speaker 1:

Lollary's only role to play was to just live in the house. When completed, the Lollary House was a three-story 12,000 square foot mansion that featured the federal architectural style. This style was quite popular at the time and both Thomas Jefferson's Monticello and the United States White House also featured that architectural style. The house included a freestanding kitchen with an attic built above it where the slave quarters were located Due to the risk of fire. Antebellum houses in New Orleans and elsewhere usually had freestanding kitchens that were detached from the main residences and apartments for enslaved people, which were often located on the second story of this rear detached structure.

Speaker 2:

The inside was also impressive. Gold plates and paintings of noticed artists adorned the walls. One New Orleans newspaper described the home's furnishing as quote of the most costly description, end quote. It was there that Madame LaLaurie cemented her reputation as a leading socialite, hosting those famously extravagant parties. She was known for her frequent cocktail parties, private balls and lavish galas. These events were attended by the most prominent citizens of New Orleans, celebrated for being a gracious host. Everyone seemed to look past the quote. Haggard and wretched state of her slaves. To some, even her two daughters that continued to live with Delphine and Dr LaLaurie in the house seemed miserable. But Madame LaLaurie was so outwardly pleasant that no one really thought too hard about it.

Speaker 1:

So this life of high society is unfolding within the unique context of urban slavery in New Orleans, which operated differently than the large-scale plantation system we usually associate slavery with.

Speaker 2:

That's a crucial point. New Orleans was the nexus. The nation's largest slave market was there. An estimated 135,000 people were bought and sold at that slave market and it was the processing and shipping point for goods produced by enslaved labor on plantations. This economic function shaped the nature of slavery within the city itself.

Speaker 1:

The city's French and Spanish colonial past also left its mark, particularly through the legal frameworks like the Code Noir.

Speaker 2:

Exactly the French Code Noir of 1724, and later Spanish and American adaptions, attempted to regulate the lives of enslaved people and interactions between races. The Code Noir mandated Catholic instruction, defined enslaved people as property, established that status followed the mother and forbade enslaved people from owning property or carrying weapons. It also set minimal standards for how slaves should be treated. For example, masters were prohibited from making their slaves work on Sundays and religious holidays, and the code required that slaves be clothed and fed and taken care of when sick. But in contrast, the code also prescribed brutal punishment for offenses committed by slaves against their masters, like running away.

Speaker 1:

Now you mentioned minimal standards for how slaves should be treated, but I could imagine that the enforcement of these codes against powerful white enslavers like LaLaurie was often weak or non-existent right.

Speaker 2:

Extremely lax. The American Black Code of 1806, established after the Louisiana Purchase, maintained harsh elements and explicitly reinforced white supremacy. Crucially, american law also curtailed paths to freedom that existed previously under Spanish rule. The records show that under Spanish rule, between 2 and 4% of the enslaved population was freed each year through a practice called cortacion. This practice allowed enslaved people who earned enough money to purchase their own freedom, and this practice was particularly evident in 1788 and 1794, when New Orleans was devastated by two different fires. The Spanish crown hired many enslaved people to rebuild the city and earn their freedom in return. In contrast, the later American Black Code left no possibility for manumission and other freedoms, like being able to travel, learning to read and write or earning any money. That was completely cut off for slaves by the early 1800s.

Speaker 1:

Another defining feature of New Orleans was its significant population of gens de couleur libre, or free people of color. Although the American slave code sought stricter control over slaves, there remained in New Orleans a small but steady, free black population In 1803, steady, free black population In 1803,. The records indicate that about 1,500 free people lived in or around New Orleans. They worked as laborers, storekeepers and skilled craftsmen, with a small minority becoming enslavers themselves.

Speaker 2:

Yes, and their numbers surged around 1809 to 1810, with refugees from the Haitian Revolution. The Haitian Revolution was an uprising of black slaves against their colonial masters, and it ultimately resulted in the independence of Haiti in 1804, making it the second independent nation in the Western Hemisphere and the world's first black-led republic. In the wake of the revolution, many Haitians spread out to Cuba and other islands. In 1809, spanish authorities expelled thousands of Haitians from Cuba, many of whom made their way to Louisiana and specifically New Orleans. As a result, the free black population of New Orleans tripled, reaching nearly 5,000 and constituting almost a third of the city's total population. At the time, this was a proportion unmatched in other southern cities.

Speaker 1:

The rapid growth of the city's population of free persons of color strengthened the quote three-caste society made up of free white people, free people of color and slaves. Free people of color occupied a unique though precarious position. They legally held rights that were denied to the enslaved, like property ownership, access to education and to legal means, but they faced increasing discrimination under American rule, and the free black population certainly didn't enjoy the same rights as white Americans. And let's consider the city's demographics around then.

Speaker 2:

Based on estimates, around 1810, new Orleans had about 27,000 residents, roughly split into thirds white, enslaved and free people of color. By 1830, 20 years later, the total population had almost doubled, hitting approximately 46,000. And of that 46,000, enslaved people still made up about a third.

Speaker 1:

And by 1840, the city population had doubled again, exploding to over 100,000. The enslaved population made up a total of about 23,000, continuing to make up a quarter of the population in total. The free people of color in the population was estimated around 19,000,. The free people of color in the population was estimated around 19,000, representing about a fifth of the population. This was a rapidly going, complex city.

Speaker 2:

And amidst all of this progress, in New Orleans, while Madame Lollery played the gracious hostess, disturbing accounts of her private behavior towards the enslaved began to surface, and they actually began to surface long before the 1834 fire in her mansion that revealed the entire horror.

Speaker 1:

Historians found documentation suggesting Lalaurie faced an investigation for cruelty as early as 1828. In that particular investigation, madame Lalaurie was denounced for quote barbarous treatment of her slaves contrary to the law. Apparently, the situation was pretty horrific, as some of Lalaurie's slaves were found quote still all bloody end. Quote by the investigators themselves.

Speaker 2:

But despite what the investigation revealed, the Lawlery household simply incurred a few legal fees and sold several enslaved individuals, and that seemed to be the end of it.

Speaker 1:

But the investigation didn't appear to do too much to curb Madame Lawlery's abusive behavior.

Speaker 2:

In one story about Delphine and her slaves. A young enslaved girl, identified sometimes as named Leah, perhaps 11 or 12 years old, reportedly fell to her death from the mansion's roof, fleeing a whipping by Madame Lollery. The neighbors would later assert that the young girl was carried into the courtyard later that night and buried inside the well.

Speaker 1:

When that happened, another formal investigation took place, during which LaLaurie was found guilty of illegal cruelty fined a mere $300, and forced to forfeit nine enslaved people.

Speaker 2:

But LaLaurie apparently circumvented this by having relatives buy those slaves back at auction and secretly return them to her household. And in another rumor, delphine was said to have kept the cook quote starved and chained to the kitchen stove and would beat her own daughters, delphine that is, if they tried to offer food to the slaves.

Speaker 1:

It paints a picture of extreme cruelty being something of an open secret known to neighbors, perhaps even attracting limited official notice, like the two investigations that happened a few years prior.

Speaker 2:

Yet meaningful intervention was absent. The true shock of the 1834 fire likely stemmed not from the suspicion of cruelty but from the sudden, undeniable public revelation of its horrifying extent. The fire forced a confrontation with a reality that polite society had managed to ignore up to that point.

Speaker 1:

This brings us to the morning of April 10th 1834. Flames erupt from the Lollery Mansion kitchen.

Speaker 2:

And the first discovery was harrowing. The authorities found a 70-year-old enslaved woman the cook chained by her ankle to the stove. She later confessed to setting the fire deliberately, a desperate suicide attempt, claiming she feared being taken to an upstairs room, from which enslaved people never came back.

Speaker 1:

While Madame LaLaurie was reportedly preoccupied with saving her furniture, volunteers gathered outside concerned for the other enslaved individuals known to be housed within. Neighbors knew that, quote the upper part of the building was used as a prison and that it was then tenanted by several unfortunate slaves.

Speaker 2:

end quote then tenanted by several unfortunate slaves. End quote. The crowd demanded access to the slave quarters, but the Lolleries refused to provide the keys. Judge Jacques-Francois Canange was among the responders and he approached Dr Lollerie.

Speaker 1:

Canange requested permission quote in a polite manner to remove the enslaved people to safety. This part is interesting because Judge Canage was apparently a very dear friend of the Lolleries and frequently in attendance at their parties. But Dr Lollerie, knowing the horrors within, responded with arrogance, declaring that quote some people had better stay at home rather than come to others' houses to dictate laws and meddle with other people's business end quote.

Speaker 2:

Faced with this refusal and the spreading fire, judge Kanange gave the order break down the doors to the service quarters, which included the attic space above the kitchen. What lay beyond stunned everyone. Contemporary newspapers like the New Orleans Bee and the Courier, whose editors claimed to be eyewitnesses, struggled for words, calling it an appalling sight.

Speaker 1:

The New Orleans Bee reported on April 11th the discovery of quote seven slaves more or less horribly mutilated. End quote. The graphic details published in both papers are difficult to comprehend even now published in both papers are difficult to comprehend even now.

Speaker 2:

They described victims, quote, suspended by the neck, with their limbs apparently stretched and torn from one extremity to the other end quote. Rescuers found quote an elderly woman, weak and with a deep wound on her head. End quote. Another woman wore an iron collar and was, quote chained with heavy irons around her ankles. End quote.

Speaker 1:

There was also a man suffering from quote a large hole in his head, his body covered from head to foot with scars and filled with worms end quote. And a young boy who testified he had, quote been chained for five months, being fed daily with only a handful of meal and receiving every morning the most cruel treatment end quote.

Speaker 2:

Other sources note more gruesome details Victims emaciated. Bearing marks of being quote flayed with a whip end quote. Bound end quote. Restricted postures end quote Wearing quote. Spiked iron collars which kept their heads in static positions end quote. Judge Kananja's official deposition corroborated all of that.

Speaker 1:

The newspapers didn't hold back in their condemnation. The B denounced the quote. Barbarous and fiendish atrocities committed by the woman Lalari upon the persons of her slaves. End quote. Some accounts admitted language failed them, describing horrors quote which seemed too incredible for human belief, choosing to leave it rather to the reader's imagination. End quote.

Speaker 2:

Another newspaper account aimed straight for empathy, quote we saw one of the miserable beings. The sight was so horrible that we could scarce look upon it. The most savage heart could not have witnessed the spectacle unmoved. End quote the fire had exposed a secret chamber of horrors, confirming the darkest rumors in the most ghastly way possible.

Speaker 1:

The revelations of these atrocities must have sent shockwaves through New Orleans. The seven survivors physical evidence of the torture, were taken to the Cabildo. The Cabildo, located next to the St Louis Cathedral, was the physical center of New Orleans government and included political meeting halls, courtrooms and a prison.

Speaker 2:

News spread incredibly fast. The New Orleans Bee reported an immense crowd, estimated at 4,000 people, converging on the Cabildo. And it wasn't just curiosity, it became a macabre public viewing. Citizens witnessed the mutilated bodies firsthand, fueling collective outrage. Tragically, two of the rescued individuals reportedly died shortly after from their injuries.

Speaker 1:

Two of the rescued individuals reportedly died shortly after from their injuries. As the day progressed, it became apparent the authorities weren't arresting Madame Lalaurie, and the public mood shifted from shock to fury. Just as an aside, I originally wondered why the authorities and the crowd were so focused on Delphine Lalaurie rather than her husband and daughters. But while Dr Lalaurie and others apparently knew what was going on, the surviving slaves from the household emphasized that the torture and cruelty they experienced was done by primarily Delphine Lalaurie.

Speaker 2:

Meanwhile, the crowd outside the Cabildo transformed into a mob and turned its attention to the source of the horror, the Lalaurie Mansion on Royal Street. Contemporary newspapers described the populace exasperated by the Lawlery's successful escape from the hands of justice descending upon the property.

Speaker 1:

But by then the Lawlerys had already vanished. Delphine, her husband and her daughters made a hasty escape in a carriage towards Lake Pontchartrain, eventually boarding a schooner.

Speaker 2:

From there they likely traveled via Mobile and New York, eventually finding refuge in France. Delphine Lalaurie lived out her days in Paris, dying in 1849. Despite the horrific evidence and public outcry, she never faced formal legal charges.

Speaker 1:

With the perpetrators gone, the mob vented its rage on the empty house, the symbol of LaLaurie's cruelty. They ransacked the mansion.

Speaker 2:

Accounts detail systematic destruction, furniture, valuables, china crystal, artwork all smashed. The structure itself was attacked Floors, stairs, wine scotting wrecked, windows broken, iron balconies torn down. The assault continued until quote nearly the whole of the edifice had been pulled down. End quote. The elegant mansion was left a gutted ruin.

Speaker 1:

The destruction of the property feels like a powerful, albeit violent, public condemnation.

Speaker 2:

It does seem like a symbolic purging Michael by demolishing the physical manifestation of her crime and status, the community performed a ritualistic act declaring that such hidden, grotesque torture went too far, even for them. Even for them, this perhaps allowed them to define lollery as an aberration, implicitly reinforcing the notion that ordinary slavery was different. This sentiment preserved the traditional system of slavery by scapegoating the lollery atrocity as an outlier.

Speaker 1:

So the LaLaurie family gets away, but I think it's important that we revisit the distinctions between the urban and plantation slavery. How did the specific environment of New Orleans shape the institution and, potentially, lalaurie's actions?

Speaker 2:

It's a critical lens. Plantation slavery centered on large-scale agriculture. Urban slavery in New Orleans was much more diversified. Domestic service was paramount cooking, cleaning, childcare, marketing. These were performed mostly by women. This demand skewed the demographics Nearly two-thirds of the city's enslaved population were female.

Speaker 1:

Middle-class and wealthy white people saw service work as demeaning, with only the poorest households not holding at least one enslaved domestic worker. Enslaved domestics were so ubiquitous in New Orleans that, according to one resident, it was rare to see any white people in the city's marketplaces, because the buying and cooking of food for domestic consumption was largely performed by enslaved people.

Speaker 2:

Enslaved men in New Orleans typically performed heavy menial labor around town, particularly as dock workers and construction workers. New Orleans' antebellum economy was dominated by the city's port and many enslaved men worked the docks by loading and unloading cargo, stocking warehouses and repairing ships in dry dock, and often these enslaved dockhands worked alongside foreign-born immigrants, native-born white people and free men of color. Enslaved men also crewed urban construction sites. They paved streets, dug sewers, laid pipe and built levees and wharves. In New Orleans and Baton Rouge, essential public infrastructure was primarily built by chain gangs of imprisoned, enslaved people taken from the city's slave jails.

Speaker 1:

Living arrangements also differed significantly between urban and rural slaves. Living arrangements also differed significantly between urban and rural slaves. Urban enslaved people generally lived in much closer proximity to their enslavers, in attics, rooms above kitchens, attached quarters, unlike the separate cabins typical on plantations. Space was always at a premium in cities and thus many enslaved people were also crammed into closets, foyers, stables and hallways. A guest at one prominent New Orleans hotel complained that the waiters, who were all enslaved quote had no beds and slept like dogs in the passages of the house. End quote.

Speaker 2:

The city offered, paradoxically, both more potential interaction and stricter controls for slaves. The hiring out system was common. Under this system, slaveholders with more enslaved people than they could profitably employ within their own businesses and homes could rent their surplus enslaved workers to shorthanded employers. This practice allowed urban slaveholders to maximize their profits by constantly reallocating their labor supply according to fluctuating demand.

Speaker 1:

Some enslaved people in New Orleans even managed quote self-hiring. Under this arrangement, enslaved people obtained their owner's permission to negotiate their own wages and to rent their own housing, living and working in near total autonomy, on the condition that they periodically return to deliver a portion of their earnings to their owner. Technically, slave self-hiring was illegal, though the laws prohibiting it were inconsistently enforced.

Speaker 2:

But this potential autonomy was also seen as a threat by some. So cities like New Orleans implemented stringent controls slave patrols, pass systems, curfews, dedicated slave prisons. Even the architecture, with high walls and closing properties, reflected this desire for control. The high walls were not meant as much to keep people out as they were intended to keep the domestic staff from interacting with free society outside.

Speaker 1:

And, in the case of the Lollary Mansion, it also kept the slaves from telling others about the atrocities and cruelties within those walls and, for the most part, it kept the public from actually witnessing it.

Speaker 2:

Exactly. It demonstrates how the structures of urban life could be perverted to facilitate extreme brutality, concealed behind a facade of social respectability.

Speaker 1:

And this entire system which enabled such horrors was propped up by elaborate justifications historical, economical, religious and pseudoscientific.

Speaker 2:

Foundational was the argument of economic necessity. The southern economy, particularly cotton, supposedly depended entirely on enslaved labor. Abolition, they claimed, meant ruin for the South, and in some ways that was kind of true. In the first part of the 1800s, farmers moved away from planting tobacco to the more profitable crop of cotton. Cotton grew spectacularly in the rich soil of the Deep South and as a result more Americans were moving into the region to start their own farms and plantations. In connection with that development, the number of slaves in the Deep South also jumped significantly. As mentioned, an estimated 135,000 slaves were bought and sold in New Orleans slave markets, which was the nation's largest. Even banking in New Orleans centered on slavery. Banks in New Orleans loaned money for the purchase of plantations and slaves and in fact New Orleans banking capital exceeded that of New York City until the mid-1800s.

Speaker 1:

Slave owners and pro-slavery supporters also defended slavery by pointing to historical precedent. They cited slavery in ancient Greece and Rome, framing it as a natural condition. Legally, they relied on frameworks like slave codes and prior court decisions, like that of the later 1857 Dred Scott Supreme Court case, which officially defined black individuals as property.

Speaker 2:

Deeply ingrained racism fueled incorrect beliefs in the biological and intellectual inferiority of African descendants, deeming them more suited for servitude. The pseudoscience theory of phrenology reinforced that idea by suggesting that one's head size and shape was connected to their intelligence, personality and character. Many researchers of the time justified their own racism by suggesting that Caucasian brains were quote larger, better formed and better balanced, end quote. In fact, the pro-slavery politician and vice president of the United States, john C Calhoun, famously asserted that enslavement had elevated Africans to their highest possible state.

Speaker 1:

Religion also provided powerful, though twisted, justifications. Some people suggested that the theory of polygenesis, which argued for separate creations by God, the Bible, was frequently manipulating, citing Old Testament, patriarchs owning slaves or the Ten Commandments, mentions of servants and interpretations of the curse of Ham, in which Noah curses his son, ham's descendants, to slavery, were used to argue for divinely ordained slavery.

Speaker 2:

Pro-slavery authorities also noted the apostle paul returning the runaway philemon and the lack of explicit condemnation from jesus. Some even argued enslavement brought africans to christianity. Southern ministers were key, framing slavery within a divinely sanctioned household order, paralleling the subordination of wives and children to their father and husbands.

Speaker 1:

Then there was the pervasive narrative of paternalism the slaveholder as a benevolent guardian.

Speaker 2:

This ideology claimed, masters provided food, clothing, shelter and care to their slaves, and they contrasted that supposed security with the precarious lives of free laborers or who they called wage slaves, in the North and in Europe.

Speaker 1:

And by the 1830s, coinciding with the Lowry events, the popular view changed from describing slavery as a necessary evil to slavery as a positive good.

Speaker 2:

Figures like Calhoun and South Carolina Governor James Henry Hammond argued that slavery created a stable, hierarchical society superior to the North. Hammond's mudsill theory asserted that every advanced society needed a subordinate laboring class, the mudsill, to perform menial tasks, freeing the elite from having to do so. He argued that, quote in social systems there must be a class to do the menial duties. It constitutes the very mudsill of society. We use them for our purpose and call them slaves. End quote.

Speaker 2:

The American author and social theorist George Fitzhugh went further, arguing Southern slaves were freer and happier than Northern industrial workers slaves were freer and happier than northern industrial workers, fitzhugh declared quote the slaves of the South are the happiest and in some sense the freest people in the world. The free laborer must work or starve. He is more a slave than the actual slave. End quote. Fitzhugh similarly argued that people of color were only grown-up children needing the economic and social protections of slavery.

Speaker 1:

The Lowry case stands as a grotesque rebuttal to all of this. Delphine Lowry's documented actions starvation, mutilation and torture completely demolished the facade of benevolent paternalism.

Speaker 2:

It exposed the lie that slavery was a civilizing institution. It starkly revealed the terrifying reality of the absolute power inherent in the master-slave relationship and how easily it could metastasize into unrestrained depravity behind closed doors.

Speaker 1:

So the incident functioned as an unintentional but powerful stress test for pro-slavery ideology. While defenders could rationalize normal violence, lalaurie's extreme, hidden sadism was indefensible even within their narratives.

Speaker 2:

The visceral public revulsion and the mob's destructive responses show that even within that pro-slavery society, Madame LaLaurie's actions crossed a line. Condemning this specific manifestation of brutality perhaps served partly to protect the perceived legitimacy of the institution itself from being defined by its most monstrous outlier.

Speaker 1:

So what were the lasting repercussions of the 1834 fire and the mock violence? Delphine Lallery's social standing was obviously destroyed.

Speaker 2:

Irrevocably, the mansion was rebuilt in 1838 and assumed the appearance it has today. Over the years, the mansion served as a public high school, a conservatory of music, an apartment building, a refuge for young delinquents, a bar and even a furniture store, before returning back to a private home. But regardless of its use, the mansion on Royal Street became permanently linked to the horrors discovered there in 1834.

Speaker 1:

Yet LaLaurie herself faced no legal consequences, having fled to Paris, where she died at the age of 62. Interesting, dr LaLaurie and Delphine appeared to have separated by the late 1830s. At that point, delphine remained in Paris and the doctor moved to Havana, cuba, where he lived for the last 20 years of his life, until his death in 1863.

Speaker 2:

But the shocking 1834 discovery at the Lawlery Mansion undoubtedly provided potent material for abolitionists, serving as a lurid example of the barbarity inherent in the system. It highlighted the failure of laws and social pressure to prevent extreme abuse by the powerful.

Speaker 1:

That's true, but there's limited evidence suggesting that LaLaurie's affair led to any major changes in American society or the perception of slavery within the South. It mostly remained local the outrage, lalaurie's psychology, the mob, the transformation into folklore, rather than prompting a broader social reckoning with slavery itself.

Speaker 2:

So it seems, the case functioned less as a catalyst for change and more as a notorious exemplar of slavery's capacity for evil. Unfortunately, its very extremity might have inadvertently normalized the routine violence of the broader system.

Speaker 1:

By condemning Delphine LaLaurie as a monstrous exception, society could perhaps avoid confronting the inherent brutality of slave rule.

Speaker 2:

Today, the LaLaurie mansion is mostly known not for its connection to slavery's history, but as one of America's most famous haunted houses.

Speaker 1:

This transformation into dark tourism is complex. Ghost tours often focus on the sensationalized, the embellished tales building on the horrific facts.

Speaker 2:

And historians and cultural critics have rightly raised concerns about how this focus on the supernatural can trivialize the real, documented suffering of the enslaved individuals tortured and killed there. Turning historical atrocity into entertainment risks obscuring the specific context of racialized violence and systematic oppression.

Speaker 1:

The case of Delphine Lalaurie and the discoveries at her Royal Street mansion represent a significant crime in history, but the culpability extends beyond one sadistic individual. The atrocities were an extreme outgrowth of the violence inherent in slavery itself.

Speaker 2:

A system predicated on dehumanization, granting enslavers near absolute power. The Lawlery mansion became a microcosm of the potential for unchecked brutality within that system.

Speaker 1:

The fire that April morning briefly illuminated slavery's darkest potential, revealing truths many preferred to ignore or rationalize away with justifications of paternalism and racial hierarchy.

Speaker 2:

And Lawlery's escape from justice underscores the system's failure to hold even its most egregious abusers accountable, especially the wealthy and connected.

Speaker 1:

It compels us to confront the uncomfortable relationship between places celebrated for charm, like the French Quarter, and the unacknowledged histories of suffering embedded within them, endured unimaginable cruelty under a brutal regime.

Speaker 2:

Their suffering and Lawlery's crimes testify to the depths of inhumanity enabled when people are defined as property.

Speaker 1:

A truly disturbing story, one crucial to remember, and that's all the time we have for this episode of History's Greatest Crimes.

Speaker 2:

Join us next time as we explore another dark corner of the past. I'm Elena.

Speaker 1:

And I'm Michael. Stay curious Bye.

People on this episode

Contributor

Dr. Alana

Host
Contributor

Dr. Michael

Host