OCTOBER 26, 2011 1:18AM
October 26 - Grave Justice
This post was originally going to be a Crescent City Classic Nightmare recounting the gruesome Saw-like activities of French Quarter socialite couple Dr. and Madame LaLaurie, active in the early 1800’s…read on (from Wikipedia):
The LaLauries, in the
style of their social class at the time, maintained several black
slaves in slave quarters attached to the Royal Street mansion. Martineau
[a local writer] also recounted other tales of LaLaurie's cruelty that
were current among New Orleans residents in about 1836. She claimed
that, subsequent to the visit of the local lawyer, one of LaLaurie's
neighbors saw a young negro girl fall to her death from the roof of the
Royal Street mansion while trying to avoid punishment from a
whip-wielding Delphine LaLaurie. The body of the girl was subsequently
buried on the mansion grounds. According to Martineau, this incident led
to an investigation of the LaLauries, in which they were found guilty
of illegal cruelty and forced to forfeit nine slaves. These nine slaves
were then bought back by the LaLauries through the intermediary of one
of their relatives, and returned to the Royal Street residences.[11]
Similarly, Martineau reported stories that LaLaurie kept her cook
chained to the kitchen stove, and beat her daughters when they attempted
to feed the slaves.[12]On April 10, 1834, a fire broke out in the LaLaurie residence on Royal Street. As reported in the New Orleans Bee
of April 11, 1834, bystanders responding to the fire attempted to enter
the slave quarters to ensure that everyone had been evacuated. Upon
being refused the keys by the LaLauries, the bystanders broke down the
doors to the slave quarters and found "seven slaves, more or less
horribly mutilated ... suspended by the neck, with their limbs
apparently stretched and torn from one extremity to the other", who
claimed to have been imprisoned there for some months.[13]One
of those who entered the premises was Judge Jean-Francois Canonge, who
subsequently deposed to having found in the LaLaurie mansion, among
others, a "negress ... wearing an iron collar" and "an old negro woman
who had received a very deep wound on her head [who was] too weak to be
able to walk". A version of this
story circulating in 1836, recounted by Martineau, claimed that the fire
was started deliberately by LaLaurie's cook to draw attention to the
plight of the slaves, and added that the slaves were emaciated, showed
signs of being flayed with a whip, were bound in restrictive postures,
and wore spiked iron collars which kept their heads in static positions.[12]When
the discovery of the tortured slaves became widely known, a mob of
local citizens attacked the LaLaurie residence and "demolished and
destroyed everything upon which they could lay their hands".[13]
A sheriff and his officers were required to disperse the crowd and, by
the time the mob left, the Royal Street property had sustained major
damage, with "scarcely any thing [remaining] but the walls".[15]
The tortured slaves were taken to a local jail, where they were
available for public viewing. The New Orleans Bee reported that by April
12 up to 4,000 people had attended to view the tortured slaves "to
convince themselves of their sufferings".[15]
Of course the lore
grew from there, and the house on 1140 Royal Street became reputed to be
one of the most haunted spots in New Orleans. That’s all well and good, but really think about it. This isn’t just a gruesome thrilling local legend. You
can hear this story along with several others on a New Orleans Haunted
Tour, but none of the rest of them involves a narrative highly charged
with slavery, injustice and racism. You may not think about it at first, you may just focus on the torture porn and the ghost haunting. But
I urge you to really consider the human victims of this non-fictional
tale, just like you might (or might not) put yourself in the shoes of
that nice babysitter in Halloween or the latest yuppie victim tied to Jigsaw’s cutting board. Or, a better analogy: a victim of Ted Bundy or the Manson Family.
Where’s the torture porn director/producer that wants to take the LaLaurie legend on?
This neatly bridges the gap to the work of an Open Salon colleague.
Hi FrogTownDiva! Nearly two years ago I promised you I would take a look at your e-book, “They Just Be Killing White Folks ” (available at both Amazon and LuLu). I’m
terribly sorry for the delay, a mixture of laziness, economic anxiety
and massive life changes, but I did finally purchase and read it for my
kindle.
” (available at both Amazon and LuLu). I’m
terribly sorry for the delay, a mixture of laziness, economic anxiety
and massive life changes, but I did finally purchase and read it for my
kindle.
Since I’m terrible at recaps, I’ll let the summary blurb explain the premise:
A black farmer takes
his sons on an adventure to see a silent horror film showing at the new
theater on Halloween night in 1930, in central Texas. There were nearly
500 black people lynched in Texas that year, so a movie about a vampire
hardly seemed frightening except to the youngest son, Lijah, who
consoles himself with his father's assurance that in the silent film,
"they just be killing white folks."
As it happens, Lijah witnesses and escapes the lynching and rape of his father and brothers after the movie (Nosferatu).
Subsequently, his trauma manifests in a supernatural transformation of
the leader of the lynch mob into a demonic vampire bound by the covenant
that it can only kill white people.
FrogTownDiva has presented us with powerful ideas and images. Lijah’s anxiety manifesting as a literal vampire is an original and unique take on the creature. That’s the first thing I applaud her for. The
occultism she features throughout the novella is fascinating, including
a spectacular climax where the black community of the Texas town comes
together and mixes their Christian, Native American and
voodoo/Afro-diaspora rituals into a grand spectral pyrotechnic exorcism. That takes no small amount of imagination.
Using the vampire
metaphor to talk about historical, institutionalized racial injustice,
“They Just Be Killing White Folks” is filled to the brim with anger, as
it should be. It doesn’t leave much room for nuanced
characters – the lead lyncher, Norman, is nothing but a depraved monster
through and through even before his transformation, his life
continually riddled with rape, incest and pedophilia. This (along with a few passages suffering from ‘telling, not showing’) might impact literary quality slightly, but so what? Like I said, there’s an urgent anger in this story that doesn’t want to be compromised by nuance. Accept it.
Bravo, FrogTownDiva, and keep that imagination at work.
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Comments
Wow. This was
fascinating, in a horrific, is-it-really-true kind of way. And
unbelievably and unfortunately, apparently it is. I'd never heard of
the LaLauries or this awful story before reading your post. Has a book
ever been written about this? And it's certainly movie material. This
is not the kind of story I'd consider "thrilling." (I am not a fan of
torture porn or slasher flicks anyway.) And I wouldn't even equate the
LaLauries with Ted Bundy or the Manson Family. After reading what they
did, they stand alone. Living with their victims, beating the daughters
who tried to feed them, horribly mutilating some and keeping the bodies
- and I can't even imagine what would have been involved in doing all
this, given the time period and lack of "modern" conveniences, like
power tools, for example - the whole thing is mind-boggling. A
"haunted tour" seems to denigrate what went on there, to me. Like doing
a "haunted tour" of the home where Anne Frank and her family hid.
As for FrogTownDiva's story, it sounds fascinating. I'm going to have to read it; already looked it up on Amazon. Great title and premise.
Thanks for writing this and what a cool way to segue into FTDs work. Really good post (just a suggestion: why don't you publish these things earlier in the day so they get more readers?!).
As for FrogTownDiva's story, it sounds fascinating. I'm going to have to read it; already looked it up on Amazon. Great title and premise.
Thanks for writing this and what a cool way to segue into FTDs work. Really good post (just a suggestion: why don't you publish these things earlier in the day so they get more readers?!).
Margaret pretty much
said it all. Had a hard time wrapping my head around the barbarity of
this one. Wow ... and not in a good way. Thanks for the history
lesson.
Margaret, VA, thank you both. And Margaret, your Anne Frank analogy is exactly what I was thinking.
Wow. So many things
about this. First, what really stuck with me was the fact that those
poor people were tortured and then "saved" and put on display! At the
jail! Unreal. And that 4000 people came to "view them" to "convince
themselves of their sufferings". Sometimes people are just ugly. And
second, it make you wonder what the people who enjoy watching torture
porn-type movies like "Saw" think about this. Do they see the
parallels? This is a really well done post.
Great segue to FrogTownDiva's story. It's good to support each other and help people find good writing. More people need to do that.
Great segue to FrogTownDiva's story. It's good to support each other and help people find good writing. More people need to do that.
All this said, I don't
mean to demonize (heh) torture porn as a horror subgenre. It's by no
means my favorite - for one thing, most of it actually isn't scary, it's
just gross. Gross has become an immediate shortcut to fear, and I
don't get that. But there are a few movies in the genre I'm willing to
defend.
ChillerPop, I don't get
here or on Twitter much any more, so I just got your message tonight.
Thanks so much for the review! I posted it on Facebook. Also, the
historical story was a subplot in a movie made for television, I believe
it was the third in The Librarian series about a vampire in New
Orleans. I think that's where I saw it. Anyway, the entire horrific tale
was told. As for my vampire tale, I plotted the story over twenty years
inspired by a movie theater in my Texas hometown that never showed a
film during the entire time I attended school there. I tried to come up
with a reason why and formed the story you read. When I told my current
love interest how it ends, he said it wouuld make a great movie. I'd
thought about turning it into a screenplay and the part where I'm
telling, not showing is written in that style. I was trying to be
matter-of-fact because so much happens during the climax; however, I may
go back and revise it, painting a picture rather than givig a
narrative. Since it's a short novel, it could stand a few additional
paragraphs. Great review! Thanks again!
My pleasure, Frog Town Diva. Keep up the good work.
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