How Vampires Made it to New Orleans
There are a few versions of the tale of how vampires made it to New Orleans from the European continent, so I will give you here the version I have managed to piece together thus far.
The story goes that during the colonization of America, the British were having great success in maintaining and expanding their territories, but the French colonies were dying out due to illness and starvation, as well as due to the fact that the vast majority of the inhabitants of French colonies were males, so there were few marriages and few new births. In a desperate attempt to keep a foothold in the New World, the King of France began sending women over to the colonies, but unfortunately, his first incarnation of this idea involved sending over female prisoners and prostitutes. As was no shock to me, this didn’t really help the situation in the French colonies, and France’s influence in America waned even further.
Finally, the King contrived another plan. There are two versions I have read regarding this plan. One claims that the King sent the daughters of well-educated, well-bred families to New Orleans, and another claims that it was actually “guaranteed virgins” from church orphanages and convents. In either case, the girls were shipped over to the South in the hopes that the would marry quickly and get started on procreation.
These young ladies arrived in New Orleans in 1728, carrying their trousseaus in hand, and they were met by the nuns of Ursuline, who took them in to their convent and kept them until they found a husband. Their trousseaus are what earned them the nickname “Casket Girls,” because this case was shaped remarkably like a traditional casket.
Now, though the details may vary, history pretty much agrees on all of the above. Where it gets sketchy is after the girls’ unboarded in New Orleans. Vampire lore holds that the trousseaus were really caskets containing the undead, and that the convent secretly housed these creatures of the night on the third floor of the convent. It is said that the windows on the third floor are sealed shut by hundreds of screws that have been blessed by a priest, but that one of the windows is often seen open during the hours when the sun has dipped below the horizon.
“Authentic” Vampire Hunting Kit
So that is the story of how vampires came to the new world as best I could put it together, and just one more reason New Orleans is the unique and eerie place that it is. From the printed page to the silver screen, we never seem to tire of the tale either.
Yours in this life and the next!
GhOsTwRiTeR KiM
Tags: Casket Girls, New Orleans, paranormal