Fille à la cassette: The Vampiric Legends of The Casket Girls of New Orleans

Speaker A: Hi everyone, and welcome back to Haunted History Chronicles. For those who've been celebrating the Day of the Dead this week, I hope you and your families have been able to come together to honor those that have passed. Before we introduce today's podcast, just a reminder that you can support the podcast by heading over to Haunted History Chronicles on Patreon. There you will find the catalog of previous work as well as gain access to upcoming podcasts and writing for those that joined up last month. I hope you enjoyed the daily content, chats and polls over there to help celebrate October and Halloween. This is something I'm going to be replicating in December to share daily Wintry ghostly accounts, so now is the perfect time to join. You can find the link for the podcast Patreon page in the description. Note for this episode, as well as all of the social media pages and website, come on over and follow us if you haven't already, to not miss out on news, updates and other writing. In last week's podcast, I was joined by author Richard Sugg to talk about the real vampires across Romania, Iceland, Russia, Germany and more. It's a podcast I highly recommend going and listening to in order to finish off this spooky season. Following on from that podcast, I wanted to shine a light on the vampires of New Orleans, a place that seems to have claimed the haunts of modern vampirism. According to Louisiana folklore, vampires have been present in New Orleans for centuries, all thanks to the arrival of the Casket Girls. The story of the Casket Girls of New Orleans dates back to colonial times and the birth of the city. So lock your doors and windows, light a candle, and let's walk through New Orleans haunted history past and the women known as the thelala Cassette. During the early 18th century, France colonized parts of North America, including current day Canada as well as Louisiana. The colonists were predominantly male, and the governors of the French colonies were concerned. With no French women around, french Catholic men were turning to pagan Native American women for companionship. In the eyes of the 18th century governor, these men were turning away from their faith. Between 1663 and 1673, France sought to boost the population in the New World. As part of this new policy, approximately 800 young girls and women recruited by King Louis XIV were sent to Quebec to promote marriage. These women, whose duty it was to produce the next generation of white settlers, were known as the King's Daughters because of their association with the French monarch. In the early 17 hundreds, the new French colony of Louisiana was facing a population crisis. The Governor of Louisiana asked the French government to send good virgin women who could be married to the male French colonists in the territory. He was probably hoping for something similar to the King's Daughters of New France young, gentle women who agreed to emigrate in exchange for a dowry paid by the king and a chance at a prosperous marriage. Second wave of brides would arrive in the New World between 1712 and 1721. This time, however, against their will, the undesirables of Paris were rounded up from poor houses and off the streets. Prostitutes, criminals and those finding themselves in situations of poverty were shackled and placed on cargo ships to the Americas. 7000 women were selected for this forced migration. Of this number, only 1300 would arrive with their small suitcases in tow. They would become known as the Feel ala cassette, the women with suitcases inside which contained all their earthly possessions to act as a dowry for their future husbands. Over time, cassette in French would change to French Creole casket, eventually becoming casket. The women with suitcases were now known as the casket girls. The casket girls, however, were conspicuous by reason of their virtue. They were recruited from church, charitable institutions, usually orphanages and convents in France and, although poor, were guaranteed to be virgins. A stop in Cuba en route to New Orleans had resulted in many of the crew and young women receiving mosquito bites and thus becoming infected with yellow fever. Two of the young women died soon upon arrival and the epidemic spread throughout the fort, even taking the life of adventurer Henri DA Tonti. Be that as it may, most of the young women who arrived in Cuba were married to a man of their choosing within a month. For those still unwed, they would continue on with their journey. These girls ranged in age from 14 to 19 and arrived in New Orleans in 1728 after an arduous six month voyage across the Atlantic Ocean. It would later become a matter of pride on the Gulf Coast to show descent from these young girls rather than the undesirable correction girls who had preceded them. According to stories and legend, the casket girls were not quite what the men of the New World were expecting. Upon disembarking, they appeared deathly pale and gaunt, some ravaged by a cough that would often produce blood. Unaccustomed to the sweltering heat of New Orleans, they would experience intense blistering and sunburn after only short periods outside. To observers, it was most peculiar indeed. Girls were arranged to marry by age and background. In order to maintain the virtue of these young women, the local order of nuns took charge of them, offering them housing and education to adhere that they would remain until a suitable husband was found. The sisters placed all their chests on the third floor until the girls were married. Shortly after the girl's arrival, the death rate seemed to double. Bodies lined the streets, mangled and drained of blood. Neighbors of the convent began to fall ill. Crops failed, hand mirrors would mysteriously go missing. These pale, strange and sickly girls would be whispered about from house to house and in back streets, with one word commonly being used when talking of them vampire. Why did young women bring caskets to the New world? Did their luggage contain more than petticoats? These rumors continued to gather momentum with a common belief and gossip suggesting that the coffin shaped bags that they had arrived with did not contain petticoats and dresses, but instead harbored vampires who were stalking the streets of New Orleans, preying on the innocent and feasting on their blood. Many of these young women would be forced into marriages that were deeply unhappy and often resulted in them suffering neglect and abuse at the hands of their new husbands. Many of the casket girls didn't see much of their spouses for stretches of time. The men of the colony in the 1720s to 1730s were fur trappers and traders. The trappers spent long periods away from home collecting the merchandise they sold for export. The traders took manufactured goods from Europe to the farms, plantations and outposts for sale. Unhappy with new husbands that spent much of their time in the woods, not building new homes or planting them gardens, the girls staged what became known as the petticoat rebellion until they were provided a roof and food. They refused bed and board. The men eventually came around. For those girls who did not secure a husband, they were often forced into prostitution. The king of France was appalled to hear news of how the girls were being mistreated and would eventually call for them to return to France. It remains unknown if this happened. Legends speak of how when the nuns went to the convent third floor to achieve the girls casket, they were horrified to discover each empty of any single personal possession. Most of the vampire themed stories centering on the girls focus on two things the caskets and the convent. Perhaps one of the most interesting legends relating to vampires are the stories about the third floor of the 1751 convent building. The legend is that the third floor was sealed off. The windows were permanently shuttered. While some stories suggest those shutters were nailed down with 800 nails, blessed by a pope and later reblesed by Pope John Paul II, who was the first pontiff to visit New Orleans in 1987. In sealing the windows, they were attempting to keep the bloodthirsty vampires from returning to their caskets, and in doing so, unleashed the creatures of the undead onto the city of New Orleans. Legends of vampires had existed long before New Orleans became a settlement, so it's no wonder that the tales of the vampire would come to the New World. The casket girls may have been the ones to introduce vampires into the city, but they were not the last. If you venture through the streets of New Orleans, tread carefully and make sure to look to see what lurks in the shadows. Thank you, as always, for listening and joining me here to listen to guests accounts of hauntings and dark history. Your support and encouragement is always incredibly invaluable. Special thank you to Sarah, Misty, Sandra and Georgian for supporting the podcast over on Patreon and becoming part of the community there. We have some incredible interviews with fabulous guests coming up over the next few weeks, including a discussion around the Paris and New York Morgues, as well as an interview with Sarah Chumastero. Joining me in next week's episode is Richard Blewett, the owner of Pengana Manor in Cornwall, to offer his insight into the history of the manor as well as some of the reported paranormal activity encountered to date. As an archivist, Richard shares real insight as to how to approach research for a location and how to go about uncovering the history paranormal activity documented for it. I hope you join us next week to hear what he has to share. See you next time. Bye for now. If you like this podcast, there's a.

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