On April 10, 1834, a fire at the LaLaurie mansion in New Orleans, Louisiana, leads to the discovery of a torture chamber where enslaved workers are routinely brutalized by Delphine LaLaurie. Rescuers found a 70-year-old black woman trapped in the kitchen during the fire because she was chained up while LaLaurie was busy saving her furniture. The woman later revealed that she had set the fire in an attempt to escape LaLaurie’s torture. She led authorities up to the attic, where seven slaves were tied with spiked iron collars.
After Delphine LaLaurie married her third husband, Louis LaLaurie, and moved into his estate on Royal Street, she immediately took control of the large number of slaves used as servants. LaLaurie was a well-known sadist, but the mistreatment of enslaved workers by the wealthy and socially connected was not a matter for the police at the time.
However, in 1833, Delphine chased a small enslaved girl with a whip until the girl fell off the roof of the house and died. LaLaurie tried to cover up the incident, but police found the body hidden in a well. Authorities decided to fine LaLaurie and force the sale of the other enslaved people on the estate.
LaLaurie foiled this plan by secretly arranging for her relatives and friends to buy the enslaved workers. She then sneaked them back into the mansion, where she continued to torture them until the night of the fire in April 1834.
Apparently her Southern neighbors had some standards when it came to the treatment of enslaved people, because a mob gathered in protest after learning about LaLaurie’s torture chamber. She and her husband fled by boat, leaving the butler (who had also participated in the torture) to face the wrath of the crowd.
Although charges were never filed against LaLaurie, her reputation in upper-class society was destroyed. It is believed that she died in Paris in December 1842.
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I have the feeling that some of the folks who frequent here might be direct descendants!
Descendants of whom? The slaves or the owners?
I knew that would come up, just as I knew it should be obvious.
The owners.
yes
Perhaps the commenter known as ‘Anonymous’?
Hillary’s relatives?
It is absolutely true that slave owners sometimes mistreated slaves. It is also true that slaves were NOT legally regarded as animals or simple chattel property. There were laws criminalizing excessive punishment, mistreatment (such as starvation, failure to provide clothing, housing, or medical care), or torture. Did such criminal behavior take place? Certainly there were instances, but they were the exception, not the rule.
An interesting book is one published during the 1930s titled “Bullwhip Days”, a compilation of interviews with surviving slaves. About half the stories have former slaves thinking back fondly of their slave life and their master. About half are the opposite.
Conclusion? History and humans are complicated. Not every slave was a kind old Uncle Tom, and not every master was a Simon Legree.