This Slave Owner Did Things Beyond Human Comprehension

Delphine Macarty Lalaurie was the daughter of Louis Barthelemy de Macarty, an officer of the French army. She belonged to the Creole class of people, descended from French and Spanish colonists who had arrived in the United States in the 1700’s. Both she and her family benefitted from the exploitation of enslaved people on their sugar and cotton plantation. Delphine was also wealthy in her own right; following her mother’s death she received a sizable inheritance including a plantation on the Mississippi River, livestock, and farm equipment. Indeed, Delphine was much admired; it was said that the Queen of Spain deemed LaLaurie so beautiful that she granted a pardon to her Spanish first husband, who had married without the permission of the Crown.

Having first been married to prominent soldiers and businessmen, Delphine was twice widowed before she married Dr Louis LaLaurie, twenty five years her junior, who had travelled from France to set up a medical practice. In her first year of marriage, when she resided with her husband on their Mississippi plantation. Delphine was investigated for cruelty towards her slaves; thereafter, she sold six enslaved people to a friend, most likely to avoid further scandal.

In 1831, the Lalauries moved into their infamous house at 1140 Royal street, in the fashionable Vieux Carre district. Here the LaLaurie’s formed a part of elegant New Orleans society, holding extravagant parties for their neighbours. Yet behind this supposedly respectable façade, Delphine hid a cruel and possibly unstable streak. Some accounts report that a young, enslaved girl fell from a window in the LaLaurie New Orleans home and tragically died. A neighbour suggested that Delphine may have been at fault, chasing the unfortunate girl with a cowhide whip in her hand. However, the local authorities deemed that the child’s death was accidental and did not hold the LaLauries responsible

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