Anne Grain is in charge of making The latest Orleans the latest vampire resource of the world. Which difference previously belonged so you can Transylvania, family of Amount Dracula, the fresh titular leading man regarding Bram Stoker’s 1897 golden-haired headache vintage. The newest Orleans has a purportedly true vampire tale one dates back-way prior to Rice’s books struck bookstore cupboards. The story of one’s Casket Girls of new Orleans dates back so you’re able to colonial moments and the birth of the town.
In one single kind of the storyline, following nuns place the girls’ caskets into the 3rd floors, the brand new nuns went upstairs at a later time to acquire one the fresh new caskets were blank
At the beginning of eighteenth century, France colonized elements of United states, including newest-date Canada plus Louisiana. Brand new colonists were mostly men as well as the governors of the French territories have been worried. Without French women around, French Catholic men was looking at pagan Indigenous American female to possess companionship. In the vision of your own eighteenth-century governor, these dudes have been flipping off its believe.
Louisiana governor, Jean Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, sent a letter to help you King Louis XIV asking one young pious, virtuous, and you will marriageable women be taken to this new nest. In 1728, several young women and you may girls found its way to The latest Orleans on board the brand new La Nouvelle Orleans. These feminine became known as Filles a la Cassette and Г¤r European brudar legit that turned “Casket Girls.” The expression casket got a much various other meaning then: a beneficial cassette or casket were chests or baggage to save land. After they began to accept towards the nest, the women weren’t too pleased with their new lifetime.
If the men colonists watched the women, it remarked regarding how soft they were. The women was in fact thus soft one its surface burnt and you may blistered in the sunshine.
Considering of several supply, these feminine had been thus strange-looking a large number of them had been rejected by the men. People that did wed apparently was in fact abused by their husbands whom continued getting points having Native American female.
Predicated on Ghost Area Tours’ “The fresh Casket Girls” web page, ladies who didn’t look for husbands was pressed for the prostitution, and finally, Queen Louis XIV bought your Casket Girls go back to France. Considering Ghost Urban area, the brand new Ursuline nuns grabbed this new girls’ “caskets” around the 3rd floors of the convent.
Among the many oldest structures when you look at the The latest Orleans, the Ursuline Convent, is produced in 1734 and you will remodeled inside 1751. The latest convent is currently a traveler destination, plus good ghost trip and you can good vampire concert tour. The 3rd flooring is actually apparently away from-limitations while in the tours.
The newest nuns sought after but don’t discovered the homes which were said to be about caskets. They considered that the new girls possess smuggled in the some thing sinister which had escaped. The 3rd-floor window also are nailed sealed that have nails that were blessed because of the Pope. Hearsay regarding vampires of the underworld provides surrounded the fresh new convent because the early twentieth century.
Ghost Urban area rates a tour book: “’It will there be,’ the fresh guide states, ‘that Casket Girls nonetheless will always be secured away. Without the fingernails blessed by the Pope, the young women who immediately after acclaimed out of France could well be away, roaming brand new avenue so you’re able to banquet on the bloodstream of traditions.’”
Accounts commonly disagree but some source wrap brand new Casket Girls on the Ursuline Convent, one of many eldest formations in The Orleans
Based on almost every other sources, the brand new Casket Girls sooner or later went to the convent. Centered on an excellent 2021 blog post, “My Granny are a Vampire-Smuggling Casket Girl: a (possibly) correct tale,” because of the Michael DeMocker, the third-floor screen was indeed sealed off to include new advantage of your female. DeMocker produces you to definitely hand decorative mirrors the girls lead together with them gone away and you may vegetation hit a brick wall. DeMocker produces: “Whispers first started your vampire-soft Casket Girls had delivered a wicked together regarding the Old country. Fundamentally, the fresh new nuns put the latest Casket Girls out and you can finalized up the third-flooring attic permanently.”