American Horror Story: Coven may have brought us our first glimpse of witches, but it also introduced a handful of figures rooted in fact.
Coven is one of the most loved and maligned seasons, depending on who is asked. The campy nature of the season is a stark departure from Asylum’s dark and gritty sense of hopelessness, which was bound to turn some people off. Nonetheless, Coven is also celebrated by many for various reasons and brings in an absolutely stellar cast, like Angela Bassett, Kathy Bates, and Gabourey Sidibe. Characters from Coven have crossed over to both Hotel and Apocalypse, and there’s even a chance that witches could be brought back yet again.
Coven wasn’t just about the witches, though, and some characters that brought their own horror and powers to the season were based on very real people. American Horror Story is known to take real places and events and use them in its own, ever-twisted world.
Marie Laveau: The Voodoo Queen’s True Story
Marie Laveau is anything but a fictitious character, especially in New Orleans. Born in 1801, Laveau was an herbalist, midwife, and Voodoo priestess, later in life gaining the title Queen of Voodoo. Like the show, she opened a beauty shop for the wealthier residents of New Orleans. There, she cultivated relationships and got to know gossip about her clientele, in which she offered her magical services to solve their problems.
While Marie Laveau was hardly the only Voodoo priestess in New Orleans during the 1800s, she was certainly one of the most well known. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of misinformation surrounding her exact practices, but that hasn’t made her footprint on New Orleans any less indelible. Her supposed tomb, accessible only by a tour, is one of the most visited sites in the city. There’s a lot of speculation on whether she was truly laid to rest there.
Madame Delphine LaLaurie’s True Story
While Kathy Bates gets nothing but praise for her depiction of a murderous socialite in Coven, it’s a shame that there was little fictionalization needed for her character. While the stories surrounding Madame Delphine LaLaurie differ wildly from one another, it’s fairly easy to discern that she was a very real monster.
In 1834, a fire broke out in LaLaurie’s mansion. It was later discovered that a seventy-year-old woman, who was chained to the stove, started the fire in the kitchen. A group of onlookers banded together to break in and aid anyone who needed assistance. What they eventually found was a room containing several slaves that had been gruesomely tortured in various ways, some of which died after being rescued. After the fire, further investigation of the grounds resulted in the discovery of two buried bodies, including one of a child.
Once word got out about the abuse of her slaves, a mob formed and caused further damage to the house. By that time, however, Madame Delphine LaLaurie had already fled, escaping.
The Axeman of New Orleans’ True Story
Coven’s Axeman serial killer was anything but make-believe. This real-life madman operated between 1918-1919, killing six and injuring an additional six people. The letter demanding houses play Jazz music or risk dying in the show is also real, but there were no reported murders during that night. However, Coven’s ending for the Axeman is fabricated – not because witches played a part in his demise, but because he was never caught.
Papa Legba’s True Story
One of the most iconic characters in American Horror Story: Coven is Papa Legba, the mysterious Voodoo god that’s out for your soul. Or, that’s how the show depicts him, at least. In reality, he’s a figure in Haitian Vodou and Louisiana Voodoo, called the Loa. These beings act as intermediaries between humanity and Bondye, or the “Good God.”
Papa Legba is normally depicted as an old man with a cane, smoking a pipe. He’s associated with crossroads, doors, and blocks, and offers aid to those who seek an alternative path or solution. He’s also known to be a trickster, so it’s wise to be wary of him.
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