In July 1850, Marie Laveau went before the local magistrate who handled complaints, to report the theft of what appears to have been a sacred object. According to one local newspaper article, she accused Watchmen Abreo of confiscating a carved wooden figure. The object was described as a wooden "Voudou Virgin" that was taken during a police raid at a Voudou gathering. Marie insisted that the stolen statue was worth upward of fifty dollars, but its value was clearly more than monetary.

The outcome of the charge is revealing, and I return to it in detail in the book. However, Marie’s decision to pursue the statue publicly exposed its importance and how worthy it was of recovery.

That is why the wooden figure became one of the central objects in my book. It opens a rare window onto the material world of New Orleans Voudou. When reflecting on this object, I began to ask broader questions about Marie Laveau’s introduction to, and participation in Voudou; about the origins of such objects, and about the relationship between New Orleans Voudou and African spiritual practices. All of these things will be addressed in the book.

Sketch of a Fon Vodun ritual statue from Benin. This image is not connected directly to Marie Laveau, but it provides a comparative example of the kind of carved wooden object that was described in 1850 newspaper accounts.