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Voudou and Vengeance: Marie Laveau's Evolution From Maternal Figure to Satanic Avenger in American Horror Story: Coven

Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Marie Laveau, a free Black woman in the pre-Civil War Southern United States, was a Voudou practitioner who purportedly blended Voudou and Catholicism, going so far as to call herself "the pope of Voudou," according to some sources (Wirkus 1933).Creole culture in New Orleans blends elements of US Indigenous, French, Spanish, and African heritage with the mysticism of Catholicism, resulting in a unique form of New Orleans Voudou practice (Alvarado 2020; Clark 2020; Long 2007).New Orleans' Voudou blends with the legends and tales of Marie Laveau, who served as a mother figure to slaves and the Black community of New Orleans (Alvarado 2020).Historically, Laveau extended her maternal care beyond her biological children, taking in many community members, including the poor, ill, and enslaved, thus becoming a significant caretaker within New Orleans' African American community (Alvarado 2020, 33; Long 2007, xxiv).The enduring mythos of Marie Laveau as a maternal figure in New Orleans is perpetuated through various cultural texts, including stories, museums, ghost tours, and popular American media like television, film, novels, and songs, a legacy further depicted in works such as Jewel Parker Rhodes' Voudou novels.The pervasive mythos of Laveau has been one of a strong, maternal religious figure to her community amid historical terror and unspeakable evil inflicted on African slaves in the US (Long 2007, xxiv).However, in American Horror Story: Coven (AHS, 2013-2014), the depiction of Marie Leveau's (Angela Bassett) character is more ambiguous: here, she is a vengeful mother figure for her community of African Americans in New Orleans from the era of slavery to the present in the narrative with the African American community of the lower Ninth Ward.She acts at various times as caretaker, protector, and mother for her community.In Coven, Laveau is set in stark contrast to the predominantly white, middle-to-upper-class portrayals of women at Miss Robichaux's Academy and the coven.AHS's adaptation of Marie Laveau draws on the stories surrounding the historical figure and depicts some of her caretaking in New Orleans and mothering in her own community, but at the same time, it presents a white, sensationalized view of Voudou in New Orleans that is dark, primitive, and evil, often utilizing ritual sacrifice of animals and people.Therefore, while Coven may seem to be progressive with the character of Marie Laveau, in the juxtaposition of white witches as good and Black Voudou as Satanic, it punishes Marie Laveau for the retribution she enacts against white violence throughout her long life.This racial division is clear throughout the Coven season, but it ultimately capitulates to racist depictions of African-derived Voudou practices, thereby reinforcing a white, patriarchal supremacist view of Voudou and upholding the systems of oppression that devalue Black lives.Coven's depiction of Marie Laveau and racism in US society may seem progressive.However, through examining Coven as Southern Gothic television, the presentations of abject horror, the historical disparagement of Marie Laveau and Voudou, and representations of motherhood, a pattern emerges that demonstrates the show actually reinforces and condones historical white supremacist patriarchy in the US.The symbolic representation of Voudou and Laveau's character as abject other, aligned with Hell, satanic worship, and evil, emerges from historical systemic racism and misogyny in the US. | Southern Gothic TelevisionCoven can be classified as a Southern Gothic text, exhibiting its primary genre characteristics.Helen Wheatley explains that gothic television not only has the gothic features of domesticity,
DOI: 10.1111/jacc.70056
Language: English
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W7123675346
FWCI:
Cites: 12
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