Before she was the Voodoo Queen of New Orleans, Marie Laveau was a hairdresser for the city’s most privileged white families. She traveled to their homes, and they asked her for spiritual counsel as she lathered their scalps. To ensure continued business from white clients, Laveau paid the free and enslaved Black people working in white households to keep their eyes and ears open. Laveau used the information they passed to her, and as her spiritual business grew, she poured her magic back into her community.
Laveau used her earnings to find shelter for unhoused people, take in orphans, pay for children’s educations, and offer refuge to people fleeing enslavement.
As her popularity and wealth grew, she remained strategic when choosing people to bring into her network. Through her contacts, she gained access to spaces like prisons, where she prayed for the incarcerated facing execution.
Other connections allowed her to host weekly community rituals in the town square without attracting unwanted attention. Enslaved people were allowed to attend these gatherings, giving them a respite from their hard lives.
Laveau poured economic power and genius into the Black community. Like her, let’s focus on investing our wealth and resources in building spiritually strong Black communities.