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5. Voodoo Doctors and Ceremonies Prior to Marie Laveau's ascendance, there were others who ruled Voodoo believers in New Orleans. Previously there was John Montenet, better known as Dr. John. He was an African Voodoo priest or "doctor" who appeared at the rituals in Congo Square. Dr. John was a freeman of color; he often said he had once been an African prince in Senegal. As he told his story, he had been enslaved by the Spanish, taken to Cuba, and freed by his master for his loyal service. He became a sailor, a world traveler who eventually came to New Orleans to find work at the port. Here he found he developed "magical" powers of influence over people who would pay for his skills. He became a property owner, with a house filled with Voodoo accouterments -- skulls, reptiles, snakes and embalmed scorpions. He became a husband with many "wives" and mistresses with a host of children, perhaps as many as fifty. It was said that he was the owner of slaves as well. Voodoo had made John Montenet prominent in town and a man of means. In his Voodoo work Dr. John mainly predicted the future, read minds, cast spells and removed curses, cured illness, and concocted and dispensed gris-gris. Until the ascendance of Marie Laveau, Dr. John was perhaps the most famous name in New Orleans Voodoo. Another Voodoo leader who came after Dr. John was Dr. Yah Yah, also known by his slave name of Washington. Unlike most Voodoo doctors or queens, he was not a free man of color. He was successful and popular until he dispensed a magic elixir which was supposedly a cure for all ailments to a European. The man's physician reported Dr. Yah Yah to the authorities, claiming that the potion was poisonous. As a result, Dr. Yah Yah was later made a field hand by his disgruntled master, who was required to pay a fine for his slave's error. Another of Marie Laveau's predecessors was the queen called Sanite Dede, who was influential from the time of the Louisiana Purchase until Laveau's ascendance in the 1820s and '30s. Dede was a freewoman of color and a food peddler by trade who sold her wares near the Cabildo next to the Cathedral and in Place d'Armes. Marie learned from Dr. John and far surpassed him. The Voodoo Queen's most famous undertaking was the annual rituals on the banks of Bayou St. John on June 23, St. John's Eve. In the earlier days of Voodoo, some rituals were transferred from the Congo Plains to a deserted brickyard on Dumaine Street in the Vieux Carre. Voodoo rituals were also held occasionally on the shore of nearby Lake Pontchartrain where Marie had acquired a cottage called Maison Blanche. Mainly there were four locations for large gatherings of Voodoo worship in Old New Orleans. Foremost among them was Congo Square, although one source claims this location was not used for Voodoo rituals per se, but for socializing and traditional African dancing. The other places were a plot of land on Dumaine Street, the banks of Bayou St. John, and the cottage at the shore of Lake Pontchartrain. Additionally, private Voodoo practices were held in homes throughout the city and nearby area. Furthermore, Voodoo dancing was alleged to have been performed at night in the backyard of Marie Laveau's home on Rue Ste. Anne, the house she acquired from the Creole gentleman. She filled the house with the paraphernalia of Voodoo sorcery, including snakes, roosters for sacrifices, and black cats.  The Mississippi River near the Vieux Carre. On placid Bayou St. John which ran (and still runs partly) from Lake Pontchartrain north of the city to the heart of the old town near the Vieux Carre, the multitudes would assemble at night at a place called "the Wishing Spot." Here there was the drinking of the blood of a rooster, and the displaying and worshiping of Marie's giant snake named Zombi. The African drums beat while half-naked dancers twirled around and around. Explicitly sensual acts were performed. The scene was shocking to polite society, but also irresistible. It was said that sometimes Marie Laveau herself would dance fully clothed with a large snake wrapped around her, or she would dance holding a large redfish. Voodoo worshipers believed the snake possessed magical, godlike powers. Though the Voodoo celebrations on the Bayou were spectacular, they were done more for show than as a true religious ritual. The real Voodoo worship seems to have been conducted secretly in private homes. Many whites attended the rituals as spectators both before and after the Civil War; Voodoo practices reached a high point in the 1850s. Some whites even participated in Voodoo, if only in secret. Voodoo was officially forbidden, but discreetly tolerated. Once a prominent New Orleans citizen dared to challenge Marie Laveau's authority. J. B. Langrast accused Laveau's followers of committing crimes through the misuse of Voodoo, including theft and even murder. Some detractors over time actually believed, among Laveau's other alleged evil deeds, that she sacrificed abandoned or unwanted children and cooked them, but no substantiated evidence was ever produced of such heinous crimes. Langrast was quickly counterattacked. Gris-gris bags appeared at his doorstep. Langrast's personality began to change; he became nervous and upset. Eventually, he left town. Voodoo believers felt the gris-gris had driven the Langrast out of his mind; skeptics felt it was merely the power of suggestion, a psychological reaction to the mysterious gris-gris. It could also be argued that Langrast became disturbed by fear of the very real danger of possible physical harm from Laveau's overly zealous followers. Next: Gris-Gris
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