Magic of the Dark Moonlight

by Layla

Article 1 – The Casket Girls

As I walk down a quiet, breezy street in the French Quarter, I feel my ancestors and I feel a sense of comfort - the shadows, the clop-clop sound of the mules pulling a carriage, and the feeling of being pulled into a story that I need to know. New Orleans…she has many stories she wants to share. She is a muse and will reveal the magic through her spirits. I get lost in time with anticipation. 

I find myself on Chartres Street and the light of the moon directs my eyes to a convent. Is this the Ursuline Convent I need to know about? As I look up towards the roof, I see the closed shutters and feel a shiver up my spine. A shutter suddenly falls open and a minute later I hear in my ear…

“Run, darling…unless you want to be part of the legend.”

I am frozen, yet curious. I turn to see a beautiful, deadly woman who is just as curious about me.

“Why don’t you run?” she asks.

“I want to hear your story and wonder if it will be legend or history.”

 She is amused and says, “Have a seat; I’ll spare you tonight and tell you the real story – how legend and history become one.”

“The legend of the Casket Girls dates back to 1721 when we came here to New Orleans,” she begins.

 I am mesmerized as I quickly realize who she is. 

She continues.  “We came here at the request of Governor Bienville who asked France to send moral, pure women to the new colony for the men in the area to marry. The women that came before us were considered prostitutes who Bienville believed were unpure and unfit to start the city. We came from the Hospital General de La Salpetriere, a hospital in Paris for the poor, criminal and insane women.  It also housed orphans and women deemed worthy of rehabilitation. They recruited 88 of us to come to New Orleans to marry men and build a nice, moral city. We are called the “Casket (Casquette) Girls” (filles a la cassette) due to the small trunks/suitcases we arrived with. Some think our trunks were shaped like coffins. Some know us as the “Brides of La Baleine,” named for the ship we sailed on.

We were accompanied by Sister Gertrude, a nun who had been entrusted with our care and protection. She was a tough woman but made sure all of us survived the trip while most of the other passengers died on the ship.

She gives me a little grin.

When we got here, we looked horrible from the long ship ride - at least that’s what they told us. A condition for us to come here was that we are to stay with the Ursuline nuns until we marry. We stored our caskets or luggage – whatever you want to call it – in the attic of the convent. Around the same time that we arrived, the city started finding bodies drained of blood. The people realized that vampires must be here and wondered how they got here. Then they thought of us…the sweet, innocent Casket Girls and our caskets – our luggage. And they wondered if the vampires were in our luggage…or were we the vampires?  It got so crazy, the church had to step in. The archbishop blessed some bolts and gave them to the nuns and told them to ‘bolt the shutters shut with the blessed bolts.’ Can you believe it? He thought vampires would be trapped in the attic due to the blessed bolts. As you can tell…it didn’t work.

Wow!  I was hanging on her every detailed word.

But, as you know, legend is always tied with history. Always. New Orleans, our muse, loves it and requires it.

The history of the Casket Girls is the history of women in New Orleans and beyond. The French laid claim to all parts of the land the Riviere de Saint Louis touched. The capital of the Louisiana territory from 1702-1720 was Old Mobile. Then it moved from 1720-1722 to Old Biloxi, then to New Orleans in 1722. These little communities were no more than military posts and trade centers. The trip was rough across the Atlantic Ocean, taking months to get to the Caribbean Islands to restock the ships before entering the Gulf of Mexico. Once in the Gulf, the ship headed to Old Mobile. Some ships would then dock at Ship Island before heading to the Mobile River. The men aboard had visions of a new life and opportunities. This is where the problem started. Without any good, moral French women, the men began to lose their Christian ways. They went after pagan Native American women. This could not happen in the new Catholic territory. King Louis XIV and Governor Bienville had to find a way to keep Louisiana pure. 

The King looked to the catholic church’s orphanages, schools and convents. Twenty-three girls of good morals were sent to Louisiana to keep the men’s minds off the Native American women. In 1704, these women sailed on the ship Le Pelican to old Mobile. The “Pelican Girls” married men in the area, so the plan had worked.

Then, in 1719, the King became desperate for people to go to Louisiana. He now had problems populating the area due to letters returning home about the deplorable conditions here. The King turned a blind eye while prisoners, murderers, and thieves were forcibly removed from France and sent to populate Louisiana. He now needed women and turned to the Hospital General de La Salpetriere.  It was extremely overcrowded, and this was an opportunity to relieve that problem. The La Salpetriere was divided into four sections. For this trip, the women selected were housed in the La Commun and La Maison de Force – the thieves, murderers, and prostitutes. These 132 women sailed aboard the La Mutine and were shackled in the ship’s hold for the duration of the trip. Of the 132 women, only 62 survived.  Some of these women married after their arrival, but their reputations preceded them, and they were generally considered troublemakers.

In 1720, Governor Bienville made a request for ‘marriageable’ women. This time the King listened to him. Future wives were selected from the Hospital General de La Salpetriere’s La Maision de St.Louis and La Maision de Correcton which housed women raised by the nuns and who were deemed capable of rehabilitation. These 88 girls are the Casket Girls. (

She smiles.

As usual, the ship docked in the Caribbean for supplies and arrived at Ship Island in January 1721. We were housed in a large warehouse, and a guard was posted to keep the men out.  A Casket Girl could not accept a man’s proposal of marriage without the blessing of Sister Gertrude.  Within 6 months of our arrival, one girl died and 60 of us were married. The remaining 27 girls set sail for New Orleans in 1723, shortly after the city had become the capital of Louisiana. That would include me. The Ursuline nuns came to Louisiana in 1727, at the request of Governor Bienville, and resided in the Kolly House until their convent was completed in 1734. That first convent was small and located closer to the Mississippi River, along what is now Decatur Street. The larger convent that is here now on Ursulines Street was completed in 1752/1753. The convent also served as a school and the nuns helped the city in any way they needed. That’s the history.” 

As my thoughts are swirling in my head, I ask her, “How did the legend and history become one story?”

She gazes in my eyes and says, “Legends come from history. Someone must make them one.”

She shows me an evil smile blowing me a kiss. From this kiss my eyes sting and water. I can’t see anything, but I feel a heavy wind blow by me. As I open my eyes, I am alone. The shutter is still open. I now feel the comfort of my ancestors as I felt before. I was left with a fascinating story that I will pass on to others. That’s what our muse wants.

****The Legendary Order of the Casket Girls’ mission is to create a structured environment of support, empowerment, inclusion, and transparency to promote the inherent worth and value of all individuals. The Order’s pillars of empowerment are self-expression, self-development, community service, and paying homage to New Orleans history and legends. ****