Cold Open

It’s April 10th, 1834, on Royal Street in New Orleans, Louisiana.

A horse-drawn fire wagon clatters to a halt outside a burning mansion. The crew jumps off immediately. But as the others grab equipment, one middle-aged firefighter doesn’t wait, sprinting toward the blaze.

He tries the mansion’s front door, but it’s locked. He peers in through a window. Flames have taken hold in what looks like the living room…and the firefighter can hear faint calls for help coming from inside.

But the pleas of the people trapped inside are almost drowned out by the sound of raised voices coming from behind the firefighter. He turns to see a well-dressed woman in her forties arguing with one of the other firefighters. The woman is apparently the mansion’s owner, and she’s refusing to hand over the keys.

But now smoke is beginning to seep through the roof. It’s clear that if nothing is done, the flames will spread to nearby buildings, and that would put the entire neighborhood at risk. So the firefighter takes matters into his own hands.

He grabs an ax from the wagon. And as the woman continues to argue, he rushes past her to the front door, swings the ax…and smashes through the lock.

Then, the firefighter covers his mouth and nose, and, with a last glance back at the wide-eyed mansion owner, he enters the building to search for whoever’s trapped inside.

It will soon become clear why Delphine LaLaurie refused to hand over the keys to her home: she is abusing her enslaved workers in a torture chamber in her attic. She hoped the flames would destroy the evidence, but instead they will reveal the truth, and Delphine’s reputation will be destroyed in the aftermath of a fire that broke out in her mansion on April 10th, 1834.

Introduction

From Noiser and Airship, I’m Lindsay Graham, and this is History Daily.

History is made every day. On this podcast—every day—we tell the true stories of the people and events that shaped our world.

Today is April 10th, 1834: Delphine LaLaurie’s Torture Chamber.

Act One: A Little Life Lost

It’s summer 1833 in New Orleans, Louisiana, less than a year before the house fire in Royal Street.

Delphine LaLaurie sits in front of a mirror in her lavish dressing room. She admires her reflection as Lia, her enslaved 11-year-old maid, carefully brushes out her long, dark hair.

Like most wealthy residents of Louisiana and the American South, Delphine considers Black people inherently inferior to whites and believes that slavery is a natural part of society. So, after Delphine’s first two husbands died, and she inherited a substantial fortune, she purchased several servants to work in her mansion in the French Quarter of New Orleans. The elaborate dinners and balls that Delphine hosts there have gained her a reputation as one of the city’s best-known socialites. Some of the most influential people in New Orleans attend her parties—and tonight is set to be no different, so Delphine wants to look her best.

With her swift and delicate fingers, young Lia works the knots out of Delphine's hair, which is a difficult job because Delphine's hair is so long, and she doesn’t often wash it. After a few minutes, Lia hits a snag, and Delphine yelps in pain. Lia instantly apologizes. But that fails to calm Delphine’s anger. Instead, she snatches the hairbrush from Lia’s hand and swings it at her head.

Lia instinctively ducks, but that only makes Delphine even angrier. As she screams out in fury, Lia bolts from the dressing room and runs down the hallway, praying that Delphine won’t give chase.

Lia finds a storeroom and presses herself into a dark corner, hoping Delphine won’t find her until her temper has cooled a bit. But the storeroom door creaks open. Delphine has found her, and she’s not got the hairbrush in her hand anymore. Instead, she’s holding a whip.

But there’s a small window in the storeroom. And as Delphine pulls back her whip, Lia dashes to the window and flings it open. The whip cracks through the air, just missing Lia’s legs as she clambers out onto the windowsill. There’s a narrow ledge outside, and Lia thinks that if she can just get out, she’ll be safe. But as she tries to escape, Delphine lunges for her ankle, and Lia slips. She tumbles past the ledge and falls 20 feet to the ground. She is killed instantly. Delphine peers through the window at the crumpled little body down below. She then mutters a curse under her breath. She’ll need to take care of this before anyone notices.

But it is already too late. A neighbor across the street heard the commotion and looked out the window just in time to see Lia’s plunge. Later that day, the neighbor alerts the police.

This is not the first time, authorities in New Orleans have been contacted by the residents of Royal Street. Rumors have circulated for months about what goes on behind the closed doors of Delphine’s mansion. Although slavery is legal in New Orleans, there are still laws governing the treatment of enslaved workers. They are meant to be fed and clothed properly. But neighbors have tipped off the police that the people living under Delphine's roof look malnourished and ill. Now, this latest report about a death on the property spurs the authorities into action.

But by the time they arrive at Delphine's mansion, Lia’s body has been moved. Delphine claims the neighbor must be mistaken, but the investigators soon notice that a section of the garden has recently been disturbed. There, they find Lia’s corpse in a shallow, hurriedly-dug grave. Delphine isn’t charged with any crimes regarding the death. But a judge does give an order that her nine other slaves be removed from the mansion and sold at auction.

That judgment, though, is easily subverted. Over the next few weeks, Delphine's friends and family buy back the enslaved workers and return them to Delphine's house.

And afterword at the mansion, these unfortunate workers are treated worse than ever. Anyone who displeases Delphine is now taken to the attic, to a locked room where they are held for days or even weeks on end. Those who are eventually freed whisper of Delphine’s visits to the room, and the beatings and torture that followed. But they are the lucky ones. Not everyone who goes to the attic comes out alive.

The terror of living in this mansion will soon become too much to bear for one enslaved cook. She will turn to desperate measures to escape—and her actions will finally reveal the truth about the house and its cruel mistress to everyone in New Orleans.

Act Two: An Act of Desperation

It’s April 10th, 1834, in New Orleans, Louisiana, around nine months after the death of eleven-year-old Lia.

In the kitchen of Delphine LaLaurie’s mansion, a cook wearily stirs a large pot of soup. It’s hard work for a woman in her 70s. But what makes the job worse is that Delphine has chained the cook’s ankle to the hot stove.

A few months ago, this cook thought her life might be changing for the better. City officials took her from Delphine's house and told her that she was going to be sold to new owners. The cook was convinced no one could be worse than Delphine, so she was relieved at the prospect. But after the auction, the cook found out that Delphine had arranged for friends to buy her and returned her to the mansion. Now, the cook is back in the same kitchen she worked in before—only now, Delphine has chained her up to make sure she never leaves her post.

The shackles are agonizing to wear. The rough metal cuts into the old woman’s skin as she moves, and her ankle is now encrusted with sores and dried blood. The servers who come to collect the food are sympathetic, but they don’t dare help the cook, in case they’re also singled out for punishment.

When the last of the soup is ladled into a china bowl for Delphine's dinner guests, the cook then moves onto the next course. But as she opens the oven, her heart sinks. The meat is burned. She tries to scrape the charred bits, but it’s no use. She can’t disguise her mistake.

Delphine will be furious with her. And the cook knows what will happen then. But she doesn’t want to go to the attic. Anything is better than the attic—even death.

So, the cook soaks a rag in oil and sets it alight on the stove. Then, holding it by the corner, the cook flings the rag across the kitchen. It ignites a bag of dried grains, and within moments, there are flames leaping up the walls.

The cook then sinks to the ground and closes her eyes, as smoke fills the kitchen, still chained to the oven. After a few minutes, she hears a commotion from the hall as Delphine and her dinner guests realize the house is on fire and then flee for their lives. But no one comes into the kitchen, and the cook waits by the stove for the growing fires to claim her.

But just as the cook is about to lose consciousness, she hears the crack of splintering wood, and a man carrying an ax enters the smoke-filled kitchen. This firefighter tries to pull her to safety, but the cook cries out in pain. The firefighter yanks again—but then spots the chain binding her to the stove. Telling the cook to stay still, he swings the ax above his head and brings it crashing down on the metal chain. With one blow, it snaps, and the cook is free. The firefighter then pulls her to her feet and helps her out of the kitchen.

And as they rush from the house, they pass other firefighters heading into the blaze. Some carry hand pumps to put out the flames. Others split up to search for anyone else who might be trapped inside. Among the rescuers is Jean Francois Canonge. Jean is a high-ranking judge, but when he heard that a fire had broken out near his own home, he rushed to see if he could help.

Jean pushes through the smoke-filled mansion and climbs the stairs to the attic. There, he reaches a locked door—but when he bangs on it with his fist, he thinks he can hear faint voices on the other side. Jean calls for help, and along with two other firefighters, he eventually breaks the door down.

But what he sees inside stops him in his tracks. Seven emaciated Black men and women are chained to the wall by iron collars. Dried blood covers the floor, and it’s difficult to tell who might be dead or alive.

Jean and the two firefighters free the captives and help them down the stairs to safety. As a judge, Jean is determined to bring the woman responsible for this to justice. But when he searches the crowd that’s gathered on the street to watch the fire, he can’t see the woman who owns the mansion. Delphine LaLaurie is nowhere to be seen.

Eventually, the flames on Royal Street will be extinguished. But the stories of what happened there don’t die out. Instead, they’ll spread across the world, becoming a testament to the cruelty of Delphine LaLaurie and all the evils of slavery itself.

Act Three: A Story Told

It’s the summer of 1836, on Royal Street in New Orleans, Louisiana, two years after a fire revealed Delphine LaLaurie’s torture chamber.

34-year-old English writer Harriet Martineau stands in the street, taking in the surroundings. Among all the grand properties in this affluent neighborhood of New Orleans, one house stands out: the mansion belonging to Delphine LaLaurie.

The house is in ruins. Its windows are all broken, and the remaining walls are scorched and blackened. There’s no trace of the attic left either. That’s actually a disappointment to Harriet. As an abolitionist, Harriet wants to use Delphine's abuse as an example of the inhumanity of slavery. She hoped to see the torture chamber firsthand so she could write about it for her readers. Without it, she’ll have to rely on witnesses.

But Harriet soon finds that people in New Orleans are eager to talk about what happened here, and the local authorities insist Delphine's behavior is not typical of slaveholders. They claim that most treat their workers well, and that enslaved people are grateful for the food, clothing, and shelter they receive.

Harriet is not convinced. When she returns to England, she writes about her travels in America and includes the story of Delphine LaLaurie. This shocking tale helps expose the real cruelty of slavery and rallies support for the abolitionist movement on both sides of the Atlantic.

But Delphine LaLaurie herself will never answer for her crimes. After escaping her mansion during the fire, Delphine's exact whereabouts become a mystery. Many will believe she fled to France. Others will claim she stayed in New Orleans, living quietly under a false identity. But whatever her fate, Delphine will never again be the toast of New Orleans society. Instead, her name will only be remembered with horror after her secret torture chamber was revealed by a fire that broke out on April 10th, 1834.

Outro

Next on History Daily. April 11th, 1979. Brutal dictator Idi Amin is ousted from power after eight years as President of Uganda.

From Noiser and Airship, this is History Daily, hosted, edited, and executive produced by me, Lindsay Graham.

Audio editing by Muhammad Shahzaib.

Sound design by Gabriel Gould.

Supervising Sound Designer Matthew Filler.

Music by Thrumm.

This episode is written and researched by Owen Paul Nicholls.

Edited by Scott Reeves.

Managing producer Emily Burke.

Executive Producers are William Simpson for Airship, and Pascal Hughes for Noiser.