Beyond Depraved: LaLaurie Mansion’s Death Attic

Photo by History.org

On the evening on April 10, 1834, a fire broke out in an elegant three-story mansion in New Orleans’ French Quarter. The rescuers found a slave woman chained in the kitchen who admitted to deliberately setting the blaze. She felt it was worth the risk of dying in a fire to escape further torture at the hands of Madame LaLaurie, the lady of the house. After the authorities released her, she led them to the…