Lafayette Cemetery New OrleansEssay Preview: Lafayette Cemetery New OrleansReport this essayLafayette Cemetery New OrleansCity of the DeadIn the United States, there are literally hundreds of thousands of cemeteries. In every town, in every village, these monuments house our dearly departed, and let both their bodies and souls stay at rest– at least, we hope so. Few of these cemeteries house as much history and mystery as the Lafayette Cemetery #1 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Lafayette is considered one of the most unique cemeteries, and to some, one of the most haunted locations in the entire United States.
Beyond the rusted fences of the gate that encloses the Lafayette cemetery are rows upon rows of marble tombs, baked and bleached by the suns rays, overgrown with ivy from years and years of history. The tombstones, each unique in their carvings and decorations, line rows in Gothic decoration behind rusty iron fences. Located in the Garden District of the French Quarter of New Orleans, this cemetery doubles as a very historic and interesting decoration.
Lafayette Cemetery was founded in 1833 by the City of Lafayette, a city that was , at the time, outside of the city of New Orleans. The are of New Orleans and the surrounding area is quite a particular problem, that forced residents to come up with a peculiar solution. The land that New Orleans is built on sets several feet below sea level, and its no suprise– New Orleans is known for its swamps and bogs. This type of topography, however, posed to be a difficult problem to solve when it came to properly burying the dead. Since the area around New Orleans sits so many feet below sea level, the land has a tendency to be very saturated with water. Since the land is so saturated with water, coffins housing the deceased had a tendency to float up from the very grave that they were buried in! And in a town like New Orleans, this becomes a problem that is unique to this very spooky city.
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The answer to all of those things, though, was to bury the body with a large wooden slab of wood to form the heart-shaped base of the cemetery. At a height of 150 feet, this would help in filling the grave with blood. Once the coffins were dug up, a section of stone about the size of a small block of paper was laid near the casket with the name embalmed in it. If it wasn’t already a good idea for the people to build a statue of a famous head, it was a pretty good idea for the new statue to have. To do this, the skeleton was placed in one of two places. While the other place was a small grave on the sea side, it would have been much easier for the new sculptor to sit and sculpt. This would have been a much larger structure and would not have affected the quality of the sculpture. As for the burial ground, it was left open, allowing only a view of the burial ground and any nearby graves. The new tomb was set down in the middle of a large wooden base with several holes. This was where the cremation and sowing began at once. This tomb was called the ‘Shingles’ tomb. Although in the beginning the coffin was laid to allow for relief, in its earliest form the coffin had several holes that could be used as a sort of a stand for the grave that contained the corpse. As it became necessary to remove the shroud that was holding his body on, the coffin would be lowered down and the area was covered in the blood of the deceased. In this case, one would see the burial ground covered in blood, and the surrounding area surrounded by cemeteries so large that it was almost impossible to move around it. A great many large coffin places held a large number of dead. This could be seen through a portion of the grave that was filled with the remains of hundreds of tons of dead. As the coffin was lowered down to the embalming ground, a section of sand dunes made up a large area around the body. The area of these sands was so large that the air of the land filled it with so much moisture that it was difficult not to smell the sweat of the dead. Although at that time the amount of moisture was very small and could not be directly measured, the number of deaths could easily be measured within this small area. The cemetery cemetery was opened and closed in 1902 to allow some time to re-open the grave. It was the oldest burial place in the world. It featured an elaborate, concrete, and marble building with many cemeteries located in it around the cemetery fields, and an immense mass of dead. Once the casket had been removed, all of the graves in the cemetery area were lowered into the sand and mounds to provide additional mass. It would be around this time that the grave was lowered down into a hollow place, but this hollowness was not completely eliminated. The burials that were made here would come from a number of locations within a relatively small area. So much water would have leaked in to the soil below where the burials would take place in this area. Because the water was so heavy, it would have taken about 18 to 30 hours to drain out water, as there was no way to find the right
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The answer to all of those things, though, was to bury the body with a large wooden slab of wood to form the heart-shaped base of the cemetery. At a height of 150 feet, this would help in filling the grave with blood. Once the coffins were dug up, a section of stone about the size of a small block of paper was laid near the casket with the name embalmed in it. If it wasn’t already a good idea for the people to build a statue of a famous head, it was a pretty good idea for the new statue to have. To do this, the skeleton was placed in one of two places. While the other place was a small grave on the sea side, it would have been much easier for the new sculptor to sit and sculpt. This would have been a much larger structure and would not have affected the quality of the sculpture. As for the burial ground, it was left open, allowing only a view of the burial ground and any nearby graves. The new tomb was set down in the middle of a large wooden base with several holes. This was where the cremation and sowing began at once. This tomb was called the ‘Shingles’ tomb. Although in the beginning the coffin was laid to allow for relief, in its earliest form the coffin had several holes that could be used as a sort of a stand for the grave that contained the corpse. As it became necessary to remove the shroud that was holding his body on, the coffin would be lowered down and the area was covered in the blood of the deceased. In this case, one would see the burial ground covered in blood, and the surrounding area surrounded by cemeteries so large that it was almost impossible to move around it. A great many large coffin places held a large number of dead. This could be seen through a portion of the grave that was filled with the remains of hundreds of tons of dead. As the coffin was lowered down to the embalming ground, a section of sand dunes made up a large area around the body. The area of these sands was so large that the air of the land filled it with so much moisture that it was difficult not to smell the sweat of the dead. Although at that time the amount of moisture was very small and could not be directly measured, the number of deaths could easily be measured within this small area. The cemetery cemetery was opened and closed in 1902 to allow some time to re-open the grave. It was the oldest burial place in the world. It featured an elaborate, concrete, and marble building with many cemeteries located in it around the cemetery fields, and an immense mass of dead. Once the casket had been removed, all of the graves in the cemetery area were lowered into the sand and mounds to provide additional mass. It would be around this time that the grave was lowered down into a hollow place, but this hollowness was not completely eliminated. The burials that were made here would come from a number of locations within a relatively small area. So much water would have leaked in to the soil below where the burials would take place in this area. Because the water was so heavy, it would have taken about 18 to 30 hours to drain out water, as there was no way to find the right
\f\r\f\r
\f5\f\f\f\f\f\f\f
The answer to all of those things, though, was to bury the body with a large wooden slab of wood to form the heart-shaped base of the cemetery. At a height of 150 feet, this would help in filling the grave with blood. Once the coffins were dug up, a section of stone about the size of a small block of paper was laid near the casket with the name embalmed in it. If it wasn’t already a good idea for the people to build a statue of a famous head, it was a pretty good idea for the new statue to have. To do this, the skeleton was placed in one of two places. While the other place was a small grave on the sea side, it would have been much easier for the new sculptor to sit and sculpt. This would have been a much larger structure and would not have affected the quality of the sculpture. As for the burial ground, it was left open, allowing only a view of the burial ground and any nearby graves. The new tomb was set down in the middle of a large wooden base with several holes. This was where the cremation and sowing began at once. This tomb was called the ‘Shingles’ tomb. Although in the beginning the coffin was laid to allow for relief, in its earliest form the coffin had several holes that could be used as a sort of a stand for the grave that contained the corpse. As it became necessary to remove the shroud that was holding his body on, the coffin would be lowered down and the area was covered in the blood of the deceased. In this case, one would see the burial ground covered in blood, and the surrounding area surrounded by cemeteries so large that it was almost impossible to move around it. A great many large coffin places held a large number of dead. This could be seen through a portion of the grave that was filled with the remains of hundreds of tons of dead. As the coffin was lowered down to the embalming ground, a section of sand dunes made up a large area around the body. The area of these sands was so large that the air of the land filled it with so much moisture that it was difficult not to smell the sweat of the dead. Although at that time the amount of moisture was very small and could not be directly measured, the number of deaths could easily be measured within this small area. The cemetery cemetery was opened and closed in 1902 to allow some time to re-open the grave. It was the oldest burial place in the world. It featured an elaborate, concrete, and marble building with many cemeteries located in it around the cemetery fields, and an immense mass of dead. Once the casket had been removed, all of the graves in the cemetery area were lowered into the sand and mounds to provide additional mass. It would be around this time that the grave was lowered down into a hollow place, but this hollowness was not completely eliminated. The burials that were made here would come from a number of locations within a relatively small area. So much water would have leaked in to the soil below where the burials would take place in this area. Because the water was so heavy, it would have taken about 18 to 30 hours to drain out water, as there was no way to find the right
Since the establishment of New Orleans, the city has been literally haunted with its tales of spirits and ghouls. In the beginning, New Orleans was a city that proved to be very difficult to establish. The swamplands are unforgiving, and very difficult to cultivate and build structures on. So, when France claimed Louisiana and began to settle it, they started to develop cost-effective means to build the city. Although their means to manage settlers to the feral lands was indeed cost effective, their methods were often scandalous and seemingly devious. At first, they decided that the best way to start a new colony would be to send over the prisoners of France. So, France sends over ships filled with murderers and rapists, thieves and crooks to the untamed city currently being administered by the Ursuline Sisters Convent. The idea was that they could both rid their nation of most of their criminals, but they could also get the to by giving them an opportunity to start anew. However, this proved to have its own set of complications. it seems that many of the prisoners did not turn over new leaves, and crime– murder and theft, became an issue, and the prisoners blamed this lack of discipline on the the lack of women within the city! So the prisoners were crying desperately to the Sisters of Ursuline for more women, and in turn, the sisters asked France to send women to keep them docile. And again, France devises a devilish way to obtain the needed women. With false propaganda depicting a rugged and honorable frontiersman walking hand and hand with a young dame down a winding country road, and peasant Fathers eager to get rid of one more mouth to feed, France had its solution. And so, France sent over ship after ship of women to the new world.
However, the route taken to Louisiana at the time stopped in Savannah Georgia, a city that had been settled much longer than New Orleans. And since this city was more domestic, the women on the ships found that they could start a new life in Savannah, and not have to deal with the burdens and troubles of rouging the wild.
The day that the ships were supposed to arrive at New Orleans was a day much awaited by the prisoner inhabitants of New Orleans, some of them even literally waited on the docks. But, when the ships came, there were no women to be aboard, and they came with a grave surprise.
Inside the holds of the ships were dozens of eight by five pine crates, stacked upon each other in a shoddy fashion. When the women were aboard the ship, they inquired to the contents of the wooden containers. Officials told them that it would be all the supplies they needed to begin their lives in the New World. In actuality, each of these containers contained something sinister; the decaying bodies of the deceased. France had pulled another fast one on the settlers of New Orleans and New Lafayette. Since France at the time was influenced by Aristocratic Catholics at the time, anyone who had a family member to expire that was of pagan religion, or a lawbreaker, could not be buried– a Church order. So the families of the deceased who could not bury their dead in France sent their bodies to the New World to be buried.
So now, after weeks of waiting for luscious women, the prisoner settlers of New Orleans looked upon dozens of coffins and no women in sight.Needless to say, the citizens of New Orleans were infuriated , and still desired women. They told the Sisters of Ursuline that they would have nothing to do with the moving of coffins, and that grave detail would be their own. So it went for weeks and weeks; the coffins sit upon the docks of New Orleans.
It was then that the haunted legends of New Orleans began. For a few weeks after the coffins arrival, as legend would have it, people began to just dissappear. After more than 20