Your browser is not supported for this experience. We recommend using Chrome, Firefox, Edge, or Safari. What exactly are Casket Girls? These suitcases were relatively small, so that the women could carry them without assistance. Many of the depictions of original cassettes stretch this concept, literally, so that the suitcases appear to be large enough to carry a body. By the time the storytellers told the tale of these women, their suitcases took on a new perspective.
Did their luggage contain more than petticoats? But, before pop culture and legend turned them into vampires, the filles, like many women of the time, went through a harrowing journey that would land them in the annuls of the histories of colonial New Orleans and the world of the paranormal.
The founders of New Orleans were explorers, trappers, and traders who established encampments along the lower part of the Mississippi River. Because the early explorers were mostly male, Catholic priests in the region became concerned that, without wives, the future of Christian evangelism in the French territory was at risk. Thus, the Casket Girls were contracted to be wives of men in the colonies.
Meanwhile, Ursuline nuns from Rouen, France, arrived in New Orleans in with the mission to educate the women of the colony and evangelize the natives. These nuns took charge of the newly-arrived filles and the women lived with the nuns until they were married off to men of the colony.
First, a young woman heard of the programs to bring women to the colonies through the nuns of their convent, school, or orphanage who wanted to reduce the number of girls in their care. The women then made marriage contracts with men who arranged their trip. They traveled from their homes to port cities in France, such as Le Harve, before boarding ships to America.
